Whole30: Day 1 + A Recipe

So here we are at day one... it feels like a one small step/giant leap type thing. Significant, yet not. Also, I was excited to see how many people read my post from yesterday. Hopefully we can spread the encouragement and support around!

Today went something like this...

Breakfast: One hard boiled egg and half an orange. I made myself a tumbler of black, unsweetened coffee and attempted to drink some while at work. I probably took a total of five sips. It's hard to have coffee without sugar. :/

Morning Snack: A few almonds and raisins. Kind of like trail mix, minus the bad stuff.

Lunch: As lunch got closer I was really excited knowing I would not be ingesting crap for once. Lunches used to consist of lots of fast food (Wendy's!), which tasted delish but would later leave me feeling like I wished I hadn't gone there.

Today I had homemade chicken and veggie soup, a Whole30-safe spin on chicken noodle. I made the soup last night, essentially throwing together ingredients I knew would work (chopped celery, carrots, scallions and garlic, some spices and cubed chicken). When it was done, Nick tried some and really liked it, so we wrote down the basics, which I am sharing with you at the end of this entry. :) I also had half an apple, two pickle spears (the cracker replacement) and a small amount of juice.

I was wondering how the afternoon would go, but I didn't experience any sort of crash. (Which really, that makes sense because I didn't eat any sweets beyond fruit.)

Afternoon Snack: Same as the morning snack.

We went to the gym after work and I expected to hit that second-day-back-in-the-gym slump. But my workout today was even better than yesterday and I felt amazing. Some may say it's too early to tell if the Whole30 is doing its job, but let me tell you, there's no arguing with a mid-workout body. Things are either going really well, or really terrible. Today, things felt fantastic. I'll take it when I can get it.

Dinner: Ahh, dinner. Dinner was amazingly delicious. We had pan seared salmon filets, broccoli with garlic, cherry tomatoes and apple sauce. If you guys are interested, I will share the recipes for the salmon and broccoli in a future post.

I promise not to bore you with endless lists of the things I ate every day. This is just an example of what daily meals can/will look like for the next month. I will share recipes when they turn out decent/amazing/totally edible, or when asked for them. (And as a side note on the next month, this post from the Whole30 site scares me just a little. I don't want to become the psychotic version of myself, but I just might. You have been warned.)

In other news, I think I will be participating in my first organized run in February. We're talking at work about participating in the annual B-rry Scurry four-mile race put on by our local community college. I've never been much of a distance runner, usually only a mile at a time (I blame organized sports for training me to run-stop-run-repeat), so this could be interesting.

In conclusion, this is for the GIRLS ONLY who need some gym inspiration: Glamour posted this slideshow on their website of celebs' bodies that will make you want to get to the gym asap. I'm mostly posting this so I can go back later when I'm starting to feel chocolate cravings and remind myself that there's an end goal.

Chicken and Veggie Soup
(Serves two)
Ingredients:
- 32 oz. chicken broth (we found that Rachel Ray's chicken stock is Whole30-safe)
- 2 cooked chicken breasts, cubed
-  Drizzle of olive oil (unfortunately I didn't measure most of this, just added as I saw fit)
- 2 sticks chopped celery (or as much/little as you want)
- 2 garlic cloves, chopped
- 3 scallions, chopped
- 8 baby carrots, chopped
- 1 tsp. salt (or more to taste--I just put in a small handful)
- several dashes of pepper
- pinch of basil
- pinch of parsley

I heated the chicken broth and olive oil in a pan, added the veggies and spices and let them cook at a low boil for about 10 minutes/until soft, stirring occasionally. I added the chicken and let it simmer for 3-5 minutes.