day 20 round 2

Hey! It's day 20! I woke up SO excited to cook this morning. It was so energizing to cook good food for people last night, and to make something amazing for J this morning too! As always, I waited patiently while J slept to cook. I usually get up really early and wait for him, entertaining myself with TV and reading and insta and such. This morning I made us NomNomPaleos Paleo Sausage Egg "McMuffins". Recipe number 4/4 for my goal this month! And they were absolutely incredible. I want one right now, really bad. We slapped on some guacamole too. J had a bagel, and of course it looked incredible, but honestly, mine was so good on it's own it wasn't an issue, like at all. I would highly recommend it. The taste of the sausage was so amazing too, NomNom provides this recipe, and it was seriously perfection. Somehow spicy and sweet, just magnificant.

The technique of making the parts went well. I found that mixing up the eggs and putting the salt and pepper in that mixture, and then pouring into the ring, worked better than what the recipe called for. It was definitely a messy meal for me though!

We also tried Trader Joes cold brew, and are really excited for that since J doesn't have a coffee maker. He used milk and I just used water. It was really nommy.

For all my other meals this weekend I had left over tacos and was SO not upset by that. Holy moly were they delicious. I'm so excited to have even more leftovers this week!!!

Food today:
Brunch: Sausage egg Mcmuffin, grapefruit, cold press
Dinner: 2 leftover tacos, apple slices with almond butter
11:00 an orange

 

Party on!

day 19 round 2

Feel super super great. Digestion is still wonky per usual, but it really doesn't concern me. The pros outway that con. My cycle seems to be a little off...I'm half getting it early? Not sure if that's whole30 related or not...

Excited to cook tonight! I can't believe I never knew how much I like to make food! Eeek! I'm a little addicted to filling my freezer though...I have quite a bit of stuff frozen, and I really need to get better at using that before I buy more stuff. Especially meat. It's just hard when you want to try a recipe...I think that will be my goal next month. To use my freezer stock. I have to prepare ahead of time my meals anyway...so it's not like keeping "extra stock" in the freezer is that helpful anyway. Unless it's meatballs! Or previously prepared actual meals.

For dinner my sis came over and helped me cook. And some friends came too. We made the taco recipe from Against All Grains cookbook, and it was seriously amazing. Recipe number 3/4 for my goal this month! Then I made pico with roma tomatoes, serrano pepper, red onion, lime juice and salt. It was incredible. Other toppings: lettuce, guacamole, olives (we grew up with olives on our tacos, I didn't know that was abnormal!). Then I made these tortillas for me. It was such a freaking good meal. And it was a hit. The dessert was sugar free and a hit too! I was WAY more careful this time cutting my serrano pepper. I used a baggie over my hand, and paper towels to hold the pepper and rinsed it off ha. No burning! Success!

Food today:
Breakfast: 3 hard boiled eggs + cinnamon, water, coffee
Lunch: meatballs, greenbeans with ghee, avocado, spinach + apple salad
3:00 cashews
Dinner: 3 (I may have had 4!!!) tacos, rasperries + almond slices, almond butter, coconut flakes

Workout today:
Treadmill (really good one today, rough at first, but I pushed through!)
Warm up
3 min push
1 min base
3 min push
1 min base
3 min push at 2% incline
1 min base
90s push at 3% incline
30s all out at 3% incline
1 min recover
3 min push
1 min base
3 min push at 2% incline
1 min base
90s push at 3% incline
30s all out at 3% incline
1 min recover

Floor:
500m row
40 russian twist with medicine ball
20 jacks with medicine ball
200m row
20 squat + jump with medicine ball
(x3ish)

300m row
15 squats with dumbbells to sides 15lb
15 curl and press
15 kneeling one arm tricep extension
(x3)

Party on!

day 12 round 2

Donuts were just provided at work, and dang they looked good. But our manager brought us fruit instead! How awesome! So that was delicious...and so worth it to skip the donuts...especially given how great i feel now that the excitment is over. Seriously, it's such a quick glory. It goes away so fast! Whereas, I will feel awesome all day because I eat clean. Seems easy...but it's not always of course:) But today I will appreciate that it is!

Food today:
Breakfast today: 3 hard boiled eggs +cinnamon, coffee, water, cup of fruit
Lunch: meatballs, avocado, spinach + apples
Dinner: made this Curry with J (adapted...left out apple juice and squash)

Curry was AMAZING. I will for sure be putting this in my normal go-to recipes! Recipe number 2/4 for my goal this month!

Workout today:
Treadmill
Warm up
2 min push
1 min base
2 min push 6% incline
1 min base
2 min push at 8% incline
30s all out 8% incline
1 min recover
2 min push
1 min base
2 min push at 6% incline
1 min base
90s push at 8% incline
1 min base
90s push at 7% incline
1 min base
2 min push at 6% incline
1 min all out at 6% incline
Recover

Floor
Warm up row

8 medicine ball slams, hold and swing ball around on each side of body before slam
10 standing reverse fly with 15 lb dumbbells
10 flutter kicks, abs
(x3ish)

150m row
10 punches with 10lb dummbell
10 each backward lunges, knee up when go forward
10 reverse gripe curls (my wrists dont bend like that, not sure if it's just me or everyone ha)
(x3ish)

5 sit ups, one arm with weight lift and rotate to one side
16 push up, when up extend right leg left arm, then switch
10 each side one leg calf raises
(x3ish)

Party on!

day 3 round 2

Someone posted this article on facebook today, and I pretty much agree with it. It says that 33% of Americans want to live a gluten free life, while only 1% actually have celiacs disease and can't have gluten. Though I agree with a lot of the articles points, I still want to decrease the amount of gluten in my life drastically. One point they make is that the "gluten sensitivity" phenomenon is hightened by the lack of gluten. I fully believe in this, and that's why I want to keep having small amounts of gluten in my diet. It's a super interesting thing, and it makes me wonder, have fads like this happened before? To this extent? I know there was Atkins and the South beach, but is Paleo different? Is Gluten free different? It's all super fascinating to me. It makes me want to be in college and find a class about the social studies of current "healthy" eating.

On another note, I haven't read any of Robb Wolfs (one of the fathers of Paleo as I understand) books, but I did listen to his podcast today, interviewing Abel James, and it was really good. I love podcasts! Especially health ones, nerd alert.

In other news, it's day 3! I have had a headache around 2pm each day now, including today. I'm really hoping that's a withdrawal thing and will go away soon...!

Food today:
Breakfast: 3 hard boiled eggs with cinnamon, coffee, water
Lunch: meatballs, avacado, spinach + apple salad
Dinner: bites of food, 2 grapefruit (oops)

Update: I strangely didn't have an appetite this night. I'm not really sure what it was. I'm wondering if the garlic powder on the chicken tenders, or other spices, made me not want to eat. I might have to try it without garlic next time. My plan was to have 3 chicken tenders, and half of this recipe for Comfort Noodles. Recipe number 1/4 for my goal this month! I didn't finish them (but packed them for lunch). And they were really really yummy! There is garlic though, so it's better if I eat that for lunch. I probably should have just not used garlic...but sometimes I want to be a normal person and eat garlic:(

Workout today:
Treadmill-endurance based (thank god i hate hill day)
3 min base
2 min push
1 min base
3 min push
1 min base
90s push
30s base
1 min push

Floor
15 reverse tricep with dumbbels
15 side blank hip raise, each side
15 crunches, legs meet in middle too

14 mountain climbers with TRX straps under arms
14 TRX bicep curls
14 lunges with TRX

Party on!

over the weekend

I feel so good. I know it's redundant. But I'm just so thankful.

 

Also, I have baby guns! I think I'm doing well with the whole balance thing...but I'm excited for another round of Whole30 rules. I find myself being more tempted lately. Who knows, I might constantly just need resets of Whole30s throughout life! We'll see!

 

This week I lived off of 2-ingredient crock pot chicken (chicken breasts with jarred salsa in crockpot, cook on low for 6-8 hours). And even though it was dry, I enjoyed it at every meal. It's seriously wonderful.

I was going to start eating arugula in my salads every day, since it is higher in calcium than spinach...but now that my blood tests have come back-and are impeccable!-I'm going to go back to spinach. Arugala is so spicy! And it also doesn't stay good near as long as spinach does. I'm sorry I cheated on you spinach, I'm back now. OMG this lunch was amazing. I just used my mexican chicken, topped it with DumpRanch, onion and avacado. So yummy.

For my other meals this week:

 

Another dinner with Mexican chicken. MMM so good.

 

Classic Samara breakfast. I really do not get very original on the weekends. But hey, why fix it if it aint broke. I also got that new water bottle there in the corner. I needed to spend the 5.08 left on a Dicks sporting good gift card from Xmas two years ago...so that's what I came up with. Then I went to target and they had way better water bottles. Oh well!

 

On Saturday I made Paleo Chicken Fingers from this recipe. They were SO GOOD! Especially with the dump ranch. Oh gosh, yeah so good.

Of course I made my weekly meatball batch, and told the world about it through SnapChat

Found this cartoon and want to remember it forever. I seriously don't eat asparagus anymore becuase of this. I just can't.

Party on!

i thought yesterday was wednesday

But it wasn't. Today's Wednesday, crap buckets! But that's OK, because tonight I have no plans (secret yay!) and I want need to finish up some editing. And go to bed early. And eat the crock pot 2 ingredient chicken I have waiting for me at home. Monday night I ended up inviting J over for dinner. I made Whole30 onion rings, which were not great but not horrible, lettuce wrapped turkey burgers, not super impressed by those. But I guess we could have seasoned them...and caulimash. J humored me, but I don't think it was his favorite meal ever:)

OMG and I made this #dumpranch from instagram @wholesisters, and I'm not kidding, it's life changing. It's seriously perfection.

Last night for dinner I had a weird assortment of snacks, frowny face. I came home and had a scoop of almond butter, some chocolate chips, and a bananna. All seperate. Not even together, writing this now, I should have combined them, duh! Anywho...then my roommie and I took the bus downtown (got on at 5:57, it was free starting at 6, the guy still made us pay, arg) to meet our third roommie for the parade downtown. I had gobstoppers! and smarties! and a green laffy taffy! And it was so worth it. Then I had a beer, guinness of course, given the holida. I don't know why, I didn't want one. And about half way through I got one of dem gluten belly aches. Ew! So I didn't finish it. Then when we got home, I wasn't too hungry and just had a grapefruit.

Dump Ranch
1 egg
1 cup "light" olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
3/4 tsp onion powder
3/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 full fat coconut milk
1 handful cilantro or parsley (i skipped this and it was still amazing)

Blend with immersion blender

JUST LIKE RANCH BUT BETTER! (even J and my roommie said that!)
Whole30 Baked Onion Rings - this recipe was provided by Whole30 for the superbowl, and caused some drama, but since I'm off for now, obvs I don't care if its SWYPO
1 yellow onion sliced
4 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups almond flour
2 eggs whisked

Preheat oven to 400. While oven is heating slice onion. In one bowl crack eggs, in another bowl mix spices and flour together. Dredge onion in eggs then coat with dry mixture. Place on cookie sheet and bake for 20 min, flipping once.

Workout today ( i worked out yesterday too, but hell if I remember what I did)
3 group rotation

Floor:
2 min each
Curl and press on bosu ball
Stand up walk to planks
Plank, curl knee ins, on roller
Wall sits with 12lb medicine ball between legs

Tricep curls on bosu ball
Burpees
Hands on roller pushups
Power squats with medicine ball

Rower:
100m sprint
Rest
(x5ish)

50m sprint
10 squat and jumps
75m sprint
10 Squat upper rows
100m sprint
100m squat and pull
(x2ish)

Treadmill (i think) :
1 min base
3 min push
1 min base
2 min push
1 min push + 9 incline
1 min base
2 min push + 12 incline
1 min base
2 min push +15 incline
1 min base
1 min all out, at 30 sec 12 incline
1 min recover
1 min all out, at 30 sec 15 incline
Recover

Party on!

another monday

The weekend was full of food, "good" and some "bad". I got pretty darn sick late saturday night. Not sure if it was the hot dog bun or the hot dog. I think it was the hot dog, since it was a pretty violent reaction...but just stomach cramps. But anywho! I love how I can have a weekend eating food I used to, and still start the week of right. Another way in which whole30 has changed my life. Just love it!

Other than that, I do get cramps and my belly feels rock hard after I have gluten. Cheese doesn't seem to do much. But I usually have those things together, so I suppose it could! But here's the real victory, after getting sick saturday (with i'm almost positive was food poisoning from brats), I realized that I haven't been nauseas before bed since starting the Whole30. I used to 1 to a couple times per week! So that's huge!

This quiz made me laugh lots.

These were the bars I made for St. Pattys day, and they were a huge hit! We ate quite a bit at the party that day, but when I brought them to work on actual st pattys day, people ate 'em up!

Workout today:
26 min treadmill, hills and all outs

Floor:
6 squat to press 20lb dumbbells
6 alternating hammer curls
15 TRX press
(x2ish, increasing 1 rep each round)

10 sumo squat, pull up to chest
10 tricep extension with 20lb dumbbell
250m row

Party on!

done!

But as I said on my instagram, this is the end of my Whole30, but it isn't the end. It's the start of my Wholelife. I am changed, and I hope it sticks. Because I feel fantastic and so inspired.

Cravings are definitely harder to step away from now that I don't have "rules". My first paleo dessert was beyond fantastic. It was from this Paleomg recipe, Apple Coconut bites! Perfection for me seriously.

I am completely inspired to keep up with my meal prep, I made this Pizza Speghetti pie recipe from Paleomg, this magic mushroom powderfrom NomNomPaleo (waaaay to much) and these tortillas from stupideasypaleo.

My first non Whole30 meal was tacos from J and I's favorite taco place. I wanted to keep it almost all 30, but the first thing the guy did was plop a huge piles of rice in my non tortilla bowl (looked great, but glad to just have a normal bowl). I guess I'm having rice today. Then he put the beans on. Guess I'm having beans today. The rest I chose, pork, guac, salsa, and i said yes to sour cream, cause why not, since I'm having rice and beans (and this my friends, is how the snowball occurs). But it was delicious, and I ate it all guilt free. Though it is amazing how easy it is to over eat when you eat not as clean food. I also put my taco salad in the tortillas I made, that was amazing! I loved them. For sure will be making them again.

I'm also still packing my lunches Whole30, which I'm confident will continue. Last night for dinner I tried the Speghetti Pizza dish and it was SO good.

I was incredibly bummed to miss the gym yesterday, Monday. The oil guys didn't put my oil cap on tight enough so I had to go in yesterday morning since oil was spilling all over my engine for a week. They found the cap under the engine and cleaned up sister bernarda the III for me. So that was nice.

Todays workout was just OK, it was probably me, but it wasn't as amazing as usual. But this is what's important, I still can't wait to go tomorrow:)

Workout:

3 min bike level 2, 2 min level 5, 5 min level 3

15 bench press
16 push up bench with shoulder touch
15 wood chops

15 underhand lat pulldown
15 rope face pull
15 each side leg raise, abs

Roate with 2 people - 30 seconds - rest, rope, plank
Jumping jack with rope, plank
V's with rope, left side plank
Circles with rope, right side plank

Party on!

day twenty four and five

The rest of the weekend was so magical. Weekends just rock don't they? Also, I love my kitchen. Look at it, look how cute it is!!!!

 

Sunday morning consisted of waking up slow with J and making myself an incredible breakfast. Well incredible to me, same old same old for any observer. Fried Eggs, chicken and apple sausage and a grapefruit. Then we adventured at Costco for the first time, and I must say, I was not impressed. There just really isn't that much to offer unless you're cooking for a family. But I was happy to go once, and know now that i don't need a membership. I am super excited about the mini gucamoles I got, and the pink salt. Then we went to Trader joes, and my heart was content. Gosh I love that place. Some staples I got:

Beef

Ghee

Coconut flour (still need to get almond)

Eggs

8 veggies mix

Kale

Frozen green beans

 

Monday breakfast photo here

 

Dinner wasn't super impressive, I had some leftover pesto sauce over Zoodles, and barely ate it. It was all a little too old, I'm sure it was fine, but it just kind of skeezed me out. And leftover potato turned into pancakes (those were great duh).

 

Monday was Presidents Day, and we both had it off! We woke up slow, and then I went home to make myself brunch. While making breakfast, I prepped to make some meatballs for the week too.

 

Dinner was so fantastic, leftover cracklin' chicken, leftover chicken salad, sauteed kale (which I made too salty and didnt' finish, oops) and a part of the mornings grapefruit.

 

I also tried to make kale chips! I followed NomNomPaleos recipe. I put the leaves in a ziplock with olive oil, shook it up, put leaves on aluminum sheet and baked for 12 minutes. Then I put chips back in zipolock with a mixture of spices (paprika, salt, garlic powder) and shook it again. They were really good!

 

Party on! Until another weekend ;)

day twenty three

I LOVE WEEKENDS! Because they're weekends duh, but also because I get to make fancier breakfasts, than just my standard two hard boiled eggs + cinnamon. I made breakfast for J on Saturday, 2 fried eggs, potato pancakes made with our leftover mashed potatoes, and chicken and apple sausages sauteed. SO DELISH. I could eat a whole carton of fried eggs I swear.

 

J actually woke up before me on this day. To get coffee and sneak in flowers to my apartment. Winner! We finished off the morning watching some shows and slowly starting the day. Went to visit J's mom. Then split up to prepare for the big V day. I never thought I would be that cliche person...but I finally like Valentines day a tad. Of course it helps when you're dating someone, but since J and I will take any opporunity to celebrate each other, it's just that much more fun to have a designated day. I even wore a red dress, woof.

 

I made a late little lunch of leftover cracklin' chicken salad. I just chopped some spinach, plopped some mayo in there, along with the chicken cut up and celery. It was so good! That cracklin' chicken, I tell ya...

 

I was going to workout, but I didn't. And I'm OK with it. I never have guilt when I don't miss a workout...but it is hard to know which days are more full, the ones I get to sleep in and relax, or the ones I get SO much done if I workout early. Uff, adult choices are hard.

 

 

Party on!

day twenty one

I'm feeling so great today. Like really great. My coworker set me this article, and I pretty much laughed out loud the whole time.

Last night I made egg salad, and it was SO DELICIOUS!

Recipe:
6 eggs
1/4 cup mayo
1/3 cup celery chopped
2 tbls parsley chopped
1/2 juice from a lemon
Smoosh it up, ready to go!

I kept sneaking fork fulls of it last night, and forced myself to put it back in the fridge. Then I ate my dinner of that stupid casserole and grapefruit. I had a couple of bites, and then came to the conclusion of, I don't have to eat this. Of course I don't want to be wasteful, but I can just chalk up this meal to lack of experience, and just not make as much next time. So I threw it away (eek!). And then I de-packed my lunch and threw away the last serving that I was going to eat today and packed egg salad instead (yay!). I decided that I don't want to start hating whole30 because I'm eating something I made over a week ago.

And that was a great decision because I can't wait for lunch!

Workout today:
 10 mins treadmill, 3 min walk 5% incline, 2 min jog 5% incline, 5 min run 3% incline

12 seated Arnold press
12 bosu ball front raise, with padded bar
12 laying Ham string curl, each leg
15 stability ball V-pass
2 turf runs
(x3)

12 kettle goblet squat and press
12 side arm lift on bosu ball
12 one leg TRX lunges
15 medicine ball knee lifts
2 turf runs
(x3)

Party on!

day nine and ten

Day 9 -Saturday

 

Fried eggs in the morning are just magic too me. Love love love them! I never grew up with cinnamon, unless it was in a baked good or something. But now I have it daily. Day nine I heated up some left over zucchini sauteed in coconut oil, and drizzled some cinna magic on there, it was great!!! I had a super productive Saturday, worked out (late class at 10:30, yahoo!). Then I made mayo and green sauce and chicken!

 

Saturdays workout:

10-1 workout (10 of everything, then 9 of everything...etc)

Body squat with weight

Push ups

Straight leg sit up with weight

Medicine ball throw against wall (each side)

Shoulder press with dumbbells

Rope pull down machine

Alternating lunge jumps

Burpees

2 laps on turf

 

Below is my first homemade mayo! It tastes waaaaay to olive oily to me, so I'm thinking that's why it's suggested to use Light, instead of extra virgin. So I will have to try that for next time. I used the Whole30 recipe here. Everything went very smoothly, I used my second hand ninja for the first time too!

Next I used the cup of mayo I made to make this green sauce here. It's really good! Again, tastes heavy on the olive oil, especially to me since I'm not a huge fan of the taste. I also had limited cerrano pepper knowledge going into this...I somewhat remembered that you weren't supposed to touch your eyes, but that was the extent of it. I used my fingys to scoop out the seed, and went along cooking my seeds. After awhile the burn started...and it lasted about six more hours. I rubbed some olive oil on the my hands for two minutes and then washed it off, which helped a bit. What a lesson learned!

Below I baked some chicken breast, sweet potato and carrots in olive oil. Not sure excited about it, chicken is just not in my heart lately. Which is a blessing in disguise because it's forcing me to cook other types of meats. We will see, hopefully the green sauce will help:)

Not only does Whole30 take effort from me, but it really effects my friends and family too. It's been hard on John, but of course he's super supportive. Going into week 2, he has been really honest and asked for us to make it a priority to still cook together, no matter how bad I feel that the food is "bland". This weekend we learned that we can both still enjoy the food if we put some effort into it, which is so great. Saturday John made Mahi Mahi with green beans and onions. And I brought spring greens and salad. The green sauce was really wonderful on the fish.

Day 10 - Sunday

 

Again, dem fried eggs though. And grapefruit...mmm makes me happy just thinking about them. On the weekends, I try to always have my water bottle with me, at johns, in the car, etc. I don't drink near as much water at home as I do at work, but I still try.

My spice collection is growing at an alarming rate, and it makes my heart happy. I love learning how to make GOOD STUFF.

A typical Saturday scene. Coffee and recipes.

Getting over my fear of meat, one recipe at a time! This is 2lb of beef and two onions, preparing to go into the crockpot.

My kitchen has become one of my new favorite places, it makes me so happy.

I finally bought some olives that are Whole30 compatible, just pitted olives, water and sea salt. I'm not sure if I will be able to have these in the house, because I want to binge eat them.

John and I took a trip to Trader Joes on Sunday, I was like a kid in a candy store. Holy shit that place is incredible. Whole30 talks about limiting dried fruit intake, and now I totally get why. I picked up this dried pineapple, and I know now that I can never get them again. One of the things I love about Whole30 is how stresed the mental, emotional part of this is. Just because something is Whole30 approved, doesn't mean it's right for you. Because sugar is something that I struggle with the most, I know that these little buggers would totally be a trigger for me, and potentially make these 30 days harder than they need to me. And it was already evident, since as I was cooking meatballs sunday afternoon, I tried some slices, and tried a few more, until the only left side was non-existant. I have barely "snacked" since starting this, and there is no need to start now! So fun to learn about myself like this. It's really empowering for some reason. I think it goes along with that whole "food not controlling me" thing.

These guys are along that same line, far too delicious and resemble chips. But then again, these weren't as addictive as the pineapples, so maybe if I pair them with a meal every once and awhile I could handle it. We'll see!

Unto more cooking! I think I may have overprepared this time around...but since I take advantage of freezing now, I should be able to ration this food alright. Next up is this Sweet Potato Casserole. I left out the bacon. Though certain kinds are technically compliant, bacon would be a trigger for me, and I think I'm just better off without it, at least during Whole30, maybe I can have it for a treat at another point. After making this I put it in the fridge, so not sure how it turned out quite yet.

I also made another batch of meatballs from this recipe, with ground turkey instead of pork.

 

Again, John has just been a great support through this. Sunday night we had our own non-superbowl party. We made ourselves a great dinner of steak, zuchinni and onions, sweet potato and LaCroix for me. Then we watched our new obsession, Broadchurch. It is SO GOOD. Everytime an episode is done we both sigh in sadness. But anyway, dinner was delicious, and I'm secretly glad I didn't go to a SuperBowl party for the temptations:)

 

Let's take a minute to look back in the day in the life of Samara, via 2010. Lunch, Salami Sandwhich on wheat bread, green peppers and ranch. Pastaroni with canned greenbeans for dinner. Sometimes a whole Jack's pizza.

 

If you would have told me 5 years ago, that I would have a weekend like this, cooking, and working out, I never would have believed you. It is beyond exciting. And feels so freaking good.

 

Party on!

 

Recipe links:

Homemade Mayo

Green Sauce

Sweet Potato Casserole

Meatballs with ground turkey