Change is in the Air

Dear Readers,

I hope you’ve enjoyed my food/diet-obsessed ride.  I’m thinking about switching things up.

Stay tuned!

Alison

“I don’t have to be perfect. All I have to do is show up and enjoy the messy, imperfect and beautiful journey of my life. It’s a trip more wonderful than I could have imagined.” ~ Kerry Washington

Back on the Horse

Days 5-7 were great!  On plan and everything.

Days 8-12…life happened.  This last week did not go as planned.

Enter The Kiwi from Athletic Greens.  He wrote a blog post last week that fit me to a T.  You can read about it here, but let me give you the highlights that hit home for me.

He mentions 3 scenarios of unplanned cheat meals. I think all 3 scenarios happened to me last week.

1. I got busy and forgot to eat.
2. I got HANGRY. (hungry + angry)
3. I ate out and did not care about the ingredients.

The solution for me is to be better prepared:

• In a house with kids and guests visiting…I can’t always throw all the bad stuff out.  It’s there and I need to have PALEO ALTERNATIVES to choose from.  And variety too!  More than one alternative, just in case I can’t choke down one more hard boiled egg.
• I need to EAT MORE OFTEN.  Like Kiwi says, eat before you go out.  So that I don’t ever get so hungry that I can’t say no to whatever is tempting me.
• Always have snacks on hand – I try to keep a larabar in my purse at all times.  But I don’t always eat it.  EAT WHEN YOU’RE HUNGRY.
• For me, I need to have a FREE MEAL ONCE/WEEK to look forward to.  Something that is planned.  Something that I don’t have to feel guilty about.
• And most importantly to me – DON’T BEAT MYSELF UP.  I am very good at that one.  I have become consumed with being “good” vs. being “bad”.  And I don’t like it.

I think it’s in my best interest to put My Whole 30 on hold for right now.  I need to focus on the basics.  When I get the basics down again, I can focus on refining the details.

I was a little disappointed in myself for writing this…I saw it as failure.  I couldn’t hold myself to 30 freakin days?  But you know what?  I’m not going to beat myself up.  I’m not perfect.  I’m a work in progress, people.  I’m aiming high and I will get there.

First Four Days

So how have I done on the first four days of My Whole 30?

Day 1

• Breakfast – 4 scrambled eggs with a little salsa and black coffee.
• Lunch – leftover steak and cabbage salad.
• Dinner – oven “fried” chicken with a big salad with avocado and pine nuts.
• Snack – beef jerky and craisins – which I realize is not Whole30 approved, but not as bad as the 3 or 4 gummy candy I had after dinner, which is totally not Whole30 approved, but hey – it was my decision and considering the day I had, 3 or 4 gummies was the least of my concerns.
• Water – I think I had about 50 oz of water.
• Exercise – 1 hour Bar Method class.

Day 2

• Breakfast – 2 soft boiled eggs and black coffee.
• Lunch – a chipotle salad with guacamole and double steak.
• Dinner – grilled chicken and a big salad with avocado, sundried tomatoes, and artichokes.
• Snack – 1 pear, a handful of walnuts, and a few dried apricots.
• Water – 32 oz of water
• No exercise.

Day 3

• Breakfast – black coffee, fruit smoothie (leftover bananas, strawberries, blueberries, water, ice).
• Lunch – salad w/ chicken
• Dinner – homemade spaghetti with meat sauce (AHMAZING – my boyfriend spiced it up with some mystery spices.  I have no idea what he did otherwise I would’ve posted the recipe), zucchini & spaghetti squash.
• Snacks – a couple dried apricots.
• Water – 50 oz.
• Exercise – 1 hour Bar + 1 hour walk + tabata sprints.

Day 4

• Breakfast/Lunch – black coffee, egg madness (I was in an experimenting mood and tried all sorts of baked egg cups/eggs in a nest combos using the leftover spaghetti squash…actually ate about 3 egg yolks and 2 whole eggs in the end) + turkey bacon.
• Dinner (FREE MEAL) – diet coke, glass of wine (cuz I’m classy like that and have diet coke and wine in one sitting), mini pizza w/ mozzarella, 1/2 cup pesto pasta, 3 chocolate chip cookies, a couple pieces of hard salami & mozarella.
• not much water
• no exercise.

So there you have it – definitely room for improvement.  I like to think of Sundays as a reset day and the start of a new week.  Here’s to more water, more exercise, and more paleo eatin’!

My Whole 30

Have you heard about Whole30?  It’s from the amazing people at Whole 9 Life and you can read about their Whole30 challenge here.  Basically it’s all about buckling down and doing a pretty strict version of the paleo diet.  I’m talking no dairy, no cheats, no… *gasp* alcohol.  To be honest, that last one is what is tripping me up.  And I know what they say – it’s only 30 days.  It’s not hard.  It’s never the right time – there will always be something to celebrate, or a vacation to be had, or even a rough day to console.  No one is forcing the wine down my gullet.  But it’s starting to feel like summer and a nice cold glass of pinot grigio sure tastes good.  And I’ve been sipping a couple glasses almost every day.  Actually, I’ve been making a lot of exceptions over the last 4-6 weeks.  So many exceptions that my cheats are no longer weekly cheats, but more like daily cheats.  My “free meals” turned into “free months”.

So it’s time to crack down.

Ahhh….but that no alcohol thing.  I’m not sure I’ve ever done 30 days sans some vino.  And I’m not sure I can adhere to the strict guidelines of the Whole30 – I can see if I ate at home every day, I could control the ingredients a little better.  But I don’t.  And I’m not prepared to eat dry salads because the salad dressing probably has sugar in it at whatever restaurant I go to.  I’ve become Miss Paleo around the house, but I don’t want to be “that” person at the restaurant.

And so instead of beating myself up over not eating as strictly as possible, I’ve decided to follow my own Whole 30.  I’m going to do the best I can but not get mental about it.  For me this means no dairy (buh-bye my beloved heavy whipping cream in my coffee), no diet coke (which I haven’t had on a daily basis, but I’ve chosen to have it at restaurants more frequently), no sugar (as best as I can – certainly not adding it in, but again, if a salad dressing has it, I’m not going to freak out), 1 piece of fruit every day, more water (75 oz/day), and no alcohol*.

I’ve been reading up on all sorts of different paleo blogs and seeing how other people handle free meals.  Some people just don’t do it.  That is certainly the idea behind Whole30.  One guy said he did 1 cheat meal & 1 cheat dessert every week – on different days.  Another girl said she has pre-scheduled 6 cheat meals during the month.  I think I need to find something in the middle that will be ok on my Whole30.  I’m still figuring it out, but I think Saturday nights will be my 1 free meal and *alcohol will be allowed.  1 or 2 glasses of wine will be ok with me.

In addition to eating a stricter diet, what I really want to focus on this month is more exercise.  I will go to Bar Method class 4-5 x’s/week.  I will walk the lake 4-5 x’s/week (this takes 40min – 1 hour).  I will do the 4 Hour Body kettlebell exercises 2x’s/week.  And I will do tabata sprints 1x/week.

Ambitious?  Yes.  Doable?  Yes.  I’ve put it out there, I’ve written it down, and I will keep myself accountable by updating my progress here.

Here we go!