Sorry I fell of the face of the Earth for a bit there. Planning a wedding, even a simple one, is way more work than I realized, especially when you try to do it in two months (what was I thinking?). The ceremony is Saturday, so after that, I’ll have time for other things in my life (you know like reading, blogging, not thinking about details of my wedding 24/7). I’ll get back to regular programming then, included recapping how my 21 day sugar detox and Whole 30 went (both were successful!).
*During the month of January, I’m doing a Whole30 combined with a 21 Day Sugar Detox. This is to help me reset my system, deal with my love of sugar, and generally feel healthier and happier. Want more info on these programs? Click on the images above*
Spinach and sauerkraut, hard boiled eggs with paprika, garlic browned ground beef, avocado
Taco chicken, romaine salad with tomatoes and olives, carrot sticks with mayo, green tipped banana
1st day back at work was pretty darn easy. When I’m working, there’s plenty to distract me, so I don’t really think about food too much. I just eat what I bring with me – cafeteria food has no desirability for me. I noticed that I was always craving something sweet after lunch, so I’ve started drinking licorice tea. I used to hate licorice, but lately I’ve been loving it. It has a sweet flavor without any sugar.
Roasted cauliflower and spinach, chicken and egg scramble, avocado
Salad with chicken quarter and kalamata olives, roasted cauliflower, baked beets and fennel (Practical Paleo)
My favorite part of the 21DSD/Whole 30 is trying new things. Or at least new ways of doing things. Back when I used to frequently sandwich places, I always loved to get banana peppers on my salads. But for some reason, when I stopped eating bread, it didn’t dawn on me that I could still buy and eat banana peppers. When I was getting ready for this food challenge, I read on several blogs that they were a good thing to add to meals to add flavor. Love! They’re awesome.
Avocado, hard boiled eggs with paprika, roasted chicken, spinach and sauerkraut
Salmon cakes and kalamata olives, spinach and tomato salad, carrots and mayo, baked beets and fennel
During the week, most of my meals tend to be pretty similar. And I’m okay with that. I find little ways of spicing them up and making them different, even if the main elements are the same. Like adding different spices to things. Or new garnishes.
Avocado, roasted cauliflower and green beans, chicken and egg scramble
Salmon cakes with spinach, sauerkraut, tomatoes and kalamata olives, carrots and mayo, baked beet and fennel
My meat and egg scramble is a new variation I’ve been trying with breakfast. I chop up a hard boiled egg, chop up some meat, and mix the together with a little salt, and sometimes some olive oil. It’s delicious, and it’s a great way to eat hard boiled eggs without getting bored.
Frittata and avocado with tomato slices
Roasted chicken, carrots and mayo, romaine with cauliflower and hard boiled egg, baked beets and fennel
You may have noticed I ate a lot of beets this week. While they are super good for you, beets are also very sweet, so only one cup per day is allowed. I’ve been having about half a cup with lunch everyday as my “dessert”. It helps me to feel a little more satisfied and a little less likely to crave sugar.
*During the month of January, I’m doing a Whole30 combined with a 21 Day Sugar Detox. This is to help me reset my system, deal with my love of sugar, and generally feel healthier and happier. Want more info on these programs? Click on the images above*
I’ll cover days 7-10 tomorrow, focusing mainly on my bentos. I’m doing pretty good with this. Eating this way is starting to feel normal now. I haven’t achieved the magical energy everyone talks about. I have been sleeping excellently though, despite food related dreams. It’s weird, but since I’ve started, I’ve been having dreams about the 21 DSD. In one dream, I was in the grocery store and was stressing out because they were out of green apples and green-tipped bananas. In another, I compulsively ate some m&m’s without thinking, and in another, I ate some fast food chicken nuggets. Those last two dreams are really weird to me, because I haven’t eaten or craved food like that in months. The only cravings I’ve been having lately are for more fruit. I still feel confident that I will have a lot of benefits from the 21DSD in the long run, even though I haven’t seen much of a difference yet.
*During the month of January, I’m doing a Whole30 combined with a 21 Day Sugar Detox. This is to help me reset my system, deal with my love of sugar, and generally feel healthier and happier. Want more info on these programs? Click on the images above*
This is harder than I thought it would be. I have to remind myself why I’m doing this – I’m more addicted to sugar than I realized. I want to break that addiction. I want to reset my system – start fresh. I want to clear all the junk out and put in only good stuff. I want to figure out my skin issues and see if what I eat may be contributing. I’ve read that the first week is the roughest – I know I can get through this.
*During the month of January, I’m doing a Whole30 combined with a 21 Day Sugar Detox. This is to help me reset my system, deal with my love of sugar, and generally feel healthier and happier. Want more info on these programs? Click on the images above*
Day three was the hardest so far. I felt restless and a little foggy headed all day. The overcast weather outside didn’t help. It felt hard to get things done. I ended up snacking a lot oon fatty snacks that helped to keep me from craving too much. And I definitely indulged intthe extras that are allowed on the 21DSD – a green tipped banana, pumpkin pancakes, kombucha and coconut water. I made it through just fine.
This experiment is really opening my eyes to how much crap people put in food. I went out to dinner at Panera with my mom, future mother-in-law and step-mother-in-law to work on planning for the wedding. I figured I would be able to find plenty to eat there. I did my research beforehand and looked up nutrition facts and ingredient lists. Almost everything had soy, wheat, milk or sugar in it somewhere. Like basically everything except the salad pictured – which I still had to have several things removed from. My advice to anyone going out to eat on a Whole 30 or 21DSD – 1) do research ahead of time, 2) don’t be afraid to ask for modifications, 3) bring your own dressing. By the way, that salmon salad was delicious and totally worth the research done beforehand!
Florida had a nice cold spell over the holidays, so I got to break out my cold weather garb. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a lot of outfit photos since I was crazy busy. This is the outfit I wore the day my fiance and I went to pick out our wedding bands. Wedding planning is both exciting and filled with a bit of anxiety too. It’s going to be great, but I’m glad that it will be done soon. We’re keeping the engagement short and getting married in February.
This outfit had so many things to love: Mod prints! Mustard cashmere! Flat boots! It was comfy and warm, but still stylish enough for doing things like picking out jewelry that you’ll wear for the rest of your life.
If I could only wear clothes from two clothing brands for the rest of my life, it would probably be J. Crew and Boden. I love so much of what these two brands produce, but the price tag is generally out of my range. That’s why eBay is awesome – most of the stuff I wear from these brands I buy second-hand for considerably less. No one should have to spend a lot of money to look stylish.
Those are my new Vivobarefoot Boxing boots, which I love. They’re wonderfully comfortable and just the right amount of warmth for most Florida winter days. The ankle height can be a bit awkward to wear though – I’ve found that I have to pair them with either very short dresses/tunics or pants. Wearing them with knee-length dresses makes my legs look stubby. Vivobarefoot, make some mid-calf length boots please? I’d love you forever.
Dress: Boden (via eBay)
Cardigan: J. Crew (via eBay)
Leggings: Target
Boots: Vivobarefoot Boxing boots
Scarf: Target
*During the month of January, I’m doing a Whole30 combined with a 21 Day Sugar Detox. This is to help me reset my system, deal with my love of sugar, and generally feel healthier and happier. Want more info on these programs? Click on the images above*
For some reason I was feeling very snacky during day 2. This was my fiance’s first day back at work after vacation, so I think I was just feeling restless being home by myself all day. I kept cravings at bay by eating lots of healthy fats and trying new recipes.
The pumpkin pancakes were super easy to make and really tasty, although they did make me miss maple syrup. But once I liberally drizzled warm coconut butter on them, I didn’t miss it as much. The recipe is in both Practical Paleo and it’s also on Balanced Bites website.
The biggest event of the day was making mayo from scratch for the first time. I’d tried to make mayo before, but it always came out really liquidy. Following the recipe in Well Fed this time, I used my food processor instead of whisking by hand, I waited a long time for the egg to come to room temperature, I used light olive oil instead of extra virgin, and I poured very, very slowly. The result was amazing! Store bought mayo never tastes this good. I’ll be using this a lot, and from now on, there will always be a fresh batch in my fridge.
*During the month of January, I’m doing a Whole30 combined with a 21 Day Sugar Detox. This is to help me reset my system, deal with my love of sugar, and generally feel healthier and happier. Want more info on these programs? Click on the images above*
I don’t know if I’ll be posting every single day of my Whole30/21DSD, but since I’m off work this week, I’m going to at least blog my first week of meals. We’ll see how much I’m able to blog once work kicks back in.
The first day went really well. I’m focusing on finding other ways to treat myself since I’m having no sugar. Adding extra spices to make meals fancier, lots of healthy fats, putting a lemon slice in my water. All these little things keep me from feeling deprived at all – I feel like I’m thriving. The hardest part right now is drinking tea without honey – but I’m getting used to it.
I had a pretty awesome day. Slept in after NYE festivities (although we left the party at 11:00pm – we’re just not late night people). Took down the Christmas tree. Then my fiance and I went bike riding through downtown Tampa. We were out for several hours, checking out all kinds of places around downtown I had water with lemon and snacked on my apple and nuts, which are a perfect, portable treat. Day 1 of Whole 30/ 21DSD = success!
**Every season, I post a set of goals that I set out to accomplish. I track my progress here on my blog. I like the challenge of setting goals – it helps me to accomplish so much more.**
It’s now officially Winter, and almost 2013, so here’s my 13 goals for the next couple months:
1) Complete a Whole 30 and 21 Day Sugar Detox: I’ve been eating Paleo very consistently since July, but I still have a weakness for sugar. My weight loss has also plateaued over the last couple of months. And the holidays had a good bit of cheating. I’d like to get my health back on track by refocusing on real foods and ditching sugar. So, during the month of January, I’ll be doing a Whole30 combined with a 21 Day Sugar Detox. See their websites for more info about each of these programs. I think it will be awesome.
2) Make sauerkraut from scratch: I’ve been wanting to try this ever since I read about the benefits of sauerkraut in Practical Paleo. So, I have plans to buy a ceramic crock and make my very own. Food experiments are fun!
3) Try two new liver recipes: I made chopped liver and onions over the summer, and found it tolerable. Liver has crazy amounts of health benefits, so I want to try at least two new recipes, and hopefully learn to love (or at least, eat without feeling grossed out) liver.
4) Make a raw dessert – Despite the fact that there are a lot of disagreements between the Paleo and Raw Vegan camps, we both agree that eating natural, whole foods is the best way to go. And I discovered at a local health food store that there are some really amazing and delicious looking raw desserts that are also totally Paleo. So I want to try making one myself. Obviously, this will be after my Sugar Detox in January.
5) Get at least 30 minutes of walking every week – I really need to prioritize this. I always feel so much better when I go for regular walks. And now that my iPod nano is working, I can listen to tunes and track how many steps I take. Win!
6) Do a bento Q & A post (or series) – I’ve received so many e-mails and comments asking questions about my bento boxes, and I’ve been horribly neglectful of answering them. So I want to do a post (or a couple) just focusing on bento Q & As.
7) Blog twice a week – Because I just need to, even if they’re short an sweet posts. I’m happier when I sharing with others.
8) Take a de-load week – Ever since I read about taking a deload week on Mark’s Daily Apple, I’ve been thinking about this. I’ve been training pretty hard at Crossfit since July, but I’ve only taken time off when I was sick. My body needs some time to recover. However, I’m the type of person that hates sitting still, so I have to make myself do this. And maybe do extra yoga so I don’t feel like I’m being lazy.
9) Put $40 of every paycheck towards student loans – Now that I’ve realized that I’m probably not getting government loan forgiveness despite working at a low-income school (why do teachers get it, but not librarians?) I’m determined to pay off my loans as quickly as possible and finally get this weight off my chest. $40 a paycheck makes for $1000 a year, and it’s doable for me as long as I prioritize it. I will defeat my debt!
10) Go biking on a trail – Carlo has a bike now. And I’ve been itching to enjoy some local paved bike trails. This must happen.
11) Knit a scarf – Already have the yarn – a gorgeous green recycled cashmere frogged and re-spun by a friend of mine. I just need to get started and make one. And hopefully start getting my knitting mojo back.
12) Get camera fixed - My DSLR’s autofocus hasn’t worked properly for over a year, yet I keep not taking it in to get it fixed. I need to buckle down and do this. It might get pricey, but it’ll still be cheaper than buying a new camera.
13) Do a re-con project and post it (and maybe visit the Goodwill Clearance Center too) – Because I didn’t do this last time. And I’ve been inspired by Refashionista to start re-conning more of my clothes. There’s a Goodwill Clearance Center about 30 minutes from my house – cheap and fun!
Fall is now officially over; let’s see how I did on my goals.
1) Be able to do one dead-hang pull-up - I didn’t quite make it there, but I’m so close I can taste it. I’ve definitely built up my upper body strength.
2) Hold a handstand for more than thirty seconds: Done!!! A few weeks ago, we did handstands at Crossfit, and I was able to pop into one on my first try!
3) Go walking or biking for at least 20 minutes every week: Done, except for the last couple weeks. The holidays have been crazy. My boyfriend/fiance just got a bike again, so we’ll be riding together more often.
4) Hike in the woods at least once: Done! See this post.
5) Get my credit card debt sub $200: Done!! As of today, I paid it off completely! I plan on keeping it around for emergencies, but not using it otherwise.
6) Set a grocery budget and stick to it: I did okay. I went a bit over in November and December because I was cooking extra for the holidays. Overall, my spending is much more in control than it was before.
7) Bring something awesome to Thanksgiving: Done! And I brought stuff to Christmas dinner too.
8) Try a dessert recipe from Practical Paleo: Done twice! They were delicious.
9) Start a knitting project: Done!! I made a Kombucha cozy for my brewing container!
10) Learn how to brew kombucha: Done! My first batch (Coconut Green tea) turned out great, and my second batch (Raspberry Blueberry Green Tea) was also delicious. I’m now on my third, Peppermint green tea.
11) Blog at least twice a week: Well, I was doing okay on this one, and then December happened.
12) Re-con something and post about it: Started, but didn’t finished in time. I just haven’t had a lot of sewing time this month.
That wraps up the Fall 12. The Winter 13 will be posted soon.
And even though it kind of petered out, here’s my recap of the original 12 in 2012
