MW30 Day 23-29

23rd day
Breakfast  - Smoothie: hemp hearts, almond butter, two bananas, coconut milk and spinach

Lunch - potato, sweet potato wedges, 1/2 veggie patty, raw red pepper, carrots, celery, and an avocado with S&P. I wish I had my EBTB seasoning, but I left it at home. Maybe I should get an extra for work.

Dinner - Can't even remember at this point.

The rest of the days are all a blur. Though Breakfast has been consistent.
Lunch and dinner have been mostly kale salads and soup. I made the curried butternut squash soup again, but I ran out of curry powder. It didn't taste quite the same.

One day to go, though I might continue with some parts...

MW30 Days 19, 20, 21, 22

Breakfast every day has been a smoothie with almond butter, coconut milk, two bananas. I have added spinach when I have it. Also 2 Tbsp of hemp hearts, at least up until day 22 when I ran out and used chia seeds. It's not the same, so I really need to go to the store!

Lunches - soup and olives/nuts, salads with lots of veggies, olives, and avocado, and the tahini or balsamic dressing.

Dinners - Pretty much the same as lunch. Though Day 21 dinner was a pre-cooked lentil/bean mixture from Trader Joes. I added olives. It was ok, but I should have had some cauliflower rice or something else similar. I did make up some lentil-veggie patties that were superb IMO and ate those on occasion for some extra protein.

MW30 Day 16, 17, and 18

Wednesday Breakfast - I was pretty hungry and tired of all the leftovers so a quick search of Vegan Whole 30 breakfasts brought up several hits! I will have to go back and get some more ideas, but I decided on a smoothie. Technically smoothies aren't recommended, but like I said, I'm getting weary of all the leftovers for breakfast and since I'm avoiding eggs, those are out of the question too. My smoothie consisted of two frozen bananas, about 3/4-1 cup coconut milk, 3 Tbsp hemp hearts, 1/2-1 cup pineapple, and 2 Tbsp cashew butter. This was really very tasty and Roland really liked it too!

Lunch - Chickpea, cauliflower korma and an avocado with EBTB seasoning. Couple handfuls of almonds.

Dinner - Ebon caught some trout! I fried up two filets in ghee with garlic, some steamed carrots and potatoes, and a couple olives. I needed more fat, so downed a couple



Thursday Breakfast - Smoothie again, this time without the pineapple. It consisted of two frozen bananas, about 3/4-1 cup coconut milk, 3 Tbsp hemp hearts, and 2 Tbsp cashew butter. I was full until about 12:30/lunchtime no problem!

Lunch -Last of the chickpea, cauliflower korma and a handful of almonds.

Dinner - big salad of red-leaf lettuce, spinach, 1/2 red pepper, with balsamic vinaigrette. Later I had large handful of toasted walnuts and a couple handfuls of coconut.

Friday Breakfast -  Smoothie again, this time with some spinach. It consisted of two bananas, about 3/4-1 cup coconut milk, 3 Tbsp hemp hearts, a handful of spinach, and 2 Tbsp cashew butter.

Lunch - a couple handfuls of almonds prior to lunch, and during - large bowl of the white bean soup.

Dinner - I can't remember now, but probably a large salad.

MW30 Day 13 and 14 and 15

Sunday
Breakfast - 2 pieces of the egg bake with Tabasco and 1/2 avocado. Also a banana. I went for a run this morning and felt a little funny after eating this breakfast, but didn't seem as bad as the days before and it could have been from the run too.
Lunch - I wasn't hungry so after I had a nap, I had an apple with cashew butter.
Dinner - I attempted to make a white bean and vegetable (celery, carrot, 1/4 cabbage, 1/2 orange pepper, 1/2 large potato, onion garlic, and tomatoes at the end) soup, but I used too many beans and didn't used the pressure cooker which would have made everything go much faster. It ended up taking about an hour to get dinner ready on the stovetop, so I won't be doing that again. I used a quart of the veggie stock I made earlier in the month and that, along with S&P, basil and oregano made it taste pretty good, once the beans were actually done.
Snacks - pomegranate seeds, pear


Monday
Breakfast - avocado with EBTB seasoning and handful of almonds.
Lunch - Salad with 1/4 roasted cauliflower, tomatoes, and olives with balsamic vinaigrette and spaghetti squash with the korma simmer sauce.
Dinner - Bean soup and too many handfuls of nuts and raisins.

Tuesday - Halfway to 30!
Breakfast - too many almonds
Lunch - Carrot ginger soup, chickpea and cauliflower korma, avocado with EBTB seasoning
Dinner - spaghetti squash with the korma simmer sauce.

MW30 Day 12

Breakfast- two pieces of the egg bake with Tabasco and 1/2 avocado, but my stomach discomfort is back so I really think it is the eggs. It makes me so sad. I’m going to have to up my tofu intake to have a little more protein.

Lunch- Cauliflower chickpea korma from 101 cookbooks that I wanted to make last week. It was ok, but not as flavorful as I was hoping for. I’ll have to tweak it a bit, I think.

Dinner - huge kale salad with 1/2 of the roasted cauliflower, olives, toasted walnuts, tomatoes, and lemon tahini dressing.

Snacks were 3/4 pear, handful of nuts and raisins, and 1/2 rejected banana.

MW30 Day 11

Breakfast - had two pieces of the egg bake I made last night with Tabasco and 1/2 an avocado.

Lunch - last of the curried butternut squash soup. That was a really good soup that I wish the rest of my family liked. I also had a big spinach salad with olives, 1/2 orange pepper, 1/4 of the roasted cauliflower, tomatoes and the balsamic vinaigrette.

Dinner - I made carrot ginger soup based on a recipe I found from plated cravings. It was just ok. I added more ginger after cooking but it still didn’t have the flavor I had hoped for. Afterward, I had a couple handfuls of nuts and raisins.

MW30 Day 10

I skipped breakfast today, mostly because I was running around and didn't know what to have. I stuffed an avocado and EBTB seasoning in my backpack, but I didn't get a chance to eat it.

Lunch, another sad salad because customer audit, but I ate the avocado from home that I didn't get a chance to earlier. Same salad as yesterday, but less hard boiled egg.

Dinner - baked sweet potato with ghee and huge spinach salad with tomatoes, olives, and homemade balsamic dressing.

Snacks - I scarfed a couple handfuls of almonds after the audit.

I had a chance to catch up and do a lot of food prep this evening. I made an egg bake based off a recipe from Paleo Running Momma and used some shredded zucchini that was in the freezer from the summer, also onions and mushrooms with a sweet potato base/crust. I added thyme, rosemary, S&P to the eggs before dumping it in.
I also roasted a spaghetti squash and a head of cauliflower. It feels good to get ahead, because I haven't really been eating well because I didn't have stuff prepped.

MW30 Day 9

Breakfast - whole avocado (though I shared with R) with EBTB seasoning and banana rejects (also from R).

Lunch - sad salad with no dressing due to lunch at our cafeteria during a customer audit. It included shredded iceberg lettuce, olives, cucumbers, green peppers, pickle, sunflower seeds.

Dinner - baked sweet potato with ghee and olives.

MW30 Day 8

I made it a week, but now I need to prep food so I have stuff ready and on hand to grab. This morning I was lost trying to figure out what to eat for breakfast. I'm still not sure I want to eat eggs yet, so I had a little orange and leftover steamed carrots, but it was not enough, so I was hungry at work for a while. I didn't have to break into the soup I brought for lunch.
Still a little intestinal distress this morning, so maybe I need to hold back on the nuts too... Looking back, I should have at least had an avocado with some EBTB seasoning.

Lunch - Leftover curried squash soup and kale salad (practically the entire bunch) with tomatoes, 1/2 avocado, and lemon tahini dressing.

Dinner - Spinach salad (about 1/2 the bunch) with 1/2 avocado, olives, 1/2 red pepper, and olive oil/balsamic vinegar dressing.

MW30 Day 7

I've made it a week!

Breakfast - Leftover black eyed peas that need to be eaten. Large handful of almonds, and 1/2 banana that was rejected by the toddler.

Lunch  -  Leftover Japchae and two handfuls of almonds. I was a little hungry around 11:40 so I downed the almonds before.

Dinner - I tried out the Trader Joe's cauliflower gnocci with a tomato sauce I had frozen previously. Also consumed with green peas. I was going to have something else, but I was tired of making stuff and just tired in general. I tried to follow the instructions on the package for the gnocci, but they turned out pretty mushy. I'm going to have to try for a different method to get them soft and warm on the inside and crunchy on the outside.
After dinner I had three handfuls of nuts. Probably not a good idea, but I was a little hungry and it was easy to get/eat.

MW30 Day 6

Breakfast - Leftover black eyed peas that need to be eaten. Large handful of almonds, 1/2 banana that was rejected by the toddler, and a handful of raisins.

Lunch - Huge salad with olives, tomatoes, 1/2 avocado, carrot, and the lemon tahini dressing.

Dinner  - Japchae without the sugar and baked tofu using tapioca starch instead of cornstarch.

Snacks - lot of pomegranate seeds.

I was feeling a little intestinal distress so I want to try to stay away from eggs for a day or two to see if that's what's causing it. We'll see how it affects me long term and also if I will continue to stick with the diet.

MW30 Day 5

Breakfast - Three ghee-fried eggs, 1/2 avocado, leftover roasted veggies, and some butternut squash I had in the freezer. I tried putting some Trader Joe’s Everything But the Bagel seasoning on the squash, but it didn’t quite work, or at least I didn’t like it too much.

Lunch - I made a pretty good curried butternut squash soup with the freezer squash because it was a little stringy. It was really good, I had two bowls! I also had a kale salad with tomatoes and the tahini dressing.

Snacks- I was a little hungrier today, so I had a few snacks. Some pomegranate seeds and a handful of nuts before dinner. After dinner I had an apple with almond butter.

Dinner - trout filet fried in ghee with some garlic, steamed carrots, sautéed kale and tomatoes.

MW30 Day 4

Breakfast - 3 ghee-fried eggs with Tabasco, 1/2 avocado, and lots of the roasted vegetables from the other night's dinner

Lunch - Leftover salad from last night's dinner with the added roasted cauliflower. I wasn't sure if I would eat the whole cauliflower, because that seems like a lot, but I did. It was delicious!

Dinner - I had another salad. Kale with roasted butternut squash, fresh grape tomatoes, toasted walnuts, a hard boiled egg, and olives. I made more tahini dressing because it was so good!

MW30 Day3

Breakfast - 3 ghee-fried eggs with Tabasco, 1/2 avocado, the last of the technically non-compliant potato and sweet potato wedges from last week that I don't want to go to waste.

Lunch - Black eyed pea stew from New Years Day, 1/2 avocado, 2 hard boiled eggs, and a handful of almonds.

Dinner - Great salad with a lemon-garlic-tahini dressing! Massaged kale with olive oil and s&p, roasted red pepper from yesterday's dinner, carrot strips, sugar snap peas, olives, toasted walnuts
Putting everything together took quite a while, so I should really try to prep the salads ahead of time. Everyone else was eating pizza while I was still assembling my dinner. I also started roasting a whole cauliflower before E went for the pizza, but it wasn't done in time, so I decided that it was for tomorrow.

Dressing -3 Tbsp. tahini, ~1-2 Tbsp. olive oil, juice of one lemon, 3 garlic cloves, salt, pepper - put everything in a tall bowl and blended with the stick blender

MW30 Day 2

Day 2 food:
Breakfast - 3 ghee-fried eggs with Tabasco, 1/2 avocado, leftover collard greens from last night, technically non-compliant potato and sweet potato wedges from last week that I don't want to go to waste. Roland ate several of my sweet potatoes.

I have been super full so far, but I still have a ways to go to lunch.

Lunch - leftover egg salad from yesterday, romaine lettuce, 1/2 avocado, sugar snap peas, 7 olives, and tomato soup

Dinner - A huge plateful of roast vegetables - potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, Brussels sprouts, onions, red pepper, and zucchini.

I started brushing my teeth with the kids, so I'm less likely to eat more when I finish putting them to bed.

Modified Whole 30

I need to get back to eating better, but the vegetarian version I did the last time didn't end well for me. I'm opting to eat beans/legumes for protein in addition to the many eggs I plan to eat. I will be tracking what I eat again, as it's helpful for me and others in the future. Starting weight is 165.2.

Day 1
Breakfast - 3 eggs, 1/2 avocado, 1med-large sweet potato
Snack- pomegranate seeds
Lunch - egg salad (probably 2-3 eggs worth) over romaine lettuce, 7 olives, 1/2 carrot, 1/2 avocado, handful of sugar snap peas, and some tomato soup.
Snack - stalk of celery
Dinner - black eyed peas with collard greens. I took the recipe for the beans from the Rancho Gordo Bean email but is also available here. It was ok, but only me and the toddler ate it. Now I have a lot left for the week.

I felt pretty good today, I felt a little hungry after dinner but I didn't eat anything, so off to a good start, I guess.

Whole30 Reintroduction

Because I'm not eating eggs, I don't think I can do a "normal" Whole30 reintroduction plan, so I'll try to document how I feel after what I eat for the next week or so.

• After dinner (pizza) Monday night, I felt a little bloated and some stomach discomfort, but mostly OK.

Tuesday

• I had oatmeal with banana and chia for breakfast - it tasted good and I felt pretty good after eating it. Unfortunately, I don't think that was enough for me (I had split it with Leela and she gobbled hers up) and I was hungry a little later.
• There was different leftover pizza that I ate around 10, that gave me some serious stomach aches, so I decided a salad for lunch might help, and it did for the most part (mesculin and spinach, cucumber, carrots, broccoli, grilled zucchini, sunflower seeds, and kalamata olives with balsalmic vinegar and olive oil dressing).
• I had potato soup (no milk/cream), corn chips, cheddar cheese (lactose free), and a spoonful of ice cream. I didn't have any issues until I got to the ice cream.

Wednesday

• I had oatmeal (a whole serving this time) with walnuts, banana, and chia for breakfast - it tasted OK and I had some stomach discomfort pretty soon after eating. Nuts are on my banned for a while list at the moment. I hope I can tolerate them again, because I love nuts so!
• My stomach discomfort subsided when I ate my lunch spinach salad before yoga. It had spinach, 5 olives, half a cucumber, and I ate it with some guacamole. After yoga I had some leftover canned potato soup that Ebon had prepared a few days ago, so I'm not sure what was in it but likely some sort of dairy. Finally a baked sweet potato that I ate with the last of the guac.
• We had Dave's Fresh Pasta for dinner, regular ricotta cheese for Ebon and Leela and Mushroom, lemon and Parsley for me (with a little cheese). We all had some green beans. My stomach felt pretty good after eating, for once!

Thursday

• I tried my luck with eggs one more time to see if they really give me trouble and they do. I had a hard boiled egg, potato, half an avocado, and a spinach salad. Luck was not on my side and I think I'll have to avoid eggs for a long while. My stomach started feeling unsettled about 30 minutes after eating the egg.
• Lunch was leftover spaghetti squash with pesto, zucchini, and sundried tomatoes. I didn't have any issues with this - yay!
• I had a hard time deciding what to have for dinner and opted for rice with kim and broccoli then baked beans. I ate them about 30-40 min apart to see what kind of effect they had on my stomach. Both went down fine initially, but about four hours later, my stomach was in knots. I had gone to sleep and the pain woke me up. I'm guessing rice and beans together is no good at this point. I think I'll try lentils tomorrow - all by themselves (lentil stew) to see how it goes.

Friday

• With last night's leftover rice, I made rice pudding, but instead of dairy milk, I used coconut milk. I added cinnamon, a little nutmeg, raisins, and a spoonful of honey because it was just a little too bland without it. No stomach trouble this morning!
• Lunch was grapes, kale and beet greens, and leftover cheese raviolis. So far, no major stomach issues, woo hoo!
• For dinner, I made spinach and mushroom risotto. I didn't have too much issue with this or the cheese.

Saturday

• I made a really good smoothie, 1.5 bananas, big handful of blueberries, big handful of strawberries, two big handfuls of baby spinach, a few tablespoons of flax seeds and enough orange juice to get it going in the blender. All the fruit was frozen, so it came out cold and slushy! It was surprisingly filling too. I made it to lunch time ~11:45.
• Leela and I were out and about all morning, so we had the lunch buffet at Dosa & Curry. Everything tasted so good, but my stomach was a little unsettled after all the beans - chickpeas, lentils, and so much more. I had lots of different things and probably had some gluten too, depending on what the breading was made of in the pakora or the manchurian.
• Ebon caught more fish so dinner was brook trout and rainbow trout with fiddleheads in garlic and butter, braised potatoes, and rice. I had my first glass of wine post W30, and it made me so tired. I was out when Leela went to bed at around 8pm!

Sunday

• I had rice pudding with coconut milk and leftover smoothie for breakfast.
• Lunch was cheese and crackers at a shopping event followed by the last of the greens
• For dinner, I made a brown lentil stew with lots of veggies and chard and followed that with a banana with almond butter. I felt pretty gross after that, but not sure if it was the almond butter or the lentils. I should have held off on the nut butter just to isolate the lentils. Update - Leftovers gave me some mild stomach discomfort about 2-3 hours after eating.

Monday

• I had my first yogurt -Fage 2%- and put some defrosted strawberries on it. Yum, and no issues. I'll be off to buy more yogurt. Now I'll have to try the kefir.

It's been about a week of introductions. I still haven't tried gluten full force - as in bread or baked good- or drank a glass of milk, but all the other stuff I've tried. I think I'm ok where I am. I'll report back occasionally if I find something that works or is horrible.

Whole30 Day Thirty!

• I was trying to avoid eggs and ghee this morning, so I didn't have fried eggs per usual. Instead, I had the last of the roasted veggies, half a sweet potato, a potato, some grape tomatoes, half an avocado, and I slipped up on the egg thing by using some may to dip my roasted veggies. I clearly wasn't thinking well.
• I wasn't hungry for lunch, and the stomach was still a bit unsettled, so I had a handful of almonds and some fruit (strawberries and orange).
• Dinner was pizza from Flatbreads. I decided I need to get back to "normal" eating as much as possible to get myself back on track.

I still feel yucky and food doesn't taste very good. This is not how I wanted to end up at the end of this experiment.

On the weight-loss side of things, I did manage to lose 9 lbs (post weigh in was 148.0 lbs). My clothes fit better, which I'm very happy about. I had to get a smaller bra - though most of that was due to being done with nursing and the girls finally coming to a "resting" state.

Whole30 Day Twenty-eight and Twenty-nine

Saturday:

• Breakfast was three ghee-fried eggs, half sweet potato, half avocado, 
• I skipped Lunch because my stomach hurt and I felt nauseous.
• Ebon caught a fish, so Dinner was pan-fried trout, and roasted veggies with homemade mayo. I felt a bit better.

Sunday:

• Breakfast was three ghee-fried eggs, half sweet potato, half avocado. I suspected the ghee to be the cause of my issues, so I skipped the kale I cooked up in ghee.
• Lunch was scrambled eggs, olives, and leftover roasted veggies.
• Dinner was mint tea because my stomach was so unsettled again.

Even with only one day left, I'm going to bow out because I don't think I can take another day feeling the way I do. It sucks so bad, and that I'm doing it on my own accord, just seems silly.

Unless I can figure out a ghee-less, egg-less breakfast, I'm ending this experiment at day 29.

Whole30 Day Twenty-seven

I'm hoping for a better day today food and health-wise. I woke up feeling pretty good, but had a bit of an unsettled stomach by mid-morning. I had more tea and water to attempt to help that.

• Breakfast was three ghee-fried eggs, half an avocado and a quarter of the "bulb" of a butternut squash. I'm missing a green veggie, but we'll see how that goes/how and when I'll get hungry.
• I skipped working out today because I didn't have lunch prepared. I opted for the salad bar at Stop & Shop. I had a great big salad with as many veggies as I could fit - spinach, frise' mix, grape tomatoes, olives, broccoli, carrots, cucumbers, a little bit of a kale mix, and some pepitas.  I dressed it with olive oil and red wine vinegar. I threw on two hard boiled eggs and dipped some of the veggies in guacamole that I bought. I initially looked for a ripe avocado, but they were all hard. Strawberries were on sale, so I had a few of those too. This was a good green lunch! I think I've been missing that in my meals lately, and that may have contributed to my episode yesterday.
• Dinner was very similar to what I had for breakfast. Two fried eggs, sweet potato and steamed broccoli.