I miss writing.

I used to write all the damn time.  I would write about my day, weave random short stories about fantasy worlds or people living in today's day and age, poetry that was just god awful, and fandom-specific stuff (aka fanfiction, aw yeah).  My computer was filled with different Notepad files, because for some reason that has always been my preferred place to write in; even now, I am writing this in Notepad.

Exhibit A of said claim.

At some point, though, I stopped writing as frequently as I used to.  I try to do things like NaNoWriMo and I wouldn't make it past the first week or two before I lost my footing and gave up.  Giving up is difficult for me; I want to succeed, I want something to brag about (c'mon, I'm only human), and I enjoy the satisfaction of a job well done.  I will sit down in front of my computer with all of my distractions turned off and nothing but a blank canvas for me to paint my story onto, but I don't know where to start.

It isn't for a lack of ideas, because those I have plenty of.  There's the fantasy story about a female heroine named Ithaca (the name that my dad's best friend suggested because it was the name of his band and I always felt if my parents had done that, I'd have no choice but to be a fantasy heroine) or the dystopian novel about two sisters that get wrapped up in a bunch of crazy or the supernatural book where people having abilities is a societal norm that not everyone is happy with or the idea rooted in reborn Greek mythology or the one that was born of a weird dream I had about mind control or or or.  They're all ideas, but none of them have ever blossomed into something real or tangible, due to a mixture of my not knowing where to start and a heavy dose of self-doubt wherein I assumed that it's probably something that's already been done anyway... so why bother?

I know that's silly, though.  Writing has always been an outlet of mine and it's not been because I want to get published, make millions, and then have a series of movies that will butcher all of the original work.  While that might be amazing (sans the third, because that would just be annoying), it's not my end goal.  My end goal is much more immediate: finishing a full chapter.  Finishing a second chapter.  Finishing a third chapter.  And so on and so forth.

I don't know if I'll ever finish a book.  While that's one of those things that I would love to do and I have since I was about fourteen and first started writing silly (and downright cringe-worthy) stories about Harry Potter characters, I know that it means I need to actually sit down and start writing again.  So, that is my St. Paddy's Day Resolution, given we're three months late for New Years.  I'm going to write more, darnit.

I honestly don't know.

Drumroll, please.

As I said in my previous blog post, I didn't do the Whole30 so I would lose weight.  While that was an added perk, it wasn't my main intention.  I loved all of the very real health benefits that it boasted and the intent behind it all.

That being said!  I did go ahead and weigh myself today on the scale at work.  The last time I had weighed myself was when I went to the doctor in January for bronchitis, so I figured that was a decent enough weight to go by.  And so, the grand total that I lost was 16 pounds.  (I thought it was 15 at work, but I checked the paper that I'd gotten from the doctor when I got home and was pleasantly surprised.)

So yeah!  That was very exciting to me and really gives me a good push to continue much of what I was doing in Whole30, since it was clearly helping.  I lost that weight without very much exercise outside of occasional pilates when I managed to guilt myself into doing them.  ;)  When it finally warms up, I'm looking forward to going for walks and to get my exercise that way, so I'm hoping that the two combined will yield further results.

Also, I will be continuing this blog, even though I'm no longer technically on Whole30.  Although I didn't blog every single day as I had intended, I did enjoy writing in here and the connections and support it's given me through my friends via Facebook.  You haven't seen the last of me and my cute corgi/other animal gifs yet.

And now... I'm going to go put some cheese on my soup.   Mmm, cheese.

Day Thirty (!!!!!)

DAY THIRTY
BRUNCH:  Eggs with spinach and mushrooms
DINNER:  Leftover pork roast and green beans

I wasn't very hungry today, so I didn't eat very much.  (I also let myself sleep in after another late night of binge-watching Haven)  I have a bad feeling that I'm coming down with a cold, which I am blaming on the change in seasons that seems to be happening right now (hopefully that isn't jinxing myself), and that usually zaps my appetite pretty quick.

But, more exciting:  DAY THIRTY!

When I started this, I was pretty confident that I would make it through the thirty days, but at the same time I wasn't sure what to think.  The confidence is good and grand, but actually seeing it through?  I wasn't sure what would happen.  But now I'm here on day thirty and... yeah.  That's pretty crazy.

I don't have a scale in my apartment, so I haven't been able to weigh myself.  My mom is going to bring me my scale to work tomorrow, though, as I had left it at their house when I moved out, and I'll see for sure what's going on.  I feel like I might have lost weight, but I'm trying not to be but so hopeful.  I've had people mention it to me and my clothes feel a bit more loose, but again -- trying not to get my hopes up too much.

I've felt a very real change in my health, though, which is the primary reason that I set forth in doing this.  Losing weight would have been awesome, but it was my health that I was worried about.  I no longer have frequent stomach aches whenever I eat and I've found that going to bed and sleeping through the night has been much easier.  I don't spring out of bed easily every morning, but my energy has been better as well.  I used to take melatonin every night, but I haven't taken it once in the past month and I've been fine.  I think that was one of the best things that I learned from this, to be honest.  I didn't like how reliant I had become on those pills, natural or not.

I have to say, though, that this was an amazing experience and one that I might repeat sometime in the future.  I'm taking a lot of what I learned from the thirty days and will be implementing it afterward; I'm going to stick to basically everything, but I will be reintroducing dairy in small doses.  I'm looking forward to being able to stick to the rules that I've had during the Whole30, but be able to bend them a bit here and there to suit my needs.

Day Twenty-Nine

DAY TWENTY-NINE
BRUNCH:  Eggs, Polish sausage, and bacon
DINNER:  Pork roast and strawberries

It looks like I didn't eat a lot today, but I did.  I kind of nommed on the pork roast a bit more than I probably should have.  I made this version and it tastes so yummy that it gets a little bit addicting.  OH WELL.  No regrets.  At least it wasn't Girl Scout Cookies?

I'm kind of baffled by the fact that tomorrow is day thirty.  I honestly don't know where the last month went.  But, we'll leave that long, rambling blog post for tomorrow.

Tonight... tonight I'll just listen to the alarm go off at my neighbor's apartment, because apparently they have it set for midnight and are never around to turn it off.

Days Twenty-Seven - Twenty-Eight

DAY TWENTY-SEVEN
BREAKFAST:  Boiled eggs
LUNCH:  Leftover crockpot carnitas / paleo nachos
DINNER:  Flounder in tomato sauce with spinach
SNACK:  Carrots

DAY TWENTY-EIGHT
BREAKFAST:  Boiled eggs
LUNCH:  Leftover flounder and tomato sauce with spinach
DINNER:  Italian turkey sausages with bell peppers, onions, and tomato sauce
SNACK:  Strawberries

I almost had a problem today that would have more or less torn me up inside.  One of my coworkers had dark chocolate covered raspberries at work; they were like chocolate covered raisins, but basically more heavenly.  She offered me some and as chocolate and raspberries is more or less the best thing ever, I took one without thinking.  I was literally inches from putting it in my mouth when I stopped and realized what I was doing.

I know that it would have only been one tiny little raspberry, but maaan.  That would have made me so mad at myself!  Doing so well for twenty-eight days and then messing up on accident?  Oof.  Luckily, though, I caught it and all is well!  Phew.

Thank you, Whit.

Days Twenty-Five - Twenty-Six

DAY TWENTY-FIVE
BREAKFAST:  Boiled egg, guacamole
LUNCH:  Leftover prosciutto wrapped chicken with steamed asparagus
DINNER:  Keema (I added spinach in there)
SNACK:  Sweet potato chips

DAY TWENTY-SIX
BREAKFAST:  Boiled eggs, guacamole
LUNCH:  Leftover keema
DINNER:  Crockpot carnitas / paleo nachos
SNACK:  Carrots

I have zero things to talk about because I'm addicted to a new show ("Haven") and it's all I can think about.  Sometimes I wonder if Netflix is a good or bad thing, because I come home from work and suddenly it's almost midnight and sigh.

Okay, let's be real.  It's a good thing.

Days Twenty-Two - Twenty-Four

DAY TWENTY-TWO
BREAKFAST:  Eggs with spinach, mushrooms, onion, tomato, and turkey sausage
LUNCH:  Leftover Italian soup
DINNER:  Leftover Italian soup (it was so good; couldn't help myself)
SNACK:  Raspberries

DAY TWENTY-THREE
BRUNCH:  Eggs with spinach and mushrooms
DINNER:  Baked salmon with mushrooms and onions
SNACK:  Sweet potato chips

DAY TWENTY-FOUR
BREAKFAST:  Boiled eggs with guacamole
LUNCH:  Leftover salmon with mushrooms and onions
DINNER:  Prosciutto wrapped chicken with steamed asparagus
SNACK:  Carrots

I am apparently very bad at blogging.  I'm trying, I swear!  I just forget, siiiigh.

We're at the point where there is only one week left of my Whole30 and that's just crazy to me.  Part of me wants so badly to have pizza (gluten-free crust from Dominos) right away on Day 31, but another part of me wants to just keep trucking along.  It hasn't been the easiest past few weeks, but it's definitely been rewarding and I've finally reached the point where I'm really not having a lot of cravings.  While the knowledge of my Girl Scout Cookies in my mom's desk at work will occasionally haunt me, it's not as bad as I thought it would be.  What has really surprised me is that I've really had very few cravings for any kind of bread or pasta; during the beginning there was a little wanting, but now it's pretty much nonexistent.  It's really pretty great.

I bought a few sweet potatoes a while back and I wasn't really sure what to do with them.  I'm not the biggest fan of them plain, so I cut them up and made the above sweet potato chips.  I don't like sweet potato fries, but these were nice and crispy and surprisingly good.  I'm making another batch right now and I'm looking forward to replacing that with my lackluster carrots tomorrow at work.  :)

Days Nineteen - Twenty-One

DAY NINETEEN
BREAKFAST:  2 egg muffins, guacamole
LUNCH:  Leftover pork roast and green beans
DINNER:  Chili

DAY TWENTY
BREAKFAST:  2 boiled eggs, guacamole
LUNCH:  Leftover chili
DINNER:  Leftover chili

DAY TWENTY-ONE
BREAKFAST:  2 boiled eggs, guacamole
LUNCH:  Leftover chili and an orange
DINNER:  An Italian soupy thing that I made up

There's definitely been a theme the past few days.  Leftovers.  :3

I am so happy that it's Friday and we're going into the weekend here.  I don't know what it was about this past week, but I am just happy to have a few days off to not be at work.  I did my grocery shopping tonight and I'm looking forward to some of the experiments that I'm going to be doing in the next week.  I'll be eating the soup I made for dinner for eons, though, because I made a ton of it.  Not that I'm complaining.  It's amazing.

Today, as mentioned above, I had an orange with my lunch and I think it broke my stomach.  I haven't had any stomach ills in the past little while, so this was vaguely alarming.  I think it had to do with the orange, though, because I've been eating the chili for days and felt just fine.  What can you do.

Be all kinds of lazy, that's what you can do.

Days Seventeen - Eighteen!

DAY SEVENTEEN
BREAKFAST:  Tuna avocado salad and an orange
LUNCH:  Leftover chicken and broccoli
DINNER:  Eggs with spinach, turkey breakfast sausage, tomato, and bacon
SNACK:  Almonds

DAY EIGHTEEN
BREAKFAST:  Raspberries and almonds
LUNCH:  Egg muffins with guacamole and blackberries
DINNER:   Pork roast and green beans

Prior to starting Whole30, I had stomachaches almost daily.  They weren't terrible, but just belly cramps and feeling generally icky.  Yesterday I realized that I haven't had a stomachache like that in over a week.  They just kind of stopped.  I don't know what part of the change in diet might have caused that to happen, but I'm not questioning it.  :)

I'm finding that my cravings are becoming even less irritating.  Today we had a Food Day at work and the only thing that I could eat was what I brought in (egg muffins, yum) and some guacamole and while everything else looked very tasty, I didn't feel too bad about turning it all down.  I'm hoping that it only continues this way.

Okay, that's all I've got.  I think it's bedtime.

[from this page that I don't entirely agree with]

Day Sixteen!

BREAKFAST:  Eggs and avocado
LUNCH:  Salmon, spinach, and broccoli at Perkins
DINNER:  A concoction of turkey burger, collard greens, and tomatoes that was surprisingly good

I need to go grocery shopping.  I made myself my lunch for tomorrow and thank god my mom was kind enough to let me take home last night's leftovers or I wouldn't have had anything to pack.  Even my breakfast is a bit questionable, but I don't have all of the noms for my egg muffins.  I really had great intentions to go grocery shopping yesterday, but... then I didn't.  I'm lazy, what can I say.

Today some of my brother's artwork was shown at Alexander House for Youth Art Month and I couldn't be more proud of his awesome.  He's really so unbelievably talented (exhibit a, exhibit b) and I'm about as proud of him as an older sister can be.

I'm hoping that this week will be less of a roller coaster than last week.  I feel like this food situation is evening out and I'm getting more used to it.  Now if only I could go to bed at a decent hour...?  lol not happening

my bb <3

Days Thirteen - Fifteen! (lol oops)

DAY THIRTEEN
BREAKFAST:  2 egg muffins, almonds
LUNCH:  Avocado chicken salad
DINNER:  Chicken/Beef El Zarape w/ guacamole and pico de gallo from El Mezcal

DAY FOURTEEN
BREAKFAST:  2 egg muffins
LUNCH:  Avocado chicken salad, orange
DINNER:  Fried eggs with spinach, turkey breakfast sausage, tomatoes, and mushrooms

DAY FIFTEEN
BREAKFAST:  Fried eggs and bacon at Sofia's
LUNCH:  Fried eggs and Italian turkey sausage with tomatoes and onions
DINNER:  Chicken/broccoli/mushroom crepe with avocado and sweet potato

...oops.

Welp, after Wednesday's nonsense with feeling kind of poopy, I've found that I'm feeling much better!  Last night I went to bed before midnight because I was just ready for bed (and am an old lady) and I slept through the night with great ease.  I did wake up at 6:30AM and felt wide awake, but I just wasn't having that and got two more hours of sleep.  I've also found that my energy is kind of great!  I love it.

I'm also finding that as time goes on, I'm not really craving some of the things I really wanted even a few days ago.  I would have pinched someone in high authority a few days ago if it meant I could have cheesy bread from Dominos, but now I'm pretty content.  I was wrestling with the sort of things I'm thinking that, right now at the halfway point, I want to continue post-Whole30 and I honestly think that the only thing I want to reintroduce is cheese and alcohol.  I didn't drink much before outside of my Thursday margaritas, so it's not like I'll go back to crazy binge drinking ways or anything, but El Mez just isn't the same without them.

Now, maybe I'll change my mind as time goes on!  We will see.  I'm just excited that I've made it this far.

accurate representation of me when i exercise

Day Twelve!

BREAKFAST:  Fruit salad (raspberries, blueberries, strawberries)
LUNCH:  Almonds and a salad with no dressing
DINNER:  Fried eggs with spinach and guacamole

I forgot my lunch again today.  Arrrgh.

The bigger issue today was that I woke up with a pounding headache and absolutely no energy whatsoever.  It truly didn't help that there was someone outside my apartment revving their engine at shortly before 6AM, waking me up out of a dead sleep and leaving me wide awake and terrified that I was being attacked or something.  (I don't know what would be attacking me.  Some sort of car monster?  Who knows.)  But I could tell that I was a different tired than if I had just not gotten enough sleep.  When I got to work, my legs just did not want to climb the one flight of stairs that it took for me to get to my department.  Now, I might be out of shape, but I walk those stairs multiple times every day without getting winded, so this was downright ridiculous.

It didn't take very long to get to the bottom of what was going on, though.  After discussing with my mom, coworkers, and Whit and doing a little bit of digging, this isn't uncommon.  That much I knew, though -- I just didn't expect it when I was nearing the end of week two.  The issue was simple, though: I'm not getting enough good calories and fats.

As I thought about it more, it kind of hit me in the face with how much sense it made.  Whenever I've done diets before, they have always been about counting calories or points and I always hated that.  One of the thing that appealed to me most about the Whole30 challenge was that there wasn't any counting.  You ate until your full and that was that.  What I didn't think about was how I wasn't eating all of the crap I used to eat.  Eating pizza until your full still fills you with a lot of calories.  Eating stuffed green peppers that are stuffed with tomatoes and very lean burger means that there aren't as many calories and when you have them for three meals in a row without any nuts or other foods with good fat for energy, it kind of comes together.

I'm glad that I had a great support system that helped me figure this out.  After work I went to the grocery store and bought some avocados and sweet potatoes.  I'm not a big fan of the latter, but I'm thinking that I might make a kind of hash brown out of them or shred them up to add them into my egg muffins for next week, per some suggestions that I saw on the Whole9 and Whole30 forums.  Getting those good fats in early in the morning helps give a boost of energy.

So my fingers are crossed that I can get my energy levels back into shape soon!  One unfortunate side effect of being so tired has been that I've just been downright cranky and that's not cool.  I don't think I've taken it out on anyone, but I've been a bit whiny and no one wants to deal with that.  At least I can recognize it and try to suppress it, though!

Day Ten & Eleven!

DAY TEN
BREAKFAST:  2 egg muffins, strawberries
LUNCH:  Cucumber, tomato, black olive, and onion salad w/ balsamic vinegar
SNACK:  Carrots
DINNER:  Stuffed peppers

DAY ELEVEN
BREAKFAST:  2 egg muffins, raspberries and blueberries
LUNCH:  Leftover stuffed peppers
SNACK:  Carrots
DINNER:  And again... stuffed peppers because omgsogood

Once again, I forgot to blog last night.  In my defense, I sort of just got to the point where I couldn't look at my computer anymore and instead just passed out in my bed.  I've been very tired the past few days, even with my extended sleep over the weekend.  I'm not really sure what's going on, but I'm pretending it isn't happening.

Per the Whole30 timeline, days 10 and 11 are the days that people are more likely to give up with the challenge.  I'm glad to say that I did not.  The temptation was there, but I carried on.  During lunch today, a coworker asked what I was missing or craving the most.  The only thing that I can honestly say that I've been craving is cheese, which I knew was going to be the case.  I love cheese and I cook with it a lot, so not having it is kind of a bummer.  But just in this past little more than a week, my eyes have been opened to a lot of different dishes that I never would have thought about making before.  I always just ate sandwiches and pasta because it's what I had and I thought was easiest, but the recipes I've been making have required very little prep time.  As much as I love to cook, when I get home from work there are days where it is the last thing I want to do.  I was worried going into this that my being tired and not wanting to prepare meals would be my downfall in this, but between finding quick dishes to prepare and making things ahead of time it's worked out well.

But, I'm not even halfway through yet, so no patting on the back just yet!

sleepy beagle because i'm missing my oliver <3

Day Eight & Nine! happy weekend~

DAY EIGHT
BREAKFAST:  2 fried eggs with chili and spinach
LUNCH:  Chicken/Beef El Zarape w/ guacamole and pico de gallo from El Mezcal
DINNER:  Slow Cooker Kalua Pig (without the Hawaiian salt)

DAY NINE
BREAKFAST:  2 fried eggs with spinach and mushrooms
LUNCH:  2 fried eggs with spinach and mushrooms
SNACK:  Bowl of grapes
DINNER:  Leftover Kalua Pig and green beans

I completely forgot to blog yesterday -- oops.  I also almost forgot to blog today -- double oops!

I spent the evening getting my breakfast together for the week.  I made egg muffin cups with spinach, mushrooms, and ground turkey and I'm looking forward to them.  I love eggs and I like boiled eggs, but it will be nice to have a different kind of egg to shake things up.

All in all, the weekend was very mellow, which I liked.  My brother and I saw "The Lego Movie" on Saturday, which was great.  There were a ton of kids in the theater, which can normally irritate me, but they weren't particularly obnoxious.  The worst was when I saw "Hunger Games" for the first time and right behind us was a mother with her daughter that couldn't have been more than four-years-old.  When she wasn't asking questions loudly, she was crying at the scary scenes and... bah.  :P

For the first time in a long time, I actually slept in this morning.  I stayed up until around 1AM, which really isn't too late given that I usually stay up until midnight during the week as I don't get up until 8AM, and then slept until nearly 11AM.  It's very rare that I can sleep in past 9AM on weekends, but apparently I was rather tired today.  I've been feeling it all day as well, so I'm hoping that I'm just catching up on sleep that was missing from somewhere and I'm not getting sick.  Getting sick would be laaame.

My fingers are crossed that this week will be better than last week.  Positive thinking!

Day Seven - not-really-spaghetti

BREAKFAST:  Carrots
LUNCH:  A bowl of chili and three pieces of haddock (random or what?)
SNACK:  Blueberries
DINNER:  Spaghetti squash with spaghetti sauce (turkey burger, green peppers, onions, and mushrooms)

Spaghetti squash was a new and exciting experiment.  I've always liked most squash in general, but I've never had spaghetti squash before.  Given that my diet pre-Whole30 was 90% consisted of pasta, I was excited to give this a shot.  While I knew it wouldn't be exactly like spaghetti, I'm up for anything.

I was pleasantly surprised.  It definitely doesn't have the taste or texture of pasta, but it's close enough in the latter that I didn't mind it.  I found that it really doesn't have much of a taste at all, so I think that when I cook up my leftovers I might put the squash and the sauce in a pan and cook it up that way in hopes that the squash will soak up some of the flavor.  All in all, I can't complain.

Here's to trying new things!

[picture from here]

Day Six - the restaurant challenge

BREAKFAST:  Grapes and cashews
LUNCH:  Leftover chili
SNACK:  Carrots
DINNER:  Chicken/Beef El Zarape w/ guacamole and pico de gallo from El Mezcal

We were supposed to have crazy weather today and I suppose we actually did; it's late February in Wisconsin and it was raining with thunder and lightning near the end of my shift.  Because it is February in Wisconsin, all of that quickly froze and the world became a skating rink and we're supposed to be getting some snow, but all in all -- much better than the 8-10" that they were worried about yesterday.  (Although, I'll admit that I'd prefer snow over ice.  I'm much better at driving in snow.)

Today was my first challenge of going out to eat since starting Whole30.  All of my meals have otherwise been cooked at home, so I was a bit nervous about going to a restaurant and hope that I could find something to eat.  In the end, I was able to find something that tasted all kinds of amazing; I just had to order it with no beans, cheese, or rice.  (Naturally I forgot to ask for it to have no cheese at first and needed to ask them to make it again; I felt like the worst person ever and probably didn't leave a big enough tip.)  In the end, I think that the hardest part was not having two-for-one margaritas.  I've only had to do that once before when I was on a litany of antibiotics for bronchitis.  I made it through, though.  High fives.

All in all, I'm glad that I was able to find something that I liked, because A) it makes me a bit less wary about going to other restaurants and B) I would hate to have to give up Thursdays at El Mez, even if it's just for a few weeks.  The food is great, but the company is even better and it's the latter that I go for.  Okay, I go for the food, too.  :)

In other news, I am officially in the "omg so tired" stage of Whole30.  I felt it slightly yesterday, but today it's just been intense.  There were times I wanted nothing more than to just crawl under my desk and sleep there until 5:30, but managed to resist the urge.  Knowing that it's only temporary is what's getting me through the phase.  There's a light at the end of the tunnel, I just know it.

[picture from here]

Day Five! zzzzzz

BREAKFAST:  One boiled egg, carrots
LUNCH:  Lemon/dill chicken, blueberries
DINNER:  Chocolate chili (go make this right now)

It was very difficult getting out of bed this morning.  It hardly helped that I've gotten into this weird habit of waking up at 5:30AM for no apparent reason.  This morning when it happened I was convinced that it was Saturday.  My disappointment was epic when I realized that it was only Wednesday.  Ugh.

I survived the day, however.  I had other plans for dinner, but chili just sounded amazing, especially when coupled with the dumping of snow we're supposed to get tomorrow.  I'm still holding off hope that it won't be as bad as it sounds like it's going to be, but that hope is feeble.  February in Wisconsin generally means one thing and that one thing is snow.

I'm glad that I don't own a scale, because I feel a general curiosity that would likely leave me giving into temptation and stepping on it.  I know that it's not been nearly long enough for this change in eating to have made a big difference and I also know that it's against the rules for a reason, but still.  The thought is there.  I'll stand strong, though!  Mostly because, as I said, I don't own a scale.  Makes it a little hard to weigh oneself without one.

[image from here]

Day Four! stupid cupcakes

BREAKFAST:  Two boiled eggs, handful of baby carrots
LUNCH:  Leftover buffalo chicken, fruit salad
SNACK:  Cashews
DINNER:  Eggs, ham, spinach/mushrooms, topped with hollandaise sauce

This evening I had my largest hurdle yet: having to make cupcakes for work.  I made these cupcakes in particular and they became a massive headache.  Note to anyone who might make them in the future: where it says to fill the cones almost full with batter?  Don't.  Make sure there's some room.  Otherwise they will just overflow and look a mess.  This only further supports my theory that food bloggers tweak their recipes so no one can make something as pretty as they can.

I'm hoping that they'll still taste good; I don't know, of course, since they're clearly not Whole30 friendly.  :)

Day Three! at least it's almost over?

BREAKFAST:  An orange :(
LUNCH:  A "salad" that amounted to some ham, cucumbers, and eggs in a bowl
DINNER:  Paleo-friendly buffalo chicken, green beans, and blackberries

Today could have been better.

I started the day with a headache, which just sort of set the tone.  Before going to my car, I took a bag of garbage and a bag of recyclables out to the cans and dumpster.  My landlords don't seem to believe in the use of salt, so I fell twice on the snow/ice that has accumulated on our walkways -- the second time twisting my ankle and landing on my bag of recyclables, breaking open the bag and scattering them all over the place.  I got to work just in time, only to realize that I left my lunch in the fridge at home.  Curses!

Lucky for me, my mom got me back on track (after I nearly started to sob at her desk because of the poopy morning) and I managed.  I was pretty hungry by the end of the day, but man... I sure appreciated my dinner.

Tonight I cooked up a ton of chicken that I had living in my freezer for a while.  I didn't have anything to freeze the chicken separately, so I left it to thaw and had to cook it all up in one go.  I made the buffalo chicken that I linked above, cut some of it into strips and just cooked it plain with a little dill for my salads, and then tossed some with lemon.  I'm now pretty darn prepared in the chicken front for a while, which is great.  While I love to cook, sometimes I just want to come home and have something quick and easy which is how I fall back on stuff that isn't the best for me.

I didn't do pilates again tonight because my ankle and knee are hurting.  Tomorrow, though.  No excuses, darnit.

(gif dedicated to Laurel!)

Day Two! what hangover?

BREAKFAST:  Fried eggs, spinach, and mushrooms
LUNCH:  Fruit salad, boiled eggs
DINNER:  Leftover salmon and steamed broccoli and cauliflower

Per the Whole30 timeline, it's around about today the the "hangover" kicks in.  I did feel a bit headachey this morning, but I quenched that right away with a little pain reliever and drinking a lot of water.  I don't know if that was just "why am I up at 8AM it's the weekend Jamie oh god why" or what.  I think it did help that I really didn't do anything today (does loading the dishwasher count? because it should), so tomorrow might be a whole new hurdle.

I've had a lot of eggs in the past two days and I'm vaguely worried that I'll get sick of them.  Eggs are kind of my favorite, though, and there are a lot of ways to prepare them.  I'm even finding that when I add in veggies, I don't mind that there isn't any cheese.  Who knew?

I didn't do pilates tonight and I already feel guilty over it.  Tomorrow I'll be back with a vengeance.

... unless I'm "hungover".  Then I might just nap under my desk at work.