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!

Third Place & Finals - England & USA - World Cup Eating Challenge 2015

I'm going to take a quick break from Whole30 to close out this World Cup Eating Challenge. I've been slacking so hard on it. Honestly, when I found out in the middle of the challenge that my aunt only had a few weeks to live, it really make it hard to finish this out. I was so close to just quitting it. But my aunt has always encouraged and inspired my creative side. Lately, I've been painting and sculpting less, but I've been showing my creativity through cooking. If that's the gift she gave me in her lifetime, then I wanted to finish it out. So, I still cooked all the things and made sure to show up each day with something for the challenge, but I'm really glad it's done.

For the Semi-Finals and Finals, I decided to just designate all four countries to a day. I got the days of the games wrong though and thought the last two games were 7/3 and 7/4 (they were actually 7/4 and 7/5). Since I was visiting my aunt on 7/3, I decided just to do the last two countries on 7/4 as a big 4th of July party. Once I figured out my mistake on timing, I was already committed and decided just to roll with it and finish a day early. I needed it.

England

English food really doesn't translate to BBQ very well. It's heavy, usually fried. It's the kind of food that's great in a pub to soak up your beers and cheer on your team. I was pretty stumped on what to do...

And then I thought about drinks. Beer would have been an easy go to but I wanted to make something. I remembered about the Pimm's cup cocktail and when I looked it up was surprised just how close to sangria it was.

A Pimm's cup is Pimm's liqour, fizzy lemonade (I didn't know what that was so I used soda water and Simply Lemonade), and a bunch of fruits. I used strawberries, oranges, and cucumber.

It turned out beautiful and was a great addition to the BBQ. It was also really low in alcohol so you could drink a bunch of it and feel totally fine. It actually got quite interesting later in the day when other groups at the pool were pretty far down the rabbit hole and we were fine. Plus, it didn't take away from the main event...

USA

I was really hoping from the start that USA would make it to the finals. Since I thought they were on July 4th, I thought it would be amazing for USA to play on such a big national holiday for the national holiday. The original reports I saw had USA vs. Brazil so all along I'd been planning this amazing mix of both countries and then Brazil lost really early and ruined it for me. 

For USA, I just wanted to do American BBQ. I wanted some classic tastes but also a California twist to it all. 

I started with a marinade for my chicken. I used lime, avocado oil, cilantro, and a ton of garlic. Like a whole packet of garlic. I put it all in the food processor until it was a liquidy paste. 

I put that all in a bag with the chicken and let it marinade in the fridge for a few hours. 

Next up is ribs. Ribs can be so inexpensive at the market sometimes and they are WAY easier than you think they are. There are really two steps. First, season your ribs and bake them at about 300 for an hour. This is to ensure the pork is cooked all the way because you do not want to eat raw pork. I seasoned mine with garlic salt, garlic powder, paprika, chipotle, and sometimes red pepper or chili pepper if you want it spicy.

Once they are baked, brush the ribs with sauce. If you aren't paleo, Sweet Baby Ray's is amazing. It's the best BBQ sauce I've had and it's like $2 for a giant bottle. However, it's basically made of 100% non-natural ingredients. This time around, I tied making my own sauce. I used diced tomatoes, seasonings (similar to the rub), maple syrup, tamari, and balsamic vinegar. I pulsed it in the food processor. It basically tasted like spicy ketchup. It wasn't bad but it wasn't the BBQ flavor I was hoping for. I think some jam may have helped. I have some more recipes for BBQ sauce that I want to try as well though so I'm not giving up yet.

I also made a little side salad and some sweet potato fries as part of my "California" touch. The salad was mixed greens, avocado, and goat cheese with a homemade balsamic vinaigrette. The fries actually ended up more like baked sweet potato strips. Some friends brought some deviled eggs as well.

It was all so good! We made a ton of food too so we got to celebrate USA in our stomachs for a couple of days until we went on vacation.

We also found a beautiful spot on the bay to watch the fireworks from. It was a great first Fourth in San Diego!

Now back to Whole 30... maybe I could do some Whole30 BBQ? I'm feeling inspired.

Why I'm Doing Whole30

Sometimes you just have to take a good hard look at yourself and say "something isn't coming together the way I want it to." I've been Paleo for a couple of years and while I lost a chunk of weight at first, I've been finding that despite being more active, I've been carrying my weight in ways that make me uncomfortable. I know I'm not fat by any means but when the clothes don't fit well, I get this feeling that I'm not doing something right.

I realized what the issue was... I make a lot of Paleo exceptions. I like to think it's the 80/20 rule but I know it's probably more 60/40. I've been too easy on myself. I've also based my cooking around the "Life is too short to not enjoy cheese and wine." Well, I still believe that's true but maybe I don't need them every night... and maybe the only way to get there is to cut them out completely for a little while.

So what is Whole30?

Whole30 is basically paleo in it's most extreme form. There are a handful of rules (and exceptions) to help guide you.

-No Grains
-No Dairy
-No Alcohol
-No Scales
-No Sugar
-No Legumes
-No re-creating baked goods

Some of these rules (like no weighing yourself and no re-creating baked goods) are unique to Whole30, making it stricter than even strict paleo. However, they make sense to me. I can't quite explain why but it seems to be like how certain rules of AA make it more useful than other programs.

Why Now?

I had a couple of reasons for the timing... first, the start of the challenge is a couple of days after getting back from a vacation where I was about 0% paleo. I definitely wanted to make amends to my body after so much splurging.

On that note... as fun as the World Cup Eating Challenges are, they don't feel paleo, even if they technically are. When I'm frying tempura or making a dessert... it feels like I'm cheating. It's fun for the challenge, but I don't feel great when I eat so much fried food. I'd been feeling like the next thing I want to do is just go really strict paleo and be really healthy for a set period of time just to really see what I can do.

I also wanted to do this because at the end of the 30 days, I'll be taking on another challenge - I'll be running my first half marathon. In the weeks leading up to this decision, I haven't kept up with my training at all. Some has been legitimate stress and time crunch.. but that's never a great excuse. A lot has just feeling physically dragged down because of going out, drinking, or just not eating great. I'm really hoping that putting good things into my body, removing myself from social events that won't fit with Whole30, and no nightly glasses of wine, will help me get back on track with my training.

Lastly, the day I started the challenge, my family went through a big loss (one that was expected and has been the source of some of my distractions in earlier blog posts). While I was already set on my course when I got the news, the challenge gives me a better way to cope. Instead of looking into a bottle, I can put my energy into cooking and exercising and doing things that are good for me instead of using a saddening event as a reason to drink or indulge.

How I Want to Approach It

Really the main thing that I think is going to help me actually do this is that I want to do well in the half. I want to get back to my training. I can fill extra free time with training. If I am feeling like a glass of wine, I can go to the gym. And all of this - it's going to be so much sweeter when I cross the finish line and get to celebrate with my friends and a glass of champagne - one that I've actually earned instead of just wanting.

I also really want to make this about enjoying GOOD food. I obviously love to cook. I don't think there is anyone who loves to cook and doesn't love to eat. I want to make this about making good meals that are good for me... and obviously also fuel my workouts (so lots and lots of potatoes). I've already done my first round of shopping and I bought some fun things - some new produce, some new animal meats. I'm excited to try out new things and really enjoy buying high quality food. I mean... I'll obviously be saving a lot of money by not drinking so why not put some of it to food?

I know this is going to be a challenge. I know there are going to be days when I just want to put cheese on something or grab tacos or open a bottle of wine. I'm lucky that I have an awesome boyfriend who was shocked and totally supportive when I told him what I wanted to do... and then asked if dinner was going to suck for the month. I'll be posting along the way so you can see how Whole 30 is going.

Semi-Finals - Germany & Japan - World Cup Eating Challenge 2015

For the last four days of the challenge, I decided to just tackle each of the last four teams. It seemed the most fair to just give each of them a day instead of hoping that the results worked out in the best way for me. For the semi-finals, I decided to re-visit Germany and Japan.

Germany

Originally for Germany, I wanted to do jager schnitzel and spatzel. I ended up doing pretzels and brats. The pretzels had turned out so bad though that I felt they needed a redemption. I also didn't see a good way to make spatzel based on my earlier failures. I decided to split the difference... still do my schnitzel but re-do the pretzels.

This time I went with a recipe from a Paleo bread book called Every Last Crumb. I wanted use this recipe last time but it required some ingredients I didn't have. No really - there are about 5 different flours in here including both potato flour and potato starch. I had originally thought they were the same thing but the front material says that potato flour absolutely can't be substituted for anything... and that's the one I didn't have. I had to go to 3 stores to find it too. 

Anyways, the picture above kind of demonstrates all of the dry ingredients that were in here. You can kind of see the different colors and textures to get an idea of just how many components there were here. 

I mixed them all together and then put them in the my secret weapon... yes, my food processor! I got one that had an additional plastic blade for kneading. I figured I would never use it but I use it all the time for paleo breads and even mixing things like ground meats. It's so helpful and I really recommend it.

Next, I got my little bundles of dough ready for shaping.

After that the magic happened. I would try to describe the process but it required difficult shaping, two different oven sessions, and some seasoning. This was the result though. Aren't they beautiful? They tasted like awesome and were way closer to pretzel flavors than the last attempt. 

I just noticed that I didn't have any pictures of the steps for the schnitzel. For this, I got a bunch of thin pork chops. I luckily found some that were super thin on their own so I didn't have to do much to them. I just used the tenderizer on them a little bit to thin them further. 

From there, I dipped them in eggs and then my special "breading" which consisted of tapioca flour, almond flour, salt, and seasonings. I fried them all in avocado oil

For the "jager" sauce, I loosely followed this recipe. Jagerschnitzel is just schnitzel with a mushroom cream sauce on it but the name is really awesome and mushrooms are delicious so I was all in. The sauce was basically beef broth, sour cream, mushrooms, and xantham gum.  I didn't love the sauce - I think the cream broke and I wished I'd used coconut cream instead. Otherwise, the dish was awesome!

Japan

Since I'd already done sushi, I wanted my second attempt at Japan to focus on different dishes. I'd heard a lot about Japanese bbq and seen beautiful pictures of thin meat grilling on stones or wire racks and I wanted to try it as well as some other side dishes that I'm sure you've seen around.

Step one was to find some amazing high quality meat. I only added a light amount of salt to this because I wanted the meat to shine. The key to this is a meat that has good marbilization of fats without being fatty. I trimmed any huge chunks of fat to achieve this.

How beautiful is that? I loved the idea of just self grilling meats over a tiny flame. The problem is that my setup was useless at it. I tried a couple more things while Dan stood in the corner hoping I didn't set the apartment on fire. 

And finally I just ended up with this. It was a really good idea at first but eventually the fat dripping onto the burner started cooking and our apartment was just filling with smoke.

The meat was really delicious but the cooking process was not practical for an apartment. I really want to go out and try some in a restaurant now though!

My next dish was Yakitori, aka chicken skewers. For these, I skewered some chicken thighs and then brushed them with a mix of tamari sauce, fish sauce, and avocado oil and let them marinade in the fridge for a little while.

When I was ready to cook them, I placed them in the grill pan and rotated and necessary. 

Lastly, I wanted to try tempura. Originally, I was going to do shrimp. However, my meal was already very meat heavy so I decided to do veggie tempura again. I got some green beans and mushrooms. I dredged them all in egg and then a tapioca/almond flour/ salt mixture.

After that I fried them all in avocado oil.

In the end, it all turned out delicious. I also made a little beef broth/ soy sauce dipping sauce which was delicious. The meat was AMAZING. It just shows that when you have high quality beef, you don't have to do much to make it shine. The chicken and veggies were great too.

All in all, these dishes were fantastic, but they also marked an important end to the challenge for me - the end of forced Paleo dishes. By that, I mean dishes that are not Paleo by nature but made so with alternative flours and oils. Even Paleo, tempura or fried pork or pretzels aren't that healthy. I was happy that for my final posts, I was going to go with better more natural foods and less Paleo crazy scientist foods. 

Quarter-Finals - France and England - World Cup Eating Challenge 2015

On the same note from yesterday, since I was having a hard time, I needed to find easier options for the challenge so that it didn't feel like one more burden. I was lucky to be able to find some good options that helped me make some delicious dinners that didn't add to my stress. 

France

The first time I went to France, I knew much less about food and was looking through a travel book when I found steak frites. Steak frites are exactly how they sound... steak and fries. I was determined to have this dish in France and I did. It was all I hoped and dreamed it would be and I knew it would be a good pick for my challenge.

There is one secret to perfect steaks. It's butter. 

Once the butter is heated up, put your steaks in and then just listen to the beautiful noise of them sizzling to perfection. I normally season the steaks but I wanted the meat to shine so I only added sea salt this time.

While my steaks were cooking I baked my fries. I added salt and garlic and paprika to them as well. 

When the steak was done, I added them to the plate with the fries and topped it with some garlic and herb butter. Butter really was the VIP here.

I also bought a Cotes du Rhone wine. Rhone is my favorite wine region and I wanted to get a true French Rhone for the challenge.

The wine had a beautiful color and was the perfect balance to this rich meal.

 Fin

England

For England, I wanted to go with another easy classic. I decided to go with bangers and mash.

Bangers are just a wacky English word for sausage. Despite the impression the name might give, the term actually came from the pockets of oil that build up under the sausage casing and tend to pop while cooking. If you've ever been near a sausage when it's does this, you know they're no joke.

The mash is, as you'd expect, mashed potatoes.

There really wasn't too much complicated here. I just made my mashed potatoes with some almond milk, butter, and salt. I then served it with the bangers and let the sausage impart some natural flavor.

On an unrelated note, that night started a serious of ridiculously beautiful sunsets so I thought I would just share this one with you. 

Round of 16, Day 4 - Japan - World Cup Eating Challenge 2015

So I obviously am super behind on Eating Challenge posts. Life has been happening really hard over here and this just hasn't been my priority. Without going into detail, my family has been going through a loss so I've been visiting them as much as possible. I also was preparing for my own trip to be a bridesmaid in a long time friend's wedding meaning that I had a lot of work to do before leaving. Life was definitely at it's hardest for a couple of weeks there and it took all of my remaining energy to just keep doing the challenge. I didn't have any extra for words. However, I'm back from my trip and I've been able refresh and get back some of my inspiration. I also have a new challenge on deck so there's a lot to look forward to.

But right now - let's talk about sushi. Sushi is just super pretty and the ingredients speak for themselves so how about a picture post? Great? Great.

The only thing keeping me from doing sushi before was the fish. I've always been nervous about the quality being good enough to eat the fish raw. I went to a specialty fish market and asked about which fish was sushi quality. I decided to go with some ahi tuna and salmon.

I wanted to do a hand roll along with sashimi. I had done a sushi class before and remembered some of what to do.

I put in some rice, cucumber, avocado, and then my fish.

For the sashmini, I wanted to get a little creative so I arranged them into flowers with cucumber and avocado stems. I also bought a nice sake to pair with it. 

But that's not all... I ended up buying way too much fish. This is one of those amazing problems that I'm all too happy to have. I decided to try to change it up a little and sear the tuna. 

I then cut up the tuna, salmon, and some avocado slices. It's hard to see but it's all on sheets of nori (seaweed). I called it a de-constructed sushi roll.

I ended up just eating little pieces on the slices of seaweed and it was amazing.

This ended up being a really easy day where the quality of the ingredients spoke for themselves and didn't need me messing them up. I would love to go back to the fish store and get more salmon and just slice it up and enjoy it like this again.