Day 2 Whole30

Today was actually pretty rough, talk about feeling like I had a hangover! General just blahness! The worst headache from midday until 7pm, I felt like my head was in a vice! Not pleasant :(

Thankfully I was expecting this as I had read the Whole30 timeline so I was prepared that day 2 and day 3 would be this way.  

Food wise I found it not too hard in regards to the chocolate, I won't deny that I still would've loved some but I was able to focus on all the yummy food choices I was making. 

The chocolate and the dairy will still be there after my Whole30 if I decide that it will be included in my regular diet or if I decide to keep it as a treat - I won't know until I've finished my Whole30.

7am: 2 poached eggs, 2 slices of free range, sugar free bacon, portobello mushrooms sautéed in ghee with garlic, salt and pepper. 1 Tbsp Coconut Manna, Decaf Nespresso

10am: 2 macadamias

12.30pm Scotch fillet steak seasoned with Cajun spices and fried in ghee, mesclun salad with red peppers, cherry tomatoes and topped with creamy avocado dressing. A few cashews.

6.30pm Leftover Lamb, Kumara (sweet potato) and Brussel Sprouts cooked in ghee, bone broth and balsamic vinegar, a few macadamias

My sleep was great, 9 hours and only woke once and straight back to sleep :-)

Day 1 Whole30

So I completed my first day of a Whole30! I'm excited about the challenge and a wee bit nervous about it, I don't think I really ever wanted to admit to myself that I rely far too heavily on dark chocolate or dairy.  I have always justified my Lindt 85%, after all dark chocolate is pretty healthy but at the end of the day it's still become a wee bit of an addiction. I would generally have one square after each meal (including breakfast) and sometimes more during the day when I was feeling a bit peckish. When I first started Primal nearly 5 years ago I never consumed the amount I do now, it's a little out of control. 

As for my beloved decaf Nespressos...no sugar and no cream arghhh! I'm not a fan of black coffee but am willing to give up the cream and sugar because I don't do things half assed, I'm either doing the whole30 or not doing it, no exceptions. It's strict but I like that, after a few bad habits that have crept in over the last 6 months I need a few boundaries to reset my ninjaness!

So day 1 was kind of tough, mostly because of the chocolate.  You just don't understand how strong of a hold some foods can have on you until you give them up, not only of a physical nature but also the psychological aspect. I will admit on Friday night I went to bed a bit cranky because like a child I wanted my chocolate fix!  Seriously though I did know this would be a challenge, I know I can do it, I'm so damn stubborn and I know I will succeed.

I do love the concept of a Whole30 (brief outline):

No weighing or measuring yourself

No calorie counting or weighing food

3 meals a day (4-6 hours apart) - no snacking if you can help it

A palm or two size of protein (high quality - grassfed, pastured etc)

Add Fats, choosing 1-2 fat sources per meal as below:

1-2 Tablespoons of fat like coconut oil, ghee, olive oil

A handful of coconut flakes and olives

1/4-1/2 of a 14oz can coconut milk

Half to one Avocado 

A little bit of starchy veggies (like pumpkin, parsnip, sweet potato etc) 

1-2 small servings of fruit

The rest of your plate should be fibrous veggies, like 2-3 cups per meal, per day! Talk about an abundance of food, I am going to be Well Fed alright. I am very interested in getting my hormones balanced and my circadian rhythm working better.

Day 1:

Awake at 6.30am

7am: 3 hard boiled eggs mashed with homemade ghee and salt, bowl of blueberries, raspberries, shredded coconut and coconut milk. 1 Tbsp Coconut Manna

1pm: Chicken Salad with homemade mayo and leftover sweet potato, Black decaf Nespresso, a few raw macadamias

7pm: Roast Chicken and Lamb from the Weber BBQ, kumara (nz sweet potato), carrots, broccoli with ghee and lemon juice. A few raw cashews.

Asleep by 10.30pm

Yes I missed my chocolate, however it was very interesting to see how attached I had become to it.  Overall I felt pretty good, my blood sugars felt unbelievably steady, didn't feel any fluctuations in energy, so it was a relatively smooth day 1.  I did have a headache on and off throughout the day, I'm guessing it was possibly a wee bit of caffeine withdrawal, because of the amount of dark chocolate I normally consume. 

If you are considering doing a Whole30 then I really suggest you read "It starts with Food".  I had read all the posts on Whole9life.com and there is some great data there, all over the internet you can find other peoples successes and testimonies, literally everywhere! However it wasn't until I read this book from beginning to end that I really understood why I should do this.  I had ideas of doing a Whole30 but allowing myself the chocolate and the cream in my coffee, I was convinced that I didn't need to give these up for 30 days, like really how much of a difference will it really make? Listening to this podcast and reading the book has really opened my eyes, I highly recommended "It Starts With Food", to date it's the best book I've read.  I'm a HUGE fan of the books from Mark Sisson, Nora Gedgaudas, Robb Wolf, Loren Cordain and Paul Jaminet.  There is something about this book and the way it's written really spoke to me and I now understand the huge Whole30 movement that is going on around the World, it's very exciting :)

Whole30

You might all be wondering why I'm doing a Whole30.  After all I eat a pretty awesome diet, Primal is a very sustainable way of eating and I love it so why mess with it?... 

Well because there are still a couple of niggling symptoms I have that I'd love to improve and I'm curious if doing an elimination diet (Whole30) will help.

As a lot of you know I have PCOS.  Since being Primal I have reduced my symptoms but they still niggle me so I'm hoping that eliminating dairy will help with this.  Also I would love to be able to sleep solidly through the night, I don't remember the last time I sleep the entire night through.  I always get 8-9 hours but I always wake 1-2 times a night.  From all the stories and testimonies I've read about the Whole30, sleeping soundly through the night is a big driving force in my decision.

Whole30 is designed by an awesome Paleo Power couple Melissa and Dallas Hartwig.  There is no sugar or honey, stevia etc.., no legumes, no grains, no white potatoes, no dairy (yes that means butter - ghee is ok), no alcohol.

I'm not into "diets", they don't work, they will damage your metabolism and make you crazy!

In some ways the Whole30 seems like a diet in terms of the perfection and how unsustainable it can seem, yes it's very strict, however it's called the Whole30 not the Whole365.  30 days out of your life is nothing and it if means it will set you up with some great boundaries then it's a damn good reason to do it.

I'm an experimenter, I like to do the best I can with the information I have.  Elimination diets are the best way to figure out if you have any food intolerances, its something I've never done before so I felt like after reading the book "It starts with food" I was convinced. 

I love how Melissa and Dallas have written their book and make it very clear that the Whole30 is about health, it's not about losing weight so therefore I don't view it as a "Diet" per se, however many people report weight loss amongst some pretty amazing health testomonials.

The Whole30 and the way I eat isn't really that different so most of it won't be too challenging.  The hardest parts for me are going to be no dairy - no cream in my coffee or butter on my veggies, no sugar - I have sugar in my coffee, no chocolate - sugar in chocolate.  Everything else isn't really much of an issue for me, I gave up refined carbohydrates and refined sugars in excess a long time ago.  It will be interesting to see whether stripping out these "indulgence" foods I've been having will make a difference in my health.  I will keep you posted!

Bone Broth

The glorious homemade bone broth! It is extremely nourishing for your body, it helps heal your gut, removes toxins, aids digestion, good for your joints, the list goes on... It also is a great way of using up that whole chicken or roast lamb bone that still has some meat on it.

We are very lucky here in New Zealand that all of our Lamb and Beef is grassfed, I sure don't like wasting the bones - especially when I have cooked my roast on the weber, you get the most delicious smokey flavour.

How do you get thick and gelatinous bone broth? When cooled bone broth should be thick and much like jelly! I know that a lot of people struggle with this so I thought I would give you a step by step process.

Ingredients:

• Leftover Meat bones
• 1 large Onion
• 1 large Carrot
• 2 stalks Celery 
• 2 Tablespoons of Apple Cider Vinegar
• Water

Instructions:

1. Peel your onion and chop it into quarters, peel the carrot and dice, remove the flowery part of the celery and chop up into pieces.
2. Place the bones, along with the rest of the ingredients into a large soup pot (you can also use a crockpot). Fill up your pot with water, the addition of apple cider vinegar and letting your bones sit in cold water (with the acv) for at least an hour will give you the best results.
3. After an hour slowly bring it to a boil and then reduce to a very low simmer and cook for at least 8 hours, you can do 24 hours if you want to, the longer it cooks the better as you are drawing the nutrition out of the bones.
4. If you cook the broth for longer than 8 hours you will need to check the water level occasionally, it might need topping up.
5. When you are ready to strain the stock place a mesh strainer over a large bowl and pour the broth through the strainer. At this stage you will have this aromatic liquid that you will want to drink straight away, please don't, you need to cool it to remove the fat. I'm a huge believer in eating fat but when it comes to drinking bone broth it's not ideal - especially with chicken fat. Pour the liquid into glass jars and allow to cool for at least an hour, to cool it down faster place them in a cool water bath, then you can refrigerate.
6. Once the broth has cooled the fat will harden on the surface. This will help keep the broth fresh. The broth will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days otherwise it's best to freeze. keep well in the fridge for one week. You can also store in ice cube trays which makes it easy to use when needed, if you do this make sure you have removed the fat first.

Zucchini Carbonara

This is one of my favourite dishes:

Ingredients:

Serves 2:

• 1 large breast of chicken chopped up into bite sized pieces 
• 4 strips of streaky bacon chopped up 
• 5-6 large sundried tomatoes chopped up 
• 75gms Creamy feta (more or less depending on your taste preference) 
• Handful of Toasted Pinenuts 
• 100-200mls Heavy Cream 
• 2 Egg Yolks 
• 2-3 zucchinis julienned 
• 1 Tbsp Basil Pesto 
• Knob of butter 
• Garnish: Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese and Salt & Pepper

Instructions:

First toast your pinenuts!
Then fry your bacon, once browned put aside, fry the chicken using the bacon drippings. Once the chicken is almost cooked throw back in the bacon, sundried tomatoes and pesto.

In a bowl add your egg yolks, cream salt and pepper. Add the wet mixture and let simmer on a very low heat, you don't want the egg to curdle. Only cook for about 2 minutes. Add your feta and take off the heat.

In a separate non stick frying pan melt a knob of butter and flash fry the zucchini, you don't want to do it for long otherwise your zucchini will go mushy, add the zucchini noodles to the creamy chicken and serve immediately, grate some fresh parmesan on top and some freshly cracked pepper and salt.

Warning: Super rich!!!