monday morning qb

day twenty-nine: monday morning qb

Posted on by thedingismything

Holy cow. This was one of those weekends when I need a weekend to recover from my weekend. Spent Saturday morning at an Earth Day event picking up trash out of the L.A. River, and then Sunday I helped my mom clean out her garage to prep for a yard sale next weekend. It all added up to a lot of manual labor followed by a lot of time recovering by binge-watching season 5 of Game of Thrones before the new season premiere last night.

Again, holy cow – if you saw it, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Where I went right this weekend:

The Husband and I have a long-standing tradition of making a big celebratory dinner for the first Game of Thrones of the season. We try to make it something they would eat on the show. He was in charge of last night’s feast, and he outdid himself with a little dish he called “Fleabottom Bowl of Brown.” It was a Whole30 compliant beef stew he came up with on his own, and it hit the spot. The only this we were missing was our wine. Tyrion Lannister would have been truly disappointed.

beef stew

Where I went wrong:

Despite all my activities this weekend, I still fell short of my step goal both days. I averaged around 7,000 steps per day. It probably wouldn’t have taken much to get those extra steps – a quick walk around my neighborhood would have done it.

We had our eyes on the prize this weekend, and stayed focused on Day 30 being around the corner. But, I felt like we dwelled a little too much on thinking about how everything would have been better with something NOT allowed by our diet. Example: After the river cleanup, we both were dying to go with our friends to Golden Road Brewery and just spend the rest of the day drinking beer and hanging out. Talking about it over and over made it so much harder to focus on the main event itself. And, after eating the beef stew, all I could think about was how it could have been even better with a big ol’ glass of merlot (don’t judge me) and some crusty bread to soak up the juices at the bottom of the bowl.

Goals for this week:

Make it to Wednesday. Come onnnnn, Wednesday.

No seriously, I’m looking forward to a little freedom after Whole30 is over. But, I’m also afraid of going nuts and undoing all the good I’ve accomplished. Seems to be the outcome of every diet I’ve ever done. Which is why we started thinking of this not as a diet, but how we’d like to eat from here on out. Just with a little more flexibility. I’ve realized I don’t miss sugar at all and I could eat like this quite happily as long as I could enjoy a glass of wine with dinner or a nice cocktail at the end of the week.

So my goal for this week is to enjoy a few days of being done with Whole30, but to try just wading into the pool instead of diving into the deep end right away. I want to introduce one thing back at a time, and avoid stuffing my face with junk food again.

Note: This is a re-post from the Tumblr version of this blog. It originally ran on April 25, 2016.

monday morning qb: day twenty-two.

Posted on by thedingismything

I am officially at the point where I am dreaming about food. Cupcakes, specifically, that I baked myself and taste like heaven in the form of spongy chocolate cake and vanilla buttercream frosting.

Send help. Soon.

Less than 10 days to go, and I’m just barely hanging. I’d love to report that, hey, it’s gotten so much easier to say no to yummy things and not even think about all I’m missing out on. It’s actually just about the opposite.

The Husband and I are so over cooking. Every recipe just seems boring. Granted, we have a lot of side stress building as we are making offers on TWO houses this week (so much adulting happening over here!!!) and it is taking a toll on our energy levels.

Full disclosure: We’ve already planned our first meal out for Day 31. It involves wine.

Where I went right this weekend:

Found an awesome manager’s special on 99% fat free ground turkey at our local Sprouts Market. Picked up four packages, and froze one to have on hand. Each package weighed about a pound, and they were all less than $4 per package. Win!

Where I went wrong:

Aside from dreaming of cupcakes, the fruit cravings have been real. I’m eating a lot of dates and sliced pineapple, and usually after dinner at “dessert time.” Probably reinforcing some real bad habits there, but in light of everything, I figured I could give myself a pass on this one.

Goals for this week:

Totally failed on my goal from last week to increase my steps per day and work on getting more activity in. So just going to roll that one over into this week. However, I’m also going to set a goal to try minimum two new recipes this week. And force myself to be excited about them.

 

Note: This is a re-post from the Tumblr version of this blog. It originally ran on April 18, 2016.

day fifteen: monday morning quarterbacking

Posted on by thedingismything

Holy shit, you guys.

I’m at the halfway point! FIFTEEN DAYS and I’m done with Whole30.

Last week was rough, I’m not gonna lie. There were a few moments between Thursday and Saturday where I just wanted to pop open a bottle and drink myself happy again. I wanted to run into Menchie’s and just bury my face in a giant cup of frozen yogurt. I wanted to grab the donut straight from my co-worker’s hand and shove it in my mouth.

You get the picture. I’m pretty sure The Husband was ready to file for divorce by Saturday morning.

Where I went right this weekend:

A few things saved my life over the past day or so. I battled the craving to hit up a Mexican restaurant and eat all the chips and all the guac and drink all the margaritas by making my own guac at home, and buying and cutting a jicama to sub as chips to dip in the guac. It was surprisingly delicious and definitely hit the spot. Also, we treated ourselves to buying an 8-pack of La Croix sparkling water. It was a nice change from regular water, and it made it feel like I was treating myself to a fancy cocktail.

IMG_20160411_111955

We also tried a few new Whole30 recipes that were ah-mah-zing. Details to come.

Where I went wrong:

In addition to not getting any workouts in this weekend, we made bacon for breakfast both Saturday and Sunday morning. It was Whole30 compliant bacon, but bacon nonetheless. I can’t help but feel a twinge guilty for over-indulging.

Goals for this week:

I felt so low on energy last week that I didn’t feel like I really pushed myself to accomplish much activity. I know I only made my Fitbit-mandated 10,000 steps once or twice. Goal for this week is to get more steps in, and make it to my morning bootcamp every day. I need to keep my activity up in order to really get more results from this.

That being said, I have to brag that my tight pants are not so tight anymore. I was able to wear a pair of pants on Saturday that haven’t been wearable outside the house in a few months. And the pair of Mercy Jeans (definition: the super cheap one-size-up jeans you buy when you’ve gained some weight and all your current jeans are too tight to wear anymore and you don’t want to walk around bottomless like Donald Duck) I acquired last month are now SO big on me, I can’t wear them without looking ridiculous. Yay me!

Note: This is a re-post from the Tumblr version of this blog. It originally ran on April 11, 2016.

day seven: monday morning quarterbacking

Posted on by thedingismything

One week into Whole 30 and I’m surviving.

Just barely.

Seriously, it was an emotionally taxing weekend. The Husband and I are looking at houses, and everyone knows what the home-buying market in the Los Angeles area is like right now. Super competitive and nearly impossible for most middle class dwellers. I don’t know what makes me think we’re any different.

We spent much of the weekend looking at houses, and after falling in love with one adorable home, we spent the rest of the weekend figuring out how to make it work. We were both pretty grumpy. The Husband did some insane amount of pull-ups at his CrossFit gym on Friday and has been in pain ever since. I’ve been stressed out about making my home-ownership dreams come true. We reached a point yesterday afternoon where I turned to him and asked “How about we just call this Whole 30 thing off right now and go get drunk?”

We considered it.

To top it all off, we were invited to our friends’ house for a get-together Sunday afternoon. We were both very worried about eating something off-plan. We even went so far as to bring our own veggie tray and guacamole. Thankfully, our amazing friends were not only aware of our Whole 30 ambitions, but they were sensitive and thoughtful enough to have options we could eat, too. And we were able to relax! And actually enjoy ourselves! For a solid three hours, I didn’t think about how sad I was that I couldn’t open a bottle of wine and/or afford the house of our dreams.

Where I went right this weekend:

I know I’m patting myself on the back here, but I did just about everything right this weekend. I didn’t cheat my Whole 30 guidelines at all, and because of our diet plan we couldn’t go out to a restaurant. We probably saved a ton by eating in all weekend long. Our meals were all super easy and affordable, to boot. More on that, later.

Where I went wrong:

I have to say that planning to do the Whole 30 at a time when my stress levels were already so high was probably not the wisest choice. But it was our choice nonetheless, and we’re stickin’ to it.

Goals for this week:

There was a point yesterday when we were willing to say we did the Whole 6.5 diet. The idea of saying “Good enough,” and going out for pizza and bourbon was tough to resist. There was even a point at our friends’ house when I found my hand – out of force of habit – reach straight for the nacho cheese Doritos. I diverted it to the veggie tray just in time. But, here I am, at Day 7. I made it a week. Just three more to go.

I told myself yesterday that I would eat whole foods like this for the rest of my life, if it meant I could have booze whenever I wanted. With just about every dinner I ate this weekend, I’d find myself thinking about what wine would pair best with it. This led me to two conclusions: A) I might want to re-evaluate my attachment to liquor, and 2) I could eat like this for the rest of my life if it meant I could enjoy booze. That means my mind has started to think of this Whole 30 experiment less as a diet, and more of a lifestyle change. Which is really the point, right?

Breakthroughs, guys. So many breakthroughs.

At risk of this sounding like an AA treatment, my goal for this week is to take things each day at a time. I recognize that I’m carrying a lot of stress in my life right now, which makes the threat of breaking down more and more likely. I might lose my mind f I try to think about meal planning for the next seven days, or how I’m going to get to Day 14 without a Manhattan on the rocks. So today, I’m thinking about tonight. Tonight, I’ll think about tomorrow. Tomorrow, I’ll think about the next day. I’m still food-prepping. I’ve got my pre-cut veggies and fruits all set to go in my fridge. I’ve still got the upper hand there. If only I could have as much control over the rest of my life as I do with my nutrition right now …

Note: This is a re-post from the Tumblr version of this blog. It originally ran on April 4, 2016.

whole30: day one.

Posted on by thedingismything

Ordinarily I would do my Monday Morning Quarterbacking today, but since it is DAY ONE of my Whole 30 experiment, I’m changing it up a bit. Instead of looking at what went right or wrong this weekend (because honestly, who does everything right on holiday weekends??), I’m going to focus on my first day of Whole 30 and how I appear to have failed miserably at prepping for it.

Admittedly, this half-Jew with no children took part in some serious Easter celebrating yesterday. While I only had two small pieces of candy all day (That’s actually a total lie – You’ll see later…) I did eat Easter brunch and Easter dinner and I didn’t hold back on the ham or the bacon or the lasagna.

That’s right. I said it. LASAGNA, bitches. And it was delicious.

Moving on.

Here we are at Day 1. I’ve read a lot about how I can expect the next week to play out. According to the book, today I should feel ready to conquer the world. By this weekend, I should hate anyone and everything in sight. Apologies to The Husband in advance.

I expected the first week to have a lot of trial and error. But less than a day into it, I’m noticing a lot of errors. I’m chalking it up to one more benefit for people to read my blog: so they will learn from my mistakes.

Back to all the Eastering on Sunday. Because most of the day was spent with family, my meal prep game wasn’t at its strongest. My goal was to get enough done that I could make it through Day 1 with minimal challenges. I started with breakfast.

Breakfasts are always the hardest meal for me, since I’m up at O’Dark Thirty to work out before having to be at work by 8 am. To prepare for this morning, I spent some time last night chopping veggies that I can keep in a container in the fridge and take out only what I need to mix in with some scrambled eggs. Five-minute breakfast. There you go. Easy-peasey, right?

Wrong.

Yes, I did enough prep to make a simple, fast breakfast. But, I used only two eggs and ended up hungry by the time I got to work. I brought a banana as an emergency afternoon snack, but ended up having to eat it mid-morning. By 11 am, I was counting the minutes until noon so I could eat my lunch. Lesson learned: Tomorrow, I’m going to try three eggs and/or adding some sweet potato to fill me up early in the day so I’m not ravenous and eat all my food before noon.

For lunch, I usually take leftovers from whatever dinner we had the night before. Because that wasn’t really an option for today, I knew I had to come up with something easy. I used the protein salad recipe from the Whole 30 cookbook to make a little tuna salad to bring to work. That meant taking time Sunday night to make the infamous Whole 30 Basic Mayo recipe. Everyone I know who has done Whole 30 has sworn by it, and now I know what they’re talking about.  I don’t think I’ll ever go back to store-bought mayo again.

A few tips for anyone wanting to give it a whirl: I mistakenly started to blend the ingredients in a mini food processor that’s really more like a chopper. WRONG. You have to drizzle olive oil into it slowly, while it’s blending, so make sure you’re using a food processor or KitchenAid mixer that you can leave open on top and pour the oil in. I had to transfer my mayo base to a mixing bowl midway through. Also, the book says you can use an immersion blender while you’re adding the oil. Don’t. Seriously, just don’t. I learned the hard way that it’s near impossible to hold the immersion blender with one hand and do a good job of mixing everything while slowly pouring olive oil with the other. Even with The Husband as my handy sous chef, it was hard to do. Use a standing mixer – you’ll have a much easier time.

Making the mayo was the hardest part of meal prep last night. Once that was done, I was able to mix the tuna salad and package up veggies for our lunches in plenty of time to sit down and watch Madame Secretary while enjoying my last York Peppermint Patties I’ll eat for the next 30 days.  (Told you I ate more than just two pieces of Easter candy.)

Maybe my favorite part of Day 1 – and so far, the only thing I seem to have done right – is when my boss brought in leftovers and set a bag full of goodies on my desk. Desserts and pizza. No joke. I brought it downstairs to the kitchen, ignored how magical that pizza smelled, and ran back to my desk and started eating my tuna salad. Suck it, pizza.

If anyone else is starting up Whole 30 or looking for some meal inspiration, I’ll be posting recipes and tips and stories about what I’m sure will be many more kitchen mishaps so you can learn from my mistakes. Like my immersion blender blunder. My shoulder is still sore.

Note: This is a re-post from the Tumblr version of this blog. It originally ran on March 28, 2016.