21 Day Fix

Back in February/March, I completed a whole30 - 30 days of whole foods. No sugar, no dairy, no grain, no processed foods. For me, that process was meant to help me break my sugar addiction. I lost ten pounds in 30 days without any exercise, which was an added bonus, but my goal was to kick sugar to the curb. It worked for a short time, but before I knew it, I was back to shoving mass amounts of chocolate in my mouth on a daily basis. It did help me make better choices overall though. I have done really well at eating more balanced meals and fewer carbs. Filling up on the real food instead of the empty carbs.

Since then, I have gained about 4-5 pounds back. Back then, while I was happy to shed some pounds, I didn't really care about my weight. I didn't love how I looked, but I just didn't care enough to work on it. After Leland, it took me a year to actually give a crap. After Alden, it took a solid 20 months, but I'm finally there. Ready to work on lose some weight and get in shape.

I have been running this summer, which is great exercise, but I know I need more than just running. I really need to strengthen my core (and in the process, maybe tone my tummy a bit), and working on lower body strength will help me with running.

That's where the 21 Day Fix comes in. I have several friends who have completed (and continue to do) this program. They have seen awesome results and seem really happy with the program. So I decided to give it a try.

I'm on day 6 and I'm enjoying it so far. Food-wise, it's different than whole30. On 21 Day Fix, you are allowed a variety of healthy foods, but it's about portion control. On whole30, food choices were more limited, but I was allowed as much as I wanted. So I can have two servings of grain a day, and I can have some cheese or greek yogurt or peanuts. It's not quite as limiting with what I eat, but more about how muchI eat. It's about eating more veggies and protein, and smaller portions of the other stuff.

Each day, I can have 4 red, 3 green, 2 purple, 2 yellow, 1 blue, and 1 orange. Most days I haven't used them all. I usually have an orange or half of another container leftover.

With whole30, I liked most of the meals I made, but Dave didn't quite as much. Also, I feel like there aren't any other options that I would like. So I could do another whole30, but I would pretty much eat all the same things as last time. That's not very exciting. So far, I have found tons of recipes that are Fix-friendly that I think I would love. The ones we have tried so far, we all enjoy!

Favorite so far: burrito bowls

My bowl was overflowing. Trust me, I was satisfied.

Dave's plate - easier to see what's in there.
Recipe here

And unlike whole30, this program involves exercise. Daily exercise. The program comes with a workout DVD and a schedule of when to do which workout. The workouts are only 30 minutes, which has been easy to fit into my day, but they are TOUGH. So far, each workout has had me sweating buckets, and definitely sore the next day. But that's a good sore. I'm excited about it. I may not be able to crouch down or even walk down some stairs without wincing, but I'm excited about it. Because it means I'm really working.

Running is not a 21 Day Fix workout, but I am still trying to keep up with it. So I took my boys out for two slow miles a few days ago.

My goal with this round of 21 Day Fix is to lose around 10 pounds, and to see a difference in my abdomen. I think that's an attainable goal. As of today, I am down 4.5 lbs. Which means I'm at 140 lbs...I haven't been below that since long before having kids. Can't wait to see that scale drop a little more. I know that it's just a number, but it feels good. And I'm already noticing a difference in my arms, quads, and tummy. I like it. A lot.

I can totally see myself continuing the 21 Day Fix after this round, but I will probably need a short break in between. I mean, the fair starts right after this round is over and I will need some greasy, fried goodness before I dive back in.

After Whole30

Yesterday was my last day on whole30. So, what now?

Well, first I'd like to share my results. Over the course of 30 days, I lost 10 pounds and 9+ inches (in my bust, waist, and hips combined). The biggest loss was in my chest, and I'm incredibly thankful and excited about that, though I wish my belly would have lost more. Those two areas are my biggest concerns.

I am down one pants size, which makes me happy, and I am hoping to go down one more, so that next school year I can be happy with the size uniform pants I wear.

I now weigh below 140 pounds for the first time since before my first pregnancy. My first pregnancy started at 140. With Leland I started around 150, and with Alden I started at 140. I haven't been below that for a long time, and now I am. My goal is 130-135 pounds (Remember, I'm short, but also have big boobs - those aren't going to disappear no matter how much weight I lose. They were big even when I was super skinny in high school).

So, enough with words, here are before and after pictures.

I do see a change here, but not as big of a change as I would like. I feel like my belly and boobs still look bigger than I would like.

I think the side view is so much better than the front view. My love handles and side rolls are smoother than before, and I didn't even realize they were an issue before. I focused so much on my belly that I didn't pay attention to the sides.

I purposely chose those yoga pants because they were a little too snug when I started whole30. I wanted to see if they fit me better after, and they do. They are much more comfortable now, though still a little snug in the waistband.

So, where do I go from here?

Well, this week, I am going to enjoy some foods I have missed. First up is pizza, followed by some brownies. Later this week,  I will have some lasagna, because that's what Dave missed the most. And I'll probably make or go out for pancakes on Saturday. But after that, I'm going to try to eat similar to whole30 as much as possible.

I plan to try to eat paleo for at least half of my dinners each week, and since I usually eat leftovers for lunches, that'll make half of my lunches good too. For breakfast, I will try to continue eating eggs, but I am pretty sick of them, so I'll have some yogurt a few times a week. My plan is to avoid grains, sugar, and dairy still, but not as strict as whole30. I won't restrict honey if a recipe calls for it, and I will have a "bad" meal here and there. But I will use the new knowledge I have gained throughout this process to help me achieve my goal of 130-135. And now that the weather is getting nicer, I will be able to get out and exercise. Walking and running is on my agenda this spring and summer. 

I don't have expectations of flat, hard abs, but I would like to feel good about how I look again and feel comfortable in my clothes.

Whole30. Done.

I haven't posted about my whole30 experience nearly as much as I thought I would. I guess because I've been too busy planning and prepping every single meal and snack for the last 30 days. It really is time consuming.

But today is day 30. It's my last day. I will make one more meal and later I will go to bed, and it will be over. Craziness.

I shared some recipes/ideas in two other posts, and today I will share some of our most recent dinners. I was really good about taking pictures and saving recipes during my first week and this last week. But in the middle, I kept forgetting. Oops. Here are some recent dinners (some recipes I had to change a bit to make them whole30 compliant, but most are compliant by themselves):

Steak fajitas - I had mine with just the veggies and meat and a little guacamole on top. The rest of the family had tortillas, cheese, and sour cream. I didn't feel like I was missing much - they were SO good!

Pulled Pork - Seriously, why have I never thought to add bacon to the crockpot when I make pulled pork?! Life changing event here, people! This was yummy. Again, the family had theirs on buns with BBQ sauce, while I had mine plain. It was a little dry that way, but still tasty.

Balsamic Mustard Steaks - These definitely had a different flavor, but I really enjoyed them.

Apple Spice Pork Chops - Dave worked late that night so he didn't see me making them, but when he ate them later he said, "Ummmm....there's fruit on my pork," and then a bit later said, "This is the weirdest thing I've ever eaten. I really don't want to like it, but I do." I liked them.

Ginger Chicken - These weren't a huge hit for us. They were fine, but not very flavorful. I think they need more spices, and certainly more ginger. They weren't bad, they just weren't as good as other things we have been having.

Chocolate Chili - Again, this wasn't my favorite meal, but it was okay. I feel like it had too much cumin, even though I used about half the amount that the recipe called for. I think it would have been better with some cheese, beans, and maybe some sour cream, which of course are whole30 no-nos. Dave had it with cheese and sour cream and liked it.

Spaghetti (squash) with meatballs - Dave was beyond excited to have meatballs because I never make them. This meal was a huge hit with me. The boys liked the sauce, but preferred regular spaghetti noodles. Honestly, I would prefer regular noodles too, but these weren't bad by any means. Just something different.

Creamy Chicken Casserole - I shouldn't even include this because it was so gross. But the truth is, sometimes you hit the jackpot with a recipe and sometimes you just don't. This was a bad one. Dave says it would have been better with sausage instead of chicken. He may be right, but my issue is the coconut milk. I just didn't like the sweet flavor with my squash.

Tonight we will have Sweet Potato Chili. Several people have told me it's amazing, and I'm hoping they're right so I can end this on a great note.

Overall, I think this was an amazing learning experience for me. For one, I learned how bad I ate before. And not that I ate a ton of processed foods or anything, but lots of mindless eating. Oh, my kids are eating crackers? I'll have some too, even though I'm not hungry and I don't even like goldfish that much. I also ate much larger portions of foods and depended a lot on carbs to fill me up.

A few things that helped me make it through my 30 days:

• Planning! I'm big on meal planning anyway, but I generally only plan dinners - and only the main part of the meal at that. On whole30, I had to plan every meal, every side, and every snack in order to be successful. It was a lot of work, but a lot easier once those meal times rolled around. I knew which veggies/fruits we were having with our meals, and that helped a lot.
• Prepping the night before. I get home at 5:15ish and we're all pretty hungry at that point already. So to get dinner on the table by 6:00 is a must. In order to do that, I try to prep as much as possible the night before, after the kids are in bed. I know a lot of people prep on Sundays, but my Sundays are just too busy with church, weekly cleaning, and family time. Sundays are such a precious time with my family and I'm not willing to sacrifice that time. 
• Variety. My goal in this process was to never repeat a dinner. Obviously my other meals and snacks were repeated, but I managed to make it all 30 days without any repeats for dinner.
• Sales! I don't know why fresh strawberries have been on sale so much lately, but I am so thankful they have been! Seriously, 5 containers for $5?! Amazing, and just what I needed! It's hard to find affordable produce in the middle of winter, and it's easy to get stuck eating just bananas, apples, and oranges all the time just to save money. I was thankful for sales and coupons for lots of different foods.
• A few staples - almond butter, wholly guacamole, and Larabars. Almond butter was great with celery or apples for a snack. Wholly guacamole helped me eat some really dry chicken as leftovers, when I really didn't want it. And Larabars were a great quick snack if I was in a pinch. And actually, I think I had one for lunch once when we were out and about and I was starving.

I wouldn't say that doing whole30 was easy, but it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I honestly imagined myself feeling completely deprived throughout the whole thing, but I never really did. The last week was probably the worst, but that was more because of stress and just feeling too busy to cook I think. I was around my fair share of delicious-looking non-compliant foods (pizza, candy, birthday cake, etc.) and I never felt like I was missing out on anything. But I did miss having quicker options, especially on nights when Dave was working late and I was on my own with the boys, which was A LOT!

Surprisingly, I think the one thing I missed the most was cheese. I thought for sure it would be sugar/chocolate. But it was most definitely cheese. I guess that makes sense, because I add cheese to almost every meal I make. The two things I am looking forward to most are pizza and brownies. We are going out for pizza on Wednesday (I have parent-teacher conferences on Tuesday so we can't go then).

Stay tuned for my after whole30 post, with before and after pictures, weight results, and where am I going from here.

The Halfway Point

Sunday was day 15 of my whole30, which means I'm halfway through this process.

Overall, it has been going well. I have made 15 different dinners that we have all enjoyed, with the exception of one that we decided wasn't bad, but it wasn't good. I'm enjoying breaking out of my usual types of meals and Dave loves it too. I still don't feel like I'm being deprived of anything, except when my family had pizza on Friday and I just had salad. Thankfully, they got pepperoni (which I don't like), so it wasn't complete torture.

Breakfast continues to be a struggle because I just don't love eggs and that's pretty much the only breakfast food that I can have unless I spend lots of time cooking, which I don't have time for before school. On weekends, I try some different things. I am trying to make eggs in different ways, and have different things with them, like fruit or meat. Bacon is my favorite. Thank God for (whole30 compliant) bacon!

Snacks have also been a bit tricky because my usual go-to for snacks are things like yogurt, cheese, cottage cheese, or something with peanut butter. The first week, I was eating a lot of fruits and Larabars for my snacks because I just I didn't know what else to eat. The second week, I started having almond butter with fruit (smaller portions of fruit than the week before), and almonds for my snacks. This week, I have some veggies planned (celery with almond butter or homemade ranch dressing). I think I'll see better results if I cut out the Larabars, because even though they're just fruit and nuts, they're still a lot of calories.

I also have steered clear of white potatoes. They are allowed on whole30, but they didn't used to be, so it makes me feel like maybe they're not the best choice. I did have some roasted white potatoes a few nights ago, but that's the only time. I'm hoping that will help my results as well.

Speaking of results, I am not supposed to weigh myself until the end of the 30 days. But I cheated the other day and found that I have lost 3 lbs so far. I was sort of disappointed, because I was hoping for more. But then I measured myself and I have lost 1.5" in my waist, so that made me feel better.

Financially, this challenge is a little difficult. I am easily spending $20-30 more in groceries each week. But I remind myself that we're spending less on eating out, so it probably evens out. We usually eat dinner out once a week, and one lunch (or maybe two) on the weekends. Also, because I'm spending more, I'm racking up my Meijer rewards faster, so that helps. I look forward to spending a little less on groceries when this is over. I'll still probably follow the general paleo (not whole30) plan, but with some cheaper options. And it won't be 100% of the time.

Some foods since my last post are:

Clockwise:

• Zoodles with spaghetti sauce - sauce from Against All Grain, slightly modified for whole30
• Blacken-seasoned cod fillets - NOT a favorite of mine, but Dave and Alden loved them
• Bacon-mushroom turkey burgers - these were SO good! I was a little leary of putting apples (yes apples) in my burger, but it was yummy.
• Bacon-wrapped teriyaki chicken with broccoli-apple salad - The salad was an attempt to have more raw veggies in my diet instead of just cooked veggies. It was delicious.
• Buffalo chicken tenders - I was surprised how much I liked these since I'm a wimp about spicy foods, but they were GOOD. And the boys loved them too.
• Chicken salad lettuce wrap

Other meals we've had were simple steak or chicken with different herbs and spices, and I didn't always take pictures.

I also made my own mayonnaise and ranch dressing this week. I'm generally a fan of Miracle Whip instead of mayo, but when you're on whole30, you take (or make) what you can get. Also, it's used to make the ranch dressing which is AH-MAZING so there's that.

Here are recipes for both:

For mayo:

You'll need an immersion blender. Don't even attempt it without one like I did. It won't work. But I got my immersion mixer for $7.88 at ABC Warehouse (SCORE!) and then it worked beautifully.

1 Cup light olive oil or avocado oil

1 egg at room temperature

1 tsp. white balsamic vinegar

1 tsp compliant dijon mustard (I used Meijer brand organic)

1 pinch of salt

Add all ingredients to mason jar or container (I mixed mine in a 2 Cup glass measuring cup) and sit for 2 minutes, letting all of the ingredients sink to the bottom. Insert immersion blender and use on high, slowly bringing the blender up ad down through the mixture until it's mayonnaise consistency. And that's it!

For ranch:

I would suggest using much less parsley and dill than in the recipe above. I used a little less, and it still seemed like way more than necessary.

So, there you have it. Fifteen days down, fifteen to go. I got this.

In case you're wondering, I'm already planning pizza (not pepperoni) and brownies for my first non-whole30 meal.

Whole30, 5 Days In

On Sunday, I started my whole30 journey. To say I was incredibly nervous about starting it would be a gross understatement. In general, I enjoy healthy meals. But I also enjoy lots and lot (and lots) of sweet treats. I honestly didn't know how I was going to get through 30 days without them. Which is exactly why I needed to do this.

Everyone says day one is easy because you're all "I'm gonna do this and it's gonna be awesome." For me, day one was the hardest. I was working at the coffee shop, so I was surrounded by delicious-looking baked goods and food all day. We have several healthy options there, so I enjoyed a nice egg breakfast and a chicken-avocado lettuce wrap for lunch. But I was starting to get depressed about all the things I couldn't have: bagels, soup, hot chocolate, etc. And after dinner, I got a killer headache that sent me to bed at 8:00 (would have been earlier but I had to get the kids to bed).

So day one completely sucked. I wasn't sure I could make it through the remaining 29 days.

But since then, it's been just fine. I am loving all the different meals I'm making. They have so much flavor! It's kind of insane how much better things taste. And I really, honestly, don't feel like I'm depriving myself of anything.

The first two nights, I had a hard time not having a sweet treat after the boys went to bed. It's a terrible habit of mine. I still want sweet treats, but the desire is lessening already. I'm sure I will have some difficult days in this process, but for now, I'm glad it's not completely awful and unbearable like I thought it would be.

I promised myself I wouldn't post food pictures every single day. Instead, I have decided to post collage pictures of my food. So people only have to see a few food posts a week.

This week, I made...

Clockwise:

• chipotle-glazed pork chops - photo from the recipe webpage because I forgot to take one
• meatloaf minis - from Against All Grain
• burgers - Dave and the boys had buns and cheese, I had bacon & avocado and it was SO GOOD!
• chicken-tomato soup
• taco pie

They were all delicious. Some recipes, I had to change a bit because they called for honey or something else that isn't whole30 approved.


I made these for dinner and took leftovers for lunch. Breakfast has actually been the hardest for me, since I don't love eggs and there aren't many quick breakfast options. I have some new ideas for next week that I will hopefully enjoy more than my egg muffins.

Saturday, I am going to make a cod dish. This one, I am nervous about, because I am not a fish lover. But I am challenging myself to try new things. Who knows, maybe I'll discover some new favorite foods.

So...5 days down, 25 to go!