Day 30.....

Woke up this morning feeling really rested and no sore throat, win! For breaky I made some spinach and carrot patties, 2 eggs, 1/2 an avo, some roast turkey and sliced grape tomatoes.

Spinach and carrot patties:

1 orange carrot grated
1 purple carrot grated
1/4 cup of frozen spinach thawed
1/4 cup of almond meal
1 egg
Pinch of garlic and onion powder
Coconut oil

Put all ingredients into a bowl except for the oil and mix well. Divide mix into 4 portions and roll into balls. Melt coconut in a fry pan and put the balls in the pan and flatten with the back of a spatula. Allow to cook until golden brown on both sides. For a morning snack I had the leftover carrot and spinach patties and some roast turkey breast.

Lunch today was a roast beetroot, pumpkin and sweet potato salad with baby spinach, grape tomatoes, a small grilled chicken breast and a lemon Dijon dressing.

My afternoon/pre workout snack was some snow peas and turkey. Today's workout was 4-4-4-4-4 of front squats and a finisher of max V ups or sit ups ups in 4 mins.  At the bottom of the squat we had to hold a good position for 3 seconds before standing up.  3 seconds never seemed so long lol, especially failing on my last rep at 37.5kg, damn it! I managed 108 sit ups in the finisher. After training I quickly ate my post workout meal of a boiled egg and some roast sweet potato before heading to reserves. I took some leftover curry from last night for dinner.

Less than half an hour till whole30 is finished... No, I'm not going to stay up to have something crazy as soon as midnight ticks over lol. I did that last time and made myself sick with a sugar hangover!  Will try and be sensible and maybe have one cheat meal :)



 

Day 29

Woke up feeling like I was swallowing razor blades this morning, not cool! :( but after a nice hot coffee felt a little better. For breaky I made a mushroom, red capsicum and avo omelet using 4 sliced mushrooms, 1/2 a red capsicum diced, 1/2 an avo also diced and 3 lightly beaten eggs. I cooked the mushrooms and capsicum in a little coconut oil then added the eggs. Just before I folded it in half I added the diced avo. I also had a coffee with coconut milk.

For a mid morning snack I had some sliced ham and a carrot. Getting lazy and don't even bother to cut them up now, just wash and eat lol.

Went and met up with Han for lunch, had to adjust the order to keep to whole30, but the waitress was fine with it. I ended up having a salad of mixed salad leaves, roast pumpkin and sweet potato, sundried tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, red onion and avo with some sliced lemon for dressing, a black coffee and a sparkling water with lemon. Also had some sliced turkey when I got home.
Mid arvo/pre workout I had a boiled egg, some grape tomatoes and a coffee with coconut milk. Today's WOD was 15-12-9 of power snatch and wall climbs. I scaled the weight to 20kg and started on 1/2 wall climbs, but knew I wouldn't finish before cut off and changed to hand release push ups with shoulder taps. In hindsight, probably could have gone a little heavier on the bar, as I finished in 8:32. Post workout I had some roast sweet potato and turkey.

When I got home I made a red chicken curry with coconut cauliflower rice for dinner.

Red Chicken Curry:

I found this brand curry paste at Woolies and it doesn't have any preservatives or sugar.  I did change the instructions slightly though
.

300g chicken thighs cubed

1/2 a medium eggplant cut into 1/2cm cubes

About 1 & 1/2 cups of broccoli cut into small pieces

A decent sized handful of snow peas with the stringy bits pulled off

I had 1/2 a red capsicum in the fridge so diced that up and threw it in (if I had a whole one would have used it all)

Coconut oil

1 400ml can of coconut milk

Heat up a wok and add a little coconut oil.  Place the curry paste in the wok and stir until fragrant.  Add the chicken pieces and mix them with the paste well.  allow the chicken to cook for about 5 mins stirring frequently.  Pour in the coconut milk and stir to incorporate the curry sauce.  Add the veggies and bring to a simmer. Allow the mix to simmer stirring every couple of minutes until all the veggies are cooked.  While this is happening you can make the coconut "rice"

Coconut cauliflower rice: Serves 2

Whizz up 1/2 a small head of cauliflower in the food processor to a rice like consistency. Place into a microwave safe container and mix in 1/2 cup of coconut milk. Heat for 2 mins on high, stirring every 30 seconds.

After dinner I had a cup of green tea. 

Last day tomorrow..... 



Day 28 - Getting a little nervous...

 

I'm starting to get nervous about the end of the whole 30.  I like having this little safety bubble that gives me an excuse to not eat and drink certain things! And I have really enjoyed writting the blog.   Last time I didn't go very well after the finish of the 30 days and felt terrible physically and emotionally for undoing all my hard work. This time I am determined to maintain a fairly strict 80/20 of good paleo eating. I am thinking I might even create a facebook page after finishing for continued recipe sharing and where others can post things too :)

Woke up this morning before my alarm at about 6:30am.  I made a carrot and zucchini omelet for breakfast and a coffee with coconut milk.  I grated up 1 each of a small purple and orange carrot and a zucchini and melted some coconut oil on the fry pan.  Once melted I added the carrot and zucchini to the pan and cook for about 4-5 mins then spread the mix out evenly over the base of the fry pan.  To this I added 3 lightly scrambled eggs and swirled them around the pan to cover all the mix.  Once the egg was pretty much cooked I folded half of the mix over, was a little tricky as the carrot and zucchini mix didn't hold together that well, but worst case scenario it would have ended up being a scramble :) 

Managed to be able to jump in on a lifting session with Mel and Haley out at Honey Beavers coached by Ben Turner.  Was an awesome class and learnt a lot about position, movement, extension and speed.  Still need heaps more work, but was a pretty good start and hopefully I'll be able to translate these new skills into my next weights day at Roar :) 

When I got home I made up a quick and easy salad of baby spinach, sundried tomatoes, kalamata olives, red capsicum, mushrooms and salmon, dressed with the juice of half a lemon.  If you're not a fan of salmon you can easily add a meat of your choice.

For dinner I made an eggplant lasagna:

500g of grass fed beef mince

1 brown onion diced

3 cloves of garlic crushed

2 x tins of crushed or whole tomatoes

140g tin of tomato paste

1 large eggplant sliced thinly

1 red capsicum diced

4 button mushrooms chopped

2 small zucchini diced

2 tomatoes sliced

1 tablespoon of dried oregano

1 teaspoon of dried basil

Salt and pepper

1/4 cup of almond meal

1 teaspoon of ghee

Lay some baking paper out on the bench and spread out the sliced eggplant.  Sprinkle salt over each slice and leave to sit while you make the meat mix.  Heat ghee in a large pot and cook onion and garlic until starting to brown.  Add mince to the pot and cook through.  Once the mince is cooked add the tinned tomatoes, tomato paste, basil, oregano, mushrooms, zucchini, capsicum and salt and pepper.  Allow this to simmer on a low heat for about 30 mins.  While the meat mix is simmering rinse the salt off the eggplant and pat dry with some paper towel. Heat a little more ghee in a fry pan and fry the eggplant on both sides then set aside on some paper towel on a plate.  Once all the eggplant is cooked grab a baking dish and place a layer of the meat mix on the bottom.  Top with a layer of eggplant (you may need to cut some slices to fit and fill gaps), another layer of meat, more eggplant and sliced tomato.  If I wasn't on whole30 I would have sprinkled some Parmesan over the tomato, but used a little almond meal instead.  You could leave this step out as it didn't make a lot of difference.  Place the baking dish in the oven under the grill until the tomatoes are nicely cooked.  Slice into desired portion size (I got 6 slices out of mine) and freeze any leftovers for a quick and easy meal.        

Day 27 - The finish line is in sight :)

Ahhh Saturday! A hero WOD, breaky at elixir with the awesome crew from Roar, a new hair do, a dinner I didn't have to cook, then catching up with the roar crew again at the Newy. Pretty sweet day all round :)

This mornings workout was "Forrest" Rx is 20 L pull ups, 30 toes to bar, 40 burpees and an 800m run x 3. I scaled to 20 band pull ups and 20 leg raises, 30 sit ups, 20 burpees and 800m run x 3. Cut off was 40 mins and I made it in 36:20.
For breaky I had 2 poached eggs, avo, mushrooms, and tomato with 2 half strength long black coffees.

After breaky I headed home to shower then off to the hairdresser.  Always nice to tune out with a gossip mag for a few hours and the scalp massage at the end is one of the best part lol. Because I was at the hairdressers over "lunch time" and by the time I got home wasn't that hungry, I just snacked on some roast turkey, grape tomatoes and carrot sticks. 

Dinner was a BBQ'd grass fed sirloin steak and mushrooms with carrots, broccolini and some sweet potato chips, not pictured as they were still cooking, so ended up being an after dinner snack :)

After dinner headed to the Newy for Rachelle's B'day drinks. I say it a lot and to anyone who will listen, but I love our awesome crew.  Such a great bunch and always look forward to training and catching up with them :)  Tonight I was on the soda waters again and did have some lemon in it for taste even though I'm trying not to have fruit till the end, I needed a little flavour in it.  Although lemons do contain fructose, the level is quite low compared to other fruits.  And I wouldn't eat slices of it, except maybe with a little tequila and salt lol. 

When I got home I was a bit hungry and should have just gone to bed, but instead had a small piece of frittata heated up in the microwave. At least it wasn't some sugary rubbish I guess!



 

Day 26

Home after night shift and in bed asleep in record time! Grabbed a slice of roast turkey on the way up the stairs and managed a solid 5 hours sleep before my alarm went off.
For breakfast/lunch I made a "pizza" with a base of 2 large round slices of ham off the bone, baby spinach, sliced tomato, avo all topped with 2 scrambled eggs. This was washed down with a coconut milk coffee. Headed to the physio the sarve and got the all clear to run again, yay! Calf fixed, quad is a work in progress... Not sure if it's a good thing that a physio is excited that you're an "interesting case"?

Headed home to make a big batch of apple bombs to take to training.  I'm not having fruit until the end of whole30 and had a heap of apples to use :) 

Today's WOD was 3-2-2-1-1-1 of power snatch.  I already knew my 1RM was 27.5kg from last weeks lifting session and really wanted to get 30kg today.  I was so close, got the bar high enough, just couldn't get under it fast enough.  Will do some extra skill practice at home and I WILL get it next time! 

For dinner I made some coleslaw using about a cup of a pre shredded packet of red cabbage, white cabbage and carrot from the supermarket and added some homemade mayo, salt and pepper and lemon juice.  I topped this with a grilled salmon fillet (also seasoned with salt, pepper and lemon juice) and some grilled asparagus.  After dinner I was still a little peckish and had some carrot sticks, grape tomatoes and sliced turkey. 



 A short post today because I slept for half of it lol, time for bed again to be fresh for training in the morning. 

Night All :)

Day 25

LOL

Kind of felt like a day off today until it got closer to the evening and having to start work at 10:45pm.  Only the one 8 hour night though as an extra, then 6 days off!  I was up at about 6:30am to cook up some breaky before heading off to get my tax done.  I made a tomato and spinach omelet with grilled mushrooms and a coffee with coconut milk. 

If there was someone in a chopper above me this morning watching me miss numerous turns and drive in a big circle trying to get to Redcliffe they would have been laughing their arses off!  But when I finally made it to my appointment it was well worth the trip! I am officially HECS debt free and even with paying off the remainder of last years bill came away with the best tax return I've ever received :)  I had been voluntarily paying extra tax, which also helped.  When I got home I had a snack of carrot sticks, grape tomatoes, some roast sweet potato and another coffee. 

I made a trip to the shops to restock on mineral water and decided I'd just grab a couple of boxes of 12 1.25L bottles, as I use a lot of it. There was a lovely old man of about 65 who came up and asked me if I needed help lifting the box.  Was very nice of him to offer, didn't want to tell him I could carry that weight in each arm lol, so I let him hold the trolley for me, as he said they could be tricky and roll away. 

For lunch I had a salmon salad of baby spinach, sundried tomatoes, kalamata olives, red capsicum, avo and a tin of salmon in spring water. 

Today's workout was a 25 min AMRAP (love these!) of 200m run (row for me till I get the all clear to run again) 10 push press (did 25kg) 20kb swings and 30 squats.  I managed 4 rounds + row, pp and 9 squats.  Post workout I had some sweet potato and a boiled egg.  When I got home I cooked up one of the organic sirloin steaks from the super butcher in some coconut oil, with grilled asparagus, roast carrots and brussel sprouts.



I've packed my food for the night, it consists of some pumpkin, sweet potato and carrot soup, a boiled egg, snow peas, grape tomatoes, carrot sticks and some red capsicum plus 2 x 1.25L bottles of mineral water, a coconut water and a couple of green tea bags.

  

Time to get ready for work, night all :)

Day 24

Awwww, so cute!

So over these cold mornings, bring on summer! Grabbed a quick breaky of some frittata before heading to work.

Pretty constant at work this morning and before I knew it, it was time for morning tea. I had some carrot sticks and grape tomatoes. Today is day 3 of no fruit, nuts or bacon and feeling pretty good! Had some sugar cravings yesterday, but been fine today :)

For lunch I had some steamed veggies and some of the mince mix I made early on, that I also used for the shepherds pie.

After work snack was a boiled egg, a slice of turkey, some carrot and a coffee with coconut milk. Lifting session again tonight so went to the 6pm class. Todays WOD was a Tabata mash up of Thrusters, sit ups, box jumps and hand release push ups. Score was lowest score for each exercise added together. I got 5 box jumps, 5 push ups, 5 thrusters and 10 sit ups = 25. Tonight's lifting session was cleans and finding our 1 rep max. I pb'd on my power clean 1RM with 40kg. Really enjoying these extra skill sessions!

For dinner I made lamb cutlets seasoned with S&P and lemon juice, broccoli fitters, roast zucchini, eggplant, purple and orange carrots and red onion in EVOO and rosemary.

Broccoli Fritters: Makes 4

2 cups of broccoli pulsed in the food processor about 10-15 times.
1/2 cup of almond meal
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
2 eggs

Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Divide mixture in to 4 and roll into balls. Heat some oil of your choice in a fry pan, place the balls in the pan and flatten with an egg flip. Cook until nice and golden brown on both sides.

I was still a little hungry after dinner, so finished off the leftover fritters and roast veggies I was going to save for tomorrow lol.

Cool vid :)
http://youtu.be/Pbdewwtm70w