keeping the streak going

Sleep: 7 hrs (10:15 pm to 5 am). Not as tough to get up early as I thought it would be. Tomorrow may not be this easy, but it did feel good to just go to sleep when I was starting to get tired.

Exercise: crossfit. Wall balls, pushups, and double unders. I did the run at warmup, and did singles for the jumprope! This is HUGE for me, because it was the first time I haven't had to protect my toe (or my knee). It's the first small step in getting back to doing WODs unmodified!

Took Kina for a walk before dinner with my parents and bro and niece around the park across the street from my neighborhood. She is so much fun because she loves Kina while simultaneously being afraid of her. It makes for a very amusing interaction.

There's something to be said for just getting outside and moving. It does wonders for my psyche and stress management. Work has not been very fun lately, and it was starting to affect me in all sorts of crazy ways (getting fatter from stress eating being one of them). Playing with doggies and babies is a great mini-escape. They are so in-the-moment, and every new discovery is exhilarating and exciting (the slide at the park brings on squeals and peals of laughter from her, which makes me laugh too -- I haven't pealed in such a long time). I wish we could all be like them (but then we'd never get anything done, so I guess not).

Meal 1:
sweet potato hash browns, veggie egg scramble.
I LOVE crossfit days because I feel that I am justified in carbing it up a bit at breakfast and lunch! If you've never tried sweet potato hash, you should! It's so great.

Meal 2:
tuna salad (mayo, celery, boiled egg, onion)
sweet potato chips
the celery was from my CSA box, and it was so celery. It's hard to describe, but the all the veggies from my CSA boxes have been their veggie selves, only more saturated with their own flavor. I love it!

Meal 3:
made my own kimchi jigae from leftover pork, napa cabbage (from my CSA box) and old stanky kimchi. Really hit the spot because I've been wanting some sour, spicy soup; and also, kimchi is my favorite probiotic!

I snacked a little on some strawberries from the new CSA box I picked up today. I have raved enough about my CSA box, but imagine strawberries that taste even more strawberry. So. Good. I have a feeling I'm allergic to them, though, because I had a box a couple weeks ago, and broke out in a rash again (I recall eating strawberries right around the last time I broke out in a rash on my legs as well).  We'll see if I react to them again this time. I will be very sad if I do.

It's 8:25 pm, and my fuelband reads 3179.

another successful day, in the books!

back to it (again)

So I started last week with the best of intentions, but it ended with a big fat pffft. There is nothing left to do but pick myself up, dust off my knees and get going again. I've learned from last week that maybe 4 non-paleo meals is too much. Each meal became a gateway drug to the next big fix. Live and learn, right? This week, I'm going to go for 2 non-paleo meals, and I'm going back to crossfit, knee or no knee. My brain/body need that reset, or the stress from work will make me stuff my face until I don't feel [the stress] anymore.

Today's stats:
sleep: 7 hrs. Fell asleep at 12:30 am/1am, woke up at 7:30, but snoozed until 8:30 am. This is a shitty way to sleep. I felt much better when I wasn't pushing past tired just to finish a tv show. Ben Franklin, as much as I hate to admit it, you were right. Early to bed, early to rise... make Ed feel a whole lot better.

Meal 1:
2-eggs scrambled with veggies (mustard spinach, tomato, onion)
half an avocado

Meal 2 (not pictured because I was too excited to eat it):
kalua pork (a la nomnom paleo) with salsa from Trader Joe's
grilled veggies (asparagus, zucchini)
2 tangerines (from CSA box -- so great, you guys! So flavorful)

Meal 3:
paleo Japanese curry
sauteed swiss chard (CSA box ftw!)
Green Goddess juice from Mother's Market (spinach, kale, celery, parsley, cucumber, apple, lemon)

I stayed late at work meeting with student to practice some extended BIO with them in preparation for the final proficiency in 2 weeks, so meal 2 and 3 came about 3 hrs apart in favor of me not starving to death and eating some bad-for-me snacks that the students bring to the lab when they practice (read: this is what happened last week).

I snacked on roasted seaweed and some trail mix (simply almonds, cashews and cranberries from Trader Joe's) as well. 

It's now about 9:20 pm, and my fuelband reads: 2488

Tomorrow, back to crossfit, and hopefully back to better sleep!

Where I've been

So it's been a little while since I wrapped my first Whole30 and embarked on another immediately after it.

I meant to post about my progress, but... it just didn't happen.

Summary:
After 67 days of Whole30 compliant eating, I lost 17 lbs, and was squeezing into my almost fat pants!

I went snowboarding towards the beginning of March, fell, and gave myself a pretty big hematoma on my left knee. This effectively has wiped me from crossfitting since then.

Since being off the Whole30, I've let little dietary nuisances creep back into my life like:
1. cookies, chocolate, ice cream, nacho cheese and chips. I've gained back 7 lbs!
2. because I haven't been going to crossfit regularly, it also means I haven't been working out. At all.
3. My sleep patterns have shifted away from 7-8 hrs a night to... whatever I can get
4. work stress did a little sneak attack number on me, and now I'm swamped!

Overall, I'm just not feeling as awesome as I did when I was Whole30 compliant, and I can feel myself giving in to temptation a lot just because it's there, and it looks pretty good (I'm being totally honest -- the stuff I've allowed myself to eat doesn't even look amazing, it just looks pretty good). My belly feels a little more unsettled, and stress gets to me a little bit more like it used to.

Now my struggle is balancing an enjoyable and livable life with a healthy one. I don't believe that the two are mutually exclusive, but I'm having a heck of a time finding the sweet spot.

Here's my proposed plan:
Whole30 compliance 80% of the time. If you figure 3 meals a day (and let's face it, I'm lucky sometimes if I get the full 3 meals) x 7 days, that's 17 meals that need to be Whole30 compliant. I get 4 meals to enjoy with friends!

Whole30 has some recommendations about riding your own bike, and from the looks of the past 3-4 weeks, I still need the training wheels. I love the part about jumping back on, and doing whole3's or whole7's! It gives me hope that I don't have to do a Wholerestofmylife!

As with any change in my life, I've noticed I keep up with it better if I blog my progress. So... lucky you!

Here are today's stats:
Sleep: 7 hrs (12:30 to 7:30 -- working on shifting this back to early morning)
Exercise: none

Meal 1:
leftover brussel sprouts cooked with bacon (sorry, no pics, but trust me. It was delicious!)

Meal 2:
broccoli/cauliflower rice with japanese curry (sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, curry powder, ghee, chicken stock)

Meal 3:
Thin-sliced beef wrapped in lettuce (dipped in sesame seed oil, balsalmic vinegar, pepper)
thin-sliced beef stir-fried with snap peas and spicy Chinese bbq sauce (aka satsa sauce -- technically not paleo because there is soybean oil in it, but again... progress, not perfection!)

I ate almost half a head of lettuce by myself at dinner tonight. This is the 3rd week that I've been getting farm fresh veggies from a local farm in the form of a CSA box that I split with a coworker every week. So far, it's been lots of fun learning to cook new things (I know what to do with beets now!), and it's one sure way to make sure I eat my veggies! I know this sounds really silly, but the lettuce is amazeballs. Who would have thought lettuce could taste so good???

This week's box has mustard spinach (it looks like giant spinach, honestly) and a maui onion! I can't wait to try it!

I forgot to put my nike band on this morning before I left, so there are no numbers to report. Here's to first day back in the books! I'll try to post more pics tomorrow!