I originally wanted to title this post “Fighting Temptation” because I felt like it would be more interesting to be telling a story about how I’m pushing through all of these obstacles and still persisting with my Whole 30 journey. The truth is though, I’m not even tempted by food right now. Or alcohol for that matter. I think it’s because I’ve chosen to take myself and my needs seriously again and I’ve reached the end of my willingness to talk myself out of greatness for a fleeting moment of gratification.
I’m the girl who doesn’t let a weekend go by without a glass of wine or a cocktail or both so I genuinely did expect to struggle with that over the weekend but I didn’t. I was so busy googling new recipes, managing my daughter, helping my best friend scout photoshoot locations and hitting the gym again for the first time since my injury that it blew right past me and I didn’t have time to miss it.
Saturday
I treated my mom, Melody and myself to a homemade breakfast with home fries, eggs and bacon (checked the label, no sugar!). I took some time to talk my mom through the benefits of the Whole 30 diet and why I was choosing to do it again. I realized that I can often choose not to talk about what I’m doing and ultimately alienate myself and those around me so I just opened my mouth and an hour later I was still talking about it. Somewhere between flipping over both of our packages of bacon and pointing out that sugar was not an ingredient used to cure the pack that I purchased and sprinkling finishing salt on the potatoes I realized I may one day pursue becoming a Whole 30 coach. I believe in the benefits so much, mostly the way it opens your eyes to reading labels and ultimately controlling what you put in your body, and I want to share this with anyone who’s even slightly willing to listen.
After getting Melody ready to spend the day with her grandparents I went downtown with my best friend to scout locations for her wedding announcement photoshoot. Caught off guard by a rainstorm we stopped into Village Juice Co., a natural foods restaurant that caught my eye last year when I was visiting for Christmas, and I convinced her to have a smoothie bowl with me. I was actually worried that their ingredients would have to be modified in order to make the bowl compliant given how popular granola is as a topping but instead they use almond crumble (brilliant!) it’s legit ground up almonds and I love them forever for this. I’ll definitely be back while on Whole 30 and I’ll be adding almonds to my bowls at home.
Typically, the rainstorm would have led us into literally any other restaurant on the main street, and I would have undoubtedly ordered a drink or two even though I know walking around post drinking always leads to me feeling sluggish or a headache or both. Drinking is so deeply woven into what fun is to me that I’ve often chosen to drink knowing very well that I didn’t really feel like it and that I wouldn’t feel any better while or after doing it, but I did anyway. I’m happy to be taking this time to restrict myself from drinking to remind myself that I can have fun and enjoy downtime without it.
Saturday evening I fully intended to take some ground beef and turn it into a delicious looking creamy curry meatball situation I found, but I returned home to a hungry toddler and needed to move much faster than that. Okay, spaghetti sauce it is! But over what? Pasta of ALL kinds, even my beloved gluten free, is out on Whole 30. Oh, those beet noodles! (Again, can I just call these boodles??) Then spaghetti with boodles was born and though I was quite pleased on day 1, eating it again on day 2 I realized I don’t think I’ll do that again.
Sunday
At 2:45pm I set foot inside a gym again with intentions to work out on my own, not with my physical therapist. I dropped Melody off at the childcare center and parked my butt on a bike. I put on Beyonce’s Homecoming Live album and went to town for an hour keeping my heart rate at or just above the target rate to burn fat.
I finally had a moment to zone out and get in some cardio, my beloved cardio. I love the feeling of mindlessly chasing a high enough heart rate while listening to music and pretending I’m the lead girl in the video. I genuinely missed this and sometimes get caught up in the I would have been so much further along if this hadn’t happened to me thoughts in my head, but here I am. I’m still alive and able and working my way back to normal. I’m gonna get to where I want to be and I’ll be even better without the dead weight.
An hour later Melody and I swung by our favorite spot, the grocery store! Restless, she reached for everything she could recognize: “Apples, Mommy, Mommy, get apples! “And I repeated myself a hundred times “We have that at home”. I always enjoy grocery shopping with my munchkin though, she connects the dots and displays a lot of what she’s learning in those moments when we’re out perusing the aisles.
What I Ate Over The Weekend:
Saturday
Breakfast: Home fries (Sweet potato, russet potato, diced red and green peppers, onions with plenty of garlic), two 7 Minute Boiled Eggs, bacon, coffee
Dinner: Homemade beef pasta sauce over beet noodles - sauce was made with 1 can crushed tomatoes, one can diced tomatoes, ground beef, shallots, garlic, and plenty of Italian seasoning. The beet noodles were purchased raw so I roasted them for 10 mins to get them to just tender.
Sunday
Breakfast: Yesterday’s leftover potatoes + coffee
Lunch: Green smoothie (Spinach, Avocado, Fresh Pineapple, Coconut Water, Lemon Juice)
Dinner: Yesterday’s leftover boodles with sauce situation
-M