It finally happened. In a big way. For one meal. And now we're back on track for the remainder of our family adventure. It was race day, and in our household, race day = cheat day. It has since we were married. That's 11 years of you run hard, you eat what you want. Only I didn't run. I just walked all over and trucked 3 kids around with me and logged 4.8 miles and managed to keep us eating whole 30 style while travelling and staying in a hotel. Except for that one post-race meal. Do I regret it? Kind of, I didn't HAVE to do it, I wasn't having major cravings, I could have picked salad off the menu. But I didn't. At least we all shared the bacon cheese fries and the oreo milkshake. How did I feel? Bloated. Tired. Not energetic. But other than that OK. Just not great. I'm learning that some people react more strongly to things, be it dietary changes or poison ivy. My husband and my oldest didn't feel great, but the rest of us seemed OK other than just feeling kind of blah.
Here's a few things that I AM noticing a difference in: heartburn(which is seriously ONLY pregnancy related) is GONE. Have not had an issue with it once, whereas normally in the 3rd trimester I can't sleep without medication for it. I'm really not hungry all the time like I thought I would be. I feel like I'm sleeping a little better(maybe the heartburn thing?). And I definitely have more energy in the afternoons, I don't crash after lunch, I can keep going even if I'm a little tired.
So here's my prep day advice:
1)Hardboil eggs, they are amazing go-to snacks and salad additions. We went through 2 dozen of them the first week.
2) Chop a bunch9and I mean a TON) of veggies and fruit, carrot sticks, bell peppers, celery, apple slices, melon. They are super easy to grab snacks, and it saves time in the morning when you're trying to pack 2 lunches and make breakfast for everyone at the same time.
3) Put nuts into Ziploc bags according to serving size, or else you'll eat the whole bag at once.
4) Broil up some chicken breasts to use in salad or wraps, and precook your bacon and sausage. Saves a ton of time in the early mornings!
5) Have a favorite berry, melon, or fruit ready to go for the kiddos, I bribe them with it to get them to finish their spinach. They also love pistachios.
6) Premake your
mayo (I'm using this recipe from
www.whole30.com and I use my food processor, haven't had it fail yet!) for the week, I made it 3 times last week! It's a base for ranch, tartar sauce, and lots of other things. Plus its just so yummy when it's homemade! I also recommend going ahead and have some dressing(ranch or otherwise) ready to go so again, you're not making it at 6am.
7) Paper towels work wonders to keep your chopped veggies fresh. Dampen it for carrots and celery, put a dry one under your bell peppers.
That's what I've learned. I hope it's helpful! And see below for my revised and revisited meal plan and journal.
Day 4 (the end): Dinner didn't go as planned. Z ended up working late, so we rushed and took him dinner, and as we were driving home an hour past dinner time with 3 hungry kids, pizza just sounded so EASY. It's not my favorite food, it's just easy. Plain and simple. So we survived the trip home, and I shredded up some sweet potatoes and carrots, mixed in eggs and cinnamon and fried it up like pancakes. Topped with banana slices and applesauce, YUM! 2 of the 3 critics loved it. Joey said "Let's KEEP this recipe!" Even Sarah was on board, "Can we eat this for dinner tomorrow night?" Gid on the other hand, let me just say: it had sweet potato in it. He has a huge aversion for some reason. Oh well.
Day 5: Hashbrowns, eggs, avocado and tomatoes for breakfast, chicken salad wraps for lunch (I never knew I liked chicken salad, maybe it's the homemade mayo), and failed zoodles with steak and roasted broccoli for dinner. At least they ate the broccoli. Gid and Sarah ate a bunch of stuff today, between Bible study snack and Costco samples. HYPER! They went to bed early.
Day 6: Crazy run around day! Smoothies and eggs for breakfast, got home with 10 minutes to make and eat lunch, so I ended up using the only lunchmeat I had (sugar and soybean oil and who knows what) to make veggie wraps to eat in the car. So disappointed that it wasn't even a yummy or good cheat! I would much rather have had a big yummy sandwich from subway, would have been just as fast and tasted better. The worst part is that as we were driving I remembered that DUH I did have a plan, heating up leftover stew. WAA. So I was totally tempted to throw in the towel because by the time we got home I was SO tired and we still had soccer practice, but I got up off my buns and made dinner that I left on the stove so that we could eat after soccer. Baked salmon, roasted potatoes and roasted cabbage. It was yummy, and so worth it. Even Z said as soon as we got home "Awesome. I liked all of it." Made it totally worth it!
Day 7: Insanity and craziness! Nut/coconut/banana pancakes for breakfast(YUM). I had a plan for eating on the road. But then we had a sick kid in the morning. So plans changed, and I was going to stay home with the kids. And get caught up, and prep food for next week, and find some lunchmeat we can really eat. And then everyone was fine, and everyone still wanted to go. SO I threw together everything I had planned and packed and we were in the car and on the road in an hour. I grabbed every easy thing to eat in the house: fruit leathers, apples, bananas, larabars, nuts, chopped veggies, more fruit, and all our leftovers (salmon dinner, and the stew I forgot about) and we were off. We snacked the whole way (after eating BLT salad for lunch YUM), and then met friends when we arrived. I borrowed their microwave to reheat leftovers and voila! Dinner.
Day 8: Breakfast was good! Larabars, bananas, and eggs and fruit juice from the hotel breakfast. And then lunch happened. It was race day, and if you run hard, you get to eat what you want. It's a family rule that has been established since we were married. So Carl's Jr. it was. And cheeseburgers. And bacon cheese fries(we all shared one). And even an Oreo milkshake that we all split.(Hey, don't judge!) And after that meal, we were back on track. We all felt bloated, full, and tired. Several in the family had some intestinal discomfort later in the evening. I really didn't feel horrible, just felt blah a not great. For dinner, I had fresh veggies, fruit, deviled eggs and grilled chicken. Win. Back on track.
Excerpts from Joey's log:
Day 4: I like the banana crunch better than the applesauce crunch. I am starting to like the diet. I think I can live for two more weeks.
Day 5: I like the diet but it's almost over (I showed him that we are almost halfway!). Although I would like sugar once again.
Day 7: Here's a poem: I wish for good foods, oh how I wish for vegetables. Oh how I wish for fruuuuit. Oh how I wish for protieen. Oh and how I wish for you is called good foods. (He sang it to me.
Menu Plan (Revised version):
Fri: Smoothies and HB eggs
Turkey wrapped veggies/leftovers
Baked Salmon w/ roasted cabbage and potatoes
Sat: banana nut pancakes with cinnamon and apples
salad
eating out (aka: salad. This turned into leftovers heated up at a friend's house)
Sun: Larabars, fruit, eggs
Restaurant - race day cheat (or lettuce wrapped burger)
potluck (grilled chicken, fruit, veggies, deviled eggs)
Mon: sweet potato/zucchini pancakes w/ applesauce, scrambled eggs w/ spinach, sausage
steak, avocado, pistachio salad
skillet beef "stew" and roasted potatoes
chia banana pudding (tastes great with fresh berries!)
Tues: egg & sausage "muffins", leftover pudding
chicken veggie lettuce wraps
skillet chicken thighs w/ artichokes
Wed: Smoothies, HB eggs
BLT salad
baked fish w/ potato "chips" and broccoli
Thurs: fried eggs w/ hashbrowns
tuna patties w/ broccoli & apple slices
taco salad
Fri: egg, spinach, bacon "quiche"
leftovers/chicken salad wraps
crockpot kaluah pork over steamed cabbage
Sat: sweet potato & carrot pancakes
deviled eggs, chicken wraps or salad
hamburgers w/potato "buns"
Sun: banana nut cakes
leftovers
grilled salmon & veggie skewers
Mon: Reintroduce legumes:
eggs, bananas w/ Peanut butter
taco salad w/ beans
crockpot chili
Tues: smoothies w/ eggs
salmon patties w/ broccoli and fruit
baked potatoes & chicken
Wed: Non gluten grains
eggs, sweet potato pancakes
corn chips w/ guac & salsa, turkey wraps
stir fry chicken & rice
Thurs: baked egg muffins
leftover chili
BLT salad
Fri: Dairy
yogurt & fruit or non gluten cereal w/ milk
cheese w/ salad or in wraps
crockpot roast w/ potatoes, carrots, celery
ice cream
Sat: larabars, HB eggs, fruit
deviled eggs, lettuce wraps
leftovers
Sun: gluten
pancakes
Sandwiches
pasta/spaghetti
Day 14: I put creamer in my coffee this morning. It was too sweet. Z took all 3 kids fishing so I got some quiet time. To cook breakfast and make dried mangoes for snacks. Nutcakes with strawberries for breakfast! Soccer today, everyone wants to be done and keeps begging for sweets and things. Came home and whipped up some deviled eggs, chicken vinaigrette coleslaw and chopped veggies for lunch and then back for the 2nd soccer game of the day. It was like 92, so hot! And then my family surprised me for mother's day a day early and we went to DQ for blizzards after the game. Did I mention that it was 92? And you do all remember that I'm 33 weeks pregnant, right? Anyway, it was delicious, but I only got thru about half of mine and I had a splitting headache from the sugar that didn't leave all day. Made super good sweet potato sliders with guacamole. So cute and so yummy. I used plain ground beef and skipped the bacon, we added lettuce and tomato. Still trying to figure out this whole adding foods back in and keeping it healthy thing. Even Z agreed that incorporating more whole foods and keeping most of the sugar out is a good idea. 
