Still the ‘hangover,’ still tired. Not as bad as yesterday, but I had no energy on the bike this morning.
Food:
Meal 1: chicken soup, 3 pieces bacon
Meal 2: chicken soup, 1 small sweet potato with cinnamon
Meal 3: I forgot…that’s what happens when I don’t write it the same day. UGH.
Exercise:
AM: 30min Peloton ride. This was at a very easy pace, but just a nice spin. BUT, I got a high five from the instructor! Whooo hooo! This has never happened to me before.
Wow, it’s been so long. I’m glad I’ve still paid the small fee to see have access to my site, because here I am. The years of catch-up are too much, so we’ll skip that for now.
Whole30 is doing an official “Whole30 At Home” during this COVID crisis and I need a big slap in the face reality check, so I’m doing it. And using this site as my food log, personal journal, and exercise log! I don’t care if no one reads it, it’s for me. I do better writing it all down and this works for me.
I may as well restart the 365 days of exercise again as well! I need more than 30 days to roll this big body to the right side of the tracks so a combo food/exercise is where I’m going again.
Some days will be done in IF (intermittent fasting) format, as I don’t alway like to eat a traditional breakfast, nor do I eat my dinner late. Thus, I just number my meals.
Day 1:
(1000) Meal 1: coconut milk chia seed ‘mix’ (pudding?) with berries. Not pictured, side of bacon that I burned, but ate anyway. No waste! Handful of grapes.
Meal 2: stir fry veggies (no pic)
Meal 3: chicken soup with tons of veggies, sparkling water (finished eating at 1745)
EXERCISE:
AM: 40 minutes on the Peloton bike. I did Robin’s 30min Hamilton ride and a cool down.
PM: 20 minutes on the Peloton. I felt this one. I didn’t eat enough yesterday and feel it today
Successful first day! Overall thoughts: I will need more filling food tomorrow. Maybe some tuna, big salad, sausage, etc. I didn’t eat enough today for not eating enough yesterday.
Since I’ve been back from the Blerch, eating through Seattle, & Ohio, I’ve been craving vegetables and fish. Thankfully I stocked up the last time Whole Foods had wild caught salmon on sale. Some things I’ve eaten this week:
mushroom & truffle eggs
Shouldn’t have made the basil pesto look like a log of poo
And another meal of the same
Pesto didn’t turn out much better…
Didn’t even try this time.
Can I have some?
Finally something different
I could live off this.
My knee. Sigh. I’ve rested it a solid week now. Iced it religiously for 5 days, and no-so-religiously for 2-3. Today I tried some intervals (not fast sprints, just decent slower running in between kettlebell movements) and it wasn’t feeling great. Gggrrr. It’s becoming really annoying. It’s not painful enough that I think it’s a major tear or rupture (read: No way I’m going to the Dr), but I’m not used to feeling anything that uncomfortable when I run other than the normal muscle discomfort after 30-50miles. Yes, I know, I know, you can go ahead and hate me. So, what to do? Nothing of course. I think it just needs more rest. Unfortunately, I’ve got a double (2 marathons) this weekend. I should be able to make it through them fine considering I finished the Blerch the day after I fell, but it will probably be slow and less-than-fun ideal. K will look at it and give it some sports med/trainer movements and try to narrow down what it may or may not be. Then, we’ll decide what to do. I’m getting around fine and obviously can still physically move/run, so I’m doing the healthy thing and will ignore it a while longer (and rest)!
While resting my knee, I worked my arms, shoulders, and back doing CropFit! Functional fitness, FTW!
This week I’ve completely redone the garden. I needed new dirt and the boxes had become overgrown. Then my wonderful fur children decided they NEEDED to hunt and dig something that had been living in there. My 2 year old rosemary that survived the harsh winter and a week of below-freezing temps (3 days in the 20’s!) was near death. Got that transplanted to a pot and went to work…
Before
Mess.
Dog damage
Fuckers.
During
Out with the old
Moving dirt.
Please let me play in it…PLEASE
Digging asshole
In charge
After
(the middle section isn’t finished, but that won’t be finished for a couple more days. This is close enough to finished)
Before I got this chicken wire fence up, the dogs ran thorough my rows, dug, and dug up 2 cauliflower. My carrot seeds were meticulously planted. I’d worked so hard for 4 days, for it to be destroyed in just a couple minutes. I was furious. Actually, furious doesn’t describe it. But, I’m hopeful. I threw in more seeds, said “fuck it” and the dogs knew they were in trouble. My uncle has carrots and beets sprouting already and when he thins his crops, we’re going to put some of his baby plants in my middle section. So…hopefully between what they didn’t destroy and the transplanting, I’ll have some strong crops. I’m really excited to have a TON of beets. I love them.
Carrots, beets, cauliflower, bok choi, cilantro, chard
Dog proof
After the dog drama, my mom and uncle both praised my extensive work and care to another uncle. I was floored. See, we’re not an overly praising family. (How I ended up independent and not really needy is beyond me.) My uncle is a master gardener and hunter and could (and mostly does) live off the land. He’s impressed and thinks it will do well. And my mom said, “Maybe that agriculture education at Texas A&M wasn’t a waste after all.” Ha. Gig’Em!
Time for another food post. Things I’ve made or eaten the last several weeks…er, month! Oops, another realization I’ve waited too long!
Recipes when available. (Ok, I lied. I only have links to 4 recipes. I usually just throw meats & veggies together! Roasts: I use tons of garlic & onion & spices. Hamburgers. Nothing fancy.) Usually, I just throw things together, or alter recipes to make them Paleo compliant, or just better!
The day after Whole30 ended (Jan 31), we loaded up the car and headed to Houston for my first 50miler. Since I’m originally from the area, I had lots of places to stop. We wanted to hit a museum, Central Market (best grocery store, ever!), see family. My cousins live right across the street—well, dirt road and a short walk–from a raw milk farm! We brought the big cooler and really stocked up. Dairy isn’t Whole30 at all, but if I’m going to have it, it’s going to be this stuff: pastured, no grains, no hormones, antibiotics. Just…love! No dairy from the grocery store for me. Chemicals, hormones, and whoknowswhatelse in that factory stuff. It’s taken a couple years to get to this point of not wanting store bought dairy, but I love this raw stuff. I’m really glad this farm is several hours away.
EatWild is a great site to find local farmers!
When we got home after the weekend, we used the tremendous amount of cream to make our own butter! It’s actually pretty easy, I encourage everyone to try it! You don’t need a big KitchenAid to do it, a hand mixer works fine. It’ll just take a little longer. This is the blog/instructions we usually follow. (her pics are MUCH better than mine) However, the pics & instructions below are all it takes. It’s really simple. I usually divide the butter up and make salted, unsalted and herb varieties. This time was chive, rosemary & thyme.
To start: pour cream in mixer and mix! That’s it. Just mix, mix, & mix some more.
After about 8-10min it goes past ‘whipped cream’ and starts clumping into butter! You’re left with butter and buttermilk. Delicious.
Separate it out with a mesh strainer, squeeze the liquid out, and you’re left with a butter ball. Or log. Whatever shape you like.
Now, lots of food collages! Things I’ve eaten this month.
Lets start with some breakfast.
We have sautéed veggies & bacon frittata. Then, my usual, scrambled eggs (usually with some type of veggies) w/salsa, and home cured bacon.
Marks Daily Apple has some good frittata recipes, but they’re just like scrambled egg: throw whatever you have in there! I had yellow squash, red pepper & spinach. Garlic and onion too, of course. Then bacon on top.
Lets get to lunches! Usually some type of salads or leftovers, that I eat at school. Hence the leftover containers. Here we have kale salad w/apples, radish, pine nuts & almonds, yellow beets, mint & parsley, olive oil & lemon. Delicious. Top right is roast hog and salad. Bottom right is salad with buffalo burger, I think. And then a plain ‘ol salad.
Here I wanted to show some portion sizes. I try to get a TON of volume of veggies. The top left is an egg salad. Veggies piled high with egg dumped on top. I forced myself to eat it all! (the plates are huge) Then roasted veggies w/deer & regular salad. Oyster happy hour (YUM!), I ate 3 doz. Finally, sometimes I get desperate. I *NEEDED* to eat something, and I had an orange. I was in the car. Nowhere to let the juices drip & to put the peel….
SO, an orange in a shoe box it is!
Got my first sack of crawfish for the season (it’s still a little early), and the dogs were VERY interested in them. They thought the mudbugs were delicious, btw.
Let’s address eating out!
Went out several times, especially when we were in Houston. My dining partner got some scallops over risotto (I did not try). When we were leaving the Museum of Fine Arts, the food trucks were parked outside! I was so excited. I got some kind of meat wrapped in bacon. It came with a wonderfully spicy guac. I also got some kind of taco, sans shell. Both were delicious! Finally, some BBQ in a cup.
Now, some dinners!
Fall off the bone crock pot wild hog. (no recipe)
Hog & asparagus
PaleoOMG bacon ‘alfredo’. I altered this and added tons of brocoli, lots of spices. It was really good. I’ll probably make it again.
Here’s more meat pictures.
I think this is deer or hog with caramelized onions & garlic.
On the right, is sausage stuffed pork chop and steamed broccoli. YUM.
And finally, the roast chicken I made this week. I adapted Thomas Kellers Ad Hoc recipe. I used rutabaga, turnips, carrots, leek, onion, garlic, sweet potato. Used some homemade raw butter, rosemary, thyme and tons of S&P. It was so good, I wanted to give you three views. The veggies were out of this world. I love roasted vegetables.
And, there you go! Things I’ve eaten this month! I’d like to do a food post once a week, but I don’t think I have the variety for that. I make 2-3 ‘bigger’ meals a week, and the rest of the time it’s either eggs, big salad or leftovers. The leftovers go pretty far. I’d like to try a new recipe every week, but I don’t think I’d actually take the time for that.
I’ve said many times this month I’d write a food post, what and how I eat, etc. Then I realized that I should wait to see how this month went before committing to put my, what conventional people call: crazy, out there for everyone to see. I’m going to show you WHAT & WHY I eat what I do! This is probably my most wordy post yet, but there will be pics, promise! BEFORE & AFTER pic at the bottom, if that’s all you care about. I will be doing this each month (or I plan to) this year!
(I will say, this works FOR ME. If you think it’s crazy, that’s fine. But, I’m HAPPY with my choices, my body and my athletic performance. I don’t have health problems. I did when I was training for Ironmans on SAD: standard american diet. I think this speaks for itself)
Since 2009, I’ve mostly eaten a Paleo or Primal diet. It’s not a “diet” in the (wrong) definition of a fad way of eating with the goal to lose weight. “Diet” does mean the types of food you habitually eat. Anyway. I do not eat this way to just lose weight (although it usually is a nice side effect). The problem is, during various times of my life since 2009, I’ve fallen off that way of eating. Usually during stressful or major life changes: breaking my femur, leaving the military, moving, moving again, moving again…you get the picture.
So, back in Sept. I went back to my beloved way of eating and started getting myself healthy again. Then in Dec I realized I needed another challenge, thus this 365 project was born. AND I realized I needed to clean up my eating habits, and how I look at food, again.
To coincide with my new 365workouts project, I started the year off right with Whole30. What’s Whole30? You can read about it HERE. The short version is that it’s a nutritional, emotional & habitual reset by eating REAL FOODS: meat, fish, eggs, fruit, healthy oils, some nuts! Think you’re addicted to sugar? This is for you. Addicted to junk food? This is for you! I’ve never been a big junk food, soda, fast food eater, but I do enjoy nice rich meals, decadent desserts and, as a native Texan, my beloved chips and queso on occasion. (swoon)
Since today is the last day, yes I know I’m technically posting this about 12hrs early, I thought it would be good to put it out out here for you to read. As expected, I hit the typical withdrawal (not too bad), the anger phase, then it was 
smooth-sailing for the rest of the month. The only challenges were my 2 marathons (WHICH, is NOT recommended on Whole30 because you’re resetting your body nutritionally, not focusing on working out/weight loss, as outlined in “It Starts With Food” <—link. BUY it. I have no financial interests in it either!). However, this is my 2nd or 3rd Whole30 and I’m not new to this general way of eating, so I wanted to try it. PLUS, if I want to continue this way of eating (and I do/will), I need to see how I can incorporate this into my Marathon Addiction (Marathon Maniac #674!). AND, if you’ve read the other posts…I executed them in perfect Whole30 form! Major props to myself on that.
Ok, who is ready for food? I’ll take you through some of my meals this month!
(preface: I do not eat meals in any particular order. If I feel like having a salad for breakfast or eggs and bacon for dinner, I eat it)
Typical breakfast: Coffee (no cream or sugar!), leftovers of meat/veggies, eggs: boiled, scrambled, salads. Yes, salads for breakfast! Delicious.
I try to make my food as colorful and varied as possible! No brown processed foods.
What we have here (clockwise): black coffee (coconut milk is allowed in Whole30, but I like my coffee black), 2 fried eggs, morning salad, 2 pieces bacon for ‘dessert’, sautéed kale under 2 eggs w/hot sauce, 2 boiled eggs, bacon, Texas Rio Star Red grapefruit (the best grapefruit!). 
Lunch: meat and veggies. Or usually a BIG salad, which is usually meat and veggies.
(What we have here: salad w/sautéed shrimp, shrimp hot pot from a restaurant, ground beef & veggie stuffed poblano peppers, another big salad!)
Sometimes I’ll have 2 smaller meals. A smaller breakfast, then something after a hard CrossFit workout. Sometimes, if I’m traveling, I just have to eat what is 
available. It might just be a piece of meat.
(sausage, chicken & mashed cinnamon sweet potato, pre-marathon steak & shrimp!, bacon wrapped chicken & sweet potato: both chicken & sweet potatoes were post-CrossFit workout)
MORE SALADS. And my dinner last night! Which, I have to say, was SO good. The sauce was a reduction of the pork juices & marinade I made. Out of this world!
(fresh veggies from the CSA, a 3lb container of salad–you will NOT be hungry after that, and my dinner last night, Day29: sausage stuffed pork loin w/broccoli)
Dinner: more of the same as what my lunch looks like. But, here’s some pics of meat! A pot roast I was searing before putting it into the crock pot and a pork belly about to be cured for homemade bacon, and the finished product!
BENEFITS.
I guess I could go through the typical Whole30 benefit list. It reads just like all the others you may have read:
CUE POSITIVE FEEDBACK LOOP = Happy!
I think I would have lost a few more pounds had I not done 2 marathons this month (much added stress & metabolic disruption), but I still saw progress.
So. There it is. If you have any questions about Whole30, I’d say go to their website for more info, as I am no expert. However, I can share with you MY experiences that I’ve had the last several years!
haleycomet365 