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.

SWOnuts

I have changed the name of my blog after having a revelation today. I am on Day 4 of my Whole 30 day experience and I had to venture into a Dunkin Donuts. Bad idea, right?

Here is why I had to go in...I am in the Navy and am currently attending a school for Surface Warfare Officers. We have a rule in our class that the person who gets the highest grade on a test has to bring in coffee and doughnuts the next day. Well, lucky me, I got the highest grade on the last test. Unlucky class, there was no way I was bringing in doughnuts.

There is a culture in my community of saying we want fit and healthy people and then serving doughnuts every morning for breakfast. They have often been referred to as SWOnuts, because we are SWOs. How does that make any sense?

I don't want to eat any SWOnuts. I walked into the Dunkin Donuts expecting to be tempted. I was not. They looked gross. I bought my big Box of Joe and left, not SWOnuts in my bag. The class was happy when I arrived with the Joe, but some did not appreciate the Paleo breakfast casserole I brought in the doughnuts stead. End of the day, though, the casserole was gone and I saved everyone a few bites of grossness.

That is when I decided to change the blog's theme. It isn't just about 30 days on a whole food kick, it is about living and eating well in the SWO community.

DAY 3-Stupid Sugar (as reported from Day 4)

I was all ready to post last night about how great I was feeling and blah blah blah and the WHAM-O! I was knocked over with the most ridiculous headache and my energy completely bottomed out. I have been having some nagging headaches over the Christmas break, but I attributed those to no longer drinking my daily cup of coffee at work. But this one, this was different.

I actually had a great day back at work. I was alert and never got hungry or got tempted by anything. I come home from work and ran to the grocery store and came home and cooked like a mad woman.

**Side note** The way Paddy and I are reacting to this diet change has been pretty surprising. I have had a decrease in hunger. I never really feel starving or anything. And when I eat, I never feel full. You know, the uncomfortable stuffed feeling. I like it.
Paddy, on the other hand, is a ravenous beast. No matter how much I feed him, he is always starving. I realized somewhere during day 2 that I was going to have to have the fridge over stocked with easy to eat meals to keep him from wasting away. My guess is that he is withdrawling from his carb addiction. Hopefully his appetite will balance out as his body adjusts to not getting 2 PB&J sandwiches as snacks and a side of "insert white carb here" with every meal. I have been gluten-free for over a year, so I think I had a much shallower adjustment to the loss of carbs from my day.

Back to yesterday, I was cooking like an animal. Or maybe someone who likes to cook and eat animals. I felt like a master chef on meth. It was a sight to see. Then, I sat down and, like a wave, my mood took a nose dive, my head was killing me and I could not pull out of it. I wrapped up my last meals and went to bed. It was the only solution.

Here is my theory: I had way more sugar in my diet than I had realized. I do not consider myself a sweet tooth. I mostly craved salt, crunchy snacks. But, when I really sat down and thought about it, I guess I had a lot of sneaky sugar in my diet. A couple packets of sugar in my coffee (and then 2 more with the refill and then 2 more in my mug after lunch), sweetened creamer in those same cups of coffee, some sweet candies to "keep me awake" at work, sugar in sauces and packaged foods, a bite of ice cream...it goes on and on. Maybe I don't sit down and eat a bag of cookies like someone who I might consider a sweet tooth, but I eat me some sugar. So, I am blaming sugar from my headaches and now I hate sugar.

Stupid sugar.

Day 1 and 2

I kicked off my Whole30 yesterday and, so far, so good. Unless you consider the vivid dream I had last night. I dreamed I was eating all of the pretzels out of a Chex Mix bag. I was so mad at myself! And then I woke up and was so relieved. I guess I have had food way too much on my brain lately.

The dream did not come true and I was able to safely navigate the day with no issues, but that was from the safety of my own home. We ate a lot of leftovers, which made it super easy.

This morning we actually went out for breakfast and were able to deconstruct their menu offerings into acceptable meals. They were very happy to accommodate our list of requests.

This afternoon I put the delicious chuck roast I got from the winter market on Saturday into the trusty crock pot (the one month anniversary gift from my husband after we started dating, weird, right?). I found a great rub, can't wait to see how it turns out.

The hard part starts tomorrow when I go back to work. I have a ton of leftovers stored away in my cleaned out fridge. I went on a total cleaning spree this afternoon. Not sure if it was a result of a change in my energy level, or what, but I was a cleaning machine. I dumped all sorts of dairy and snacks and made room for my tupperware.

I fear that Day 3 may be my hardest so far, but I think I will make it!