Day 15 - Half Way!!!!



I woke up quite tired this morning and think I hit snooze at least 3 times before I finally dragged myself out of bed. I grabbed 2 of the mini quiches I made yesterday for breaky and a banana. One thing I've noticed since starting whole 30 is I'm drinking a lot less coffee than I did before, probably because I really don't enjoy black coffee that much.

Was a real struggle physically most of the day, just felt really flat and had no energy. For morning tea I had some carrot sticks and mixed nuts. Lunch was suppose to be a turkey salad with mixed salad greens, diced red capsicum, sliced kalamata olives, roast turkey breast, half an avo and a little dressing. But without even thinking, I opened, drained and proceeded to put a tin of tuna on top, what the...? Anyway, it actually didn't taste that bad, thank goodness. I also had a small pink lady apple and a bottle of sparkling mineral water. 

For my afternoon/pre-workout snack I had some mixed nuts, a boiled egg, some turkey and almond covered date roll, which perked me up a bit ready for training.  Today's WOD was "Death by thruster ladder" followed by 2 mins of max thrusters 15kg. In the thruster ladder I did 25kg and got to level 9 and for the max thrusters in 2 mins I got 31.  Was a great class today, I am thankful everyday that I found CrossFit Roar, it has really changed my life for the better, such an awesome group of people :)

Post workout I was a bit slack today and just had a coconut water.  For dinner I cooked up some meatballs with zucchini noodles and some pre dinner snacks for Hannah, Nick and I. Tasted pretty good, will definitely make that one again.

Meatballs and Zucchini Noodles:

Meatballs:

500g grass fed minced beef

1/4 cup of almond meal

2 garlic cloves crushed

1/2 tsp of paprika

1 tsp of rosemary

1 tsp of oregano

1 egg

Salt and Pepper



Place all the ingredients in a large bowl and mix together.  Roll the mix into approx 1 1/2 - 2 inch balls and place on a baking tray lined with baking paper or foil.  Bake in the oven at 160 degrees for 20 mins.  While the meatballs are cooking I made up the sauce.

Sauce:

1/2 red onion diced

1 tin of crushed tomatoes

1 tin of tomato puree

1 clove of garlic crushed

1 tin of hot water

1 tsp basil

1 tsp Italian herbs

salt and pepper

Add a little coconut oil to a hot fry pan and cook the onion and garlic for a few minutes.  As soon as you see the onion starting to colour add the other ingredients except for the hot water.  Stir the sauce well and add 1/2 of the hot water.  Once the meatballs are done in the oven, place them into the sauce and coat well.  Turn down the heat and simmer for at least half an hour, the longer the better.  As the sauce starts to dry out add another 1/2 tin of hot water and continue to simmer on a very low heat.  Depending on how long you leave them for you may need a little more water, but just keep an eye on the mix.  Using a veggie twister or peeler, make up zucchini noodles using 2 smallish zucchini's.  Place in a microwave safe container with a little water and cook on high for 1 minute.  Drain off the water and divide the noodles between 2 or 3 bowls.  Top with the meatballs and sauce. Enjoy! 

Day 14

Wow, managed a sleep in till 8:30, that almost never happens. I went to bed at about 12:30 after getting home from Craig's b'day drinks, so 8 hours sleep is awesome!

Today for breaky I'm trying something my mum told me about on Brisbane Natural Health's page, thanks mum! Instead of using metal or silicone egg rings, simply cut a capsicum into rings on the horizontal and use that, genius! To my eggs I added some nitrate free bacon and half an avo.

Because I didn't eat breakfast until 10, I wasn't hungry before starting work at 1pm, so packed up a salad of baby spinach, carrot spirals (thank you veggie twister!) diced red onion, diced red capsicum (left over from breaky) some kalamata olives and half an avo wrapped up so it didn't go brown. At 2:30 when I had my break I added some tinned salmon in spring water drained, cut up the avo and added the juice of half a lemon and this was followed by a small banana.

For dinner tonight I had some of the Thai green chicken curry with cauliflower rice I made the other day that I had frozen. With this I also had some strawberries and blueberries. When I got home from work I had a snack of 1 boiled egg and some nuts.

For anyone who is interested, here is a list of some of the great paleo facebook pages I have found so far:

PaleOMG

Fast Paleo (they also have an iPhone app)

What I Gather

Stupid Easy Paleo

Paleosophy

Everyday Paleo

Whole9/30

Easy Paleo

Easy Paleo Meals

Crap Kills! Eat Paleo

Mammouth Kitchen

My Food Religion

Health Bent

Paleo Pot

Entertaining Paleo

Foodie Gone Paleo

From Pudgy to Paleo

Elana's Pantry

You Hunt, I Gather

Chowstalker

Robb Wolf

Mark's Daily Apple

Paleo Friggen Delish

The Lazy Caveman

Paleo Kitchen

Nom Nom Paleo

Kait's Primal Kitchen

Civillized Caveman

Balanced Bites

Paleo Diet Recipes

The Clothes Make The Girl

Jen's Gone Paleo

Paleo Pantry

Paleo Diet Lifestyle

So many great resources out there!

Day 13 - Super Saturday!

Saturday's off work are the best, as I get to go to the sat sesh at Roar followed by coffee and breaky at elixir :) It was a huge class this morning and always a great fun vibe. Pre workout I  had some turkey breast and a couple of apple bombs. The WOD was 1km run, 50 V ups, 50 lunges, 50 pull ups, 50 lunges, 50 V ups, 1km run for time. I scaled the V ups to ab mat sit ups, used a green band for pull ups and did a row instead of the run. Came in at 24.12, not cut off, so scaled appropriately, win! At elixir I had 2 poached eggs, avo, grilled tomato and mushrooms with a black coffee.

For lunch today I had the remainder of the roast beetroot, sweet potato and salmon salad with some eggplant grilled in coconut oil. 

I decided to head out to Westfield this afternoon for the first time since starting the whole30.  It was actually harder than I thought walking around amongst all the food and smells...  When I used to go out there I would always head to Starbucks for an iced mocha and the cookie shop to get some mini cookies (there mini, so that's ok right..? haha) In the end I just grabbed what I needed and bailed before I cracked lol.  When I got home I had some nuts and a coconut water to satisfy my cravings. 

For dinner we had a whole30 BBQ, Nick cooked up some grass fed black angus sirloin steaks, onion and a tossed salad of spinach, red onion, mushrooms and tomatoes.  James and Brittany made a super yummy potato salad which had sweet potato, apple, eggs and a paleo mayo based dressing.  Once I get the recipe from him I'll post it up.  I made a apple and mixed berry crumble for desert.  Whoever criticises the whole30/paleo for the lack of food choices should have tasted our dinner! 

Apple and mixed berry crumble:

1 tin of sliced apples (Woolworth's brand has no sugar or preservatives)

3 cups of frozen mixed berries

3/4 cup of almond meal

1 cup of shredded coconut

1 tablespoon of organic cacao powder

1/2 cup of crushed walnuts

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

In a oven proof bowl spread the apples to evenly cover the base then sprinkle with cinnamon.  Next top with a layer of mixed berries (I used the Nana brand with strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries) in a separate bowl mix together the almond meal, coconut, and cacao powder and spread over the berries.  Finally sprinkle the crushed walnuts over the top and bake in the oven at 160 degrees for about 15 mins or until the top starts to turn golden brown.

After dinner we headed out to meet up with some of the crossfit crew to celebrate Craig's 25th Birthday.  Was a great night, nice to see everyone letting their hair down and dressed up :) Started off just drinking soda water with either lemon or lime, but then James had a great idea of seeing if they would put some muddled berries in with it.  The result was a really nice refreshing drink, the bar tender did ask me a couple of times if I wanted alcohol in it though lol. 

When I got home I was a little peckish after watching everyone eat red velvet cake and had a handful of nuts and about 8 strawberries before bed.





Day 12 - Injury management phase 1

Thanks for posting this pic the other day Kathy B! It's really not that hard :)

Today's breaky was a quick boiled egg, some sliced turkey and a pear on the way out the door. Deffinitely not an ideal breakfast, but really not a fan of these cold mornings.  You'd never know I grew up in Victoria lol. Was a fairly constant morning at work, which I actually like, as it makes the time go quicker :) For morning tea I had some strawberries, blueberries, snow peas, with a green tea and water.  The strawberries at the moment are so good, and one of the patients families bought in a huge tray for the staff, so I ate probably the same amount again at lunch with some pumpkin, sweet potato and carrot soup and a green tea.

Headed to the physio straight after work and got some really good advice! He video taped my walking and gave me some exercises to help with my foot stability and balance, inflicted some serious pain through massage, triggering and needling, but it felt a lot better afterwards! More than likely my calf injury was a result of my right leg overcompensating for my left quad injury a few months ago that I didn't do anything about (that will teach me for ignoring things!) No running for a week :(

For dinner I made roast beetroot, sweet potato and grilled salmon salad with grape tomatoes, slivered almonds and a lemon dijon dressing. 

Roast beetroot, sweet potato and salmon salad: Serves 2

1 washed raw beetroot

1 small sweet potato

5 - 6 grape tomatoes halved

2 handfuls of mixed lettuce

2 table spoons of slivered almonds

1/2 lemon

Salt and pepper

Dressing:

Juice from 1/2 a lemon

2 tablespoons of basil infused extra virgin olive oil (or plain olive oil is fine)

1 table spoon of organic dijon mustard

To roast the beetroot all I did was wrap it in some foil, place it on a baking tray and cook for about 45 minutes at around 180 degrees (until you can pierce it with a skewer easily).  So easy, I'm never buying tinned beetroot again! Remove it from the oven, unwrap and let cool slightly so you can handle it.  When the beetroot had about 20 mins left to go that's when I added the sweet potato to the oven.  Just washed, sliced into circles than 1/4, brushed with a little oil of your choice and spread evenly on a baking tray, turning after 10-15 mins.  Once the beetroot has cooled, put on some plastic gloves to stop you hands from staining and remove the skin.  Then slice into 1cm thick circles and then into cubes.  All I did with the salmon was dress it with some salt and pepper and juice from half a lemon then grilled on both sides until cooked through.  While the salmon is cooking, divide the mixed salad leaves, grape tomatoes, beetroot and sweet potato evenly between 2 bowls, then flake the salmon over the top, sprinkle with slivered almonds  and a drizzle the salad dressing. 

Thought for the day:

Take the time to appreciate all that you have, as there is someone else out there with nothing struggling to survive!







Day 11

So good to get a little sleep in this morning! Up with plenty of time for breaky before heading to the 9:30 class at Roar. I know I talked about backing off the training a little yesterday, but had already planned on making Friday a rest day because of my physio appointment, so its all good :) Also, today's WOD was a 10 min AMRAP of 12 push press and 10 wall balls with a finisher of handstand hold, all things I need to work on, so didn't want to miss it.

For breakfast I made a mushroom omelet with 1/2 avo, some halved grape tomatoes and 2 slices of nitrate free bacon on the side. Normally I make my omelets with 2 whole eggs and 1 egg white, but I accidentally dropped the 3rd yolk in the bowl, so today's was a 3 egg omelet lol.

Today's training session was good, nice to change it up a little and go to a different class, get to see some new faces :) Feeling more confident with attempting handstands and not so scared about falling on my head! After training I had a boiled egg and some sweet potato, then headed round to elixir for a coffee with the group. I also had some fruit salad while I was there, which meant I wasn't hungry before heading to work at 12:30 so didn't force myself to have lunch.

One habit I'm really trying to break on this whole30 is eating just because the clock says it's "meal time". Most of us are bought up this way and to always finish what's on our plates or we don't get dessert lol. Now I'm starting to listen to my body more and it will certainly tell me when it's hungry, some days I might not have lunch until 2pm. Or like today, didn't need it at all. When my afternoon break came around I had some carrot sticks with almond, cashew and brazil nut spread, some salmon in spring water, I had planned on getting some steamed veggies from the cafeteria to go with it, but the one day I want them, they cook the veggies in oil, so bought a banana instead. For dinner I had some of the left over Thai green chicken curry from last night and a pear.

When I got home from work I had a little blow out on carrot sticks and ABC spread and now feeling a bit sick lol, so addictive!  After I finish the jar I might have to wait a few days before buying another one. 

Well that's it for today, night all! :)

Day 10 - Finding Balance

Early start today to make sure I had time to make a good breaky before leaving for work at 6:30am. Today I cooked up some nitrate free bacon in a tiny bit of coconut oil. You'll notice the colour is different to your run of the mill bacon in supermarkets, that's because it doesn't have all the additives. Which does make it more expensive, but it tastes great! The bacon was accompanied by two eggs cooked in the bacon fat left in the pan, some sliced grape tomatoes and 1/2 an avo.

It makes such a difference having a decent breakfast! Keeps the body well fuelled and satisfied for much longer. For morning tea I had a banana, some nuts and a green tea.

Finally got around to booking into the physio and got an appointment on Friday arvo :) fingers crossed Gav can help with some of these niggles I've been trying to ignore in the hope one day I'd wake up and they'd magically be gone lol.

For lunch today I had a bit of this and a bit of that! Love my Tupperware and this container with its little compartments was money well spent. I put in some carrot sticks and grape tomatoes, what I had left of the apple, beetroot, coriander and ginger salad with a squeeze of lemon. A few slices of roast turkey breast, some strawberries and blueberries. This was all washed down with a coconut water and a green tea.

After work/pre training snack was some turkey and an apple bomb. Today's WOD was 3 rounds for time of 10 cleans and 15 burpees. Initially I had wanted to try 30kg for the cleans, but my legs had other ideas! Ended up going with 25kg. Cut off was 10 mins and I got 2 rounds + 7 burpees... After the cool down, coach B (Brian) had a chat with me, and everything he said really made sense after reading the article on over training earlier in the day. I felt like I hadn't been getting the most out of my training sessions and had just been putting it down to the change in diet, which in part was one of the problems. But I hadn't been listening to my body and allowing adequate time for recovery, which is where the gains are achieved.  I just wanted to keep pushing like a mad person and eventually was going to fall in a screaming heap!  Post workout meal was some roast sweet potato and a boiled egg.  I headed to the supermarket on the way home and came across a different brand of nut butter, this one is much nicer than the one I have brought previously and def nicer than the one I made myself.  I also grabbed something to try from the baby food section lol.  Thought they may be handy to carry for snacks on the go if I get caught out :)

Tastes awesome with carrot sticks or sliced apple!

Dinner tonight was Thai green chicken curry with cauliflower "rice"  I used the Thai Gourmet green curry paste as this one doesn't have and added crap or preservatives.  Following the instructions on the jar, I added 2 table spoons of the past to a hot wok and stirred for about 1 min until fragrant.  I then added 500g of diced chicken breast, but you could sub this for fish or beef depending on your preference.  Continue to stir until the meat is almost cooked through and add 200g of your choice of chopped veggies.  I used broccoli, red capsicum and eggplant. Add 1 cup of coconut milk, bring to the boil and simmer for about 20mins until the veggies are cooked.  For the cauliflower rice I just took 2-3 cups of cauliflower roughly chopped and threw it in the food processor and whizzed it until it had a rice like appearance.  I then put it into a microwave safe bowl with about 4 table spoon of water and cooked in the microwave on high for 2mins, stirring about every 30 seconds. Using these amounts you probably get 2 large serves or 3 medium sized serves.    

Day 9 - YAY BURPEES!!!!

Another loooong Tuesday! Early at the hospital, then army till 10pm. Today's food was pretty much all recycled from previous days, sorry, no new recipes, or pics.

Breaky was a leftover stuffed capsicum from last night. FYI, it didn't reheat that well, but was still edible enough considering I had tried to get every last minute of sleep possible and had no time to make anything else lol.

Was a busy shift again today and didn't get to morning tea till late. I had a banana, some nuts and a green tea. Lunch was some of the apple, beetroot, coriander and ginger salad with a small tin of tuna in spring water drained and mixed through and an apple bomb. When I got home was pretty hungry, ate about 4 slices of roast turkey and 3 more apple bombs, god they are good! Dinner was some shepherds pie and I took some nuts and strawberries to snack on later.

Today's workout was 300 double unders and 100 burpees for time. Every time we stopped double unders had to do 1/3 that total of burpees. Took a while for the double unders to start coming in good sized chunks and I was ready to chuck it in after nick finished in like 10 or 11 mins and I wasn't even half way! But stuck it out and finished in 24:01. On the plus side, good way to try and practice my burpee technique lol. Another early start tomorrow, so that's it for today, new recipes tomorrow!

Night :)

Day 8

Today's mood = grinning idiot lol!

Alarm went off at 5:05am, didn't have to meet the guys for a workout till 5:45, but that allowed enough time to hit snooze at least twice, have I mentioned I'm not a morning person haha. This morning's WOD was a 20min amrap of 5 single arm kb snatches (each arm) 12kg for me, 10 hand release push ups and 15 weighted sit ups with 12kg kb. Managed 9 rounds, not a bad start to the day.

Headed to elixir on the way home for 2 poached eggs, 1/2 an avo and some mushies + 2 black coffees. Ran into some of the roar crew and the 19th fittest woman in the world, Kara Gordon, no biggie ;) Loved hearing all the stories from their time at the games, can't wait till next year! The excitement of going to watch is what will get me to work every day for the next year!

Day off today, time to catch up on all the exciting stuff like washing, ironing etc.. Fun ;) Mid morning snacks consisted of carrot sticks with home made almond butter, a couple of slices of roast turkey and about 6 strawberries.

Lunch was a recipe by James: apple, beetroot, carrot, coriander and ginger salad and I added a grilled chicken breast, seriously yum!

Serves 2-3
1 raw beetroot peeled and chopped
1 green apple chopped and seeds removed
1/2 red onion chopped
1 large purple carrot washed and roughly chopped
About a 1-2cm piece of ginger peeled and chopped finely or grated
Handful of coriander
Juice of 1/2 a lemon

Place all ingredients except for the lemon juice in a food processor and process for around 5-10 seconds until everything is chopped and combined. Place a large scoop of the salad mix in a bowel. Season a chicken breast with salt and pepper and cook in a fry pan or grill pan with melted coconut oil. Once chicken is cooked through, slice into pieces and arrange on top of the salad. Squeeze the lemon juice over the top and dig in!

The sarvo's WOD was 3-3-3-3-3-3-3 of split jerks, perfect day to christen my new I love jerks shirt I got on holiday's :) Did 20-32.5kg, technique needs work, but feeling more confident getting under the bar these days. Depending on work, will hopefully be able to get to some of the Olympic lifting coaching sessions at Roar. Post workout meal was some roast turkey and sweet potato. 

For dinner I cooked up some stuffed capsicums (one for dinner and one for breaky tomorrow) with some sweet potato fries roasted in basil infused olive oil. Just cut the top off the capsicum and remove the core and seeds. I used some of the left over mince mix from the shepherds pie the other day (drain off excess liquid) and 2/3 fill the capsicum. Crack an egg over the top of the mince and place in the oven for about 1/2 hour or so at 180 degrees (until the egg is cooked, but the yoke is still a bit runny) season the fries with some sea salt and plate up!

I saw a recipe on Fast Paleo yesterday for peach pie bites that I wanted to make, but because peaches aren't in season and all the packaged ones have added sugar or preservatives, I decided to take the basic idea and put my own spin on it :) I'm calling them Apple Bombs.

Apple Bombs:
2 pink lady apples peeled, chopped and de-seeded
Juice of 1/2 lemon
200g pitted dates
200g almonds
1/4tsp vanilla essence
3/4tsp cinnamon
1 cup shredded coconut
splash of coconut water

Place apple, dates, lemon juice and coconut water in a food processor and mix until is a slightly lumpy paste (add a little more coconut water if required to get a good consistency). Place into a bowl and put the almonds in the food processor and process, I let them stay a little chunky for added crunch. Place the almonds in the bowl with the apple and date "paste" and mix in the coconut. Using your hands form the mixture into balls and place on a tray. Put them in the fridge to firm up then once firm, place in an airtight container in the fridge. Not sure how long they will keep for, but my guess is they will all be gone in a few days anyway lol.

Night all! :)

Day 7 - One week down, hell yeah!

Woke up from my post nightshift slumber feeling awesome, well aside from a very sore calf, but more stretching and pain relief will sort that out! Initially I was planning on making a beef mince scramble for breakfast/lunch, only to realise after prepping all the other ingredients that I used the last of the mince the other day, damn! So improvisation was required and it actually turned out quite nicely :)

Left overs scramble: Serves 1

2 whole eggs + 1 egg white whisked
1/4 red onion diced
1 mushroom diced
1/4 red capsicum diced
3/4 cup of grated sweet potato
1/2 avo sliced
20g Roast turkey breast (that's all I had left in the fridge)
Salt and pepper
1tsp coconut oil

Heat the coconut oil in a fry pan and throw in the onion, mushrooms, capsicum and sweet potato. Cook for around 5 mins (until the onion is starting to brown) pour in the whisked eggs and gently push them around the pan, being careful not to over work them. Once the eggs are cooked, place it all in a bowl and top with sliced avo and turkey, season with salt and pepper, done!

Caught up with Nick and James for today's WOD of 21-15-9 of HSPU and thrusters (I scaled to pike push ups on a box) with a 100m sandbag carry at the start of each round.  First time using sandbags and they actually weren't too bad, I may not be saying that when I have to carry a heavier one next time though lol. After the workout we exchanged recipes, such food nerds lol. The guys had some really good ones, which I will be trying in the next week, stay tuned! I forgot to take a post workout meal with me, but had a coconut water, so guess that was better than nothing...

For dinner I made a black angus serloin steak grilled in some coconut oil seasoned with salt and pepper with garlic and chive cauliflower mash and grilled asparagus.

Garlic and chive cauliflower mash: Serves 1
About 2 cups of chopped up cauliflower into some boiling water until soft.  drain and return to the pot. Add 1/2 tsp of garlic powder and a Tbsp of chopped chives. Mash until smooth. 

Something informative:

Something Random:

Day 6 - So far, so good :)

Last night shift, yay!!!!! I have no idea how people who work nights all the time do it... I only have 4 a month and that's def enough for me!

I've been trying to think of different things to have for breakfast and thought of this one last night :) I'm calling it a breaky wrap, but not the type you can pick up and eat as the egg would just fall apart. My next task will be finding a way to make a paleo/whole30 approved wrap!

2 whole eggs + 1 egg white lightly whisked
1/4 red onion sliced
2 mushrooms peeled and sliced
1 Roma tomato diced
1/2 an avo cubed
Handful of baby spinach leaves
Sliced roast turkey breast
2tsp coconut oil
Salt and pepper

Heat 1tsp of coconut oil in a small fry pan cook the onion and mushrooms until golden and then place on paper towel to absorb excess liquid from the mushrooms. Heat the remaining coconut oil in a large fry pan and pour in the eggs. Swirl the pan to spread the eggs out evenly over the base. Once set, gently slide onto a plate and place all the filings down the centre. Keep a little left over to place on top (when I made it I actually put it all in the egg wrap and when I rolled it some fell out, thats why it's on top in the pic lol) season with salt and pepper, Enjoy!

Today's WOD was 5 rounds of 20 kettle bell swings, 20 overhead plate lunges, 20 double unders and 20 sit ups. Stupid calf started hurting again on the warm up run, but made it through! Plenty of stretching and a heat pack tonight at work will hopefully help. Other than the calf, felt pretty good though, managed all the kb swings unbroken, time to go up to a heavier one next time :)

Dinner was nice and simple tonight, had a craving for salmon so grilled up a salmon fillet in some coconut oil with a little salt, pepper and the juice of a 1/4 lemon. Threw together a salad of baby spinach, mushroom, red capsicum, kalamata olives and avo which I also dressed with the juice of a 1/4 of a lemon. Really easy, but oh so tasty.

Came across this the other day, interesting...

Day 5 - Eat, Sleep, Work, Repeat...

Another good sleep today, I'm sure it is related to the change in diet, because I never get this much sleep while on nights, even with a little pharmacological assistance! Also I'm feeling less stressed and my mind isn't going at 100 miles an hour like it usually is :)

Breakfast/Lunch today was a simple mushroom and turkey omelet with grilled tomato and asparagus.

2 whole eggs and 1 egg white
2 large button mushrooms sliced
50g sliced roast turkey breast
2 tomatoes cut in half
5-6 fresh asparagus spears
2tsp of coconut oil (1 for each pan)
Salt and pepper

Place 1tsp of coconut oil in a non-stick fry pan and cook the mushrooms until starting to brown. At the same time using a griddle pan, place remaining coconut oil, tomatoes (cut side down) and asparagus. Whisk eggs in a bowl and pour over mushrooms. Cook until egg is almost set then add the turkey breast roughly torn up to half of the omelet. Using a spatula gently loosen around the edges and underneath then flip in half over the turkey breast. Slide the omelet onto a plate and place tomatoes and asparagus either on top or to the side.

I decided today would be a much needed rest day from training as I was moving like an 80 year old woman! so nothing to report there. Definitely need to get into the physio next week.

Even though I have several coffee shops within a 150m walk from my place, I went out in Friday arvo traffic to elixir, that's how good it is!! That, and I'm so sick of trying coffee from other places, only for it to taste like muddy water and have to throw it out after the first sip. I headed to coles to grab some eggplants to make lasagna, but they didn't have any, so plan B was shepherd's pie and grabbed some sweet potatoes instead. I remembered while I was there that I had seen coconut water on special so I proceeded to clear the shelf of what they had left :)

Shepherd's Pie:
500g grass fed extra lean beef mince
3 large button mushrooms chopped
1 red onion diced
1 purple carrot chopped
1 orange carrot chopped
1 large red capsicum chopped
1 zucchini chopped
1tsp organic ghee
1 140g tin organic tomato paste
2 400g tins of diced tomatoes
100ml water
2 cloves of garlic crushed
1tsp thyme
1/4 tsp chili
1tsp rosemary
1tsp basil
2 sweet potatoes boiled and mashed
1tsp cinnamon
Salt and pepper

Pre-heat the oven to around 160 degrees (fan forced) Melt ghee in a large pot and add garlic and onion. Cook until just starting to colour. Add the mince and cook through. When mince is cooked, add tomato paste and diced tomatoes to the pot and stir well. Next add all the veggies, the water and spices and stir through. Simmer the mixture covered for about 1/2 an hour (until the carrots are cooked). Wash and chop the sweet potato into chunks (peel if you'd prefer, but I left the skin on) and boil until soft. Drain and return to the pot, add the cinnamon and mash well. Spoon the meat mix into an oven proof dish and layer the sweet potato evenly on top. Place in the oven for 15-20 mins to crisp up the top.

I made an attempt at making almond butter today too. Had read a few recipes and it sounded pretty easy, 2 cups of almonds in the food processor and mix until it forms a paste. Well when they said it takes a while, they weren't joking! Was easily 20-25 mins of blend/scrape down sides of the bowl, blend/scrape down sides of bowl. Towards the end I was getting impatient and added a few teaspoons of olive oil to speed up the process. In the end it worked out well, not quite the same taste as the one you buy in the shops, but wondering if it could be because I used raw almonds rather than roasted... Next time I'll try roasted.

Well that's it for today, have a great Saturday!!!

Day 4 - Fran Fail!!

After being awake for the better part of 26 hours, I was so ready for bed this morning!  Normally I would take a Restavit to help me sleep, but they probably aren't really whole 30 approved lol.  Surprisingly I managed to sleep from about 8am till 2:30pm :) Being on nights, my meals are out of whack, so breakfast/lunch was at 3pm and I didn't really feel like eggs, so I made up some apple and sweet potato fritters with strawberries, blueberries and passion fruit.  Very nice if I do say so myself!

Apple and Sweet Potato Fritters: Serves 1
1 apple grated (I used a pink lady)
1/2 a small purple sweet potato grated
1 egg
1/4 cup of almond meal
1/2 tsp of nutmeg
1 tsp of cinnamon
1Tsp of coconut oil for cooking
5 or 6 strawberries cut in half
small handful of blueberries
1 passion fruit

Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix well.  Melt the coconut oil in a fry pan and form the mixture into 2 patties (squeeze the mixture to get rid of some of the excess liquid). Place the patties in the fry pan and cook on both sides until nice and golden brown.  Place the cooked fritters on a plate and arrange the fruit over the top, done!

Headed to training for a arse kicking by Fran!  For anyone who does crossfit, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about, but for those of you who don't, Fran is a workout of 21-15-9 reps of bar bell thrusters and pull ups in as fast as time possible.  There was a 10 minute cut off and I didn't make it.  Started out with the rxd (prescribed weight) of 30kg on the bar, but after 10 reps had to strip it back to 25kg.  Still using green band for pull ups which is really frustrating too.  Got 4 out of the 9 thrusters done, which is worse than the last time I did it back in April! I'm not sure if it's related to the change in diet or that maybe I've just gone  into it a little gung-ho this week....

For dinner I made "Burger Baskets" I used purple sweet potato for the fries tossed in some coconut oil and spread out evenly on a baking tray at about 160 in a fan forced oven. They seem to cook a lot faster than the orange variety and turned out quite crunchy.  Next time I will pull them out of the oven when they are just starting to brown.  They also aren't as sweet as the orange ones, so would actually probably use them instead.

Burger Baskets: (makes about 6 burgers)

500g of grass fed extra lean beef mince

1 purple carrot grated (optional)

1 red capsicum chopped finely

1/2 red onion chopped finely

1/2 cup of almond meal

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon of basil

1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder

2 tablespoons of tomato paste

1 tablespoon of coconut oil for cooking

Toppings:

2 tablespoons of mashed avo

2 slices of tomato

5-6 baby spinach leaves

3 carrot curls (using a peeler just peel strips of carrot)

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowel and form into roughly palm sized patties.  Place in fry pan with melted coconut oil and cook for approx 5mins each side depending on the thickness of the pattie.  Place a cooked burger in the bottom of a bowl and top with the avo, spinach, tomato and carrot, then arrange sweet potato fries around the burger to form a nest. 

Saw this pic the other day and really liked it!



Day 3 - going strong :)

5:30 wake up this morning to get a WOD in before Nick (one of my fellow Whole30 participants) had to start work.  I ate a banana on the way to have something, rather than try and exercise on an empty stomach or eat too much and make me feel sick half way through.  We did 5 rounds for time of 10 hang power cleans, 10 front squats and 50 Du's, I used 25kg and scaled Du's to 20 each round.  Called into elixir on the way home, no suprise there lol, then put together a breakfast "pizza"  2 large round slices of ham off the bone, baby spinach, a sliced roma tomato and 1/2 an avo topped with 2 lightly scrambled eggs.

Lunch today was zucchini "pasta" with bolognaise sauce.  I used my new little gadget called a veggie twister that I picked up on the weekend from the Mamoth Kitchen stand at the crossfit comp in Morningside.  It will pay for itself before the week is over! The bolognaise sauce I used was one I had made a while ago and had in the freezer.  It was made up of turkey mince, crushed tomatoes, organic tomato paste, grated carrot and zucchini, chopped red capsicum, onion, crushed garlic and some mushies along with a mix of spices.  I usually simmer the mix for about 30 mins or so.  I will be making another batch over the next few days and will write a propper recipe for it :) this was followed by some chopped strawberries and blueberries topped with passionfruit pulp.

Before the arvo WOD I had a few slices of roast turkey and some nuts.  Today's workout was Annie, so was thanking my lucky stars I had scaled the DU in the morning.  Today it seemed to flow a little more smothly, was about 45 seconds off my best time and a good 4 mins better than Monday's effort!  Post workout meal was 2 boiled eggs and roast sweet potato.  On the way home I stopped off to grab some more turkey breast and also picked up a butterfly pork steak for dinner.  I bought a griddle pan today and was itching to cristen it.   I also threw in some asparagus spears when the steak was half cooked.  To go with these I made a salad of baby spinach, red capsicum, roma tomato, kalamata olives, avo and sliced mushroom.

Starting dreaded nightshift tonight so put together a snack box of roast turkey  breast, carrot sticks, strawberries, some sliced up coconut/date and almond/date roll, some almonds, cashews and cranberries and a small serve of the pumpkin, sweet potato and carrot soup (see day 1 for recipe) along with some green tea and lemon tea bags.  All this should keep me going for the 10 hour shift and away from the evil vending machines at 2am!

To those of you who aren't lucky enough to be working a nightshift, goodnight :)