Day 1-15, Whole Foods

(Edit: I posted a blog today, then lost the original post and things went all wonky on me!)

I’ve been over here eating whole foods for several days now and I thought I’d post the first 15 days. Besides, who wants to read a post with 30 days of food?? Not me! You may not even want to read 15 days of food, but here it is!

But first, did you enter the drawing for the BBQ Box?

You can find all of the details in my End of Summer Give Away post.

Entries will be accepted up until midnight tonight! Winner announced in a blog post tomorrow morning at 8:00 am CT. Good Luck! I am loving all of your BBQ ideas!!

Mike and I did a Whole30 (30 days of whole foods and very little processed) for the first time in October, 2015. We both felt great after that and continued to eat many of the foods we were introduced to. It is recommended at the end of the 30 days to reintroduce the eliminated foods gradually to see if any of those foods cause problems for you. Digestive issues, irritated skin, inflammation, etc. I never did reintroduce foods that I had eliminated in any sort of an organized fashion. However, after skimming through the Whole30 book for a refresher before getting started this time, I realized I had continued to eat less processed foods and more whole foods and that realization felt good.

After doing the Whole30 in 2015, I began to eat a mostly Paleo diet, but certainly not 100% Paleo. The Whole30 has a lot of rules that are extremely helpful in reestablishing your relationship with food while also eliminating certain foods for 30 days. No snacking in between meals is just one of the many rules. If you ever think doing a Whole30 is something you’d like to try, I highly recommend reading the actual book, not just doing a little reading online. The Paleo lifestyle eliminates a fairly large group of foods, but without all of the Whole30 rules. Make sense?

Over time, I have brought many of the foods that I had eliminated back into my diet. My body kinda feels like poo so I’m hoping to discover that something I am eating is causing inflammation. My current plan is to reintroduce foods as recommended after the 30 days.

Below is a list of the main “no’s”, but like I said, if you are interested in doing an actual Whole30, please read the book. I will not go into all of the Whole30 rules here as I am doing this to see if something that I am eating is causing inflammation or just all around making me feel like poo.

• No dairy
• No grains
• No Beans (you may eat green beans)
• No legumes
• No sugar
• No carrageenan, MSG or sulfites
• No alcohol

On Day 3, I remembered reading something about “nightshades”, so I dove into my Whole30 book a little deeper. All vegetables are allowed, but some people may chose to eliminate nightshades as they may cause inflammation, resulting in joint pain. Nightshades are eggplants, tomatoes, and potatoes, but not sweet potatoes (Praise the Lord!) and all peppers (bell peppers, jalapeno, chili peppers, and hot peppers) and red spices (curry powder, chili powder, cayenne powder, red pepper). I have never tried to eliminate these foods but I am going to and see if they may be causing me any problems. For more information on nightshades, check out this Women’s Health article. I found this to be very informative.

Processed or store bought salad dressings, ketchup, BBQ sauce, jams and jellies, can have several of the “no” ingredients, so I go without or make my own.

A few staples that I discovered while doing the Whole30 in 2015 that I have kept stocked up on.

• Nut Butters (only ingredients, nuts, sometimes sea salt)
• Avocado
• Sweet Potatoes
• Unsweetened Almond Milk
• Ghee (clarified butter)
• RX Bars (sweetened with dates)
• Raw Nuts, Roasted Nuts
• Medjool Dates
• Almond Flour
• Avocado Oil & Olive Oil
• Kosher Salt
• Coconut Aminos (soy sauce substitute)
• Canned unsweetened Coconut Milk (great for recipes)
• Chicken Sausages (Not all are Paleo, check ingredient labels)
• Paleo Mayo
• Apple Cider Vinegar

To get these 30 days off to a great start, I made my first batch of Dump Ranch Dressing to have on salads and use as a dip for the crunchy veggies. This stuff is delicious! 

Day 1       

A simple skillet of veggies and chicken sausage topped with an Egg and avocado.

Coconut Tortilla that I discovered at Costco, filled with Applegate Turkey, greens, mustard, dill pickles. All wrapped up with a side of carrots.

Recipe from the Whole30 book. Walnut Crusted Pork

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Mike and I both really liked the wrap! A little flaky maybe, but the flavor was good. 5 WW Smartpoints for the wrap.

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Day 2      

Tuna Salad, Un-pictured Medjool Dates with Almond Butter, Ultimate Marinated Grilled Chicken. I was running late for work and skipped breakfast. 

Eat a sandwich/burger on a Portabella Mushroom cap as a bun! You just might thank me!

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Day 3    

Breakfast Hash with Chicken Sausage, Zucchini, Mushrooms, Sweet Potato topped with an Egg.      

Tuna Salad on a bed of Spinach, Carrots, Cucumbers, Dump Ranch Dressing, Blueberries and 1 Medjool Date.

Mixed Greens, leftover Pork Tenderloin, leftover Grilled Chicken, random raw veggies and Dump Ranch. Followed immediately with a cup of herbal tea, Banana and 1 T. Almond Butter. 

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Day 4

Adding these to my coffee for breakfast!

Thank you Kathy E. for recommending the Collagen Peptides to help with joint pain. I hope that it works!

Lunch – Baby Avocado Sweet Potato Toast and Scrambled Eggs with Pace Picante Sauce. These little toast are simple. Bake a sweet potato until barely fork tender. Slice it and add to a skillet with a little olive oil and sea salt just until a tad crispy. I bake a few potatoes at a time as I like to have them handy for hash, a side dish, top with taco meat. Endless ways I could eat a sweet potato.

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White Chicken Chili

It is not low in WW Smartpoints, but it is full of deliciousness and worth the extra points in my opinion. It fit into my daily smart points as I planned around it for the day and breakfast was only coffee on this particular day. This soup is Whole30, Paleo and Keto friendly and delicious! Keeping cooked chicken in the freezer helps this come together quickly!

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When I eat a balanced meal three times a day and drink 80-100 ounces of water, I have very little desire to snack. I mean…..I knew that. Why do we forget things sometimes?

Day 5

Breakfast for two on the deck. Found these Paleo Chicken Breakfast sausages at Costco.

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Lunch – Coconut wraps filled with Turkey, Greens, Mustard, Mayo, Pickles with a side of celery and almond butter along with an RX Bar.

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Love having Aldi less than a mile away! The Cauliflower and Potatoes are the only ingredients in each of these packages. Love adding sweet potatoes to Turkey Taco Meat!

I came up with this Taco Seasoning back in 2015 and I haven’t bought packaged Taco Seasoning since. I brown 1 lb meat with 1 diced onion, add 2 T of seasoningt, 1 T of tomato paste and 1/2-1/4 cup of Chicken Stock. Pace Picante Sauce has NO added sugar! Win!

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Add some Dump Ranch to your Taco Meat Bowl!

Day 6

Egg scramble with spinach and Chicken Sausage, fruit and almond butter.

Lunch and Dinner. White Chicken Chili on repeat.

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Day 7

It was a two meal day. Brunch on Labor day. Hash of red onion, zucchini, sweet potato, topped with eggs, bacon and avocado.

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Shepherds Pie for dinner (I used ground 93% ground turkey) from the Whole30 Book.

Day 8

I spent a couple of hours making a second batch of Dump Ranch Dressing, Tuna Salad, Pork Sausage for a quick breakfast (extra to freeze), roasted a tray of broccoli and a tray of Brussels sprouts, and cooked up some Mahi-Mahi with taco seasoning. We should be good for a few days.

Eating whole foods and very little processed food can be a LOT of work!

Another Two Meal day. I finished up the last of the White Chicken Chili with a few raw carrots on the side to munch on and a banana.

Since I was cooking up breakfast sausage, we had it for dinner. There is WAY more broccoli packed in this omelet than you can tell, and it’s a really ugly picture, but dinner tasted great!

Day 9

When you spend all day meal prepping then forget to pack a lunch on the one day you go to work, this is what you get. This package of nuts contains only nuts and salt.

Dinner – leftover Shepherds Pie with Roasted Brussels Sprouts.

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Day 10

I feel no different, so a bit discouraged.

Coconut wrap with Tuna Salad.

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Julie’s Steak Soup – This is one recipe I created that I do love. I made a big pot to take camping. More on that trip in another post. I ate on this for dayzzzzzzz, so you’ll see this picture a lot.

Day 11

I was crazy busy getting mom and getting to the campsite. I never did eat breakfast or lunch.

Day 12

Paleo pancake mix with pure maple syrup. A paleo diet eliminates sugar and uses honey, pure maple syrup and dates for most sweeteners. Sugar free bacon is much easier to find now than it was 5 years ago!

Birthday dinner for mom. Steak, Salmon, asparagus and potatoes. I forgot that white potatoes were on that Nightshade list!

Day 13

Banana and coffee for breakfast at the campsite, then more soup at home for lunch and dinner.

Day 14

Another wrap and soup. Soup is gone now. Dang it was good.

Day 15

Coconut wrap with turkey and lettuce dipped in Dump Ranch.

Hamburger Salad. Kinda like a Big Mac Salad? I mixed paleo mayo, mustard and dill relish for the dressing.

After looking over the last 15 days, I see I need more variety. I do like to cook a big batch of something and eat on it for a few days to avoid constantly cooking and Mike doesn’t seem to mind either.

I still feel like poo but I will not get discouraged and I will continue to try and figure out what’s going on with my body. I have doctor visits and lab work in progress.

It’s Pumpkin season and I’m ecstatic, so there’s that!

“love the life you live, live the life you love”