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!

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!

Quick Freezer Update

At the moment I'm on a big Paleo kick but unfortunately our tiny freezer was not able to manage our trips to costco and the grocery store. It seemed like a smart choice to buy a stand alone freezer to store all our extra food. That's where this sexy beast came along. 

I paid $80 for this beaut, not to shabby for a gal this size (seriously she's huge). As soon as I saw her though, I knew I had to do something about that hideous color. I mean, she's really a terrible pale yellow that the above picture doesn't quite grasp. I figured I would paint some chalk paint on the front door so we could have a running chart of exactly what we have inside. 

I swept myself off to Michaels (I prefer Hobby Lobby but it's the next town over and much more of a drive) and picked up some chalk paint. I decided to splurge a little and buy the Rust-oleum brand since I figured this freezer will probably have a lot of writing and wiping. The can cost me $25 but I still have more than half the can left (and that's after 3 coats). 

Here's the beginning of the first coat. 

One coat down - 2 to go! The can actually said you only need 2 coats but I could still see some of that horrible yellow coming through, so I did 3. 

Last coat drying. It suggests waiting 4 days to let the paint fully settle before you "prime" it. With any chalk paint you need to coat the entire surface with a layer of chalk. This helps all future chalk to come off fairly easily. 

There's my layer of chalk. 

And then you wipe it off with a damp cloth. 

And here's the finished product. I bought some nifty chalk markers from the Hobby Lobby and they are totally worth their $12 price tag. Of course I wanted to create a beautiful Pinterest-worthy chalk design, but I figured a list would better suffice my needs. 

So there you go. Ugly freezer to still ugly, but more functional freezer!

Homemade Cinnamon Applesauce

My friend is leaving for Mexico tomorrow so she surprised me with 2 bags full of fruits and veggies that she wasn't able to juice her way through. When I looked in the bags I saw that there were about 20 red apples...I don't have a fridge big enough to fit that many apples, let alone the other veggies. 

That's when I figured I should make some applesauce! I recently bought a crockpot so I figured I would give it a go in there. 

I peeled, cored, and chopped 8 apples (that's how many it took to fill my 6 qt crockpot). I threw in a pinch of salt and a helping of cinnamon and turned the crockpot on low for 6 hours. 

When the timer went off I didn't find the apples to be mushy enough, so I threw in a cup of water and put it on low for another 2 hours. It made about 7 cups of applesauce.