For the Love of Whole 30! (Day 1)

Sratch this whole post.  I made it two days... then I failed.  I won't even bother adding my menu from yesterday.  A stressful day without carbs is pure hell. I don't recommend it. ;)  So... Weight Watchers? #isuckatdieting

Soooo I could start this blog by explaining my constant battle with my weight that began when I was a wee one, but I am going to save you the gory details... for now.  Basically you need to know that I have had a weight problem for a very long time.  I have lost 100 pounds only to find 50 of it again.  From August until now, I have put on 10 pounds.  My school year is already tough, tough, tough!  This weight gain topping off my pile of other extra pounds is discouraging, frustrating, and only adds to the stress.   The new year is upon us, and I of course have resolutions.  Getting healthy is at the TOP of the list.  Stay tuned for more of my resolutions.  Anyways, part of getting healthy is eating right.  I have decided to follow the Whole 30 plan for the month of January.  Read more about the plan here.  To sum up the plan, you can't have dairy, grains, or sugars.  Your goal is to cut out processed foods.  As a carb craving, dessert devouring, cheese choosing kind of gal... this diet is a nightmare of epic proportions.  You may be asking, why do it then?  STOP TAUNTING ME!!! I would, of course, love to NOT be doing the diet, but I NEED to do the diet.  I need to jump start my weight loss.  I need to develop some good habits.  So here I am telling the world (or my very few readers) about my goal.  I thought I would keep up a short series of blogs about my Whole 30 journey and some of the recipes I use.  Let's face it, it is really hard to develop a whole new menu for the month.  Most of my go-to recipes are a "no go" since they are full of rice, noodles, cheese, and other contraband.   All that being said, here is how Day 1 went:

Breakfast-  I didn't have much in the cupboard for breakfast.  So today I had a handful of nuts, cashews to be exact.


Lunch-  We still hadn't gotten groceries, so we used our Jimmy John's gift card we scored for Christmas.  I think they will be my go-to lunch for this diet.  Their "unwhich" is basically a sandwich with lettuce instead of bread, more like a wrap.  I had a turkey with cucumbers, onions, and avocado spread.

Snack- You really aren't supposed to snack on this diet, but it was my first day, and I was hungry!  I ate some mixed nuts for my snack (we made it to Hyvee by this point).  I probably ate way too many nuts today, but I'm going to be OK with that.  Tomorrow I hope to decrease my snacking and nut intake.  I think today was hard because my breakfast was lacking.

Dinner-  My in-laws invited us over for dinner.  My mother-in-law made me a hamburger patty with onions (I added some guac).  She also made some broccoli.  I knew I wouldn't be able to have any of the other sides, so I made some baked sweet potatoes.  Yum! Oh, my mother-in-law meant well, but she failed to mention the butter in my broccoli.  Fooey!

Dessert- Everyone else was having cherry pie, ice cream, or cheesecake.  Oh.my.goodness! I was dying inside as I had to sit it out. I got crafty and  decided to make me some cinnamon bananas.

Potatoes: Slice up a sweet potato.   Put the potato slices, a little bit of olive oil, and some seasoning in a Ziploc bag.  I seasoned mine with red pepper flakes, garlic pepper, and sea salt.  Shake it all up.  Then place the seasoned potatoes in a piece of tin foil. Fold the foil to make a packet.  I will have to take a picture of this sometime.  Bake at 400 degrees for about 30-40 minutes, or until the taters are tender.  Yummo!





Cinnamon Bananas- Slice a banana, and put the slices in a small pan with spray oil (canola).  I then topped them off with cinnamon.  I put the pan on medium heat and just moved them around in the pan until I thought they were warm enough. Delish! I do suggest using fairly the ripe bananas to keep it sweet!

Only 29 days to go! **Fingers Crossed** I hope I can keep up with this. :) :) :)