Day 2: Murphy's Law

Murphy's Law: a rule that states, "If something can go wrong, it will." An addition to this law reads, "and usually at the worst time." The identity of "Murphy" is unknown, but the saying was first used during the 1940s and may have originated with members of the armed forces in WWII.

That last part was just a fun little tid-bit but this pretty much sums up my day today. Or the last few days rather. Let's see. I woke up late, my shower was cold and I couldn't get the shower to turn on for like 15 minutes. Theeen none of the programs that I was trying to use at work were working. That made no sense. See, see what happened to my brain today. Also, when I woke up my stomach hurt a little bit and I forced myself to eat breakfast. I hope with this Whole30 thing that I will get on a good schedule of not eating late and being hungry in the mornings. I know how important breakfast is, but shit - if I ain't hungry, I ain't hungry.

Next I come home to try and set up the wireless router I bought at lunch today and OF COURSE that doesn't work because it is not compatible with the operating system that is on my Mac. So I spent the next 45 minutes chatting with some chick named Dianne on Linksys tech support (insert unamused [not amused?] face here).

It looks like an avocado shat on my salad

I finally got that set up so I went to HEB to pick up a few things for the next couple of days. Spent more than I wanted to and I come home to a non-working stove. By now it is 1930 and I haven't eaten dinner. FML. For realisies. I get a salad from Subway and call it a night. Oh, tried to do a load of dishes and my dishwasher is broken too. Love it.

You know, I think I picked the worst week to start Whole30 because so far I just suck at it. Oh well, it's the first week and i'll get better... Hopefully. Short post because I am going to go pass out and cross my fingers that tomorrow will be a better and Murphy-less day.

Day 2:

• Hardboiled eggs
• Sweet potato
• Tur-zucc-ash
• Salad with veggies, oil & vinegar

Day 1: Dia De Los Muertos

Death. Today was death. Not because it was the first day of Whole30 but because I was dealing with more apartment crap. Ugh. Not sure why it's bothering me so much but I just wanted to be settled in my new place with a crap ton of groceries and be awesome. Well none of that is happening... except for maybe that last thing that happens all the time. The maintenance people in my apartment complex got the a/c working, which is fantastic because now I can get unpacked and organized and get ready for school to start.

Sweeeeeet Emotion

Okay, let's get down to it - what did I eat today?

Day 1:

• Sweet potato
• Red bell pepper
• Green bell pepper
• Onion
• Ground turkey
• Zucchini
• Squash
• Chicken
• Salad w/ balsamic vinegar

Well I started off with the sweet potato "hash browns" that I cooked up yesterday. I added the green and red bell pepper and 2 fried eggs on top. That was my breakfast. It was pretty tasty minus the fact that I wasn't really digging the bell peppers. I was NOT hungry when I woke up but forced myself to eat around 0730. You're supposed to eat within the first hour of waking up (which would've been around 7), but that isn't going to happen most days.

It's like Christmas in a pan

Once lunchtime came around I was hungry but I am not sure I ate enough... I felt really out of whack and my stomach hurt from breakfast. So I ate some of my Tur-zucc-ash (or whatever I called it yesterday) and it was good. That was around 1215 and I left work around 4. When I got home I was hungry so I ate an apple. I am going to have to figure out how to space out my meals so that I am not eating at 7 then 12 then 7 again. Have to work around my schedule, which is going to change once school starts.

Dinner was simple but delicious - chicken thighs and salad with kale, spinach, red bell peppers, olives, and balsamic vinegar as dressing. Definitely a go-to meal.

Moral of this really rambley story is that I was in a bad mood today and my stomach was all over the place. I am exhausted and I can barely see what I am typing. Sorry this post was boring - hope it wasn't too painful. I promise to deliver more whitty shit mañana when I am alive. Not muerto. See how I brought that full circle? Ya... skill.

Does Whole30 Improve Your Mood?...

...because I need it to! Apologies for not posting yesterday - twas an insanely busy day. I got the keys to my new digs yesterday, which is exciting. What is not exciting is moving in lovely 100 degree Texas heat and then having your AC break. Ya that's right. AC = not working. To make things even more perfect I only realized this once I brought my furry little man (AKA Leonidus the cat) into the apartment. I brought him to his new home. I brought him to a death trap microwave hell-hole #worldsbestcatmom.

$18.49 later...

Needless to say I didn't get any unpacking done today. I called my apartment complex, which doesn't have an emergency phone number, and they never returned my call. So hopefully I can get that all taken care of and all of my shit doesn't melt. Ugh! This is the worst timing because tomorrow is the day that is going to start the rest of my life. That was a bit dramatic, but seriously - I am really looking forward to Whole30. Once my insides are happy I think my outsides will match.

For the Sunday night before the start of my Whole30 I had planned an extravagant trip to Sprouts and Costco and HEB. What really ended up happening was me running over to HEB and getting some necessities to get me through tomorrow. The result was 2 onions, 2 lbs of extra lean ground turkey, 3 sweet potatoes, 3 yellow squash, 3 zucchinis, 1 red bell pepper, and 1 green pepper. Riveting shit, huh? Ya...

I call it "Tur-zucc-ash"

So I diced the zucchini and squash tonight tonight and pre-made the turkey, zucchini, squash mixture. It's simple but really tasty. I am planning on having that for lunch and dinner unless something changes. I also diced the sweet potatoes for tomorrow's breakfast. I diced them into 1" cubes and roasted them at 425 degrees for 45 minutes. Seasoned with paprika, salt and pepper. Tried one and they're pretty tasty. I never used to like sweet potatoes (and still don't really like them mashed or baked) but these had a good consistency. I diced the red and green bell peppers, and the other half of the onion for tomorrow morning's breakfast. It's going to be a sweet potato hash with 2 eggs on top. Recipe from It Starts with Food! Should be super tasty.

Going out with a bang

This weekend sucked. Simple as that. I am looking forward to being settled into my new studio but getting there is proving to be more difficult than I thought. Let's just say that the first few days, or first week, of Whole30 is going to be pretty basic because I will be trying to gather my shit. It seems to be everywhere. I ended my weekend the only way I new how. A 6-pack of cider and a pint of crack cocaine... I mean a pint of Blue Bell cookies 'n cream - oh wait they're the same thing. I will now go enjoy my sugar overload for the last time while watching Anchorman. Milk was a bad choice... it's not on Whole30! Haha. Get it?

Not a Normal Trip to HEB...

As you all may already know, I am a planner. So it may come by no surprise that I spent about 2 hours today planning out what I am going to eat during my first week of Whole30. Needless to say I was a bit underwhelmed and overwhelmed at the same time. Underwhelmed because all I am really eating is meat, fruit, and veggies. Can't be too difficult, right? I was overwhelmed because there are so many possible combos and recipes of things you can make with those 3 ingredients. I was all over the place scouring through my recipe books, blogs, google, shit I even looked at a site I found through StumbleUpon.

I looked at the Whole30 Shopping List and just stared at it... I had to pause multiple times and just think to myself, "what do you like to eat?" I like pretty much all of the vegetables and fruits that are Whole30 approved. Except for maybe fennel root and rhubarb. When I see vegetables like that I picture some old lady in a rocking chair named Bertha eating a rhubarb pie or something. Is that a thing?

Kohlrabi and broccoli rabe were two vegetables that I had never even heard of. But one thing I am looking forward to doing during my 30 days is experiencing new flavors and tastes. Also, cooking and preparing vegetables in different ways than I have before. In the end, vegetables and fruit shouldn't be an issue in terms of whether or not I'll eat them. The only thing that becomes an issue is where to find some of the more rando veggies and the cost. Shit is expensive. That's not a surprise.

I also enjoy eating meat. Woa. Get your minds out of the gutter everyone. This is a G-rated blog... HAHA. Psssh. Me writing a G-rated blog is like Miley Cyrus not twerking. Ya not gonna happen. Back to what I was saying about meat... chicken and turkey are my favorites. But I enjoy beef and lamb as well. Seafood - no shellfish. I could eat salmon every day of my life and white fish ain't too shabby either. OK, so in one of my recipe books they have a formula to calculate how many pounds of protein you'll need to buy for one week. I am apparently supposed to consume 5.25 pounds of pure protein a week! That's like the size of a premature baby.

Back to my point. The end result of thinking about what I wanted to eat was a shell of a grocery list. I found this awesome excel template that calculates the totals for each category of food and everything. It's pretty nerdy + awesome = aweserdy or nersome. We'll see if I stick to my plan come Sunday when I actually have to purchase my first week's worth of food....

(Sorry for the rambley post. It's Friday.)

Am I an Alcoholic?

I wish I could funnel this into my mouth...

Wait, so no alcohol for 30 days? Haha. That's funny, but seriously. Can I maybe drink "pee" beer, AKA any lite beer you can think of? It's lite so it must be healthy... right?

Well no... obviously no one thinks beer is "healthy" per se. But a glass of red wine a day is good for you heart or something like that, right? I don't know whether or not there is science to back that theory up, but what I do know is that I am about to go THIRTY ENTIRE DAYS without any drop of alcohol.

Honestly, I am not sure I've gone 30 days without drinking alcohol since I turned 21. Granted that was only 3 years ago, but still. So the question popped into my head - Am I an alcoholic?

Like every other teenager on the planet (well maybe not) I used to watch the show Intervention on A&E. Am I like those people who drink pints of grain liquor with their cheerios? Obviously not. So not I am obviously not an alcoholic. Obviously. DISCLAIMER: I am sorry if any of the material thus far has offended anyone or their family members whom may be alcoholics themselves. That is not my intent. But so anyways, I started wondering why giving up alcohol for 30 days was going to be so difficult. The conclusion I came to is that it is not going to be the end of the world. Yes, I will miss having a glass of wine after a stressful day. Or cracking open a nice cold Austin Beerworks Blackthunder (you beer knurds know what I am talking about). But am I going to miss it enough to hide some under my bed in a water bottle? No.

It takes some serious inward-looking (I made that verb up) abilities to realize that you may use alcohol as a clutch. And you convince yourself that it's fine because everyone else does it. Well I am starting to think, even at 24, that daily drinking or even 4 times a week may not be the best thing for my health or my sanity. Now after Whole30 I am for sure going to partake in an alcoholic beverage every once and a while. But like my mom said: I am going to make drinking an exception not a rule.

Throughout the 30 days we will be sure to come back to this topic, but those are my thoughts for now. You may now resume drinking whatever alcoholic drink you're consuming, or about to consume, while reading this...