Whole30 Day 4 & 5

Yesterday got a little busy and I ran out of time to post my day 4 meals so I'm combining both days. After daycare was over I had to start on a cake order as well as our usual nightly tasks.

Breakfast- I scrambled two eggs with diced peppers, sausage and some kale, as well as some orange slices on the side. Having some sausage was like a treat, I'm glad I bought some.

Lunch- I had just a little bit of leftover taco meat and sausage so I threw that on top of some salad greens and shredded a carrot and called it good.

Dinner- I was pretty excited about trying spaghetti squash this week as I've never made it before. It was amazing! I felt like I was enjoying regular ol' pasta. We'll definitely be incorporating this into our menu more often. I served it with some meat sauce, I found a jar of pasta sauce at the store that actually was made of real ingredients and with no sugar either. I'm not sure if it's worth paying $3.48 for but it saved me some time from making my own. This was by far the best meal I've had yet on my little journey.

Breakfast- So I tried a little experiment this morning, unfortunately it didn't work out well and tasted gross. I seen someone post about making a pumpkin porridge and how good it was, I've been missing my oatmeal and getting tired of only eggs for breakfast. This smelled so good but definitely needed something to sweeten it up more. I ate close to half of it and quit, I just couldn't stomach any more.

Lunch- Today was leftover spaghetti squash and it was just as good as last night. I was getting pretty hungry so this totally hit the spot.

Dinner- Tonight I made up some sort of chili concoction. I had about 1/2 lb. of leftover ground beef, threw in a can of diced tomatoes, diced peppers, kale, chili powder, pepper, basil and cumin. It's delicious and satisfying.  One of our girls does not like beans at all, she really liked it too.

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Five days completed and I feel pretty good, I don't feel as tired in the afternoon and I think I really am sleeping a little better at night. My sugar cravings have gone down tremendously. I weighed myself this morning and I'm also down 6 lbs.

With that being said I'm ending my "journey" here.  I knew come Monday I didn't want to continue any further eating strictly only paleo, it's not for our family right now. I have really enjoyed incorporating more veggies into our diet this week and finding new ways to prepare them and other things but I just know I can't live this way forever. Whether you think that's right or wrong, it's what's right for us in this moment. During this week I've been able to see what changes I can and should make to our diets in order for us to be healthier and feel better overall. I like how I feel but at the same time I'm just tired of obsessing about my food. I'm feel like I'm constantly thinking about it, what I can't have, etc. I don't want to live like that. I really believe all foods can be enjoyed in moderation.

So for now that's what's going to happen. I'm ready to get back to regular blogging, I'm ready to get back in the kitchen and prepare some wonderful recipes to share with you. My hubby is going to be gone all weekend at a bowling tournament, I'm ready to enjoy my weekend with my girls; do something fun with them, maybe even get in the kitchen and bake. Thank you for all of your encouraging words and support throughout this week, I appreciate each and every one of you!

Whole30 Day 3

Breakfast- Scrambled eggs with spinach and peppers, green smoothie made with coconut milk (banana, strawberries, pineapple and spinach). The smoothie really helped me this morning, I'm starting to get tired of eggs. I like them but I miss my oatmeal.

Lunch- Salad with diced pears, almonds and drizzled with balsamic vinegar. Leftover taco meat on the side. I'm starting to not enjoy salads as much, especially at lunch time but they are easy. Especially since after I get the kiddos fed and down for naps I don't feel like cooking much for myself.

Dinner- I threw a whole chicken in the crock pot today with some spices and let that cook all day. It was really good! We roasted some asparagus with garlic and coconut oil in the oven, baked some sweet potato slices w/coconut oil and had some fruit on the side. It's getting close to bed time and I'm not even feeling the urge for a snack.


Random Thoughts:
I'm getting tired of plain water, maybe I'll have my coconut water tomorrow.
I really should be drinking even more water than I already am.
Sugar is seriously in everything! I can't find any bacon without sugar.
Bless my husband's heart, he's trying to follow along but he's cheating ha ha, he gave up pop but is still drinking Gatorade. He also ate half of the girls' ice cream sandwich tonight.
I'm amazed by my own willpower, I haven't cheated once!

Whole30 Day 2

I slept really good last night, despite being woke up a couple times by the kids. I did grab a small handful of pistachios before bed, we ate at 5:00 last night so by the time I went to bed I was feeling a little hungry, even after drinking some water.

Breakfast- I made myself two scrambled eggs mixed with just a splash of coconut milk. Have you tried this yet? I'm not sure what to think, I really think it tastes similar to water. I added in some diced peppers and broccoli. I knew I'd want some fruit so I grabbed a small handful of grapes and two sliced strawberries for my plate. It was delish! I felt really full and satisfied.

Lunch-  My stomach wasn't feeling the greatest after breakfast, it literally just hurt for awhile so I wasn't too hungry for lunch. I heated up a small amount of leftover fajita mixture from last night, sliced up one carrot and added some pineapple. I cut up a sweet potato for the kiddos today and baked it in the oven with some coconut oil, they tasted so good! I'm loving this coconut oil for sure.

I did start feeling a little hungry around 3 when I was getting all the kids a snack. I made them a green smoothie with almond milk, since I've never tried almond milk I wanted to see how it tasted. I had maybe 1/4 cup of the smoothie, it was so good and totally hit the spot. Technically I cheated by having a little snack but that's okay, at least it was something really healthy.

Dinner- We decided on taco salads tonight, the kids got to have regular tacos. I added some diced pepper, a little bit of tomato and diced avocado to mine. Oh and some fresh salsa too. I also had an orange but one particular little girl stole part of it.


I'm feeling really good today! I don't really feel deprived at all and I can't believe how easy this really is turning out to be. Yesterday I constantly thought about food, today not as much.

Whole30 Day 1

I mentioned on facebook that I've convinced my hubby to give the Whole30 a try. He agreed to complete one full week, I might possibly aim to complete a full 30 days just to see how I really feel afterwards.

Without going into a lot of detail, the program is a strict Paleo meal plan. We're focusing on eating only meat, seafood, veggies, fruits and healthy fats like avocados and nuts. So that means no grains, legumes, dairy or sugar....not even natural sweeteners like honey. You can read more about the program here.

So why have I decided to do this? I'm not one to typically go on "diets", I really don't think I've ever been on one. Well it's not really a diet but rather a healthier way of eating and I'm really interested in the science behind it. If you think about it, the thoughts behind this make sense. I have a major sweet tooth, I love to bake and heck one of my jobs is as a cake decorator so I'm constantly around baked goods. I've got to break this, there is no reason I need to have a daily sweet treat even it's only a piece of chocolate. I want to break this.

I don't know that this plan is right for our family but I'm excited to see what we can learn from it. We've already been taking some major steps to improving our health. I've started purchasing farm fresh eggs from our local co-op and I don't think we'll ever go back, you can really taste the difference. Last week we signed up to receive a CSA produce box every week from June-October. It will contain mostly veggies, many we've never tried or don't eat regularly. This will force us to incorporate them more into our diets and I can't wait! I'm honestly not sure I could give up any of this forever, but maybe with moderation we can find a healthy balance. I've always thought that's key.

I won't be forcing our children to partake in our experiment this week but I also won't be making two separate meals when it comes to dinner. Tonight for example, I made up a chicken fajita mixture, I let them have theirs on a tortilla and we ate our portions on salad greens. They already love fruit but I'll be trying to get them to eat even more veggies than normal. I'm also trying to think of more healthy snacks for them that don't center on grains. They eat a lot of fresh fruit for snacks so we're doing a pretty good job there.

Each day I'm hoping to blog a little bit about my personal experience with this plan. I'll be posting my three meals for the day and any thoughts I have. Make sure you're following me on facebook as well for more updates.

Breakfast- 1 egg seasoned with black pepper and a small bowl of sliced strawberries, banana, coconut and almonds. I'm not usually one to have this big of a breakfast. I run an in-home daycare so my days can get hectic. After I got everyone off to school, the little ones fed and such I finally was able to make myself something to eat. I was honestly really full after this, it was satisfying and I could see myself eating something like this everyday.

Lunch- I think this was the largest salad I've ever had! While I didn't quite finish it all, it was very good. I combined some salad greens with spinach, topped it with green onion, sliced bell peppers, avocado and chicken. I did add a few dashes of Frank's Red Hot sauce for my chosen dressing. However it wasn't really satisfying me so I did grab a small handful of pistachios and that seemed to do the trick.

Dinner- We made chicken fajitas tonight so I served mine on top of salad greens. I also added some fresh salsa and diced avocado to go along. I knew I would be wanting something sweet so I also enjoyed an organic orange as well. It was delicious! We have dance class on Monday nights so we always need to eat earlier than normal. I'm feeling pretty good so far, I thought maybe I would be tempted to grab a snack when we got home.


Overall I feel really good about my first day. So much of this is a mind game, I keep thinking I'm hungry but I'm really not. I've been drinking lots of water and trying not to think about sweets. We just had our last Easter yesterday with my husband's family so these Easter baskets sitting around here aren't helping. The kids could care less about the candy so I think it's time to hide them.  I'm hoping for a good night's sleep and ready to start again in the morning!