Back to sea...could they stop with the fresh baked cookies?

I am stepping out of the comfort and control of almost 4 years of shore duty and returning to sea. My ability to control the quality and type of food I can eat is going to quickly come to an end. After going through 2 months of a Whole 30 diet at the beginning of the year and eating primarily paleo since, controlling what I put in my body has been very important to me.
Life on the ship is one of sleepless days and nights, low quality meat, soggy vegetables, fried everything, fresh baked cookies and pies with every meal and lots of garbage in vending machines. Healthy options are hard to come by if I do not bring them onboard myself.
The last time I was stationed on a ship, I did not really watch what I ate. Dr. Pepper and a bag of popcorn would commonly be my dinner or midnight snack. If I had an hour over dinner to either eat or sleep, sleep always won and dinner would come out of the vending machine when I woke up. This mentality is no longer an option. I know how food effects my body and I do not ever want to go back to where I was.
My plan is to be careful when I order my meals, eat lots of salad, bring healthy snacks onboard like paloekits and buddy fruit snacks and stick to black coffee and water.
I will let you all know how it goes.

Day...what day is it? Oh yeah, Day 10

Clearly I have gotten over the initial shock of the Whole 30 and have settled into a pretty good routine. A big mistake I made today was not eating breakfast.  I had fire fighting training and had only eaten a hard boiled egg. Not enough.

I felt the pain during lunch. I had my first real sugar craving and I think it was just because I was hungry. I ate lunch until I was full but still wanted something sweet. I drank some water and some coffee and powered through it.

And when did it happen that fruit is now a guilty pleasure? A handful of grapes and a few pieces of pineapple made me feel like I had eaten a cookie. How weird.

I made a batch of protein nut balls that look delicious. I was licking the bowl. I was excited to eat dates. Seriously, what has happened to me?

Made it through the weekend! Whole 30 Day 9

I am so happy I made it safely through the weekend! I love waking up on Monday and not feeling like I wasted away the weekend with a hangover, stomach ache, too much time on the couch. Instead, I felt amazing!

I had great sleep every night, woke up refreshed every morning, got my chores done and was able to start my week with confidence and clarity.

I had a great haul at the winter farmer's market, took a trip to Whole Foods, dropped some cash at REI during their big 50% off sale and took a great hike with my husband to see a local Harbor seal population. It was an amazing weekend.

So, I would consider days 1-8 very successful and worth every bit of effort.

Addiction

Here is another surprising thing I have learned this week: the hardest thing for me to give up has been the scale! I clearly have an addiction to it!

One of the Whole 30 rules is to not weigh yourself the entire time. In this, I have failed. Miserably.

I even moved the scale to another room. That did not work. I think I need Paddy to hide it from me until February.

Good news... I have lost 5 pounds!

Bad news...I am a scale addict. I need an intervention.

A perfect Whole 30 Saturday

I guess it would be 100% perfect if I had gone to Crossfit this morning, but my legs are pretty fried from the gobs of squats we did last night, so I gave my thighs the day off.

Instead I went to the winter farmer's market. Last week we learned that you have to get there early, or all the good stuff is gone. I got there right when it opened and it was already packed. I dropped some serious cash (because that is all they take...) at the local, grass-fed beef table. I snagged some hamburger patties, ground beef, a roast, and some short ribs.  I also grabbed a pound of bacon and some yummy locally roasted coffee beans. Pretty good haul in about 10 minutes.

I bought myself a gift at the Exchange yesterday that seems to pop up on all of the Paleo cooking blogs: a pressure cooker. I have never really considered cooking with one, it just seems old fashioned. But, considering how much I have been cooking and the amount of meat that I have made, these meals are time consuming! The idea of busting out a roast or pot of chili in an hour is pretty appealing.

So, my first experiment is on the stove right now. I threw some stew meat, parsnips, carrots, onion, tomatoes, garlic, beef stock, thyme and sherry into the pot and let it do its thing. Hope it is edible.

Whole 30- Week 1 in review

The first week is almost over and wow, has it been eye opening!

I feel amazing. I have great energy. My sleep has been great. My workouts have been strong.

I never thought changing my diet could have such immediate effects. I feel thinner, more alert, clearer headed. It is crazy.

I never thought I was a sweet tooth, but this has proven to me that I have way too much sugar in my diet and that is extremely unhealthy. The withdrawals I went through, and may be still experiencing, were terrible. The most raging headaches! I still have a lingering dull headache, but the worst seems to be over.

I also never thought I enjoyed black coffee. That is a major change. I now prefer it. It becomes a bit more difficult to drink the terrible SWO coffee that is basically Folger's sludge, but the stuff I grind myself and brew in my shiny new French press is pretty darn tasty.

I have made the decision to not end this at day 30. Right now I am considering a Whole 90, maybe a Whole 365. Who knows. The things I have removed from my diet clearly had no place in it to begin with.

Day 4

Today was far better than yesterday. Maybe because I drank a lot of coffee this morning, maybe because I ate Tylenol twice today. Regardless, I didn't get the raging headache.

I also had my first Crossfit workout since I changed my diet. I feared having low energy and struggling through the workout. I was also dreading running the prescribed mile at the end of the WOD in the sub-freezing weather. But, shockingly, it was a great workout! I had such a great surge of energy when it was done. It was great. I hope it stays this way.