I'll Have The Curry.

July 3, 2014 Wow.  It's been a month since I've blogged.  Could it be because I have.... nothing to write about? brain farts? a lack of motivation? been super busy? too much personal stuff to air on the web? If it's possible to be all of the above simultaneously, then yes, all of the above. The past month has been full of adventure.  My last day of work was June 6th, so to "celebrate," my in-laws came to Austin to visit.  We went spelunking in Inner Space Cavern , ate a delicious burger at Hopdoddy Burger Bar and listened to some excellent 70's music as performed by the Austin Civic Orchestra .  It was a great weekend. Josh and I went to the beach a few weekends later and then came back in time to celebrate Joanna's 30th birthday.  She rented a party bus and we tried out a few of the new "hip" places in San Antonio. The weekend ended nicely with a World Championship win by the Spurs! GO SPURS GO! Disciple Project

I've been on my "re-introduction" stages for the past few days. June 1-3: non-gluten grains like rice and oats Showed no reaction to these things.  Everything seemed normal as it was the last few weeks. June 4-6: cheeses like mozzarella, cheddar and queso (whatever kind of cheese that is!) Terrible experience!  I had the worst cramping and bloating. Even though it was incredibly uncomfortable from day one, I kept trying different kinds of cheeses to see which ones effected me most . Mozzarella wins the most painful award. That's probably why I can't eat pizza. June 6: Gluten grains Today was my last day at work until September.  I have the summer off and I'm not a teacher! WOO! (But, I don't get paid like a teacher would. BOO)  My coworkers took me to my restaurant of choice: Galaxy Cafe. I am in love with their chicken salad sandwich on ciabatta. I intentionally waited until today to reintroduce glutens because I knew this day was c

Whole 30: DONE. Well, I made it to day 30. I can't say that every day was wonderful, or that I had a great attitude about it either.  In fact, I was more grumpy and hating the rules of Whole 30 than I ever was satisfied about them. But, today is June 2nd and I have found that in the past couple of days, I have made choices that are almost exactly Whole 30 anyways.  What gives? I thought that when I went off Whole 30, I would run to the queso and the chocolate and the cookies. Strangely, that hasn't been the case.  Sure, those things are delicious, but I feel that I have really made progress with my eating habits and I can't see ruining those by running back to old food habits.  My body isn't craving sugar  like it used to. It's funny because when I wasn't allowed sugar on Whole 30, I wanted it so much! Now that I can have it (technically), I don't even want to think twice about eating it. I managed to resist the candy that is all over my office.... and

Day Twenty-Seven through Twenty-Nine The Homestretch Tina Fey is my hero. Day Twenty-Seven Election Day! In true Travis County Elections style, there was a buffet of tasty treats for everyone to snack on throughout the day. The call center staff is renowned for bringing delicious food for everyone to share. My weakness: donuts. And not just any kind of donuts.  Round Rock donuts. Dan always brings a dozen Round Rock donuts to share on Election Day.  Normally, I would have walked right over to that table and snatched one up before they were gone. But, this day I had to resist.  I didn't even walk into the call center so as not to be tempted. It was easier than I thought it would be! Everyone knew I was doing a special "diet" so they didn't bother to ask me if I wanted any of the treats.  The rest of the day went really well with very little issues.  Our receiving substation, where Election workers drop off all of the equipment and supplies, went very smoo

Days Nineteen through Twenty-Six: Are you avoiding me? It's been a week since I last posted.  No worries... I am still alive.  Alive and well, really! This past week wasn't very interesting and things still aren't so interesting but I'll go ahead and quickly update you on my successes and failures this past week. It's only the third week and I find that I have fallen back into my old food habits.  Sure, I'm eating things that are Whole 30 approved foods, but I am most certainly abusing these rules. (Maybe that's why I've avoided blogging.  I didn't want to admit I was failing. So here's my confession: I'm failing at this Whole 30 thing.)  I'm eating twice as much almond butter, eating more fried foods, and I can't put down the bag of sweet potato chips. Snacking between meals has become as regular thing this past week. I'm eating out of boredom at my desk.  It fills the gap of time between my lunch break and my drive home.

Day Seventeen and Eighteen: Trying new things Saturday Kristen, Kim and I met up in San Antonio to hang out, talk about food, and work out.  It was great to see them! We went through old Delta Chi Rho pictures and laughed at how different we all look. In college, we weren't very concerned about healthy eating or working out. We've come a long way since then and we were celebrating our progress. Saturday morning started with CrossFit at Kim's gym, Bedlam.  Before.... We walked into the gym and the first thing we notice is this guy wearing the tightest red pants I've ever seen a guy wear.  Turns out he was the owner of the gym.  Still.  No one should ever be allowed to wear pants like that in public. The rap music was loud and 6 guys were doing all kinds of crazy workout things. Kristen and I started to get more and more nervous. We kept asking each other, "Why are we doing this?"  Kristen and me freaking out before the workout  

Days Twelve through Fourteen:   Couldn't even tell you what happened on Monday.  It was a typical Monday. Tuesday I was so exhausted after lunch that I struggled to keep my eyes open.  I had to resist the urge to put my head down at my desk and take a nap. I ate a mid-afternoon snack of strawberries and that seemed to help me through the end of the day. I try really hard not to snack, but my lunch was small because I wasn't very hungry.  I didn't have an appetite. I needed something to get me through to the end of the day. Wednesday I got a migraine in the morning.  Took some Excedrin migraine and felt jittery from the caffeine. At least I'm more alert and awake and headache free. We had our Cantamos concert tonight and it went well. Now we have the summer off! I did have a crazy dream that I ate some sugar while on my Whole 30.  In my dream, I must have forgotten what I was doing because I ate it like it was nothing and then I started freaking out that I would

Day Ten and Eleven Saturday, Josh and I went to San Antonio for Mother's Day weekend.  My aunt and uncle were also in town from California and I hadn't seen them in a while so it was great to spend the weekend with them. We started the weekend with lunch.  My family knows that I am on my Whole 30 month, so they were supportive when it came to choosing a restaurant. EZ's came to mind because they have great grilled options.  I called them to find out what kind of oils they use to fry food and of course, it was soy bean oil.  That nixed my sweet potato fries.  I got grilled chicken and asked for extra veggies. I even got a side of avocado to add to the chicken.  It was delicious! Everyone had a "normal" meal and I had my Whole 30 meal. I left feeling full and satisfied.  I can't say everyone felt the same with all the greasy, fried things that were on the table.  My dad kept giving me his veggies because he was worried I wasn't going to get enough food

Day 9: I hate potato chips When I got home from work, I did a big no-no and binge ate a bunch of plantain chips. (They are Whole30 approved, but that doesn't make it ok!)  I was really hungry and tired at the same time, so it was so easy to sit on the couch and shove the chips into my mouth. I didn't even think about what I was doing.  I just couldn't control the impulse! or maybe I could have and just didn't care. Cooking something nutritious didn't sound like something I wanted to do, so I continued to eat the plantains. I kept telling myself, "I'll make sure I eat some veggies with these chips so that it will be ok." Yah, that never happened.  I just kept eating until the container was empty.  I'm convinced I'm in the "boundless energy, now give me a twinkie" stage of this Whole 30. (To read the timeline, click here .)  Even though I am tired at the end of the day, during the day, I have a lot of energy. It's more than I

Day Eight. It's May 8th and I've spent $221.78 on groceries since starting Whole 30.  (This might not be the most accurate number because it probably includes cat food, treats for Josh, and other household items I purchased at HEB.)  It's only been 8 days.  EIGHT! Even thought the amount is more than $100 more than I normally spend a week on groceries, this number also reflects the amount of money I've saved by not going out to eat.  Yes, I usually spend $100 a week on groceries for 2 people. It's pretty ridiculous. Normally, I walk up and down the aisles putting interesting things into my cart. Then I put them away in the pantry and they just sit there. When I need something for a recipe, instead of checking my pantry, I just buy more at the store. Thus, the reason why I have 6 cans of black beans, 2 jars of peanut butter, and many expired dressings and sauces. I have 8 cans of Campbell's soup that I've never even tried. I'm a creative cook. I

Day 6 Day 6 was two days ago and I didn't even get around to posting.  I was so busy that there weren't enough hours in the day to blog. I'm sure you didn't miss me too much, because once a day blogging is a lot. Recap of my Day 6: I was appalled to learn that the vitamins I take every day have soybean oil in them.  Seriously? I was furious.  Here I go thinking I was doing great at avoiding all the no-no's and one was hiding in my vitamin.  I didn't even think to check those.  Luckily, I caught it early enough, and as a result, I plan to extend my Whole 30 into June. I do NOT want to say I am starting over because that will make my progress thus far feel like nothing. Physiologically, I  need to make sure I feel progress or else I'll be more likely to quit. I'll just call this my Whole 40! I was incredibly tired by the end of the day.  It was really intense. I made some baked chicken thighs (that I ate for lunch today.) They were ok. I discovered

Day Five: Cinco de Whole30 Let's clarify some things: Whole 30 is not a diet. Let's stop calling it that. I am NOT on a diet! And if one more person tells me to eat a hamburger or that I don't need to go on a diet, I'll scream. Sure, weight loss is one of the great things most people will experience while on this plan, but this is only a perk, not a reason to do Whole 30 in the first place.  For me, it's about addressing my unhealthy relationship with food. I have an intense sugar addiction. I want to learn about nutrition and how my body uses the nutrients in the foods I eat.  I want to know more about which foods cause chronic inflammation in the body and how to reduce it in mine. This is specifically important to me because I am trying so hard to fight off disease. I have an autoimmune disorder called multiple sclerosis.  The Mayo Clinic describes multiple sclerosis (MS) as a "potentially debilitating disease in which your body's immune system e

Day Four: DONE. Spent some time at Central Market this evening looking for one thing: salad dressing.  Oh, what a struggle I had finding a compliant, pre-made salad dressing.  If you are considering doing the Whole 30 plan, let me just warn you by saying: everything has sugar or soy in it.  EVERYTHING!  I left the salad dressing aisle feeling like this.   Ok, maybe that's a bit dramatic, but it is still frustrating. Moral of the story-- make your own. And that goes for BBQ sauces as well. My super small kitchen. Things are starting to look different around the Houston household, namely, my kitchen constantly looks like a tornado went through it. I am always doing dishes.  I never seem to catch up either.  As soon as I load the dishwasher, I've already filled the sink with dirty ones. My shopping cart looks different these days as well. Gone are the pita breads, ice creams, and chocolates.  Hello to the tomatoes, lettuce, and squash.  According to the Whole 30 t