Whole30 week 4 recap

Holy crap it's day 29!!

When we (my sister, mom, and later Marcus) talked about doing this thing, I think there was a big part of me that doubted it would happen. I can be quite the self-sabotager sometimes, so I've been amazed at how few times I've thought of derailing. I think it comes down to how good I feel about the choices we're making and how good my body feels. And not like in an "oooh I'm so sexy" my body feels good, but it's like realizing this is more how things should feel system-wise. I have a far clearer mind, skin, and gut. My body just feels happy. I'm recovering SO well from running. I don't feel nearly as sluggish or fatigued the day after a harder run. It's clear my body is getting exactly what it needs. I suppose that has been enough to keep my sugar dragon at bay!

I haven't been posting nearly as many food pics because we've settled into a pretty good routine. A few of my fave meals that I haven't talked about were spaghetti squash with homemade meat sauce and roasted brussel sprouts, one pan roasted chicken thighs wrapped in bacon + brussel sprouts and butternut squash, egg salad with chopped compliant pickles, and the simplest yet yummiest concoction from Chipotle!

A couple times last week, my mom and I were out and about at lunch time, so we opted for Chipotle after reading our (limited) compliant options. Carnitas, mild salsa, guac, and raw fajita veggies over romaine with some original tabasco sprinkled over the top is just freaking awesome. It sounds boring, but between the carnitas, guac, and tabasco, you've got a flavor bomb. I'll likely continue choosing that at Chipotle in the future! All of their other meats and things are cooked in a rice bran oil which isn't compliant, so good thing the carnitas is my favorite meat anyways. Also, have you noticed the employees stopped asking if you knew guac was extra? At least at the two different locations we ate at! Which is awesome. Yes, we all know guac is extra, and we have totally deemed it "worth it."

Seeing as tomorrow is our last day of this portion of the program, I've started to finally allow myself to look ahead. Now, I'm not looking ahead to gorging on treats at all. Honestly, that doesn't even sound good. I ate so much compliant food yesterday that I can't imagine how much worse I would have felt if it had all been total junk. No, I'm looking ahead to the reintroduction phase and planning what those days might look like. First, we're starting with legumes on Wednesday. I DO look forward to a little peanut butter and some hummus. I don't expect to have any issues with those things, and we will likely have them sparingly in our regular diets. Sparingly is the tough part with both of those though because I know I eat way more than 1 serving of each of those foods. We shall see! I'll post updates on how I'm feeling with legumes and such as it comes. For the reintroduction phase, most of our meals will still be Whole30, it'll just be testing the waters here and there with non-compliant noms to gauge our bodies' reactions. It's gonna be a fun little experiment!

Grassfed beef patty topped with guac and red onion on bibb lettuce with roasted kale and butternut squash

OMG peri peri roasted carrots... these are AMAZING! Marcus picked the recipe for super bowl snacks and made them and we cannot wait to wow some house guests with these in the future!

This is one of the cooler Whole30 things I've learned: homemade ghee! It was so easy, which was a relief cause I was intimidated by the process initially. Ghee is just butterfat-- the milk solids have been removed (via that coffee filter ya see there) and the water has been boiled out. It keeps in the fridge for MONTHS!