Return of the Whole30 Challenge - Day Nine

Here we are at the end of another Wednesday. It's been a good day, I think. Work went well and was much slower than the previous couple of days have been (though that made the afternoon drag on considerably). I had to run to the bank after work because my dad sent us some money to help with the house purchase, and then we had church this evening. Yup, all in all, a good day. I also managed to drink close to half a gallon of water, which is still about half of my minimum goal.

I don't have anything particularly inspiring to share this evening, which I'm sure bums you out something terrible. How about I just give you the menu for today and we'll call it good? I'm off of work tomorrow and will hopefully be able to give the blog post a little more attention then.

Breakfast:

Turkey Blueberry Breakfast Muffins 

Scrambled eggs with bell pepper, onion, and Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute

Lunch:

Leftover crockpot chicken, potatoes, celery, and carrots 

Green salad with homemade mayo 

1 large apple

Dinner:

Chicken Verde on Napa cabbage leaves

Green salad with homemade mayo

Return of the Whole30 Challenge - Day Eight

Hello there! It looks like you found me. Lucky you.

Well, seeing as you are here, why don't we look at what was on the menu for today (sorry for the short post, but it's getting late).

Breakfast:

Turkey Blueberry Breakfast Muffins

Diced potato fried in a little olive oil with garlic salt and dried rosemary

Monkey salad with strawberries

Lunch:

Zucchini and beef

Summer cucumber and tomato salad

Cantaloupe

1 large apple that I only got two bites into because it was so rotten on the inside :(

Dinner:Pizza Spaghetti PieGreen salad with homemade mayo

Return of the Whole30 Challenge - Day Seven

Well hello there! Oh, it's been a busy and exciting day here in Iowa. Work ended up being crazy busy with two staff members out sick. I even had eight patients in my little area of the lab, which is a lot for that location (2-3 is normal, 4-5 is busy). There were some frayed nerves, but I think everyone pulled together reasonably well. It helped that I had a filling breakfast this morning, so I was fully energized throughout the morning until my delayed lunch.

Additionally, we went to the bank this afternoon and got our preapproval taken care of for the house. I just have to drop off a copy of the actual purchase agreement and our financing will be secured. It's very exciting, especially considering that we could be moving in 5 1/2 weeks and we only started looking 8 days ago!

So, would you like to know what was on the menu today? Let me fill you in.

Breakfast:

Turkey Blueberry Breakfast Muffins 

Monkey Salad with Strawberries added 

Scrambled eggs with bell pepper and onion

Lunch:

Green Beans 

Crockpot potatoes and celery 

Cabbage salad with homemade mayo and red grapes 

1 large apple 

Chile Lime Chicken

Dinner:

Summer Cucumber and Tomato Salad with Homemade Mayo 

Cantaloupe 

Zoodles 

Meatballs 

Pesto

Come back tomorrow for some new recipes!

Return of the Whole30 Challenge - Day Six

Hello, my foodie friends! It's been an exciting Sunday here, with news reaching us that the offer we put in on a house yesterday was accepted. Closing is tentatively scheduled for October 16th, and it would be amazing to be able to move that quickly. We'll take what God gives, though, and delay if necessary.

We have a lot of happy memories in this apartment, but we finally feel truly ready for moving on to this next phase in our life. And it will be so nice to have a yard for Lukas, as well as space to have a real garden and host company.

The first Sunday of the month is always a long one with Sunday school, Morning Worship, Potluck, and Afternoon Worship. Unfortunately we forgot to take compliant food along this morning, and the only compliant item on the line was slices of tomatoes. :( Abi had a Larabar and some almonds in her purse, but I decided that since today was originally going to be the first day of really getting back into things, I could eat from the potluck table for one meal and not be too much the worse for wear.

So, on to the food for today.

Breakfast:

Turkey Blueberry Breakfast Muffins (made with pork sausage from my in-laws because we hadn't been able to pick up any ground turkey yesterday; also, quite delicious, much better than I expected from the recipe)

Diced sweet potato, green bell pepper, and onion fried in a little olive oil in the cast-iron skillet

Lunch:

Some rice with pizza sauce and black beans topped with a little shredded Colby-Jack cheese

Three meatballs

What I'm guessing was a chicken Parmesan pasta dish

Several slices of fresh tomato

A tomato, cucumber, parsley, and broccoli salad with probably some Italian dressing

1 cookie

1 cup of black coffee

Dinner:

Chili Lime Chicken Breast (original recipe called for Red Boat fish sauce, which we didn't have, and to be made with chicken wings, which we didn't have)

Cabbage salad with homemade mayo and a few cashew pieces

A handful of black grapes

Green beans

Welcome to a new week! Stay tuned for future updates.

Return of the Whole30 Challenge - Day Five

After a lazy morning of sleeping in, today ended up being rather tiring. We had a later breakfast and made a speedy trip to Trader Joe's before meeting our real estate agent to look at three houses. Then we went to downtown Des Moines to check out the Latin American Heritage Festival at the invite of some friends from church.

Meals were a little wonky because of this, and I know I didn't consume the calories I normally would have otherwise.

Breakfast:
Scrambled eggs
Bacon (non-compliant, but oh-so-tasty)
Cantaloupe

Snack:
Larabar
Smoothie made with frozen banana, frozen strawberries, and coconut cream from Trader Joe's

Dinner:
Leftover steak
Cabbage salad with raisins and homemade mayo
Sliced green bell pepper

I've also been cheating a bit and weighing myself. I know weight loss isn't the main goal of this process, but I find it easier to say no to the garbage if I have numbers to work with. So far, I've dropped 5.6 pounds since Tuesday...what a difference no junk, increased good food, and larger intakes of water will make!

Sorry this is so short, but it's getting late and I need to get to bed. Tomorrow should be easier to post in a more timely fashion.

Return of the Whole30 Challenge - Day Four

Ah, Friday, the day of pizza and pop. Well, not at the moment, and not for some time to come. I've definitely felt a few cravings today, and nothing sounded better than a heaping bowl of ice cream with a couple of the homemade cookies still sitting around the apartment.

It was a busy day at work, which helped keep my mind off of food while I was there. Gotta look for the positives where I can find them, right? I wish I had more than 30 minutes for lunch each day so I could take and consume more food than I have been lately. I should try to up my veggie intake at breakfast and lunch both so I would feel less hungry throughout the day.

We have a busy day scheduled for tomorrow. We're going to look at three houses and then hit downtown Des Moines to see some of the Latin Heritage Festival. Somehow we need to fit in grocery shopping and some meal prep for the week that starts Sunday morning.

Speaking of meals, here's today's lineup.
Breakfast:
Egg casserole
Monkey salad with blueberries

Lunch:
Leftover crockpot chicken and vegetables
Leftover lettuce salad with homemade mayo
1 large apple

Dinner:
Zucchini and Beef
Honeydew melon
Red grapes
Sliced green pepper
Grape tomatoes
Sliced cucumber
Baby carrots
Some homemade mayo for dipping

Happy weekend! Look for new posts soon!

Return of the Whole30 Challenge - Days One, Two, and Three

Hello friends!

It's been a busy couple of months, and, regrettably, not the healthiest. With the ending of my Whole30 at the beginning of July and no real plan for what to do afterward, coupled with some fantastic snacks brought into work, I clocked in Tuesday morning at 232.4 pounds. :(

Now that we're past Labor Day, I am beginning a new round that I intend to carry out at least through the end of October, possibly until Thanksgiving, with a chance of going to the end of the year with my only breaks being Thanksgiving and Christmas Days.

Tuesday went well, despite having come off of a four-day holiday weekend with plenty of goodies. I had a bit of a headache in the late morning/early afternoon, but it didn't last much more than three or four hours. Wednesday and Thursday have been fine.

Through participating in a Facebook group I found a 30-day schedule with linked recipes. We're going to start using them on Sunday, going through this week with ones we've been using already. The variety and having a plan already laid out is going to be helpful. We also wanted to wait to start the new recipes because there are some ingredients we don't have on-hand that we won't be out to get until later this week.

So I bet you're wondering what's been on the menu.

Tuesday:
Breakfast:
Scrambled eggs with diced pepper and onion

Lunch:
Zucchini and ground beef
Cabbage salad with diced pepper, grape tomatoes, and red wine vinegar
1 large apple

Dinner:
Grilled steak
Homemade sweet potato fries
Summer cucumber and tomato salad






Wednesday:
Breakfast:
Egg casserole
Monkey salad with blueberries

Lunch:
Leftover steak
Leftover sweet potato fries
Summer cucumber and tomato salad
1 large apple

Dinner:
Honeydew melon
Fresh tomato slices
Soup (diced potato, onion, celery, carrots, and ham)





Thursday:
Breakfast:
Egg casserole
Monkey salad with blueberries

Lunch:
Leftover soup from Wednesday
Cabbage salad with grapes and homemade mayo
1 large apple

Dinner:
Lettuce salad with diced green bell pepper, chopped celery, grape tomatoes, diced red onion, and some homemade mayo
Honeydew melon
Crockpot chicken and vegetables (some cubed potato, baby carrots, and celery pieces)
1/2 of a bottle of Naked Pineapple Mango with Coconut Water

I'm feeling better already and working on increasing my water intake. I take a half-gallon jug with me to work, but I have yet to get even half of it down in a day. I'd like to get to a minimum of one gallon a day, preferably as much as two.