Friday, August 14, 2015

Whole30 - Days 24-26 - Powering Through

I heard a quote once - "You can feel crappy all the time, or you can feel real happy all the time, and it's always your choice." It's always stuck with me. Obviously everyone has bad days and we can't always help letting a little crappiness in... but then do what you can to push it out. I closed my computer Friday and I did not open it again all weekend. That was my decision: to be happy.

Day 24


I was really excited about Day 24. We had some friends coming over for a pool day and grilling. Before any of that could start though, we had some groceries to buy. I thought it would be fun to go on a bike ride to the store. Dan could watch the bikes while I ran in. It would be a great way to work out and run errands at the same time. It mostly went really well. We hit some traffic on our bike path which always gets us a little grumpy but overall, it was nice to get out on the bikes and our view was just bonkers gorgeous. 


But OMG grilling... Whole30 actually lends itself perfect to it, and I'm not sure why we haven't done more of it. I'm a little crazy with hosting and making sure there's enough food so I definitely went overboard. I made kobe burgers with sweet potato buns and then some carne asada.


We also had a nice fruit tray laid out. Notice how I went with the actual cantaloupe this time instead of those inconsistent pepinos.. we also had some prosciutto because salty pig parts + sweet fruit = heaven


To top off the tacos, I made some bomb guacamole and bought some salsa. I've been hesitant to buy salsa because of possible non-compliant ingredients but I always feel like something is missing when I made my own. I decided to just buy some but read the ingredients carefully. Turns out, the one I normally buy was definitely ok so that was awesome to find out.


My plate turned out awesome as well! My friend, Leanne, brought some veggies to grill as well which rounded everything out beautifully.

After our pool and sun time, we did some hot yoga with my friend Lindsey. It was such an awesome easy going Saturday. I had a lot of fears this month about finding things to do that didn't involve drinking. It's been so nice that my friends have still had fun with my sober activities and reminded me that we don't need alcohol to have fun (but that no one will so no when I bring out the wine either).


After yoga, it was nice to come back to so many tasty leftovers. I probably had more fruit than recommended but I normally don't have any and it was such a beautiful summer day, it was nice to have the treat. 


Dan and I went to see Fantastic 4 that night (meh - I'm still really sad they didn't get absorbed into the MCU because they would be so amazing in Civil War... but I digress). When we got home, I captured this cute picture of my two little ones sharing the couch. I think they might be best friends soon...


Day 25


Day 25, I just felt awful. I feel like I haven't been getting enough sleep lately. I usually stay up until the same time but I'll wake up an hour before my alarm raring to go. This isn't a bad thing, of course. It's given me some more me time in the mornings. However, it means that I'm probably not getting enough sleep at night.

On Day 25, it finally caught up to me. It was as if my body knew that we didn't really have any plans and was telling me to just take a time out. I woke up later than usual, took the dog out, and then crawled back into bed for another 3 hours. When I finally woke up again, I had monster cramps and just felt like I didn't want to move at all.

I ended up spending most of the day lounging around and reading. I thought cramps was something Whole30 would help with so I was a little bummed that they seemed worse than usual. 


Eventually, by dinner time, I was feeling better. I had the foresight to thaw some pork chops while I was out of it. I was able to cook those up pretty quickly which I roasted some brussel sprouts and sauteed some sweet potatoes. 

The other good thing was that there were lots of leftovers!! It's always nice to set myself up to do a little less work, especially since I wasn't sure I'd be feeling better. 


Day 26


I definitely started my work day with some of the same frustrations as last week which wasn't awesome for me. I decided to take a different approach and fight fire with water instead of more fire. I very politely tried to explain processes and deal with reason. However, those things didn't work. Luckily, my boss jumped in and really supported my case. It's definitely a game changer when you can get some back up and remember that you're not the unreasonable party.


After work was done, I decided to get in my run that I wasn't feeling well enough to do on Sunday. I have a great 6.5 mile loop but I thought I might be able to do something a little different to cut it down to 5.5-6 so I wasn't over exerting myself on taper week. I ended up getting lost and doing something closer to 7.5 miles. Oops.

After the run/hike, I was off to book club. I managed to get a nice shrimp and crab salad minus the cheese. I ordered a bacon vinagrette which probably wasn't Whole30 compliant but since I have no proof of that, I figured I could let it slide. I didn't take pictures because I'm sure that would look weird in front of people I don't know too well.

I came home and was feeling much better about work and stress. I was super tired from the extra long excursion but managed to fold laundry and get my packing organized. Having my work stress sorted out was definitely a huge weight off my shoulders and I'm happy it came just in time for me to enjoy the adventure I have ahead of me this weekend.

Summary


I'm happy the biggest source of my stress has calmed down a little. What I want to work on is also just keeping a positive attitude when I'm struggling. Also, sorry for the lack of food pictures. I've had a lot of leftovers to work through which isn't exciting. I have some travel coming up in the next few days though so hopefully I can show you what Whole30 looks like on the road... in Vancouver... FOR MY HALF MARATHON!!!

In the meantime, here's a funny picture of my foobear




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