Whole30: Day 4

What was that “gorge-ourselves-with-carbs-one-last-time” reference I made in the last post, you ask?  If you didn't guess it (or haven't already heard), G$ and I are on a 30-day diet, called the Whole30.  Today is Day #4, only 26 more days to go! 



What it is?
It’s a 30 day hardcore paleo diet – short for paleolithic diet, or often called the caveman diet – which is a high protein, vegetable, and fruit diet.  No grains, no sugar, no legumes, no dairy, no processed food.  It’s often referred to as the caveman diet since you are eating the foods that were available during the caveman era. 


How did we hear about it?
After we started crossfitting, we decided to start eating in a pseudo-paleo way – eating mainly meats and veggies on the week days, but all bets were off for the weekends.  So I added a few blogs to my Google Reader to get some inspiration.  And one of them, called EasyPaleo, had post about doing their second Whole 30 and linked to the post about their first Whole30, so I started reading more about it and was intigued.  Then fast-forward a few months later, G$ emailed me about a paleo challenge that one of the other crossfit gyms was doing that required you to put $50 in a pot each week as motivation to stick to the diet.  That got me thinking, we really should do it. 

Why?
Eating paleo is big in the crossfit world, but that’s not why we decided to do it.  There are a couple of reasons:

1. I was intrigued the first time I read the Whole30 website in that the description made it sound like a cleanse.  To force your body not to rely on sugars or processed foods, and learn to enjoy the natural flavors are often overtaken by the unnatural flavors as well as learn how grains, dairy, etc. make you feel.  After the 30 days is over, you are supposed to gradually introduce those foods back.  Day 31, eat breads, then wait a few days to see how it makes you feel.  Are you bloated?  Does it cause you to break out? Then Day 34, try introducing dairy back in, etc. etc. They even tout that seasonal allergies can improve!  Fingers crossed!
2. You often hear or read that exercise is only one step towards being healthy; the next step is changing your diet.  Back in this post, I stated that one of my goals was to feel comfortable wearing a two piece bathing suit.  I know I could put on a two-piece bathing suit whenever, but the key was going to be feeling comfortable.  And in order to feel comfortable, I need to be leaner and lose some body fat, and I finally came to the realization that I need to eat healthier to do that.  

How’s it going?
Okay.  I'll be honest, it hasn't been easy, but it hasn't been painful either.  Not being tempted by things around me isn't as difficult as I thought it would be.  And I think part of that is because I know this is a 30 day regiment, with an end eventually in sight.  The fact that it's very cut and dry and laid out also helps.  In the past, I've just made internal goals to be healthier, but didn't make clear rules as to what that meant.  So when there was candy at the office, having a piece here or there wouldn't be a big deal.  Now, I'm looking at labels to see if the ingredients include sugar or words I cannot pronounce (i.e. not natural). 

I think the toughest thing is planning all the meals and making sure they get cooked.  Last night, I actually said to G$, "this is the third time I've cleaned this pan tonight" because I was prepping lunch for the next day.  I have certainly learned some things in the first four days that will hopefully make next week easier.  I'll share them next week sometime since I know some of you (ok, maybe just one, Heath) may be starting this after Easter.  

Another tough area for me was my morning coffee.  No dairy = no milk.  No sugar (real or artificial) = no Splenda or vanilla syrup.  Which really translate to drinking black coffee.  You could put coconut milk in it, but I never brought any into work, so it has been black all week.  Let me just tell you that black coffee is nasty!  Because I'm no longer enjoying the morning coffee, I decided that I am going to use this month to curb my coffee/caffeine dependency, so hopefully no more afternoon headaches on days I don't get "the juice."  I started the weening process this morning by making a half-caf coffee – half regular, half decaf.

On the positive side, I'm experimenting with different foods.  I've had Kale twice this week, and actually enjoyed what is said to be a "super food" packed with vitamins and nutrients.  Thanks for introducing us to the Kale/Avocado recipe Heath! :)  I also made my own mayo!  Never thought I'd say that.  And it's not.hard.  There have been some busts with experimenting with different foods as well - ground chicken, cinnamon, apples, and squash is not a good breakfast meal.  The chicken tasted good, but it was something about the squash that just didn't sit well.

I took my measurements and fully plan on sharing my weight and inch changes after the 30 days is over.  I'll keep you posted on how it's going and perhaps share some of our favorite recipes.

If you are interested in getting more information, let me know and I can send you some.  

<3
K$

Georgia on My Mind

As I mentioned at the end of my previous post, this past weekend, G$ and I packed up the car with Kairo and drove down to Georgia to visit one of my besties from high school Heather, her husband D and their beautiful 18-month old daughter Grace down in Columbus/Fort Benning, Georgia.  Google Maps said it would be about a 12 hour trip, but we were able to make it in under 12 hours with food, bathroom, and gas breaks – a feat that G$ and I were both very proud of. :)

Heather did a great recap of the weekend and I’m apparently not in a “writing mood” so I will be brief with additional information.

The highlights in my book:

• Grace.  She was so cute and I don't want to toot my own horn (toot, toot), but Heather said she warmed up to me muuuuch quicker than she usually does.  I was holding her the first night while we were playing outside with the dogs and had her in my lap for breakfast the following morning.  Such.a.cutie.  Sadly, I didn't get any pictures of her with me... :( 
  And no, me spending a weekend with Grace has not convinced G$ and I to have a child any sooner than we are planning to, so I'll just get that idea out of your head up front!
• D.  He just cracks me up.  I love how he says what's on his mind!
• Heather's beautifully decorated house (sorry D, we all know Heath is the brains behind this!).  It has set the bar high for our new place. 
• The beautiful old, historic mansions we saw on our river walk - which I later zillowed and found out the ones for sale are at or under $300K...  The same house in the DC area would easily be over a million.  Sigh. 
• Having a door to the outside on the same level.  Getting a little taste of sitting outside relaxing with a drink while the dogs played made G$ and I super excited to move.  T Minus 1 month. :)  Also really makes me want a fire pit or heat lamp to ensure the patio for longer when the nights are cool.  Whatdoyouthink, G$? HA!
• The all around good times with good friends - even when we are just doing low-key activities with three dogs and a toddler in tow.  Couldn't have been a better weekend!  

It was soooo great to see Heather, D, and Grace.  It really makes me miss how my three main girls – the bridesmaids in our wedding – are not local.  One (hi Jack!) is living in Durham, NC going to business school at Duke.  Another (hi Al!) is actually on a 6-month business trip in Chester, England, but normally lives in Houston, TX.  I’m horrible at keeping in touch, and even though we try to plan four-way calls every so often, it’s sad that I don’t talk to these amazing girls more frequently.  Heather and I probably are the most in touch, and I really attribute that to the blogs, we always know what’s going on in each other's life (me probably more than her, since I’m horrible at updating this thing), but it prompts us to gchat each other during the day after reading the other person’s blog.  Ali is keeping a blog to detail her adventures in England, so I’m hoping she enjoys it so much that she’ll continue it once she returns to the states.  (hint, hint, but I don’t think Ali even follows this regularly…)



Heather, D, Grace - thank you so much for having us!  We hope to see you soon - at hopefully a closer location! :)

As Heather mentioned in her post, it was sad, we didn’t take any pictures!  I did manage to photo-document Kairo being the cutie-pie that he is while sleeping in the car…

As soon as we got in the car while it was still dark out, Kairo quickly curled up in his bed in the back seat.

Told you I did a good job photo-documenting it! :)  He was a perfect angel and slept for the majority of the time.  Don't worry, he was the spoiled Kairo you know and love... he spent probably about 15% of the trip in my lap:

Us both with "sleep eyes"

And I did get a few of Kairo playing with Molly and Major:

For the most part the drive was pretty uneventful.  G$ somehow managed to drive the entire 12 hours both ways – isn’t he sweet!  One interesting thing did happen on the drive down.  As you know, Kairo has some “bald spots” or “scars” where he’s currently fur-less from playing rough – or getting sidewalk-burn.  Well, we stopped for a late lunch and ate it outside while Kairo stiffed around.  When we got back in the car, all of Kairo’s bald spots were swollen and the fur on the outer ring of the spots was sticking up:

We think he got sunburned!  Since this skin would have never seen the sun before – since he didn’t have them last summer when he was a pup.  After about an hour or two, the swelling died down and we didn’t see it again.  We are going to keep an eye on it next time we are out in the sun for a prolonged period of time.  

Other Friday Randoms: 

• G$ and I are going boating this evening with friends who bought a boat last fall, then doing dinner at Cantina Marina on the SW DC waterfront. These friends are moving out of our building in a couple weeks, so we are calling it the: combined gorge-ourselves-with-carbs-one-last-time and goodbye-Hope-Tom-and-Chester dinner.
• What’s the gorge-ourselves-with-carbs-one-last-time, you ask?  You’ll just have to wait and see! :)
• Wegmans is coming to Alexandria!  It’s still about 20 minutes away, but that’s closer than the existing Wegmans are to us.  Likely not going to be our every-day grocery store – and by every day, I mean every week to two weeks – but it’ll be nice to have one within a more reasonable distance.  Ha, and I just read the entire article I linked to...which is about the groundbreaking...which still hasn't occurred.  It's not going to open until early 2014.  Wah waaaahhhh!  I should probably just remove this bullet...
• This week has been gorgeous in DC.  All the trees are blooming, including the ones right outside our building – they look so pretty during the day, but I think even cooler at night (coincidentally, the same time I had my phone and could take pictures…):  

Hope you all have a great weekend!

<3
K$

The Proof is in the Pudding…

This Sunday, I ran in a St. Patrick’s Day 8K with some people I work with.  It was company sponsored (read: free), so definitely a good way to encourage me to get out and run without having to shell out money.  Team Excella Consulting had a scheduled rendezvous time of 8:15 AM, which you all know, it really felt like 7:15 due to the start of daylight savings time this weekend.  Talk about an early start on Sunday. 

An 8K is equivalent to 4.97 miles.  Although G$ and I have been going to CrossFit three days a week pretty regularly, with a number of 200, 400, and 800 meter runs incorporated into our WODs, I have done very little long distance running.  Last weekend, I took Kairo out for a 4 mile run and that’s pretty much where my training both started and ended for this race.  Ha!  Therefore my goal was to run a 10:00 minute mile so that’s I’d finish up the race by 10:00AM (it kicked off at 9:00). 

But… true to what our instructor on Day #1 of CrossFit said, CrossFit really does prepare you for anything.  Not only did I run at a sub-10:00 minute mile pace, but I was even at a sub-9:30 minute mile pace!  Clocking in with an official pace of 9:25, with my final chip time being 46.47!  And to get into even more statistics, I placed 352 out of the 1046 total women in my 25-29 age group, that’s hovering around the top third!  I’ll take it!

Side Note: we have some crazy-fast runner at my firm: we placed 4th out of 51 teams (only the top four runners’ times count in the team score).  The guy finished first on our team is absolutely nutso and this past fall, he qualified for the Iron Man Championship down in Kona, Hawaii next year!  Like I said, nutso.  He runs, bikes, and swims more than I think I’ll ever be able want to! 

Team Excella before the race

G$ brought the K-Man into the city to cheer me on.  The combination of being up and at ‘em earlier than normal (remember, Kairo is not a morning dog), walking around the city with lot of people, and bird stalking, really pooped him out.  He was exhausted, which was great for us since he slept while we were at brunch and then for about four hours later in the afternoon.  I’m not sure if it was the time change or my body being in shock from the run, but I took advantage of Kairo’s abnormal calmness by taking a two hour nap with him in the afternoon.  Glorious! 

In other weekend highlights, my sister-in-law Amy had her baby shower this weekend.  And I sadly forgot about my grand plan to buy a UVA onesie as one of my gifts.  Grr!  Since Amy and a number of her friends in attendance when to Tech (no, we don’t hold that against Amy…), I thought it would got a rise out of some folks when she opened it.  Oh well…  My cousin Laura, who’s a few years older than me and lives in Boston, came down for the weekend for the shower.  She stayed with G$ and I on Saturday night, so we went to dinner with my parents in DC – to Station4 in the SW Waterfront area for those in DC, which was good.  We had a somewhat early reservation 6:30 and service was a bit slow, but most people were there for dinner before a show at the Arena Stage, so I’m sure when I told him we weren’t and weren’t in a hurry, that put us lower on his priority list for the first part of the meal.  G$ was a great sport and entertained listened to Laura while walking around DC with Kairo while I was running, then we met up with my parents again for brunch at my favorite place – Liberty Tavern in Clarendon.  I looove their Sunday brunch buffet table.  Needless to say, it was a food-filled weekend and I’m still stuffed! :)

Sadly, I didn't take any pictures at the shower, so here's one of Kairo and G$ on a walk on Sunday afternoon.

Not too much going on after work this week, just planning for our road trip down to visit H, D, and G down in Georgia!  Yes, we are bringing the K-Man, so I’ll be sure to fill you all in on pictures from the weekend and how the 12 hour car ride with the pup went.  I.cannot.wait!  Plus, the weather is looking gooooood: 80s and sunny! 

<3
K$