Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Whole30 Update

Here it is at the end of day 16, so that's over half-way!  Yay, me.  I've lost about 10 pounds, but again, almost 8 of that was water weight in the first week, and that speaks to how well I ate over the holidays, I think, lol.  Still no big amount of extra energy or anything, but I'm not expecting that for maybe several more years at least . . .

I wasn't going to try another whole30 until April, like I did last year, because I knew it would be super challenging to do one right in the middle of the school year.  But my friend Emily was doing one, AND she had started a facebook group, so I figured I might as well see how much I could do. I really don't know if I could do a whole30 without a facebook support group!  It is really important for accountability, and just someone to whine with.  I posted the night before Nathan went back to college about how I just didn't feel a part of celebrations when I couldn't eat the food.  (Anna had made some mini cupcakes, and everyone was having ice cream.)  Several people empathized, and one person commented on how she struggled with that for a long time because she has celiac disease.  It really gave me some first-hand sympathy for people with food allergies, and that took some of my focus off myself and my petty woes, lol.    

I knew there was no way I could be as strict as I was back in April, and I haven't been.  I have not worried at all, really, about things like using approved mayo.  Nope--I just used regular Kraft olive oil mayo for literally the one thing I made with mayo (salmon cakes).  I didn't buy the special sugar-free bacon for the one time I made brussel sprouts with bacon either.  And I've added worchestershire sauce to a few things as well.  I figure, I wasn't even going to do this this month, so hey, I'm still ahead!  My level of caring about things like soybean oil in my condiments is less than zero at this point in time, if such a  thing is possible, lol.

Not worrying about everything so much did lead me to mess up twice though.  Once I absently finished a few bites of Verity's hot dog from her lunch plate, and another time I thought I had forgotten to set the timer for penne pasta for everyone else, so I ate one to see if it was al dente (and then the timer on the microwave, which I had remembered to set, went off, as opposed to the one on the counter I usually use, which I definitely had nOT set).  Oh well.  I'm sure those things wouldn't have happened if I had been as anal as I was back in April about not slipping up in any area.

I have continued to use my spiralizer, and wow--zucchini "noodles" are WAY better than spaghetti squash in my view!  I have made them a few times.  The first time I blanched them for just a minute, but they were still able to fall apart too easily, so a friend on the FB group said she didn't cook them a all.  Now I just pop them in the microwave for a few seconds to heat them up, and that's it.  Perfect!  I can see this being a long-term change for noodles for me.

I've also been using cauliflower "rice", and I usually just steam that for about 30 seconds as well.  I really love jasmine rice, and cauliflower just isn't going to taste like that--but it's not bad at all, and definitely a good substitute.

What I have not been able to do is get into a good exercise routine, which I know is essential for me to keep off weight.  I am a fantasticly consistent exerciser from April through August.  Then the school year starts, and that's that, unfortunately.  Every so often I fit a walk in, but it's not regular.  On the plus side, Micah's reading is actually starting to finally come together, so there's that, anyway (not that Micah isn't still incredibly distracted whenever we work on it . . .).  Priorities . . .

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