So I'm still here and I haven't killed anyone!!! (yet!!!) If you read my previous blog you will have seen that Day 3 was very hard. I got sick and my body decided it HATED me for not giving it sugar. Nothing a early night couldn't sort out and on Thursday I felt grand again. I must say the last 4 days have been surprisingly good. So what have I been eating? Thursday Day 4 was a real lazy day. For breakfast I had an omelette packed full of spinach and tomatoes. This only takes minutes to make and is a great start to the day. I cooked the omelette in butter so I had fat, protein and veg in my meal. For lunch I had my left over Chicken Curry. This really was amazing curry and I will definitely be making it again this week. I wasn't hugely hungry in the evening so I kept it simple and just had a small salad with ham, chicken, tomato, lettuce and pineapple. I also had an avocado but it wasn't fully ripe so I didn't actually eat it all. Friday Day 5 I was working so breakfast was another quick and easy meal. I made Sweet Potato Hash with fried eggs. I don't know if I cooked the sweet potato properly but it was a little soggy. Don' t know if I will be making it again. I made a quick lunch of pork chops with a little salad on the side. I rubbed sea salt, black pepper and curry powder onto the chops and fried them in little coconut oil. They were yummy. When I got home from work I decided to make some hazelnut butter. This is a real treat but unless you live near a health food shop its hard to get your hands on. I simply toasted a bag of hazelnuts for about 10 mins then popped them into my food processor and whizzed them until it got to the consistency I wanted. Then just scoop it out and put into an airtight container. I sliced some apples and had some of my amazing hazelnut butter with it as a snack. The evening kinda disappeared on me and I wasn't hugely hungry so again I had a simple salad with ham, boiled eggs, tomatoes and avocado (I got my hands on a ripe avocado and it was way nicer). Saturday Day 6. I was going shopping for the day with my mum, sister and friend Annmarie. Annmarie is doing a "partial" Whole 30. When I say partial I mean she is eating all the healthy stuff that I am and staying off the alcohol to support me but when she goes back home after the weekend she will probably go back to her old bad habits. Anyway I made up Sweet Potato Pancakes with strawberries for breakfast. Again they were amazing. However Denise has warned me that they are a little bit "sweet" so I should only be having them once a week if at all on a Whole 30. Oooppps. I have an awful sweet tooth so that's one thing I'm hoping to "RESET" on this Whole 30. Anyway back to the rest of the day. Whilst in Athlone we decided to have lunch. I choose MixGreens as they cater for all diets from Slimming World to Weight Watchers and also Paleo. They have a great menu and it was really hard to pick from all their great dishes. I eventually went with the Butternut Squash Wok Salad and a Orange, Apple, Carrot & Wheatgrass Juice. It was all delicious and I will definitely be back. We were home for dinner so I decided to so steak with plenty of veg and garlic butter. I was stuffed afterward but it was so worth it. Day 7 Sunday Well I got up pretty late so I had a brunch of boiled eggs, rashers, some strawberries and a big glass infused water. Then for dinner I had roast chicken and veg. I snacked on fruit and nuts anytime I feel peckish or fruit and nutbutter (Almond or Hazelnut only). I will admit today has been tough. Sunday was always my worst day for eating junk food and takeaways. I'm still craving a regular cup of tea and even an auld Rich Tea biscuit would do at this stage. But as the above quote says (sent to me by the wonderful Denise from Irish Paleo Girl) I have to choose between what I want now and what I want most. On the bright side it was great waking up this morning without a hangover!!! So what have I learned from Week One? Well be organised. You need to plan your meals in advance and be prepared. Don't worry it doesn't mean it's more time consuming it just makes life easier. Try everything you might be surprised what you might actually like. e.g. I have been eating green beans, asparagus and broccoli all vegetables I would never have eaten before the Whole 30. Oh and I am sleeping like a log. I usually have very broken sleep but the past week I have been sleeping straight through for at least 8 hours. !!! So I'm ready for week two. Wish me the best of luck!!!!
Until next time Susie xxx
0 Comments
So I started my Whole 30 on Monday. I was off work for the day which gave me the whole day to plan out my meals. That is one very important step with this type of lifestyle. Plan and organise yourself and your meals. It makes life a whole lot easier. So what have I been eating. Well that is one thing I love about Paleo..there is never a shortage of food. Ok it may not include bread and pasta but there are loads of delicious recipes out there. Everything is cooked from scratch so this is where being prepared comes in. I forgot to take photos of some of my meals - I would be half way through when I would think of it and I really don't think you want to see my half eaten meals :). I am not a fan of vegetables...I actually hate most of them. Its all in my head really though. So what I have been doing is chopping veg up really small or using my hand blender. I'm like a child but it works. Like in my Curry their was Broccoli, Cauliflower and Spinach and in my burgers I had Onions, Mushrooms & Spinach. There is a huge variety of recipes available on the internet. Some of my favourite are on Nom Nom Paleo, Irish Paleo Girl & Our Paleo Life. So how have I being feeling? Day 1 was great. I was really enthusiastic to get started. I wasn't hungry at all. I ate scrambled eggs with tomato, spinach and bacon for breakfast, lunch consisted of homemade roasted veg & chicken soup and dinner was porkchops, broccoli, cauliflower and carrots. I had nuts, berries and fruit in between and peppermint tea and green tea. Day 2 was fine aswell. I was working though so it really drove the point home that you need to be organised. For breakfast I had sweet potato pancakes, roasted veg & chicken soup and a breast of chicken for lunch and dinner was beef burgers with carrots. I drank plenty of herbal tea and also made flavoured water. I simply chopped up peach and raspberries and put them in a jug of water. Leave it over night and it is just gorgeous without all the nasty artificial flavourings and sweetners. Day 3 was ROUGH. I have had a cough for the past week and I got a headcold which caused a headache and just felt miserable. All I really wanted was a cup of regular tea with milk and sugar!!! (the little comforts in life). But I battled through with a little pep talk from my work colleges and of course Denise. She explained it was my body detoxing and because its so stressful for me because there is no sugar available as fuel, Cortisol (which is a stress hormone) was being released. This suppresses my immunity which is why I got sick. Isn't it mad how the body works!!!! I had a great big lunch of burgers and stir fried cabbage with bacon lardons. And I made the most gorgeous Coconut Chicken Curry for dinner. I made sure to drink plenty of water and added ginger and a squeeze of lemon to my herbal teas. I also was in bed by 10 o'clock. So after a great nights sleep I feel great today. So that's how things are going so far. I am feeling much better today and I just hope all the badness has left my body. I am making more soup today so will take plenty of pictures. So what do you think of the blog? Will I keep going?
Let me know in the comments below #eatclean #reset Susie xxx Hey guys I'm not even sure how many of your will be interested in this type of blog but I am going to keep a diary for myself and if you are interest it might help you out in some way. I have decided to do a Whole 30. What is that you may ask? Well here is a little background about it and why I have decided to do it. I have the pleasure of working with an amazing woman named Denise who would be know to the world as Irish Paleo Girl (_www.irishpaleogirl.ie). She has a huge following on her blog & Facebook account and rightly so. Denise is studying to become a nutritional therapist and passionately follows a Paleo Diet. In her words "The Paleo diet mimics the diet of our ancestors. The emphasis is on clean, real foods - with no grains processed foods, sugar or dairy." Now I am NO expert on nutrition or the Paleo diet but after working with Densie for over 2 years I have a general idea of what is good and what is bad. And let me tell you we are all be hoodwinked by society today. I bet you think Special K is good for you...WRONG!!!! it is FULL of sugar. And sugar is BAD, BAD, BAD!!!I'm not going to get into a whole load of detail but if you are interested in finding out more go check out Denise's page. So a Whole 30 is basically stripping certain food groups from your diet like sugar, grains, dairy, legumes oh & of course alcohol. These unhealthy, hormone-unbalancing, gut-disrupting, inflammatory foods are zapping my energy levels, making it impossible to lose weight, disrupting my sleep and basically killing me slowly. A Whole 30 is like pressing the reset button on you body. It is a great kick start to what will hopefully the start of my new healthier lifestyle Now before you go saying oh it's the same as the Atkins or any of those other fad diets I can assure you its not. Yes you have to remove certain things from your diet like bread, pasta and sugar but if there is one thing Denise has taught me is that there is nearly ALWAYS a healthy tasty Paleo alternative. A little about me!!!Well where do I begin - I am 33 and have been over weight for nearly all of my adult life. I have a very busy hectic life (which I love) but unfortunately don't always have the energy levels to keep up with it. I suffer from PCOS and don't sleep well at night. That's me in a nutshell. And I'm hoping this Whole 30 will be the kickstart I need to fix some of those problems. I have tried EVERY diet under the sun from Weight Watchers to Slimming World, Atkins, Lipotrim and the Cambridge diet to name a few. I always do well for about 6 weeks then I fall off the wagon and return to my old ways therefore putting on whatever weight I had lost (and sometimes even more). About 18 months ago I joined my local Gym and stuck to a brilliant regime and healthy eating plan (mostly Paleo) for over 3 months. I lost 2 stone and then Christmas came and I threw all my hard work away. So I have decided to start again!!! I am kicking off with a Whole 30. The Whole 30 is basically a really strict version of Paleo. It is a great way to jump start my new healthy lifestyle and even though it will be VERY tough I think I am up for the challenge.
I will keep you updated on here. It may not always be a full written blog but I will post photos of my daily menu and how I am feeling on them days. Wish me the best of luck!!!! Chat soon |