Whole 30 Breakfast

There's nothing worse than trying to follow a lifestyle change like Whole 30 when you're moving house! I did not think things through when I packed up the entire kitchen last week...so making meals isn't the easiest, but I am pushing through! Here's my Whole 30 breakfast this morning: scrambled eggs with lox, and a delicious coffee (in my awesome Kate Spade initial mug I got from my bridal shower). 

This is really not going to be easy, so I'm going to follow a Paleo/Whole 30ish meals throughout our move. Once back in California I will go back totally onto Whole 30.

Day 30 of Whole 30

I can't believe these 30 days are over - they went by so quickly! The beginning of this journey was not easy, but as the days ticked by it became increasingly easier to eat according to Whole 30. I know Andrew hated this whole process, but he was pretty well behaved through this whole thing (except for a few purposeful slip ups). Andrew can't be more excited about reintroducing bread and pasta back into his diet, me on the other hand, I think I will just do without. 

I'm actually finding eating strictly Paleo really easy, and freeing. It's easy because there's no guessing what I can and cannot eat. Meat, fruit, veggies, and nuts...that's pretty much it. If it has sugar in it, I can't have it. It's that simple. It's freeing because of the simplicity. I can't eat the same crap that I love eating. Cookies? No, can't have them. Cheese-its? No thanks, they aren't on the plan. 

Doing this for 30 days has really opened my eyes to see all of the crap that I would normally eat without even thinking about it! Not only that, but I feel great, I look great, and I lost 12 pounds! Just icing on the cake!

Shameless selfie because I actually did my hair today!

Easter Brunch - Whole 30 Style

Andrew doesn't like mornings very much, but lucky for him I'm typically a very early riser! Since I had an extra few hours on my hands, I wanted to make something new for Easter brunch. Andrew doesn't like sweet things for breakfast (no pancakes, muffins, or anything delicious) and Whole 30 doesn't allow for any of those things, so instead I got creative (and went to Pinterest for inspiration). I found this delicious recipe for a Sweet Potato Quiche from Grok Grub and decided to give it a go.

First up was to peel 3lbs of sweet potatoes! This meant peeling the entire bag from Trader Joe's! I thought it seemed a little excessive to peel that many potatoes, but I'm a rule follower and that's what the recipe called for! 

All my sweet potatoes peeled and cubed. This shot isn't very good at showing depth, but trust me this pile of sweet potato goes on for a while!

Here they are all lined up on the world's largest baking sheet. But I didn't care, I love sweet potato so how could you go wrong with 3lbs!?

While the sweet potato is in the oven becoming delicious, cook up some bacon and try not to burn the house down (seriously does anyone else's kitchen get smoked out from cooking bacon!? Ridiculous).

Next add eggs from a hoard of chickens. It's always amazing to me how many eggs are called for in Paleo/Whole 30 recipes. Don't get me wrong, I like eating the unfertilized fetus of another animal, but 10 eggs is quite excessive. Wouldn't you agree?

Well here it all is in my square pyrex. It turns out I don't actually own a pie dish. It's quite remarkable, but true. So I used the next best thing I could find, and good thing too because all those sweet potatoes barely fit in the pyrex!

And three hours later I finally got to eat this delicious quiche. Even Andrew liked it, but did give a few notes:

• Why are there so many sweet potatoes?
• This would actually be amazing if there wasn't an entire farmers market worth of sweet potatoes in here.
• Next time add more bacon. And sausage. Just more meat in general.
• Really this is quite good.
• Less sweet potatoes though.

So there you have it: more meat, less sweet potatoes. Overall pretty good for Easter brunch. I don't think I would make this every weekend because it was quite time consuming, but definitely once a month or so!

Whole 30

Poor Andrew was dragged into another one of my crazy ideas! If you're in any sort of contact with Andrew I'm sure you've heard him moan about this insane diet I have him on! In full disclosure he did choose to do this with me; I never forced him!

This all started at CrossFit. I'm running a Clean Eating Nutrition Challenge for our members. We were supposed to start a challenge of this sort earlier in the year, but it never took on. Finally, one of the coaches and I decided to take the reins and build our own challenge. The basic premise for the challenge is no processed foods and no added sugar. Sounds simple enough right? Well it is.

Unfortunately (for Andrew) before this challenge even started another coach recommended I read the book "It Starts With Food". This book was written by Dallas and Melissa Hartwig, the co-creators of the Whole 30 plan. Essentially it's a much, much stricter form of Paleo. Really it's an elimination diet so that people who have consistent gut problems can find relief, a cure, or the culprit of those issues. I figured that it would be a great idea for Andrew and I to do this plan since A) Andrew has a few gut issues, but refuses to figure out the culprit; and B) I have a serious addiction to sugar and can spare to lose a few pounds before the wedding. 

So I presented the idea of doing Whole 30 to Andrew under the guise of the CrossFit competition and the ability to possibly win some cool prizes. Who wouldn't want to get rewarded for shedding a few pounds and becoming healthier? He begrudgingly agreed and has been whining about it ever since!

We are now 1 week into Whole 30 and we can already see a difference in our bodies (and our guts)! We both are still having strong cravings for the foods we're used to eating like bread and rice, but everyday gets a little easier. It's actually been pretty nice being so conscious about our food choices. Normally we wouldn't think twice about eating processed foods or candy or chocolate, but now we have to scrutinize everything that goes in our mouths.

I'll keep you posted on how week 2 is working out for us! I can already foresee more whining and complaining! Haha!