My (Modified) Whole 30: Week 3 Recap

This week was a bit of a challenge. Not because I had crazy cravings, but because we went "camping" (we actually visited friends and family at their campsites). We ate our breakfasts at home, so at least we had a good start to the day. And the rest of the week I did a pretty good job of sticking to the plan; I tried to snack mindfully. But the rest of the meals while out and about were basically cheats.

HERE'S WHAT I ATE LAST WEEK:

DAY 15:

Breakfast: Scramble with bacon and strawberries.

Lunch: Leftover chicken curry soup and water kefir.

Supper: Pulled pork, crispy potatoes, parsnip puree, asparagus, and homemade balsamic ketchup.

Snacks: Almond butter (pre-workout snack), seaweed snacks, an orange, and homemade pesto.

DAY 16:

Breakfast: Smoothie (made with local goat milk, cream, frozen strawberries, banana, and collagen).

Lunch: Leftover pork, potatoes, parsnip and asparagus with butter, ketchup and water kefir.

Supper: Chicken salad with tomatoes, avocado, dates, pecans (toasted in butter), homemade (dairy-free) ranch and French dressings.

Snacks: Pesto, an orange, pecans. 

DAY 17:

Breakfast: Scramble with bacon and strawberries + mandarin orange.

Lunch: Leftover pulled pork, parsnip puree, pesto, butter, and water kefir.

Supper (at my family's house): Fried rice with 2 fried eggs, butter, bacon, sriracha mayo, and peanut sauce. I could have had bread and a glass of milk, but I was a good girl.

Snacks: pecans, pesto, and an orange.

Cheats (besides supper): Reuben "forced" me to eat a chocolate chip. I was soooooo sad. ;) 

DAY 18:

Breakfast: Scramble with bacon, avocado, tomato, and a mandarin orange.

Lunch: Homemade chicken "waldorf" salad and an apple with almond butter.

Supper: Meatballs and gravy with mashed potatoes, butter, peas, water kefir, and cod liver oil.

Snacks: seaweed snacks and pesto.

Cheats: 1 chocolate chip (to check to see if it was freezer burnt). As I mentioned on Instagram, it was really hard not to sample some of the cookie dough that I made.

DAY 19:

Breakfast: Scramble with mushrooms, bacon, and grapefruit.

Lunch: Leftover meatballs, gravy, mashed potatoes, butter, peas, and a strawberry.

Supper: Mayo salmon, asparagus, mashed potatoes, and butter.

Snacks: Seaweed snack.

Cheats: 2 bites of ice cream (while camping).

DAY 20:

Breakfast: Scramble with strawberries + iced coffee (Made with espresso, cream, and a tiny amount of maple syrup. I was dragging that morning.).

Lunch: 3 bites of Reuben's sandwich, half a slice of homemade bread spread with butter and almond butter, and an apple.

Supper: Zuppa Toscana (same as lunch last Sunday) with homemade bread and butter.

Snacks: Almond butter, grapes, cheese, and a bite of Helen's chip.

DAY 21:

Breakfast: Scramble with bacon and grapefruit.

Lunch: Potluck! Salad, pulled pork, cheesy potatoes, Thai chicken and rice casserole, fruit salad, chocolate chip cookie, and a small piece each of cheesecake and peach/blueberry cobbler.

Supper: BLTs toasted over the fire (homemade bread, nitrate-free bacon, organic lettuce, tomato, and mustard, and homemade avocado oil mayo) with organic pickles and avocado-oil potato chips.

Cheats: Many (as stated above). :D

I can't believe that I'm already on the last week of my Whole 30! I'm hoping to finish strong. Next week I'll be telling you about the things that I like and dislike about the Whole 30 program. 

PREVIOUS WHOLE 30 POSTS:

Week 1

Week 2

Note: some links are affiliate. All opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting Buttered Side Up!

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

My (Modified) Whole 30: Week 3 Recap

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My (Modified) Whole 30: Week 2 Recap

I made it through Week 2 of my Whole 30!

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am not following the Whole 30 as prescribed by the original creators. I'm allowing myself to "cheat" when I'm out and about or when I'm at someone else's house. Also, I'm trying to cut back on dairy (not drink 2 glasses of milk a day) instead of giving it up completely. I personally think that dairy can be a perfectly healthy food if you aren't allergic and it's organic/local/grass-fed.

I'll let you now how I'm liking eating this way, but first let me show you my meals from last week:

DAY 8:

Breakfast: The usual: scramble with fruit!

Lunch: Leftover orange chicken stir-fry.

Supper: Taco salad. I "cheated" by using sour cream and cheese. I also had homemade water kefir to drink.

DAY 9:

Breakfast: Scramble with blueberries and strawberries.

Lunch: Leftover taco salad and water kefir. This was seriously the biggest salad I've ever plated for myself.

Supper: Roasted chicken with potatoes and baby broccoli.

DAY 10:

Breakfast: strawberry + coconut smoothie (I "cheated" by using some cream) and orange slices.

Lunch: Leftover potatoes and baby broccoli with Bulletproof-style coffee (I used butter, and cream instead of coconut oil).

Supper: Southwest-style stuffed peppers (another dairy "cheat") and strawberries. These stuffed peppers were delicious.

DAY 11:

Breakfast: Another scramble with grapefruit.

Lunch: Secret salad (this was for an upcoming guest post). It was a cheat meal because it contained orzo and cheese.

Supper: Chicken curry soup. 

DAY 12:

Breakfast: Scramble (with bacon!) and strawberries.

Lunch: Leftover curry soup.

Supper: Shepherd's Pie (another sort-of cheat because it had cheese on top). I left out the wine, used grass-fed beef instead of lamb, and homemade chicken broth instead of gravy powder.

DAY 13: 

Breakfast: Scramble with bacon and orange slices.

Lunch: We were out shopping, so we ate at Dickey's BBQ. We got the 2-meat plate with two portions of beef brisket and sides of baked potato casserole and mac & cheese. I was a good girl and didn't eat any of the mac & cheese and only took one small bite of a bun. 

Supper: Leftover shepherd's pie.

DAY 14 (Cheat Day):

Breakfast: Scramble with bacon and cheese (made by Reuben) and orange.

Lunch: Zuppa Toscana (potato, sausage and kale soup made by my sister from scratch) and homemade focaccia. 

Supper: Tortilla roll-up sandwiches, meatballs, pecan pie bars, and lemon bars.

For snacks between meals I had apples + almond butter, other fruits, pickles, seaweed snacks, super "cookies," etc.

Besides the cheats mentioned above, Reuben convinced me to eat a piece of buttered popcorn and a salt-and-vinegar potato chip.

HOW I'M FEELING ON MY WHOLE 30

• * My sugar cravings are really down. I was really missing it the first few days of my Whole 30. I had to eat dates to get by. 
• * I found that I was on the verge of a headache for a few days. I'm wondering if that has to do with the exercise I'm doing, or my body adjusting to less sugar, or not eating enough for lunch.
• * I've also noticed that I seem to have less energy.
• * I'm getting into the swing of cooking so many different meals. It's actually a lot easier than how I normally cook, because I have everything planned out and all of my ingredients bought. The most important thing is to remember to take meat out of the freezer to thaw.
• * One thing I really miss is the fun of food. I tend to get excited about my food, but when I'm restricted it takes the fun out of it for me. It's not a moment-by-moment struggle, but I definitely long for a latte or a piece of chocolate...
• * Added on 5/18/15: I forgot to mention that before I began the Whole 30 I had a bit of acne, which has cleared up now! 

And just like that I'm halfway through! I'm interested to see how I feel in the next two weeks. I'll keep you posted.

Note: some links are affiliate. All opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting Buttered Side Up!

Sunday, May 17, 2015

My (Modified) Whole 30: Week 2 Recap

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My (Modified) Whole 30: Week 1 Recap

As some of you who follow me on Instagram may already know, I decided to do a Whole 30 during the month of May. I've seen different bloggers posting about it, and I was inspired to try it for myself!

In case you've never heard of it, Whole 30 is a challenge to eat clean for 30 days (you can read the official rules HERE). Now, as much as I love the idea of not eating a single bit of junk for a month, I knew from the get-go that this wasn't realistic for me. For one thing, I do not want to inconvenience others. If I'm at someone else's house I do not want to insist on only eating "approved" foods. I don't have any (known) food allergies, so I don't feel right making others cater to me. Secondly, I love doing things with family. I'm not going to sit at home or refuse to eat a meal with someone just because I'm on a special "diet."


Here are my modified rules:

• * If I'm at someone else's house, I will eat what they offer. However, I will try to make good choices (e.g. I won't have three servings of dessert).
• * I won't cut out ALL dairy. I love my butter and can't give it up. Besides, I buy pasture butter, which I consider to be a superfood.

So I won't be doing my Whole 30 as the creators specify, but I will try to follow their principles.

I planned out a 2-week rotating meal plan. To makes things super simple, I'm having leftovers from supper for all of my lunches.

And without further ado, here are my meals from Week 1:

DAY 1

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with fruit.
Lunch: Salad (greens with fruit and a ginger dressing) and an apple.
Supper: Venison Stew

I didn't have a lot of food made up the first day, so I was pretty hungry. I had to scrounge for snacks.

DAY 2
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with potatoes and a side of fruit. You'll be seeing a lot of scrambles in this post...
Lunch: Leftover venison stew.
Supper: Chicken Salad. We were gone all day and supper was very late, so I forgot/was too tired to take pictures.

DAY 3
Breakfast: Another scramble with fruit.
Lunch: Leftover chicken salad. Delicious.
Supper: Baked salmon with coconut oil potatoes and Brussels sprouts.

DAY 4:
Breakfast: (Surprise!) Scramble with fruit.
Lunch: leftover salmon and potatoes.
Supper: Burgers with cheese (a bit of a cheat), mayo, homemade ketchup and pickles with oven fries (another "sort of" cheat) and a side of blueberries.

DAY 5:
Breakfast: Strawberry and banana coconut milk smoothie (I couldn't finish it all before lunch).
Lunch: Leftover burger and fries with half an apple filled with (homemade) almond/sunflower seed butter and avocado.
Supper: FIRST CHEAT MEAL! My sister invited us over for supper, which consisted of grilled shrimp, asparagus, and mushroom risotto (made by yours truly). We also had chocolate blackberry mousse cups and they were AWESOME. I was a good girl and didn't go back for seconds.

DAY 6:
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with (homemade) breakfast sausage and fruit.
Lunch: Orange chicken and broccoli stir fry (I added a bell pepper) with cauliflower "rice."

SUPPER?
We were invited to eat out with our family at one of our favorite fast food restaurants: Hardee's.  I had a bite of Reuben's burger, a few fries and a few sips of strawberry malt. I was actually really full from lunch so the food wasn't that appealing.
I filled in the cracks later on with blueberries and cream, an apple with almond butter, and an orange.

DAY 7:
Breakfast: Scramble with breakfast sausage and fruit. As you can see, I have to share about half of my fruit with Helen.
Lunch: We had lunch with our families! We were having burgers, and I was a good girl and didn't take a bun. But I DID have a couple of chips.

Supper: We were celebrating my sister's birthday, so we made sushi! It was delicious.
Dessert: Instead of cake, we had Häagen-Dazs ice cream. So creamy and good.

In addition to these meals, I had snacks of apples with almond butter, dates, pickles, and other fruit.

I'm pretty proud of myself for finishing Week 1. I had a couple of slip-ups the first few days (I absentmindedly ate a crumb from Reuben's toast, forgot and put honey in my tea, etc.), but when eating at home I've stuck to the plan pretty closely.


Here are a few things I've learned so far:

• * I eat without thinking a lot more than I realized. I've had to catch myself multiple times when I automatically reach for "forbidden" foods.
• * Fruit is essential to survival. I don't know how I'd eat eggs for breakfast without it.
• * I find that I can eat more of foods that would normally turn me off (e.g. plain avocados or cold salmon). I must just be hungry enough that anything appeals to me!
• * On a similar note, I tend to eat more at meals because I know I'll get super hungry and want to cheat if I don't.

Let me know if you would be interested in seeing my 2-week dinner meal plan.

PS: This is the last day to vote in the Marx Foods Food Photography Contest. If you wish, you can head over to my photo and give it a like to vote for me!

Voting has ended, and I made to the final three! I'll let you guys know if I'm chosen for the winner (fingers crossed).

Monday, May 11, 2015

My (Modified) Whole 30: Week 1 Recap

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