whole30 update 1

Whole30 update

My whole30 is so far so good for the most part. I did have one sip of a sugary, dairy, starbucks drink and a tiny bite of a caramel when out with friends. Some people may think “oh no, she better start all over,” but I want to enjoy life, practice healthy moderation and not be a ‘food nazi’ so I’m not too concerned J I’m playing around with adding nuts back into my diet in reasonable quantities, because let’s face it: I love them and if picked thoughtfully they can offer some great nutrition and variety to my diet. As for meals I’ve been eating a ton of salad, eggs, fish, and some turkey, pork, berries and nuts so far. I’ve felt great and have been in ketosis most days even though I’ve been eating berries and grapefruit. Below are some pics of a few of the many meals I’ve been enjoying. 

 

A Big Veggie and egg scramble - a typical and tasty breakfast for me

 

Omelet stuffed with a bunch of stuff (avocado, yes I like it cooked it gets all warm, onions,  salmon and thyme)

My "lunchbox." A salad with salmon, walnuts,olives, avocado, tons of veggies and Greek dressing. 

A much bigger  salad. Tons of dressing (I hope its not bad to consume lots of olive oil) some protein, and as many veggies as I could find in my fridge)

A super simple radish salad with sesame mustard dressing that I served with cod and veggies in coconut sauce, I didn't get a chance to take a picture of the cod since I ate it all too fast lol.

I'm enjoying my whole30, and I hope I'll have lots more tasty meals to come.

Whole30




I've been having some trouble with moderation in my diet and wasn't quite sure what to do to achieve a healthy, long term, sustainable diet that will keep me looking and feeling my best. There have been way too many celery & peanut butter, and chocolate & nut binges recently. I'd have a bunch of whatever the offending food was and then swear "I'll do better tomorrow" only to find myself dipping a spoon into a jar of peanut butter or noshing on some chocolate chips again. 

Ultimately after eating way too many gross chemical M&M's (They didn't even taste that good!) I decided to end this unbalanced way of eating for good. 

I decided to kick things off by doing another, stricter whole30 (I did one in January but ended up living off almond butter and didn't feel too great, I kind of missed the point I think).  I'm really focusing on eating the foods I feel good on, lots of vegetables, some meats eggs and a bit of fruit.  

One thing is I love food and I love cooking so there will be lots of tasty (AND healthy) food in my future. Today is Day 1 and I enjoyed:

• Greek Salad with tuna, olives, avocado, a bunch of other veggies and homemade Greek dressing. 
• A bowl of organic raspberries
• Chicken apple sausage with grilled beets and homemade sauerkraut (the only fermented food I've ever managed to pull off)
• Half of a very fresh grapefruit (picked yesterday)

Truth be told I feel great and I hope I can keep this up. I'll try to post some food pics later on in my quest for healthy tasty meals. 

Ode to Pork Belly

               

Bacon is amazing, for several different reasons. Bacon is full of saturated and monounsaturated fats as well as protein.  One medium slice contains: 43.3 calories, 70% from fat, 29% from protein, and a measly 1% from carbs. Many people think that bacon is bad because of the fat, but it actually contains a good bit of monounsaturated fat (the same “heart-healthy” fat in olive oil). I was a little surprised to find out that bacon has more monounsaturated fat than saturated fat in it. (1.5g monounsaturated vs. 1.1g saturated). I view bacon as a healthy source of fat and protein, perfect for a whole food, primal or traditional diet. Some other complaints about bacon are the sodium content, the sugar content, and the nitrates it’s cured with. 

Sodium content: I really don’t care about because 1.) I don’t have high blood pressure 2.) I believe eating potassium rich foods is more important than eating a low-sodium diet, and 3.) I don’t eat processed foods which is where most American’s get their “excessive” sodium. 

Sugar content: Pretty much all bacon is cured with sugar of some form. I discovered you can order “sugar-free” bacon online, but it’s pretty pricey. Since I also limit my sugar intake from other sources I don’t feel that the tiny bit of sugar I may be consuming with my bacon is of any importance.

Nitrates: I have to admit that I don’t know a whole lot about nitrates, but my mom has researched it and is adamant about not buying any meats cured with them. For now I trust my mom and her judgment on this one, so all the bacon I buy is organic and nitrate free, (I don’t know if you even can buy organic bacon that isn’t nitrate free…). In the future I may have to look into nitrates and see what they do to the human body. 

I’ve been enjoying in a bunch of tasty things, and I find the fat to make incredible mayo. I’ve had fun making all sorts of bacon-y creations. 

 The 4lbs of bacon I recently cooked up. 

 As you can see cooking bacon can be messy, I took precautions to move all the random junk off the adjacent counters.

Bacon Ranch Dressing, the most amazing dressing ever. I used a base of bacon mayo and then added in buttermilk and herbs-yum!

Bacon Broccoli Salad made with lightly cooked broccoli, apples, walnuts, and bacon all tossed in a sweet and tangy bacon mayo dressing. If I didn't have self control I would have eaten the whole bowl.

A loaded salad I made using bacon, tomatoes, avocado, my bacon ranch, and a bit of cheese. 

Bad Beer (Ginger Beer Update)

My beer was another fermentation failure. Needless to say I’m done trying fermented drinks. I’m particularly disappointed with my ginger beer because I followed all the directions and it still got gross and moldy. I used a clean (but not sterilized) jug to store the beer, and maybe that was a mistake but the recipe didn’t say anything about using sterilized equipment. There’s a whole world of delicious recipes out there for me to discover, so I’m not too upset about my beer. 

 The Gross layer of white/aqua mold resting on top of my beer- Yuck! I didn't chance a taste of it, I watered the bushes in my front yard with it.

A Primally Delicious Salad

On Thursdays I usually only eat 2 meals since I'm super busy, so I work my hardest to make sure that both of them are supper tasty. Using a bunch of stuff in the fridge I made one of the most delicious and different salads ever. I used:

turkey patties from the Primal Blueprint Cookbook

a bunch of lettuce

chopped celery

diced bell peppers

carrot slices

strawberries and

 coconut almond dressing (sorta based off one in the Primal Blueprint Cookbook) 

It was good. In the picture you can’t see the lettuce or other veggies, but I swear they’re in there; they just got all covered up and smashed down by the meat and berries.Oh yeah, I also made that bowl too -you can't get much more primal than that.