Whole30 April and Meal Prep For 4/1-4/7

So first of all this week has been insane.  That's why there has been a lack of blogging... obviously.   This whole month has actually been a bit over the top for me.  The month of April will not be stressful.    It's time to slow it down and gain some control on my life.  Tomorrow starts my Whole30 and I am so excited.  My body and mind need it and I'm more than ready.

Why I'm doing the Whole30:

I eat mostly primal.  I'd say 99% of the time.  The food thing isn't an issue.  I know what to eat and why I should and shouldn't eat things.  However, my relationship with non-paleo foods is not good.

If someone offers me a cookie I'll eat it.  I can't say no.  I have many foods that have no breaks.  Anything sweet, dried mango and macadamias.

I also eat mindlessly... a lot.  I need to be more mindful on what goes in my mouth. When I make anything for the kids I eat it.  A piece of pancake, slice of cheese, a bite of toast...   and I do it mindlessly.  I don't even think about it.  Not good.

I know it's fine to have a treat once in awhile but I need to be aware of what I eat and when I eat it.  I am really hoping this Whole30 helps my emotional attachment with food.  It's small but it's still there.

My goals:

• Drink a mug of bone broth every day
• Stay on top of my meal planning and prep so I don't fail
• No eating out!  The kids are doing this too.  No more Chick-fil-a runs.  Period.
• At least two liters of water a day.
• Only weigh in today (147lbs) and on May 1st
• No snacking!
• Focus on at least two veggies per meal

Meal Prep for 4/1-4/7:

• Bone broth simmered for 48 hours

**These quart jars are not supposed to be freezer safe.  I left a good inch or two headspace and I froze them without the lids.  I added the lids a few hours later.  Plus I froze them in that cake pan so if I did have a jar explode it would catch most of the glass.  All the jars are fine.**

• Iced green tea


• Spaghetti squash with meat sauce

1lb grass fed beef and 1 jar of Raos marinara sauce.  Plus a container of baby bellas.  Spaghetti squash, mushrooms, and the tomato sauce- three veggies for one meal.  Plus I plan on eating something else on the side like roasted carrots.

I portioned it into jars.


• Ground pork with brussels and kale

All cooked in coconut oil in the same pan.

• Roasted beets

This was my first time ever making and trying beets.  I'm so in love with these little guys.  I used this technique and they turned out amazing.

• Coconut milk ready for coffee

**Y'all I had a time with coconut milk!  I am going to use it in my coffee for the Whole30 so I bought 6 cans at Whole Foods.  I never even thought to check the ingredients.  GUAR GUM!  Noooo.  So I had to get some from Trader Joes without it.  Check your ingredients guys.  You don't something that little mess up your Whole30.  Same goes with sunflower seed butter.  It's hard to find it without sugar here.  I had to do a little shopping around and finally found some.**


Who is Blogging About the Whole30 in April:
If you are blogging about it let me know so I can add your name!

• Tiffany at Skinny Jeans and A Healthy Me
• Paleo Jess

If you are on instagram make sure you hashtag whole30april!

So Simple

This day is as simple as it gets. Just some random mixes of proteins, fats, carbs, and veggies. Good stuff.

Breakfast:

Chorizo, red pepper, onion, and a fried egg.  I'm a bit tired of chorizo.  It's more of my husbands thing.  I'd rather have a plain chicken sausage or plain ground pork.  It was worth a try!

Lunch:

Chicken apple sausage (more my thing!), sweet potato, red pepper, onion, and avocado.  Using up those sausages!

Around 3 I ate a handful of unsweetened banana chips. I need to stop the snacking for the Whole30. I wasn't hungry. I was bored.

Dinner:

I noticed meal prep food getting low today.  Those tacos were gone too soon.  I should have portioned it out better.  Today I made a mix of ground pork and kale cooked in ghee.  Then I added two scrambled eggs tonight for dinner.  I also ate some cantaloupe while I was making everyone dinner.

How should I get rid of the boredom eating in the afternoon?

Lunch Bowls

I'm so excited for everyone to be jumping on the Whole30 April thing!  One thing they say in the book is if you are in then you are all in...  So if you are doing it then LET'S DO IT!  

***If you are planning on blogging about it make sure you leave your blog link in the comments.  I'll type up a list this weekend and include the list in all of my Whole30 posts!***

Breakfast:

I was really craving a paleo pancake so that's what I had this morning.  They are off limits for the Whole30 so I better eat some now!  I topped my one egg, one banana combination with sunflower seed butter, banana, and coconut.  Plus coconut milk in my coffee.

Lunch:

Lunch is starting to become a mish-mosh of things in a bowl.  Today was sausage, peppers, onions, roasted sweet potato, and coconut butter.  I even think there was a piece of bacon thrown in there!  I've found that coconut butter goes with just about anything.  It was delicious and I ended up not eating it all because it was so filling.

Dinner:

A repeat.  Doesn't everyone eat their salad out of a mixing bowl?  Ha!

What's the weirdest combination of food that you like?

Whole30 Company

I've got a lot of feed back about the Whole30 in April!  I'm so excited to have people to do it with.  So far Tiffany over at Skinny Jeans and A Healthy Me and Jess from Paleo Jess are doing the Whole30 in April.  If you are doing it and are going to blog or if you know someone that's going to blog about it let me know!  I'd love to make a list so we can all kind of follow each other.

Anyways, on to my day.

Meal prep meals were in full swing today.

Breakfast:

Chorizo, peppers, onions, and eggs.  All cooked in coconut oil.  This is totally my husbands meal.  He loves stuff like this.  I'd rather have eggs and spinach but I thought I'd switch it up.

Gym:  An hour of pilates and 30 minutes on the treadmill just walking at an incline.

Lunch:

Paleo cocktail meatballs with roasted carrots and sweet potato.  That was the last bit of those meatballs and I'm sad to see them go.  They were so good!

Dinner:

Taco salad!  Grass fed beef with taco seasoning, lettuce, tomato, and avocado.  I really wanted cheese on top for some reason!  Habit?

Meal Prep For 3/25-3/29

So this weeks meal plan was hard.  For the past few days I've had no appetite so nothing sounds appetizing.  Everything I thought about making didn't sound good at all.



So I randomly picked some meat I had in the freezer, bought some random veggies to go with it, and made some random meals!  Sometimes those are the best so I'm hoping they are good... and I'm hoping my appetite returns!


I had leftover meatballs from last night so I knew I could make a few lunches out of that.


I have been seeing taco salads all over instagram so I pulled some frozen taco meat out.


I also had two packs of non-Whole30 sausages in the freezer.  I need to use it up before April!


Plus we had kale.  We always have kale.


I got busy and was done in about 45 minutes.


I portioned out the taco meat (just grass fed beef with this taco seasoning).


I chopped up some iceberg lettuce and put the tomato and avocado with it in the fridge.


For those meatballs I roasted up a sweet potato and some carrots. That made two lunches.


For the rest of my lunches I made sausage, onions, and peppers.  I figured I could use the chorizo blend for eggs in the morning too!


So my randomness made:

• Chicken sausage, peppers, and onions for lunch
• Chorizo, peppers, and onions for egg breakfasts
• A couple servings of meatballs, sweet potato, and carrots for lunch
• Taco salad for dinner
• Kale to roast or saute for a side

Whatcha makin' this week???

My birthday is on Thursday!  Whoo hoo!  Sometime this week I WILL eat a cupcake or a piece of cake.  

Whole30 April

So I woke up this morning with my belly still aching.  What in the world was it?!  It had to have been that pizza or popcorn.  Either way I'm done with the junk.  I don't eat terrible but I still don't make the best choices when I'm around junk food.  Where is my willpower?  Plus obviously my gut needs a reset.

After reading about Kim and Matt's Whole30s I had been debating doing one myself.  Did you know I've never actually done a Whole30?!  I also found out this morning that Jess over at Paleo Jess is doing the Whole30 in April too.  That pretty much confirmed it for me.

Does anyone else want to do a Whole30 in April?  I will definitely be posting step by step of mine for the whole month.

Paleo Snacks- Kid Friendly

I'm not a big snacker but my kids are.  My kids would snack all day long.  In order to get them to eat at meal time I've omitted grains in their snacks.  Plus it's one step in getting them to a more paleo friendly diet.  Which will happen... one day.

Gone are the graham crackers, cheddar bunnies, and pretzel sticks.  I also don't rely on prepackaged fruit and nut bars or protein bars.  If we want a snack we eat real food or we don't get one.  I promise I'm less strict for meal times.

So I my kids and I might not eat the same meals but we do eat similar snacks.  They have an occasional cheddar bunny pack but this is what we try to stick to:

• Dried fruit and nuts
• Apples, carrots, celery with nut butter.
• Organic pureed fruit pouches (also something we try to avoid but the kids love them)
• Hardboiled eggs
• Almond milk
• Dates with stuffed with nut butter

Alright let me show you how I do this:

I have a snack cabinet.


I just keep the containers on the top shelf, nuts and dried fruit on the middle, and the prepackaged stuff on the bottom.


My kids have quite an obsession with baby food.

I tried the fill your own pouches but it was just too messy, the flavors weren't right, and the pouches were too small!  We really don't eat that many of these... I keep them on hand for when we run out of fresh fruit and veggies.

I make prepackaged dried fruit and nut mixes according to our tastes.


I love dried mango and macadamias.


The kids like unsweetened banana chips, raisins, and cashews.


Those are usually our morning snacks so we can grab and go.  Sometimes I throw in carrots or a squeeze pack.

In the afternoon we almost always do fresh fruit or veggies sometimes with nut butter or almond milk.


Sometimes with both.


I also make chocolate almond coconut bars occasionally.  For a grab and go snack.


And sometimes we eat popcorn in the afternoon... sometimes.


What's your favorite paleo friendly or kid friendly snack?

Deja Vu Day

Breakfast:

The usual. One egg, one egg white, spinach, cooked in ghee with coffee.

Gym: Ahhhh the gym! Finally! Legs and cardio. Felt SO good. I ate a larabar after the gym.

Lunch:

Tuna cake chopped up with massaged kale and toasted almonds (just nuked in the microwave for a few minutes).  Plus Steve's Original maple mustard sauce.  I love that stuff!

Snack:

I was hungry this afternoon so I made a quick smoothie with spinach, sunflower seed butter, banana, and almond milk.

Dinner:

Deja vu!

But with an egg on top.

Those flavors were awesome together!

Oh man how boring was all of that?!  Things are stuck on repeat here and to be honest I kind of like it.

What is your favorite snack?  I'm always "hungry" in the afternoon.  I think it's mostly boredom.

Color Run and Greens

The color run was one of the coolest things I've ever done!


If you ever get a chance to do it... DO IT!


I didn't know what to expect so I think that made things even better.

Plus the weather was gorgeous, my kids were angels, and I was with my family.  

Breakfast:

One egg, one egg white, spinach, and coffee with almond milk.

Gym:  I was dancing when I put my gym clothes on this morning.  Then squirrel puked on herself in the car on the way to school.  No gym today.

WHY ARE WE SICK ALL THE TIME?!  It seems like people that eat junk and feed their kids junk are never sick.  We can't get rid of colds this year... Any advice you guys?

Lunch:

Tuna cake with massaged kale.

Plus half of a strawberry kombucha.

Strawberry is my favorite flavor!

I'm having a bit of a repeat of last week. My body's starting to ache. I'm starting to feel congested. So this afternoon I sipped bone broth. It worked last week.  Let's hope it works again!

Dinner:

Pulled pork, sauerkraut, and chard from meal prep!  More greens!

And the other half of that kombucha.


What's the coolest race you've ever ran?