A Whole 30: Day Fifteen - halfway

Hah hah! I made it to halfway. There's a bunch of different stuff buzzing around in my head right now. One is about how much food I'm eating. So much! More than enough. I threw food out at lunch today. I could not eat any more. Zero hunger. Pretty sustained energy levels. I felt a little tired when I got home but not that eyeball numbing tiredness I would usually get. I easily (and  happily) tidied up the kitchen, did the laundry bits and made dinners. And I did a small quantity of exercise. Very small. But some, more than none. I've gone to bed wide awake and am now yawning my head off. So, that's it...in my quest to get proper sleep, I'm done with day fifteen.

A Whole 30: quick numbers update, day 14

Remember back on Day Zero, I posted some measurements? I wanted to update them today.

Waist: 39 inches
Hips: 52 inches

That's an inch off my waist and .75 off my hips after two weeks. I'm ok with that! The reason I'm posting a measurement update is this week I'll be having a go at adding exercise and I want to compare the results to the first two weeks where I did none. Nothing remarkable, just some walking, body weight exercises and a version of sprinting (yeah, I'm incredibly out of shape, so a slow version on the rowing machine). I'm using Mark  Sisson's Primal Fitness template.

I still want to do the Tongariro Crossing in January next year. That's five months of preparation. It's also a long time for me to be carrying on with this lifestyle change. But I need to make this stick!

A Whole 30: catching up to Day Thirteen

Yes, I've made it this far! I let myself off the last few days of posting. It's now late Sunday afternoon and I'm feeling heaps better. My food hasn't been spectacular, in fact I've probably been under eating. And under sleeping.

I've done one great week. One mediocre week. This next week I'm going to make the best one yet. My head is where it needs to be. Eat well, sleep plenty and begin a light exercise routine I've been thinking about for a while. I want to see how I feel at the end of the 30 days having it work for the next two weeks.

Dinner tonight is a beef roast. My first try at roasting beetroot as well. Plus the usual other vege. Yum!

If I can find my camera and some batteries, I may even do a knitting update. Whoa!

A Whole 30: Day Eight

Wow,  the beginning of the second week! It's late Tuesday morning and I'm still in bed. Breakfast might just be some quick bacon and eggs. I'm not up to much else. Only thing is, there's no one else to make anything for me but me. And my kitchen is a mess because everyone expects me to tidy up after them. I just don't allow myself to be unwell. This time I am. But I'll still have everything to clean up tomorrow or the day after when I'm feeling better. It really annoys me. But it's probably of my own making. No one else will do it and if I don't want to live in squalor all the time, it's left to me. I got angry on Sunday though that no one had made any attempt since Friday to clean anything up. Except empty the dishwasher and put a token amount of dishes in, when it could have been filled properly and run. My partner only decided to enter the kitchen and clean some dishes because I'd got to the point of crashing things around. I was unwell and had already used my energy going to the market for vege for the week. I wanted to sit down and knit and relax but the guilt of a filthy kitchen got to me.

I had gone back to work on Friday evening, despite feeling pretty crappy and then worked an extra hour on Saturday as well. I wasn't expecting to have to clean the kitchen on Sunday in the state I was in. But no one else thinks they should be having to do it. And if I don't do it it would all have been left for Monday for me to tidy up.

I'm caught between my partner being the main money earner and my job paying a fraction of his, plus I don't work a full 40 hour week and he's been doing a lot of overtime recently. I've tried to minimise the amount of housework he has to do to allow him to focus on his job. And then we had a house inspection which I always stress over. He's just done the minimum and not a good quality job either. Perhaps I'm just feeling sorry for myself but when he stayed home with a cold last week he wasn't expected to clean the kitchen, do the laundry and cook meals. The only time he actually does anything is cooking dinner for us two on a Saturday night and for all five of us on Sunday night. And maybe remember to put the rubbish out. And the kids can barely bring themselves to do their jobs during the week, let alone think about doing something extra when I'm not well. They can't even be quiet.

Ok, enough grumbling. That's not what this is about but it is where my head is at right now. Rational or not.

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I cooked up some bacon and eggs and that's all I've had so far. There are some veggies roasting and maybe lamb to go with it. I'm not cooking it so I'm not sure. Not complaining either.

One thing I managed to do today was some knitting. It was really nice to get a few rows done finally after nothing all weekend. I'm feeling better but have decided to have tomorrow off as well. I need to get a full day's food in me first. And as much rest as I can. The cough is there.

A Whole 30: Day Seven

Monday is my usual day off. Today I'm spending it in bed. I didn't sleep well enough last night, so I'm a bit tired. I woke up with a heavy chest, knowing the coughing was not far away. I've also called in to work sick for tomorrow. I'm supposed to be going to a training workshop and didn't want to leave it until tomorrow to decide whether I was ok to go or not. I was told to stay home. I'm not about to argue! I don't take that many sick days, so they know I'm not making it up. I usually push myself to get back to work as soon as possible but this time I'm in no hurry if it means better recovery. Rather that than more days off down the track because I went back too soon.

So far I've had four eggs scrambled with coconut oil, a black coffee and am soaking more ginger, lemon and cinnamon. Lunch might just be a cup of fresh beef broth.

Out of curiosity, I did a couple of quick measurements just before:
Waist:   38.5 inches
Hips:     52.5 inches
Stuff is moving already. :-)

Lunch was a cup of beef broth straight from the pot and a cup of ginger, lemon and cinnamon tea/infusion thing. I tried to nap but it didn't work. My eyes hurt from the light. I just had to lay there with my eyes closed.

Dinner was really late and consisted of roast kumara and parsnip. No meat. I didn't have the energy. As it was, my son did the vege. I took another, smaller quantity of beef broth just before sleep.

I'm still counting this as a success despite the lack of volume of food. Also, I don't think I have it in me to restart this over again right now.

A Whole 30: Day Six

Yes, I missed a day. But I made it through without too much try. It wasn't  my best food day but nothing big. It's what comes from not fully communicating requirements and someone else cooking. There was a processed food item that I quite like - Kumara Rosti - and some butter on my broccoli. Had I the energy to, I would have prepped a pan of vege. Lunch yesterday was a couple of fried eggs and some bacon. The most important thing about yesterday though was breakfast. I had a good breakfast of eggs cooked with kumara, parsnip and spinach, the other half of my dinner the previous night.

Went to bed about 11.30 last night. Might have been asleep by midnight. Woke up at 6.30 this morning, took ages to get back to sleep, it was daylight outside. Finally woke up at 10.45. My cold is more developed but nothing like previously. I'm quite lethargic. Having said that, I made it to the market this afternoon just in time to grab the last rotisserie chicken and the cup of french onion soup I promised as my reward.  Although I don't know the exact ingredients, I am this is compliant. These people cook in, and sell duck fat! So, soup for a very late breakfast. A couple of hours later I cooked up some bacon, kumara, parsnip and courgette. Dinner was a good portion of chicken and roast vege.

I'm feeling tired but satisfied. My water has lemon chunks in it and I'm currently drinking an infusion of ginger, cinnamon and lemon. Left it to infuse for a few hours and have just reheated it. Not too bad. I'm trying to avoid the horrible cough I usually get that turns to bronchitis and last time, pneumonia. I'm rather afraid of that happening again. It was not nice.

I'm thinking of going to bed soon with some audio going, probably CraftLit, as it's soothing and easy listening. The main audiobook I have been listening to is "The Eyre Affair" and more for when I can give it my full attention when walking...or chopping vege.

It's almost 9pm so I'm calling it a day.

A Whole 30: Day Four

Just a quick post before bed to say I did it! Felt very much like I was coming down with a cold but feeling better. Had to go back to work for 4 hours tonight to cover for sick/absent people. My feet are a bit sore. That was 11 hours on my feet. Not feeling my best. I think I did pretty well. Came home between times to make food and have a break. No photos. Maybe tomorrow. Although my food is sort of starting to look the same. Bed.