Whole30 -- Day 1

Well, I made it through the first day!

I woke up bright and early (at 5:15 a.m.) to take a steak out of the fridge so that I could let it warm up a bit before cooking it for lunch. I headed back to bed for about 45 minutes and got up at 6:00 to start searing the steak. The plan for lunch was to make Stupid Easy Paleo's Cinco de Mayo Steak Salad (with parsnips instead of jicama, no avocado because they were too not-ready yet, etc.). As soon as I started cooking the steak, I realized that it was too big to eat just at lunch and that I would have half of it for breakfast as well, which then altered my meal plan from what I had originally created yesterday.

Here's breakfast:

I sauteed two small sweet potatoes, one green pepper, and a quarter of an onion in about half a tablespoon of olive oil. I then dumped those in a container and topped them with half the seasoned (with salt and pepper) steak.

That definitely kept me full until lunch, but today was my early-lunch day. I ate breakfast at 8:00 and lunch at 10:45. I hope that breakfast will keep me full tomorrow, too, when I have to wait an additional 90 minutes to eat.

For lunch, I had my version of the Cinco de Mayo salad:

I forgot to take the picture until I was more than halfway done eating. Oops!

I mixed about two cups of spinach with one chopped tomato, one diced parsnip (which, in turns out, I didn't quite like), and half of the steak. I drizzled a little balsamic vinegar on top to make it kind of like a "real" salad with dressing. (The fat for this meal came from the steak as well as the tiny bit of oil that I used to saute it.)

In addition to the salad, I ate an apple to get my fruit serving in for the day. I wasn't super hungry after the salad, though, so I waited about an hour-and-a-half and ate that as a snack (even though those technically are not recommended with Whole30).

When I got home from work, I was exhausted. Thankfully, coffee (and the caffeine that comes with it) is Whole30-compliant (and is to die for with coconut milk instead of cream and sugar), but I was without my afternoon Mio Energy pick-me-up. So, I took a bit of a snooze before dinner. I'm hoping that the loads of "added energy" that come with clean-eating will come fairly quickly...

For dinner tonight, I made Garbage Stir-Fry with Curried Cabbage from Nom Nom Paleo and some roasted Brussels sprouts:

I know it doesn't look pretty, but it was delicious -- and made a ton. I will definitely be making this again and may throw in more curry powder and some other veggies next time. I ate at the table tonight, which I never do and which is one of my goals for Whole30. Granted, I paged through catalogs while I ate dinner, so it wasn't totally focused just on eating, but it's not like I was dining with anyone either -- well, aside from this one, that is:

1.) I know it's gross to have a cat on the table, but have you ever tried to train a feline?
2.) The only times she ever wants anything to do with me are the following: when I'm eating, when I'm grading papers, or when I'm doing sit-ups. She's so inconvenient -- good thing she's cute.

I have not been hungry at all today, which is kind of surprising to me. I attribute a lot of that to drinking buckets of water (with lemon). Seriously, I have probably had over 120 ounces of water today.

Today did, however, present one of Whole30's first challenges: book club. Book club is one of my favorite days each month, as it is a time to get together with girlfriends, drink copious amounts of wine, and eat delicious appetizers. Tonight, I was prepared: I ate right before I headed over so that I wasn't tempted by AM's amazing spread of apps, and I brought along my own cup of lemon water so that I avoided the wine. Yay, me!

For now, though, I'm going to sign off.  I am fading fast thanks to a muscle relaxer (stupid back muscle is still hurting so much that I want to throw up) and should probably hit the hay to as-much-as-possible avoid the grogginess that is sure to come tomorrow -- and to prevent narcotic-induced word vomit on this post.

I hope you all had a lovely Monday, and I will "talk" to you tomorrow!  :)