My Week of Vacation

I know it has been a while since I have written; but as I warned in my last post, I was on vacation with family.  I am so glad that I made it easier on myself and allowed for slips as the very first meal I was served was penne-pasta.  I didn't take much, but I could tell almost immediately how it made me feel.  While I overloaded on the very fresh tomato sauce and the side salad that consisted mainly of iceberg (a lettuce that is considered a dirty word in my household) I just felt sluggish from the highly processes white pasta.  The rest of the week went a little better as far as meal choices.  Eating out made things really simple where I could ask for wheat and dairy to be removed and load up on the vegetables and protein.

Now that I am home again and finally made it the grocery store to restock my supply of Whole30 diet approved foods, I'm already starting to feel lighter.  I guess I never really noticed how "heavy" wheat products made me feel.  I know I promised myself and all of you that I would supplement my 1 week off with another 2 weeks on, but I have a feeling that this might become a more permanent part of my diet, with the exception that I will be adding in legumes (love me some legumes).

Polling For new ideas

For those of you who follow along I am taking a poll for my August challenge on Facebook.  Look me up and cast your vote or add your own.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Health-is-Spiritual/153755798060524

Missing Yogurt

The one thing that I really have truly missed on this month's challenge is yogurt.  Whole fat Greek yogurt.  There is nothing so satisfying.  To trick myself a bit I decided to make a Whole30 version. I know the diet explicitly states don't make allowable versions of off-limit foods, but I had to try.

My non-yogurt-yogurt
2 tablespoons raw walnuts
4 ounces Almond milk
1 scoop of an allowable protein drink mix
Blend together and pour over fruit.

Absolutely wonderful!  I would have taken a picture, but I ate it all before the thought even crossed my mind.

Week 2

I realized something today; where in the first week and a half eating a high protein breakfast left me feeling hungry within an hour, my body has adjusted to the change so that now that nutrient balance is actually sustainable almost to lunch time.  This week has been interesting with the bout of insomnia and it being employee appreciation week at work (I cheated -I had 1/2 a bagel -and yes it tasted good).  Now the insomnia is over -thanks in part to the demonstration guinea-pig role I played for an acupuncturist- but I am exhausted before the day is even through.  Today especially I just wanted to put my head down on the desk and snooze.  Trying to focus on the computer?  That was an almost impossible task; yet I managed to somehow make it home in once piece and write my blog for this week.  As far as any physical changes that may have or are currently occurring with this change in diet, I can't say that I've really noticed anything thus far.  Starting Saturday I will be on vacation with family -I have debated how to handle vacation, family, and the Whole30.  The only truly successful solution that I can think of is to put the diet on hold for those 8 days and tack on an extra week in August to make up for it, so in reality it will end up being more than 30 days.  I'm not saying that I'm going to go on an 8 day binge and eat all the bread and potatoes that I have not been able to eat, I will still attempt to stick closely to the guidelines, I'm just not going to make meal time difficult for myself or for my family.

Chia Seeds! Power packed into a little Package

As this image below shows, this is one of the reasons I eat Chia seeds.  They have a slight nutty flavor, but otherwise like rice or couscous they tend to take on the flavor of whatever they are mixed with.  This is the base of my Chia pudding.  To make Chia Pudding take an amount of Chia seeds and soak in double that amount of water.  Let soak for 10 minutes, stir to break up any clumps and let sit for another 10 or until all the water is gone -this is called Chia gel and can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.  All that's left is to mix in whatever you want, berries, almond milk, regular milk, some seasonings like cinnamon and or vanilla.  All that's left is to enjoy!

Reference:

YummyMummyKitchen (2012). Chia Seeds. [Image] found on 12 July 2012 @

http://www.yummymummykitchen.com/2012/06/bikini-ready-tropical-chia-smoothie.html

Week 1

I didn't think that I would see too many differences between my normal diet and the Whole30 diet.  I have to admit that according to my fitbit (which can record sleep habits) I have not been waking at 1am which has been a normal occurrence for probably the last year or so.  Better sleep is a definite plus, although the past two nights I've just seemed to have too much energy to really go to sleep; must be all that good organic food.  

Chia/Sunflower Pudding

On two separate nights, both following a swim, I woke with leg cramps in my calf muscles not quite as severe as a Charlie horse but still rather painful.  Because of the amount of fresh vitamins and minerals I have been receiving through this diet they can't be caused by a deficiency, except maybe potassium since I haven't had any banana's for over a week and though sweet potatoes and yams I believe are OK to have I just haven't had any.  I plan on going for another swim this afternoon, so I will be sure to stretch my calves afterward and see if the issue occurs again tonight.

sunflowers paste and soaking

I am still having hunger issues, but now carry mixed nuts (minus peanuts) with me to work.  Over the weekend I soaked some raw sunflower seeds to make my own sunflower version of Tahini.  That combined with chia gel, some fresh fruit with seasonings, and a little almond milk make a great any time dessert like snack.  I think I might try spreading the sunflower paste into some celery sticks to make a version of ants on a log.  Yum!  

Well here’s to the start of week 2!

Creative Ideas in Cooking

While looking through my cookbooks for ways to create meals within the guidelines I came across my Raw Food UnCook-Cookbook: "The Raw Gourmet" by Nomi Shannon.  While some recipes call for the grains on the DO NOT HAVE list, there are more than enough recipes to hopefully stave off food boredom.  Add some grilled chicken breast or a nice fish filet and I will have some power packed meals. 


 I also looked on line and found this other beauty: "Raw Energy" by Stephanie Tourles, filled with quick and easy snacks that will make for easy on hand food items for when those hunger strikes take over with a vengeance.  Since I don't own this one, I've requested it from my local library -I'm hoping it arrives soon!

Dealing With Hunger

I'm not even done with the first week and already I'm finding it hard to eat enough to quench my hunger.  I've never been a really big fan of bread or bread products, but my typical simple breakfast of a small 1 cup bowl of cereal was always enough to keep me satisfied till lunch.  I'm missing my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and cheese.  Potatoes and corn -again, like bread, not a main stay on my traditional menu so not a big deal there.
I will of course confess that hunger and boredom won out twice over the last four days.  Boredom on the 4th of July because it was too hot to cook or do anything else for that matter -but I will say I did an outstanding job drinking my allotment of water (something I have always struggled with).  Then there was yesterday (Friday).  The end of a long hot and humid week, I was desperately craving a pick-me up.  A dark chocolate mocha in the morning was just enough to suffice, but when I over cooked my filet of cod in the microwave at lunch and the power went out an hour later forcing the temperatures to rise within the office, I suddenly found someone handing me a 4 ounce sized Root Beer Float and rather than be good, I just smiled and sucked it down.
So much for the start of my first week.  This is only an experiment after all and once again I cannot hold myself up to be a perfect human specimen -with that in mind I will just try harder to work around my two failings: boredom and hunger.

July's Challenge: Elimination

July's Challenge is based off a 30 day elimination diet plan that has had great success and rave reviews. The Whole 30 diet allows you to reboot your body’s natural systems through the elimination of common allergen triggers such as dairy and wheat (grains) plus others. If you answer yes to any of the following questions this might be something to try: 

•  Are your energy levels inconsistent or non-existent? 
•  Do you have aches and pains that can’t be explained by over-use or injury? 
•  Are you having a hard time losing weight no matter how hard you try? 
•  Do you have some sort of condition (like skin issues, digestive ailments, seasonal allergies or fertility issues) that medication hasn't helped?
• Do you suffer from chronic headaches or migraines?

Through the process of removing foods that are causing your body to react and attack we can allow our body to process and rebuild sometimes eliminating the unexplained symptoms that have plagued us and that our health care provider just cannot seem to cure.

What gets eliminated in this diet?  A lot!

• All added sugars
• All grains
• Dairy
• Alcohol
• Legumes -even peanuts
• Processed Additives
• White Potatoes

What stays in this diet? Even more!

• Pure Proteins -nitrate free pork is a must
• Vegetables -green beans and peas are allowed
• Nuts and Seeds -peanuts excluded as they are really a legume
• Limited daily intake of fruits

The Last Step

The last step of course is setting out to do this, 100%, no cheating or make-shifting foods into healthy versions of junk alternatives, checking labels for hidden sugars and unwanted additives, and of course having fun.

If you would like to learn more you can visit the Whole30 website or read this book:

http://whole9life.com/2012/01/whole-30-v2012/

June's Final Numbers

Well my first 30 days of experiment are over.  My total number of steps almost reached 600,000 with total miles equaling close to 240.  I lost around 5 pounds, a nice bonus to the experiment, and increased my lean muscle mass.  I feel great and have been sleeping better.  While I certainly enjoyed the daily walking regimen  -which I will continue- I'm not going to make it mandatory.   A few days out of each week where I strive to reach that lofty goal is just fine.  As you can see by the log, it became increasingly more difficult to maintain 20,000 daily steps.  Of course it does not help that I left the pedometer on the charger for an entire evening while I shuffled along on the treadmill, but the point was not about trying to break records or forcing myself to walk even when I didn't feel like I could, the idea was to just try something different, to do the best I could, and to just have fun.

Now on to the next 30 days!