Whole 30 Days 1-5 - I Miss Cheese

Well Whole30 got itself started on some little roller coaster ride. I'm not going to lie, I kind of only skimmed the book when I first got it. I noted the rules and I read the part where it said drinking black coffee is hard and I thought "Well, I already drink my coffee black and know how to make paleo meals - this will be easy!"

Day 0

I miss you

This is basically the prep day(s). I went shopping for a ton of meats and veggies, the Whole30 book, and some other staples and snacks that I thought would get me through the coming weeks. One of the things I like most about paleo is the encouragement to try meats and veggies that are a little outside the box. Two of my favorites are duck and bison. We buy bison ground meat a lot and use it cooked in with veggies as a sort of stir fry all the time or in pasta sauce over "zoodles." Roast duck is also an amazing dish that keeps giving as the rendered fat is amazing on vegetables. Of course the stores we went to didn't have either. However, I was able to pick up some other fun meats like wild boar and kangaroo.

I also had kind of a "last meal" of sorts. I had a bunch of wine, went out for sushi, and had a big cheese plate.

Day 1

As I mentioned in my last Whole30 post, I found out my Aunt had passed away the morning of day 1. I think in a lot of cases, that would be grounds to give up on the whole thing, call in sick to work, pour a glass of wine, eat all the chocolate, and lay in bed crying. However, the point of this is to make good changes. It's not to run to our comfort foods or ignore our problems. It's not to make myself so weighed down by food and emotions that I can't keep up with my half marathon training. So I decided to soldier on.

Frankly, aside from the aforementioned tragic news, day 1 wasn't so bad. I was determined to make this work for me. I was excited to cook the things I had bought the day before. I was on a Whole30 mission and felt awesome.

For breakfast, I had some leftover pork medallions. I saw a lot of cool recipes using meats and fish as a base for eggs benedict so I tried something similar here and paired it with a side of asparagus.

For lunch, I roasted a whole chicken to used for meals for a couple of days. To start out, I cut some up and put it over an awesome salad that was just full of delicious veggies.

Day 1 went really well and I felt a big surge of energy. I decided to slow cook a pork shoulder over night so we would have an easy source for meals for the next few days as well.

Day 2

It was nice to wake up and have my pork shoulder ready. I made some more poached eggs and fresh salsa. I put it all together as a breakfast bowl and it was amazing. 

For lunch, I decided to make some lettuce wrap tacos. This was kind of a poor choice since it was almost the same thing I had for breakfast. If you do Whole30 - don't pull such a rookie move. The consequence was basically that I was already tired of Whole30 food about halfway through day 2. Not a good move.

That afternoon was also my first real test. The apartment was having a taco pool party. I figured I could just get some meat and salsa (again, zero variation here... I'm so dumb sometimes). I got to say no to free alcohol and cookies and cupcakes. At least, I was able to take home an inflatable shark.

I also realized at this point that I haven't been eating enough carbs. I was feeling super hungry despite having lots of meals all day. I decided to make some potatoes for dinner so I could carb load a little before long run day. 

Day 3

I miss cheese so much. I didn't know it was possible to miss a food so much. I thought I would miss wine a lot. I don't. I mean, yea, but not in the way you'd think. Over the weekend, I got hit hard with the sad stick over my aunt. Between that and adjusting to my food restrictions, I really just didn't want to do anything. Around this time, I also got to the part in my book where it explains that days 2-3 your body is adjusting to Whole30 and you get really tired and grumpy. The effect is less extreme if you were already eating close to Whole30 before so I wasn't too worried. However, I still very strongly felt the effects. It was a good testament to just how much I'd been straying from Paleo. The whole week before we'd been on vacation and I basically had a lobster roll and sweets every day we were gone so I guess my body had gotten used to lots of carbs.

So I decided to stay in most of the weekend. The rain really helped my decision but... staying in can be kind of boring. I finished a puzzle, I read most of a book, I played some video games, I went on my long run... but mostly I kind of wanted to curl up on the couch with a glass of wine.

A big part of the "no alcohol" rule for me was to see how I acted without it. Would I feel better? Different? How much of me is me vs. Nikki on wine? I noticed first that I felt much better at night and in the mornings. I slept easier and woke up earlier feeling pretty good. However, the things I do and say and feel haven't changed much. I have people tell me all the time that I'm weird or emotional or innappropriate when I drink. Well, turns out I'm just weird, emotional, and inappropriate. I'm sure drinking magnifies it a little bit but I found myself still doing and saying a lot of the things that I thought were wine driven. So there. 

Day 4

On this day, I started realizing what different hungers feel like. I made a good point of eating a lot of fruit and potatoes on day 3 since I was really hungry no matter how much I ate. I kept it going through breakfast on day 4 and then took some berries to the pool to munch on... and I felt a different kind of hungry. Less like I was actually hungry and more like I needed something specific. I felt like my body was telling me I needed more fats and proteins.

So I ditched the pool and made this salad. It was so delicious and really simple. I just used my leftover chicken, some prosciutto, avocado, and spinach. It handled the craving perfectly

For dinner, I wanted to change it up from chicken and pork. I decided to make zoodles! Zoodles are the paleo alternative to noodles. You use a tool to cut zucchini into noodle strips. I decided to make a homemade sauce. I used a can of crushed tomatoes, a little bit of chicken stock, and a ton of spices and veggies. I used ground wild boar as the meat. It was delicious and was an easy way to change up our meals.

Day 5

Day 5 I started feeling like I was getting into the swing of things and more comfortable with knowing what my body was telling me and finding ways to change up meals. 

I wanted to do something a little different for breakfast. I usually just do crazy scrambled eggs that are like 70% vegetables. I decided instead I was going to just to basic eggs with a side of prosciutto and an apple. But then I remembered I had some leftover zucchini... and it kind of spiraled out of control from there. As you can see, I ended up with my typical kitchen sink eggs. At least I still have the basic option for another day!

For lunch, I decided to do those apples and prosciutto. I also wanted to finish off the last of my chicken. It really wasn't very exciting but I figured I'd share meals where I had pictures. 

Later in the day we were going to a baseball game. I knew there'd be really nothing for me to eat there so I made sure to have a snack before we left. It was a great call on my part because I wasn't hungry the whole game and was able to get a small dinner when we got home.

On that note though, Petco Park is amazing. Almost all of the vendors are local restaurants and breweries. It's basically like a "Best of San Diego" in one spot. If you ever go and aren't on Whole30, I suggest you eat and drink all of the things. Dan even found this amazing Root Beer Beer that we had tried once and is supposedly impossible to find. Definitely not the place to be while on an eating plan though.

Summary

But how did we feel??? In my Whole30 book, it said days 2-5 are the really cranky ones. I know my symptoms haven't been as bad as the book suggests since I was mostly paleo before and my body didn't have to adapt as much. However, emotions were definitely running strong in our house. Between the meal plan and the family loss, things were a little snippy. It was funny to read the descriptions for the different days because we were spot on for days 4-5. It said you would wake up feeling great but you'd get snappy over the littlest things. It's nice to be past that stage now and reaping more of the benefits of Whole30!