Category: Whole30

Today was a no fuss day. I toyed with the idea of skipping breakfast in favor of a RXBAR that’s compliant (Mixed Berry), but chose not to and went with the ol’ eggs n spinach. Work was easy. Things are calmer now with the hassle-man. Nothing remotely exciting to report about today. I feel fine. I haven’t cheated, and everything is going typically.

My girlfriend had planned on making a coconut curry soup from the Whole30 book, but part way through my morning she let me know she had a migraine, and wouldn’t be making it in to work until maybe lunch if it subsided. Unfortunately, it ended up being one of those massive migraines, the type that she can’t get up from except to vomit.

I had plans to repair (replace) my cousin’s old 2012 Macbook Pro screen that was shattered when something heavy landed on the outside of it. But I knew that would take at least 2, if not 3 hours, and with dinner plans out the window, I instead opted to redux the Shepherds Pie. This time however, I used half the mashed potatoes and replaced it with mashed cauliflower.

Once again, great success. That pie was more filling with the cauliflower, which surprised me.

Feeling jazzed about dinner, and with 2.5 hours before bed I went ahead and worked on the laptop. It took me almost 3 to do, but it worked out okay. Tomorrow we eat Coconut Chicken Curry!

After partying and getting home in the wee hours of the morning, we woke up a bit late this morning. I grabbed my phone and, eerily, my second sister called no sooner than I settled back down into bed to look at my text messages. Her boyfriend had sent me a text about an hour prior and she was calling to get a recipe from us. They started us on this Whole30 journey with their success story, and we borrowed the book from them. They wanted a shot of the pork, kale and butternut squash stew-like ingredients list from it. She had suggested it before and I did make a pork shoulder last week that needs to be used up. That’s probably what will be for dinner tonight.

I enjoyed the egg foo yung so much yesterday I made it again for brunch today. My first sister had a need for Mom with my nephew so that meant she would be coming today. Since Sunday is a good clean up day, we did a deeper cleaning than usual and waited for her arrival.

The visit was nice, we chat about Whole30, life and and she got to see the rowing machine that was a gift from her and Dad on Christmas. After that we went out to get the real groceries for the week. Gross Out was a success, I saved $125 supposedly… they have plenty of veg and meat that is compliant, frozen or otherwise and its great.

We couldn’t really decide on dinner before shopping, and even for a bit when we got home. We had too many choices really. But my girlfriend wanted to cook some soup for the week and found a Pho recipe for the instant pot. I worked on the previously named Pork, Kale and Butternut Squash dish, and yet again… it’s wonderfully delicious. Warming on a cool night, and very much a comfort food.

My girlfriends Pho turned out great too. I had to have a small bowl, with some coconut amino acids and salt its as good as I remember from real Pho restaurants. After that I reminded her of the baked apples I was going to make the previous night. One problem, no apple corer. So I looked up a recipe and then forgot the timing… oh well. Cooking to smell is good enough with baked things usually.

But I should have timed it. It turned out a happy accident – ghee, cinnamon and cardamom inside a barely cut into apple turned into little apple sauce balls that were heaviliy reminiscent of icecream scoops. Happily plopped them into some bowls, grabbed some of the same spices, nuts (sliced almonds and walnuts), and sliced strawberries, and went to town. On a cold night, this is what you want. Will do it all over again!

Egg foo yung is totally Whole30 compliant! Well, probably not the take-out kind but at home, sautee some vegetables, pour egg on it, and make a weird pancake of egg and veg. Another delicious creation brought about because of this wonderful diet.

My Mom wanted to slide by for a visit and a late Christmas gift drop off, so we stayed local. Only venturing out to the dollar store and Chinese market for things the egg foo yung was missing and boba that we can have in our tea, and other little things.

My girlfriend got her oil changed, and hair cut as well. And I made a beef stew in the instant pot. Ready for the night-out as we would ever be, we head out as planed.

Oysters, water and hot tea: that’s all we could really order at the Blind Tiger. But, as it happened, we were totally okay with it. Sure the fries on the table were enticing, but the oysters were better. I had planned to make baked apples as a treat when we got home but we ended up staying out until 12:30AM. Far further than I had anticipated since we wouldn’t be drinking. The mark of good conversations.

My headache disappeared, but I was a bit groggy this morning. TGIF though, I don’t have to go to work until 10AM. Had a chill morning, feeding the turtle, petting the cat, prepping for going in to work. I cooked a breakfast at home, but still the usual. Eggs, spinach, and some seasonings. I brought the remaining leftovers for lunch.

Worked out on the rowing machine for 20 minutes and then threw kettle bells for another 12. For dinner, we had stir-fry on the list. And my girlfriend wanted to cook which I was all for. Cooking is fun, but doing it daily is a bit much.

I believe we had desert but I don’t recall what it was. Fruit of some kind. Tomorrow we plan to go out for my friends Birthday. This should be a fun challenge.

Many people would likely be upset by the onset of a headache, but I’ve been coasting through these days w/o a hiccup, and this may be the first time I’m happy to have a headache. It’s pretty mild, but persistent. Perhaps I just need more water.

Last night the power went out, and threw a wrench in my plans last night with dinner. We had a lovely, plain, Kahlua pork, and I was goign to make cabbage on the side, with a touch of the pork fat. But, by the time we figured out the power situation for the building, I was just about to work out and my girlfriend returned from work. I asked her to take on the cabbage cook off and riced cauliflower.

Honestly, the dish was my least favorite, and something I usually really enjoy. So I think it’s the rice with the pork that I usually enjoy. It needs more flavor. I’ll gussy it up with some Sazon seasoning for leftovers.

This morning I had scrambled eggs, a huge change of pace! With ketchup dashed on top. I made some Whole30 ketchup last night, after dinner, anticipating making BBQ sauce out of it, for the pulled pork. Very tasty. Will use again, and maybe forever. For less than the cost of good ketchup I have plenty.

Lunch today I’m planning on even more left-overs. We need to find some other food to eat through the week. I’ll probably make some Whole30 mayo tonight and have that for chicken or tuna salad wraps? More thought required on this.

Dinner will be burgers (so mayo and ketchup are a must), my own style, minus the crumbs. We have red-leaf lettuce but I may need some wrap style stuff for ease of consumption. Tomato, onion, pickle, mustard, ketchup, mayonaise, sounds tasty in my mind and I’m getting hungry already.

I had to get up with the sun this morning because of a new employee off to a rocky start within the company I work for. So today started at 6:30 for me, only an hour earlier, so if fatigue will sit in, today’s the day. But my mood is still typically calm.

A new guy started yesterday overseas. He had a 12 minute long tirade about the condition of the computer and it’s delay 2 weeks in the mail (overseas to a limited access area), but I maintained patience and calmness through his much needed cathartic release of frustration. Or maybe I’m just a jaded IT guy and while my blood-pressure certainly went up, I’ve got the tools and reasoning behind me to keep me calm.

So, I got in at 8 to speak with him again, and he walked back a few things, but additionally it was very late where he is and he wanted to call me later. Thanks for interrupting my sleep so you could feel some semblance of control in your life.

I went back home afterward, so that I could start tonight’s dinner in the slow-cooker. Kahlua Pork – no not that kind of kahlua! It’s just pork shoulder (met the butcher, John, and had a fun conversation – remind me to get him a 2lb sandwich when I’m back on the bread) salt, and a touch of mesquite liquid smoke. Will season afterward as needed, so I picked up some annatto seed powder as well. But tonight’s dish will be simple. Pulled Pork and Green Cabbage. Perhaps on a bed of cauliflower rice.

My girlfriend asked if we could make colcannon with it, but wanting to steer clear of potatoes in large quantities today, I’ll likely pair it with the collards in the fridge that need cookin’ soon. Breakfast was the usual (eggs, spinach, seasonings, oil), but I did forget that we had oven-roasted and cracklin’ chicken left-overs in the fridge! So for lunch I had a chicken thigh, half of a yam, and broccoli to fill the plate-void left behind. 6 raspberries as well. This actually makes lunch easier honestly. Pop open fridge, find left-overs, eat.

Tonight I go back to “Gross Out” (Grocery Outlet, Bargain Market) to get more frozen riced cauliflower and a leafy green to put into eggs. Some more time on the rowing machine is in my mind, but I’m not yet sure where I’ll fit that in with the need to cook tonight. It’ll happen.

Also, I’m going to avoid desert tonight. Don’t want it to be a regular thing, even if it is healthy.

All this good food, and new food in the ‘fridge has had us working furiously in the kitchen. It’s time for a left-over day. Not because we’re tired of cooking, but because we still haven’t mastered the art of cooking for two (and when I was alone, I’d cook on Sunday and eat through until Thursday most weeks).

Today was still easy. I have some fears that my metabolism is broken, because I’m not feeling any ill effects at all. But, I started today off the same as usual, eggs, spinach, different spices than the day before. Breakfast is just an automatic thing I eat because I’m “supposed” to, usually by 9AM but sometimes by 11AM. Some days I want to skip it, but calorie-wise on this Whole30 that seems like a bad idea. Additionally, breakfast is likely why I’m satiated through the day.

Lunch was left-over stuffed bell-pepper (ground turkey), and a slice of shepherds pie again. Work was smooth, nothing extraordinary at all about today. I thought I should exercise, so I hopped on the new water rowing machine, and was able to bang out 5 solid minutes during lunch. I didn’t want to sweat so I knew then that I’d return to it when I returned after work.

When I got home, some Linux work trying to isolate a problem on my relatively new Arch installation. After some troubleshooting I knew the lady was on her way home soon, so I put it down and went to belt out 30 minutes on the rower. 3:40 in I went in too hard and too heavy. I had put in the rest of the water bringing resistance up to “4”, from “2” earlier in the day. A couple of minutes after, I found some endurance within and was able to go 15 minutes straight, with another breather of about a minute and an additional 7 minutes to get to 2000 meters rowed.

I have no idea if that’s good or not, but it was just as she returned, so no matter. Will certainly continue. Low-impact, relatively easy to do while paying 1/4 attention to a show on the iPad.

For dinner we had the aforementioned stuffed peppers and pie. After a bit, we ate some desert of fried plantain with cinnamon and salt, with a little coconut milk from the can earlier in the week, followed by a small palm-full of raspberries.

Feel’s just as decadent as a baked desert. Another good day.

We had grand plans to eat our tasty left-overs tonight, but it was a dear friends birthday, and she had just returned from Germany. I thought I’d only have to resist tempting foods/drinks this weekend when we planned to celebrate, but she wanted to see us on her birthday. Have to oblige a birthday girl, right?

Breakfast, was quick-n-easy. I’m getting good at this. Eggs, spinach, some choice seasoning, and a 1/4 of an avocado. Fried up on my way out the door to a job-site an hour away. Packed up my leftover shepherds pie for lunch and grabbed a cutie mandarin to snack on.

Out at the job-site, on my knees, wiring up our network to the new patch panel, I found myself much less stressed about it. It was a small task, only 24 patches. But I think normally I’d be bent out of shape at all the wiring. It’s tedious and requires knuckles getting crushed from time to time as you reach and thread CAT5 cable, bundle it up and push it where it’s supposed to be, out of the way but accessible and quickly read at a glance. It’s only Monday, so maybe that’s all it is, but I like to think this diet is helping me be more mindful and enjoy the little things. Lunch was delicious, I saved it for after I was done, and testing the wireless network (which also had an issue but didn’t make me freak out too much, I was only pressed for time in leaving the city, “traffic gets nasty soon” I thought. But again, I KISS and figured out that I must have nudged the power plug to the router).

For dinner, I had agreed to cook salmon and a baked potato with spinach on the side. I found a delicious recipe for Salmon w/ Avocado Sauce, on a bed of riced-cauliflower. As I write this in hindsight (2020 has the clearest hindsight), it was another outstanding dish. Even for two people that aren’t on Whole30. One thought the riced-cauliflower was actually rice. Go figure. Ghee is delicious though so I don’t blame him. I left the potatos in the oven, because we were hungry, and it would take at least another 20 minutes until they were ready.

The night went on, and we chit-chat, a typical dinner party. We were so into conversation that 40 minutes in, I leapt up to check on the potatoes we had all forgotten about. Apparently we were full-enough not to care. They were a bit hard and went uneaten for the evening. I bought some macrons for my friend, and didn’t have temptation to lick my thumb of the filling that got on it after plating it and singing happy birthday. Feeling satisfied with this good food. Not something I would have believed 6 days ago.

We did munch on some food later in the night back at home though. Near bed time. I had a potato, and half of a banana with almond butter. I think I need to avoid that kind of eating, just to stay health-conscious. But it was really good.

I did have a second “nightmare” about eating a sweet though. So subliminally there’s definitely something. In both bad-dreams, it was an involuntary unplanned reaction. I was in the middle of something, and passing by a plate of baked chocolate something-or-others. Grabbed it and took a bite, and then spit it out after I had realized what I’d done. I can live with these nightmares though. It means even subconsciously, I’m trying to stay on track.

If this is a diet, I may need to try others. Sure I would like to eat some bread or sweets, but, I’m so satisfied with my meals, that it seems superfluous. This morning (well, 11:30) I went ahead with the sausage, making a self-righteous assumpion so that I could add one flavor profile to my already delicious accidental omelette. Ate it very quickly, and will make again. Though I’m waiting for word. One time is fine for me, multiple times is just rude to myself.

For dinner, my girlfriend said that enough is enough, it’s time for her to cook and treat me to some meals she’s got on her mind. Spoilers: it was delicious. We were planning on entertaining her mother for dinner, and perhaps her brother so there were two options. We went with the safest: Bell-peppers stuffed with ground turkey. Turkey alone was missing something but with the bell-pepper…. it needed nothing extra. Zing bang damn it was good. And she also made a spicy chicken soup, with its heritage in Mexican tortilla soup, but w/o the tortilla. It’s so hearty and good, the broth is amazing. We used the chicken bones from previous cracklin’ chicken and chicken broth.

Dessert, yes we can have dessert (that’s why this doesn’t feel like your typical “diet”), we had a golden delicious apple with a 1/4 lime squeezed on top, split between us initially. Then another. I’m trying to avoid eating fruit after dinner, for the Glycemic Inde spike just before bed, but it was a delicious sunday meal and we only ate twice today. More calories felt okay, if not needed.

Last night we opted for In-N-Out, with the hope of maintaining our usual ritual of going out on Friday night. Protein style, with mustard, raw onion, tomato & pickles. It wasn’t as good as with cheese and sauce, but, it was still damn delicious and I’d order it again in a pinch.

Started the day with an omelette, again. Spinach & Baby Kale with Eggs and seasoning. Tonight we made that Shepherds pie that that I spoke of yesterday. Brussel sprouts, carrots, onion, grass-fed/finished beef (80/20 and 93/7 mixed) with a topping of russet potato, ghee and nooch, and a splash of Nut Pods. It was truly delectable and will be replacing the shepherds pie I make from now on. Additionally, it’s going to inspire an attempt at a “thanksgiving flavor” turkey and yams, but that will need some thought.

I still have yet to feel any changes in my body, but it’s only been 3 days.

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An aside: we went grocery shopping today and saved a butload at Grocery Outlet. They even had a sausage that seems okay for Whole30 (it only had sodium lactate in it that is remotely questionable, and according to the Whole30 forums its a-okay if it’s from beets, not corn). I’m waiting with bated breath to hear from New York Sausage Company what it has. Yes, I emailed them.