April Whole30: Week 4 Meal Plan

 

Breakfast will be leftovers (tomorrow is apple chicken sausage and a sweet potato fritter), Larabars, fruit, and maybe some hard boiled eggs.  I didn't include Saturday and Sunday in last week's meal plan, so I'll just plop them in here.

Saturday

• Lunch: Scrambled eggs with onions, peppers, and mushrooms with some apple chicken sausage
• Dinner: I ate dinner at a party (raw veggies, fruit salad, olives, some prosciutto wrapped dates, and some deli wraps that I deconstructed and just ate the lunch meat, lettuce, and tomato), but I put a whole chicken in the crockpot doing a lazy version of this recipe for Dave and for lunches later this week

Sunday

• Lunch: Cauliflower pizza using this recipe (without the cheese obviously) topped with sausage, onions, peppers, mushrooms, and some salsa, which was ok, but could've really used some cheese!
• Dinner: Steak on the grill with asparagus and Cinnamon Sweet Potato Fritters from The Ascent Blog which came out amazing!  Definitely adding this recipe to my regular rotation.

Monday

• Lunch: Leftover cauliflower pizza
• Dinner: Salmon cooked in olive oil, salt, pepper, and old bay, with some roasted brussel sprouts and broccoli
  

Tuesday

• Lunch: Out with my coworkers after a meeting
• Dinner: I have a cheer training meeting so I'll be scavenging at my parent's house.  Last week's random plate of shrimp, avocado, baby carrots, strawberries, and grapes actually worked out great so I'll have something like that, eggs, or maybe a salad.

Wednesday

• Lunch: Avocado Chicken Salad using leftover crockpot chicken and leftover brussel sprouts and broccoli
• Dinner: Cumin Spiced Slow Cooked Pork (yay for using my crockpot!) with Candied Carrots (carrots and dates cooked in coconut oil) from Practical Paleo and some sauteed spinach

Thursday

• Lunch: Leftover steak, sweet potato fritters, and aspargus
• Dinner: Cheer practice, eating dinner at my parent's house

Friday

• Lunch: Leftover cumin spiced pork, carrots, and spinach
• Dinner: ...?

We'll be headed to the beach for the weekend so I'm not exactly sure what we'll be eating.  I'm hoping our friends are down with lots of home cooking.  I'm thinking some eggs and Paleo pancakes (2 bananas, 1 egg, cinnamon mashed together, fried in coconut oil), kabobs on the grill, and as always, a big seafood feast.  Our last trip involved a lot of cocktails, this one will be a bit more low key ;)

This weekend involved a lot of quality time with friends.  I love that no matter how much time passes, I can get together with certain people and just feel like we haven't skipped a beat.  Relationships were nurtured, meals were cooked, and closets were organized.  And I got to see this:

Can I do this on my birthday?

My weekend also involved a lot of feeling like I've been hit by a truck.  CrossFit officially kicked my booty (again on Saturday) and I am so sore!  Ugh, is tomorrow really Monday already?

Want to look back?

Week 1 Meal Plan

Week 2 Meal Plan

Week 3 Meal Plan

How was your weekend? Did you catch up with any friends?

My April Whole30: Day 19

Breakfast:

Lunch:

Snack:

Dinner:

Sleep (Last Night):  8 hours

Workout:  CrossFit!  To start the class we spent some time working on our front squat.  I maxed out at 85 lbs for 2 reps.  Then we conquered got owned by "Jackie" which was 1000m row, 50 thrusters, and 30 pull ups!  It was one of the hardest workouts of my entire life!  The row wasn't terrible and I finished in 4.5ish minutes.  And then came the thrusters.  Holy shit.  Everyone did 45 lbs... here's a news flash, the 45 lbs probably felt a little bit lighter to the super strong guys in my class!  And 50 is a lot!  I ended up doing them in groups of 5 and I was winded between each set. I felt so strong during these and there may have been some grunting.  And just when you think omg I'm going to die then here comes 30 pull ups.  I did mine with 2 resistance bands but I was still struggling.  These ended being done in groups of 2.  I finished in 16:44.  My arms were so spent that it hurt to hold up my water bottle.  Tomorrow is going to be rough ;)

Thoughts:  I finally ordered some coconut aminos (aka a soy free replacement for soy sauce) on Amazon.  I'd been wanting to purchase some for a while now, but I couldn't find it my local stores.  Since the Well Fed cookbook has a ton of Asian style recipes that all require coconut aminos, I decided it was time to stock up and bought 3 bottles.

Our big Friday night plans were heading over to Heather's house to cook a nice compliant meal!  She gave me Practical Paleo as a bridesmaid gift and I cannot thank her enough.  We made one of my faves from the book, the Lemon Artichoke Chicken because I wanted something simple and quick after CrossFit.  We paired it with some roasted broccoli and had guacamole with veggies for an appetizer.  Everything came out delicious.  I love cooking with friends!

I have no financial ties with any of the products I've linked to, I just want to let you know which products I've been utilizing in the kitchen during my Whole30!

What's the toughest workout you've ever done?

My April Whole30: Day 18

Breakfast:

Lunch:

Snack:

Happy Hour:

Carnitas (pork), salsa, onions, cilantro, and avocado.  Skipped the tortillas.

Dinner:

Sleep (Last Night): 8 hours, was only supposed to be 7 but I think I accidentally turned off my alarm!

Workout: More resting, still stretching out my hamstrings from CrossFit on Monday!

Thoughts:  So I cheated.  I cheated hard, consuming multiple desserts (and some sangria) that were in no way Paleo, let alone compliant.  You already knew this.  So what happens now?  Someone suggested I quit and start over.  Well, I'm not going to do that.  I spent 21 days in January following the Whole30 program and now 18 days in April striving to follow the program as well.  The Whole30 isn't a Whole365 and although I believe the challenge is extremely eye opening and important for my health, I have no desire to continue my Whole30 through the month of May.  I acknowledge that my results will not be as fantastic as they would be (every single cheat, big or small, takes away from the detox).  I've noticed that my tummy is slightly bloated and I'm not feeling the "oooh look at my tiny waist" feeling I know I would have if I had actually followed the program.  Some of the cheats have left me super bloated, others with a tummy ache, but overall I still feel pretty great.   I know I'm still doing something positive for my body.  And I think it's good to know that desserts are such a hurdle for me, that information can alone help me succeed in the future.

And now I'm moving on.  There's 12 days left and I intend on making them count!  Thank you so much for all the support and wonderful comments, I really needed it <3