Whole30 - Day 8

Day 8 - Saturday.   Saturday is "Donut Day" at our house.   On most Saturday's, my youngest son and I head out around 9AM and get a dozen donuts.  Chocolate frosting, raspberry cream, more chocolate frosting.... very nice.

This Saturday, my son slept in and I took the dog to the dog park for a 2 mile walk.   Just as I was leaving, I got the text... "Donuts??".   Since the grocery store with the best donuts was on the way home from the dog park, I stopped and picked up 1/2 dozen, figuring that most oldest son was out of town and my wife and I would definitely not be participating.  

Didn't really have the desire to eat a donut on the way home and felt pretty good about passing on what used to be a good sugar high on most Saturdays.

In the afternoon, my wife and I did some shopping and stopped by Whole Foods while were we out.   I was starting to get hungry (I'm still trying to learn how much to eat so I don't get hungry in between meals) and had a Lara bar.   These are good, not really recommended on Whole30 just because it is snacking, but I like them because they are easy to carry with me and get me out of driving through McDonald's or BK when I am hungry.

When we got home I decided to take the boys to the movie theatre.  I knew this would be the mother of all tests, because there is very little I like more than movie theatre popcorn.  I used to get a large bucket (no "butter") and add some extra salt and have that entire thing gone before the movie even started.

Driving there, my boys were joking with me and asking if I was going to be able to make it through the movie without popcorn.  No problem... little did they know but I was bootlegging a bag of cashews and apricots into the movie theatre just in case.  

We go up to the counter, order a large popcorn and 2 bags of sour worms and a soft drink.  While I'm waiting for the popcorn, my boys take the cups for soda and disappear.  Next thing I know, I standing there holding a large popcorn and two bags of sour worms.   I have to be honest, there were a number of minutes that I seriously thought about sticking my head into that bucket and eating like a horse....   That got me to thinking, if taste is 80% smell, what if I stuffed a couple of pieces of popcorn up my nose and then ate my cashews... would it taste like popcorn??  After some healthy debate with my kids, I decided to forgo my experiment since that is not how sane people behave.

Proud to say, Day 8 was in the bag.  Another temptation conquered!!

Whole30 - Day 7

Day 7 -  yes - I made it an entire week, I traveled, ate out at new restaurants and stuck to the plan.   Ok, I know what everyone is thinking (well, since I have 2 followers of my blog, I know what BOTH of you are thinking) - did I lose any weight.

Well, since one of the Whole30 rules is not to weigh yourself, and I am such a rule follower.....

I lost 5lbs the first week!!  That's right - 5lbs.  Now, not that this is a competition, but our Pastor lost 9lbs the first week.  But even still, I was pretty happy with 5 lbs.   Most important, I feel great!!  I seem to have more energy and my health issues have been non-existent for the past week.   I was starting to think there may be something to this "eat healthy and keep the chemicals and sugar away" theory.

I started the day off with some more of the hash for breakfast and wasn't starting to get hungry until lunch time.   I had brought some food in to work and sat and had a nice meal with some homemade guacamole (my wife made it, not me..), lots of vegetables and some turkey.

During work one of the areas in the office had two big boxes of donuts.   As I was walking through someone offered me a donut.   Pretty happy, I wasn't even tempted.  When I looked at that donut all I saw was 1/2lb of pure sugar  and I knew enough to stay away.   Temptation #33 -- overcome.

After work a bunch of people were stopping out at a local bar to celebrate one of their coworkers moving.   I was asked to go out and decided I would.   This is a Bohemian place - and they have very good beer, some giant butter soaked pretzels and awesome brats.... shouldn't be a problem right??

First thing to go wrong was that when I ordered a club soda with lime - they told me they don't have club soda and offered me a Sprite.  Nope - I ended up with a big glass of water while everyone else was drinking beer.   I was doing good for about 30 minutes until the pretzels and brats starting showing up as appetizers.   Since I was getting hungry, I figured this was as good of time as any to make my escape.

I was starting to feel like I could handle just about any of my previous temptations.   Little did I know what Day 8 would bring....

Whole30 - Day 6

Day 6 -  Travel Day

  Day 6 started at 5:30AM - with only 5 hours sleep behind me, I would normally be worried about a strong POTS episode or my IBS kicking in 20 minutes before I board the plane.   But not today, I felt great, was fully hydrated and ready to go. 

I was running late so I didn't eat breakfast until I got to the airport.  But instead of getting something at one of the restaurants I just ate some cashews and apricots I had in my bag.   The flight was great (passed on the peanuts and pretzels again) but by the time I pulled in my driveway 4 hours later, I was pretty hungry. 

Normally, when I get that hungry, I'm eating some potato chips and washing it down with a beer.   For protein, nothing beats some pepperoni cheese and crackers.   But not today.   Today, when I got home, my wife had made some hash.   She had found some chicken sausage at Whole Foods and put in some sweet potatoes, white potatoes, spinach, and onions.    

 I thought I had died and gone to heaven, very tasty.   We had read on some of the Whole30 blogs about people eating hash and they raved about it.  I can see why.   Great flavor and filled me up.   The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, and since I was home, pretty easy to stick to the plan. 

My wife noticed that I was feeling good, despite not getting a lot of sleep and traveling.  In the past, these trips sometimes result in 2-3 days of