Day 6 of ClearVite Protocol

Woke up feeling a little more sore today, and got progressively more sore throughout the day. Like sore everywhere: shoulders, lats, triceps, abs, glutes, quads...guess I hit most everything this weekend! DOMS strike again! Yesterday, I toyed with the idea of bringing Josh with me to CrossFit and sitting him down with his beloved Kindle to keep him busy, but I think I was better off taking a break today.

Today is the first day of the detox portion of the ClearVite program. No meat all week. Sigh. This morning I tried putting some cocoa powder in my shake. Meh. It was a little bitter. Maybe I'll try it again with some blueberries to sweeten it up. Or maybe I'll add some of the coconut sugar today and some coconut milk and try that for "dessert" tomorrow.

For lunch, I tried mixing the shake with a different mix of frozen fruit: pineapple, peaches, mango, and strawberries. I added banana too. That was pretty tasty!

For dinner, I tried the pumpkin shake again, but it still wasn't that pumpkin-y. Might have to give up on that one. My stomach was a little unsettled after dinner too. :(

Food:

• 
  
• Breakfast: 
• ClearVite shake with rice milk, 1/2 banana, and 2TB of powdered cocoa
• 1/2 grapefruit
• Lunch:
• ClearVite shake with rice milk and some frozen tropical fruit (pineapple, mango, peaches, and strawberries)
• Dinner:
• ClearVite shake with pumpkin puree and a dash of Allspice
• baked sweet potato fries (1/2 potato)
• veggie stir fry
• Snacks:
• baby carrots

Exercise: 

• "Rest day" which really meant carting the kids around to their activities, swept and mopped the floors, folded laundry, and chased the kids at their KidFit running class at the Y. No rest for the weary! ;)

Day 5 of ClearVite Protocol; 4th CrossFit workout

Wow, passed the 20# weight loss mark this morning! Down 20.5, even! Getting so close to ONEderland... Only 2# to go! I will definitely get there before the end of this ClearVite program!!!

After my nice nap yesterday, I was NOT tired at bed time. But, in order to get the kids to sleep, I had to turn off my Kindle and reading light to stop distracting them, and finally drifted off to the sound of "Bring sally up, And bring sally down, Lift and squat, Gotta tear the ground" over and over in my head... I woke up around 5, sandwiched between two babies, and remembered that I am supposed to read Dan Brown's Inferno by my next book club meeting on Friday, so I downloaded a copy and read for an hour before dozing back off until 9:10. Yes, my daughter and I slept until 9:10 (after kicking out my son who woke up a bit earlier). Felt soooo nice.

this cracked me up:
if I'm going to get into
the tall socks craze,
I'll have to find these

I woke up to find that Brian put on the babysitter for Josh (insert Disney Jr show) went off to the 9am CrossFit WOD, so I resolved to make it to the 10am WOD so we could compare notes since I am not nearly as sore from yesterday's workout as I thought I'd be - maybe eating Paleo helps with recovery. I sucked down my shake, but didn't have time for any other breakfast (missed my last chance for breakfast sausage for a week! Boo!). Got the kids into the minivan and drove the quick 5 minutes to the gym, and waited a couple minutes for Brian to walk out to do a kid swap. He just smiled and wished me luck. ;) Today was the day I'd been dreading: burpee day. Ugh. HATE BURPEES. And that was just the warm-up, in addition to my other old nemesis, mountain climbers! I didn't realize what was in store for me later... Today we focused on overhead lifts, following this video to a tee. By the end, I was getting the hang of the push jerk with 55#, and I felt like I could have done more. The coach assured me that he'll have me pushing some good weight around soon enough - sweet. :) Then came the nastiest part: 3 rounds of burpees, then pull-ups, then 200 meter runs. See the description below. Those effing burpees killed me. And then all the pull-ups. I used a green and blue band together, but should have used more help on this many pull-ups - I had to take a lot of breaks to get through each set, and ended up with a really crappy time. Brian beat me by 3 minutes! Oh well. Just gives me room to improve!

I brought the kids to a birthday party today, and watched them eat all kinds of good stuff, including their treats from a real ice cream truck. Sigh. There was tons of food, but only one thing I could MAYBE eat - some chicken pieces that looked like they had a buffalo sauce, but tasted very bland - not sure what they were seasoned in. But I had a couple pieces anyway. The sight and smell of all that glorious cake frosting really got to me, and I really wanted something sweet and creamy. So, I tried making coconut butter by blending the heck out of the shredded coconut I bought weeks ago. However, our blender didn't seem to get it all the way there. There was some creamy parts, but I could still taste a lot of tiny coconut shreds too. And not very sweet. So, FAIL. I tried to put some into my pumpkin ClearVite shake to make it creamier, but it just froze to the side of the cup. DOUBLE FAIL.

Food:

• 
  
• Breakfast: 
• ClearVite shake with rice milk, 1/2 banana, and a handful of frozen strawberries & blueberries
• fresh homemade turkey sausage
• Lunch:
• leftover veggie stir fry with Applegate chicken sausages
• Dinner:
• ClearVite shake with pumpkin puree, frozen bananas, and a dash of Allspice - needed more pumpkin and Allspice to really taste pumpkin-y
• leftover chicken meatballs with pesto over spaghetti squash
• ClearVite shake with rice milk, 1/2 frozen banana, and a handful of frozen strawberries & blueberries
• Snacks:
• 3 pieces of chicken at the birthday party

Exercise: 

• CrossFit - 700 calories in an hour! Worked hard today!
  

Day 4 of ClearVite Protocol; 3rd CrossFit workout

It was a happy morning - down another 2 pounds! Only 1 shy of 20 pounds in less than 7 weeks! Incredible! And that's including a week of vacation!!! 

I had my morning ClearVite shake while cooking up a bunch of turkey sausage. At least I'll have some for tomorrow, and then it will be waiting patiently in the freezer for me for when I can eat meat again. Only 2 more days of being a carnivore before the detox phase starts. I'm gonna miss meat.

The rumors were true: it was a nasty little workout at CrossFit today. Here's a video of some folks at a CrossFit in Northern California doing the "Bring Sally Up" workout. I love the beastly woman in the yellow sports bra who puts all the guys to shame. I aspire to be her! I only did it with 25lbs and I missed 6 of the 35 reps because my legs were dying. And THEN, after a 10 minute "rest" on an airdyne bike, I did the song all over again doing push-ups instead of back squats! Ugh! It was actually even harder, even though I was using a blue band to make it easier - my triceps were fried. Doubt I'll be able to move my arms tomorrow. One of the CrossFit owners was trying to get me to sign up for their "Festivus Games" for novices to CrossFit. But holy crap, the workout looks brutal. And it's only 3 weeks away. Not really sure I'm up for that. Especially the burpies part. Twice. And I haven't even learned some of the other moves yet. There might be another one in April. I might be up for that one after 6 months of training.

While putting my son down or a nap around 3:30, I kept dozing off while reading Mark Sisson's book, so I decided to just give in and take a nap for the first time in a while. More surprisingly, my daughter came in and joined us! So we were a lazy little bunch for a couple glorious hours. Ahhhh. 

Brian made some tasty meatballs and sauce with veggies for dinner (I picked up some interesting varieties of squash at the farmer's market this morning). They all had red sauce, and he made me a pesto (no nuts). Brian and I had spaghetti squash, but we tried giving the kids some wheat-free pasta: Ancient Harvest Organic Gluten Free Quinoa Pasta Rotelle. I took a little bite, and it was decent - not much different that a whole wheat pasta in that grainy kind of way. They ate it all up, so I guess it passed the test! One more step toward a wheat free household. Brian also found some gluten free sliced bread to try for grilled cheeses - we'll see how that goes. And it doesn't even have tapioca in it, so I could indulge in a piece of toast with my dairy, gluten, and soy-free Earth Balance "butter" (someday).

I totally forgot to drink a shake before dinner. Again, just like yesterday. Although at least tonight, I remembered during dinner. So, I packed up the other half of my dinner (I was stuffed anyway), and had a shake. Hope that's ok...does the shake do some kind of magic before eating? This time I added some frozen blueberries in addition to the strawberries and banana. Getting tastier!

Sorry if this is TMI, but, apparently, the ClearVite shakes are starting to do their dirty work - maybe it took the first shake before dinner to really get things going. Because as I was finishing this up, I felt a little churning, followed by quite the purge of nastiness. Got to be down another pound now! ;)

Food:

• 
  
• Breakfast: 
• ClearVite shake with rice milk & 1/2 banana
• fresh homemade turkey sausage
• watermelon
• Lunch:
• veggie stir fry with Applegate chicken sausages
• watermelon
• Dinner:



the photo doesn't do it justice... 

• chicken meatballs with pesto over spaghetti squash
• ClearVite shake with rice milk, 1/2 frozen banana, and a handful of frozen strawberries & blueberries
• Snacks:
• watermelon

Exercise: 

• CrossFit workout w/ LOTS of back squats - 525 cals
  Here's the results for the Bring Sally Up workout:
  the first column is the song doing squats with the number in () being the number of squats that we missed while resting, and the second column is the song doing push-ups. Killer.
  

Day 3 of ClearVite Protocol

Another solid night of sleep - I could get used to this!

My quads were the tiniest bit sore this morning after all of yesterday's snatches - I can only imagine how they'll feel once I add some real wight to the bar! I did get onto the elliptical this morning for an hou and tried to stay between 55-75% of my max heartrate. According to Mark Sisson in his book Primal Blueprint, you don't want to do "chronic cardio" for extended durations above 70% because it puts too much stress on the body (cortisol levels rise, change of injuries increases, etc). This is quite a change for me since I've always targeted higher than that, thinking "the harder, the better!" He said that for men, the formula to find max heatrate is is 220 minus your age, which I've always heard; but, for ladies, it's 226 minus your age, which I found interesting - I would have thought the guys would have the higher max. So my magic formula was 226 - 38 = 188 bpm. So my range was between 55% and 75% is 103-141 bpm. So, I'm a little conflicted about jogging now since I'd like to improve my 5K time, but I can't jog at less than 160 bpm since it always jacks up my heart rate. He does recommend doing all out sprinting for short distances though. I'll have to figure out what to do.

I went back to rice milk in my ClearVite shake this morning, and it turned out a little thicker than my first one since I added a little more ice and bananas. So, I didn't miss the thicker coconut milk today (just going to toss that - it did NOT agree with me). I did get a glimpse of what the meat-free week ahead of my will be like since I never got around to making more breakfast sausage, and I used up all the Applegate sausage yesterday. I was a little hungry in the morning without that protein to hold me over. Maybe I'll need to add a dollop of coconut oil to the shake for extra calories?

We were out of salad makings, so I went to Panera with some friends at work, and got a simple salad topped with lemon juice and EVOO.

I had another small exercise in torture tonight: scooping ice cream for dozens of kids and their parents at my daughter's school during an ice cream social fundraiser. Sigh.

Food:

• 
  
• Breakfast: 
• ClearVite shake with rice milk & 1/2 banana
• 1/2 grapefruit
• Lunch:
• big salad like yesterday
• side of guac from Chipotle's
• Dinner:

• chicken breast with skin sauteed in coconut oil with mustard greens and sauted sweet potato chucks sauteed in the good stuff left from the chicken
• homemade applesauce
• Snacks:
• strawberries (the turkey slices I saved from yesterday went bad - boo)

Exercise: 

• 60 mins on elliptical - 610 cals

Day 2 of ClearVite Protocol; 2nd CrossFit workout

Slept like a rock again last night. Felt so good. 

Today was another strength-oriented day at CrossFit. Only 3 people in class today, so I got a lot of personal attention from the coach. After doing some warm-up deep air squats (some with a kelltebell) and some shoulder stretches with a PVC pipe, I learned another bad ass lift: hanging power snatch. Just sounds cool, doesn't it?! Took a while to simply learn all the components of the movement while holding a PVC pipe. To demonstrate the power with which I'm supposed to thrust it over my head, he had me actually let go of the pipe and throw it behind me at the top of the movement, which, to me, was a crazy thing to do - I told him I'm not used to making noise when I work out! But he said we better noise at CrossFit! So the bar flew back and hit the wall and made quite the racket! It did help drive the point home though. I eventually progressed to using a baby 15# barbell to feel how it feels with a little weight, which definitely helped me to understand how you have to use force to get the bar up and lock your arms out at the top. Then I even added 2 5# plates - oooh! ;) Then we did a short metcon (metabolic conditioning) of the snatches for 3 sets: 15 reps for time (as fast as I could), then rest 2 minutes, then 10 reps for time, another 2 minutes rest, and then 5 more reps. It was definitely more mentally exhausting that physically - had to keep thinking of how to do every little step throughout the movement to ensure I'm learning good form. I'm looking forward to doing it with some real weight - I will definitely feel bad ass after powering through some of those. ;) I didn't feel like I really worked that hard today, but I was sweating, and my watch said I burned 450 cals, so I guess I did something! I don't expect to be very sore from this workout though. Which is good, because the coach kept taunting us about what's coming our way on Saturday...something about a whole lot of squats...I think it may be this, which kinda looks fun since it's "choreographed" to a song, but is gonna be a killer.

Today I put So Delicious coconut milk in my ClearVite instead of rice milk. I'd bought the box of coconut milk weeks ago, but never opened it. Upon opening it today, I immediately noticed how much thicker it is than rice milk (there's nothing to rice milk - even thinner than skim milk). Unfortunately, after looking at the ingredients later on, I realized that its thickness may be partially from containing carrageenan, which according this this post, is an emulsifier which could case the pores in the intestinal tract to become larger; permitting larger molecules of undigested food to enter the bloodstream (contributing to leaky gut, which is a a big thing I'm trying to fix!). It also contains guar gum, which is derived from a bean, and I'm trying to avoid legumes as well. And it has organic dried cane syrup, which is not ideal (although the unsweetened version does not, but does still have carrageenan and guam gum). Why did I buy this?! So, turns out this isn't the best mixer, which is too bad, because this morning's shake (with some frozen banana slices and ice cubes) was much better - very thick and almost creamy, so I didn't notice the grainy stuff in it so much. It did seem to make my stomach percolate a little an hour later though. I'll have to look for a healthier version of coconut milk - according to this list, they are out there... 

Tonight we had a huge retirement party at work for a director who'd been here forever, and was basically forced to retire after he spoke his mind to his staff about the outsourcing activity that's going to destroy our strong IT organization (which he played a key role in building over many years). This is an event that I normally would go into planning to have several drinks and hit the buffet until I was stuffed, and have a good old time. Obviously, tonight's approach was a very different. Well, a little different. I had resolved not to have any drinks since alcohol is verboten on the ClearVite program. However, throughout the day, my resolve began to waver...and I had a margarita in my hand by 5pm (followed by 3 more throughout the evening, and, actually, I never really got buzzed - go strong liver!). At least they were made with a Ripe Bar Juice, a fresh, lo-cal agave mix instead of some neon yellow, HFCC-filled mix (I'll have to find some of this - pretty tasty). However, I was good about food, despite all of the tasty options on the buffet: I was able to partake of a fresh fruit platter and some carved turkey, which was pretty delicious, and did not seem to be contaminated by any of my allergens since I didn't have any gi issues last night (other than what was caused by the carrageenan). I had to pass up all kinds of delicious apps that were passed around, pasta with alfredo sauce, carved beef, and amazing chocolate dipped cookies which were delicious when they appeared at the last event like this. Oh well, I really didn't miss them too much - I was stuffed from a few slices of turkey. And enjoying my margaritas. Brian guilted me into leaving at 8:30 to help put the kids to bed instead of staying later, so at least I stopped at 4. ;)

Food:

• 
  
• Breakfast: 
• ClearVite shake with coconut milk & 1/2 banana
• 3 Applegate sausages - need to make more of my own!
• 1/2 grapefruit
• Lunch:
• big salad like yesterday
• side of guac from Chipotle's
• Dinner:
• fresh fruit platter (melons, grapes, blueberries, watermelon)
• carved turkey
• Snacks:
• forgot to eat my snack before leaving for the party

Exercise: 

• 2nd day of CrossFit ~450 cals

Day 1 of ClearVite Protocol

I set my alarm last night with intentions of hopping on my elliptical and watching the season premier of Ellen in the morning. But after snoozing twice (which I never do anymore - must have still been really tired from yesterday's crappy night of sleep), I finally got up and decided to take measurements instead. The last set of measurements I took were in May, when I was just 7 pounds heavier (went on a little weight gain roller coaster over the summer). I'm surprised that the measurements didn't change that much since I think I look a lot leaner now after losing so much bloat. However, I think I suck at taking measurements - I'm not 100% confident that I take them in the exact same place every time. Although my waist measurement only went down half an inch (just above my belly button in the thickest part of my waist), supposedly my hips went down 9.5". Can that really be? I do think I have definitely leaned out through my torso and lost most of my muffin top, but 9.5" worth? Who knows. I do know that the scale showed a 2.5 loss since yesterday, which is a little crazy. I don't think I CrossFitted THAT hard. ;)

Speaking of CrossFit, my lower back is a little sore today. However, my legs and butt aren't sore at all, which is where I expected the soreness to be. At first, this worried me since I figured my form must have been bad, but according to some articles I saw online, it's completely normal to feel it in your lower back the next day. My upperback is also a little sore from doing the pull-ups - I love that!! I've never gotten sore using the assisted pull-up machine at the Y, so I obviously worked the muscles differently yesterday. Muscle soreness = progress!

So, I had my first ClearVite shake this morning. Makes me quiver just thinking about it again. Definitely need to find a way to make them taste better if I need to drink like 30 more of them... Very sicky-sweet (especially after avoiding sweets for the past month), and kind of fruity for something that's supposed to be plain vanilla. First, I just tried to shake it up with 8oz of plain rice milk in a covered coffee mug. That did NOT work - it was still incredibly lumpy. So, since we don't have a blender, I dumped it into the kids' little slushie maker (like a Magic Bullet). That mixed it, but it did NOT taste good. Although the lumps are gone, it's a little grainy. So, I added a couple ice cubes and some frozen banana slices to thicken it up a little. That made it taste SLIGHTLY better, but need to try something else tomorrow! Maybe some frozen berries too... Definitely makes me miss the chocolate whey protein shakes I used to make with some frozen bananas, berries, and a dollop of peanut butter...may have to resort to using peanut butter if nothing else works! Oh, never mind, no peanuts allowed in this protocol either. Maybe coconut butter???

Food:

• 
  
• Breakfast: 
• ClearVite shake with rice milk & 1/2 banana
• last of some homemade turkey sausage and a Applegate sausage
• 1/2 grapefruit
• Lunch:
• big salad like yesterday
• Dinner:



Sweet potato hash

• Sweet potato hash
• Snacks:
• apple

Exercise: 

• rest day

Supplements:

• X-FLM (supports TH-2 immune response): 1 pill 2x/day
• Strengtia (probiotics): 1 pill 2x/day
• EPA-DHA (Omega 3 fish oil): 2 pills 2/x day
• D3 (supports immune system & absorption): 2 drops 1x/day
• B12 (improves energy & digestion): 10 drops (1mg)/day

First day of CrossFit!

I woke up at 2am this morning, and could not fall back to sleep. Ugh. This again. So, I finally got out of bed around 4:45 and got ready for my first CrossFit class. Woo hoo! 

First I hopped on the scale though, which was probably not a good move in case my vacation had a very negative effect. However, I was very pleasantly surprised! Before leaving, I had bloated up 2 pounds after a night out filled with drinks and likely cross-contaminated buffalo wings. When I stepped on the scale today, I was back down those 2 pounds! I DID NOT GAIN ANY WEIGHT DURING VACATION!!!! This is CRAZY. And that's after averaging a couple drinks/day, and eating some chips and sugary sweets (not a crazy amount, but some). Granted, I did a TON of walking, and managed to avoid all of my allergens. But I am still in shock.

When I got to the gym for the 5:30 class, I met the trainer, and he had me join the other 4 people on a rowing machine to warm up. I don't even know the last time I used a rower, so he helped me out with my form. I chatted with the other woman there and learned that she'd been CrossFitting for over a year at another gym. So she was a pro. But the trainer was very nice to this newbie.

Then came some core warm-up stuff:

• some sit-ups on a sit-up bench: he said the goal is to reach back all the way to the floor on the way down, then lock your knees on the way back up, which will give you momentum to come up. 
• some back extensions after flipping over on the bench - I'm sure holding a plate while doing these is in my future...

Then some stretching:

• We started with hamstring stretching since we were going to do a primarily hammy/glute workout. We took some stretching bands, laid down on the floor, put the band behind the ball of one foot while holding the ends in our hands, and stretched one leg at a time straight in the air while the other leg was straight down on the floor. Got a good stretch after doing that for a couple minutes.
• Then we took a longish PVC pipe and held it straight in front of us with hands pretty widely spaced. Then we had to rotate our shoulders while keeping our arms straight, until the bar was behind our backs. Then we had to keep moving our hands inward to make the stretch harder. Takes some good shoulder flexibility.

Then it was time for the heavy lifting. We got our 45 lb barbells, and practiced a couple reps of deadlifts, focusing on perfect form. I'd never done deadlifts from a squatting position before - I'd always done straight-legged deadlifts, so this was definitely different for me. Once our form was down, we started loading plates, 10 pounds at a time. After each loading, we'd do 2 reps back-to-back, and if we thought we could handle more weight, we'd add another 10 pounds and repeat. And repeat. And repeat... I finally got up to 165 pounds (including the bar). He called that our 2-rep max, and then had us drop to 70% of that weight and do sets of 3 reps, 10 times, during 10 minutes, on each minute. 

Instead of just standing around for the 45 seconds or so between sets, we did some air squats (squatting nice and low), and had to do a total of 20 pull-ups between all the sets. I have never been able to do a pull-up in my life. It's definitely a goal of mine. So, the trainer put a box on the floor beneath the pull-up bar, and then tied 2 green resistance bands on the bar. I stepped off the box and placed one foot in the bands, and then crossed my other foot in front of that one, and proceeded to do pull-ups with the assistance of the bands. How about that! Two green bands was too much help, so he had me try one green, a blue, and a red (each color gives progressively less support). I was able to do a couple with just the green and blue, but ended up adding the red for most of them too. So, my first goal will be to ditch the red one! And then the blue one! And then that green one (eventually - that will take some time)!

After finishing all of our deadlifts and pull-ups, we stretched a little more, and that was the end of our hour-long WOD (workout of the day). Loved it. Felt good to lift heavy. Looking forward to my next session on Thursday (Brian and I will alternate days). Although I'm already starting to feel a little tightness in my back...could be ugly tomorrow!

Food: 

• Breakfast: 
• homemade turkey sausage
• 1/2 grapefruit
• Lunch:
• big salad with thickly sliced Boar's Head chicken, lime, avocado, coconut oil, and balsamic vinaigrette
• Dinner:
Chicken breast and baby carrots sauted in coconut oil and balsamic vinaigrette

• homemade applesauce
• Snacks:
• 3 slices of Boar's Head turkey before workout
• strawberries

Exercise:

• First CrossFit class! -  burned 500 cals in an hour

Apex Program Phase 2: ClearVite Detox Program

Well, back from vacation, and back to reality. And back to making progress toward my Fittest by Forty!

I was supposed to have an appt with my functional practitioner this afternoon, but I had to cancel it. Thankfully, he'd already given me the ClearVite program information to follow. I ordered a can of ClearVite-SF Vanilla through Amazon Prime while on vacation so it would be waiting for me when I got home (but it didn't arrive today! Aaargh!! now I can't start until Wednesday - guess I should have ordered it a day sooner. So much for 2-day shipping.). Yet another pricey supplement! And I'll need 2 cans to get through the program! I'm considering buying a can of chocolate too to change it up a bit, although I can mix the vanilla with various fruits for variety.

I'll be doing a cross between the 2-week and 3-week programs since I'll be heading out for a girls' weekend in only 17.5 days. I'll probably spend a couple extra days in the major detox portion. Back to strict RepairVite-like diet again though, only worse - no beef the entire 18 days, and no meat at all during the major detox portion! I'll have to get the majority of my protein from the shakes. And, no booze again... I'll be going out for a big retirement party on Thursday, so it will be a little sad to not have any drinks with friends, but I'll just have to think ahead for girls' weekend when I'll more than make up for it. ;) I may have to do the ClearVite liver detox program again after that weekend since my liver could probably use another good detoxing by then. ;) So I started back on the RepairVite diet today to get back into the swing of things. I made a little calendar to keep track of the days and how many shakes and food restrictions I have on each day to make it easier to follow.

Brian and I went to our new CrossFit box to sign our membership paperwork. We decided to commit to a 6-month membership to get in on their charter member rate discount. Only $125/month (apiece) for 3 sessions/week - that's only $10/session - bargain!

I took 2 servings of RepairVite today to help undo any damage that may have occurred during vacation. I'll save the last couple scoops for after ladies' weekend.

Food: Just wasn't that hungry this morning, so didn't eat much until dinner

• Breakfast: 
• watermelon
• Lunch:
• homemade applesauce
• slice of deli chicken
• Dinner:

• Brined roast chicken (no butter) with herb gravy
• mashed cauliflour (no butter)
• homemade applesauce
• Baby carrots cooked in apple juice
• Snacks:
• apple

Exercise: 

• Signed up at CrossFit - does that count??? Starting tomorrow!!!

A Different Disney World: Disney Dairy- & Gluten-free

When I made the decision to figure out what was broken in my body that was keeping me from becoming my fittest, and my doc told me he wanted to start me down the path of a very restrictive diet that will likely reveal some food intolerance, all I could think of was "how is this going to affect our trip to Disney in a couple months?!" Vacation is supposed to be all about having fun - not having to worry about what you're eating. I considered telling the doc that I didn't want to start the RepairVite diet until after our trip, but that was like 6 weeks after he prescribed it, and I wasn't sure he'd have that much patience with this patient. 

So, there I was, in Disney, being mindful of my intolerance to gluten, dairy, and tapioca. As I feared, it did put a bit of a damper on my carefree enjoyment of our big family vacation. But I did feel a lot better doing it. Here's a run down of what I ate all week. I was very liberally applying the 80/20 rule - having a few more carbs than I would back home. Okay, a lot more empty carbs - gotta enjoy vacation a little! So maybe the 80% was doing Whole30 for the last 4 weeks, and the 20% was this week. ;) Anyway, I may not have made progress this week, but I at least hoped to not take a step backwards and reintroduce damaging allergens back into my gut.

Departure day (Saturday):

• Had my typical breakfast of turkey sausage and fruit before leaving for the airport at 5:30am. Early morning!
• Brought an apple for the plane while I watched the kids eat the airline snacks of Lorna Doon butter cookies (one of my favorites), and gave my father-in-law our honey roasted peanuts. 
• Lunch at our favorite restaurant in Orlando: Chevy's. I indulged in chips and salsa after asking if the chips were gluten-free (although, according to this post, I should have called ahead and had them fried in a separate fryer to avoid cross-contamination). We also had some fresh guac made at the table, although when the server was finished, he put a sprinkle of cojita cheese on top before we knew what he was doing - aargh! So Brian tried to scoop off all the cheese for me. Then I got a chicken fajita salad, hold the cheese (apparently, I should have asked for no marinade on the chicken too according to post above). It had some interesting pepita seeds on it too - never had those before. I was stuffed. Oh, and I got a margarita with Cabo Respado with just fresh squeezed orange, lime, and lemon juice. I added a couple more orange slices. Pretty tasty, but not nearly as sweet as Brian's with agave syrup.
• For snacks, I brought some of my beef jerky - hopefully enough to last all week.
• For dinner, we picked up a rotisserie chicken from Wal-Mart, and I had that with some baby carrots and some Terra sweet potato chips. 
• How did I feel - there was quite a bit of percolating in my stomach in the evening - I think my gut didn't like something. I should have done my Chevy's research beforehand to make better decisions there. Ended up taking 2 GlutenFlam before bed to help settle things down.

Sunday (hanging around our resort)

• Earned a free breakfast for enduring a sales pitch at our timeshare in order to save almost $200/4-day Disney ticket - painful, but worth it! I was trying to understand what foods on the buffet I needed to stay away from, so I said to someone who appeared to be in charge "I have a dairy and gluten allergy," and when he looked back at me with a puzzled look on his face, I said "I can't have milk." Then he responded, "Yes, milk. It's over there." Ugh. Finally, he understood my question, and said there was cream in the scrambled eggs. Boo. So, I had a breakfast of sausage links and fruit salad. Well, at least there was sausage to hold me over. 
• We had a quick lunch pool-side, so Brian and I "fork & knifed" grilled chicken sandwiches (no bun) with some bbq sauce. They came with bags of Lays chips, which I did indulge in - yum. It had been a long time since I had chips!



Mmmmmm MEAT!

• For dinner,  we went to the restaurant at our resort: Smokehouse Grill. I was happy to see that they had an allergen reference sheet so I could make my selections easily (although I'm not confident it was 100% accurate - A for effort though). Brian and I really wanted some bbq, so we shared the Smokehouse Platter for 2 with his parents too (plenty for everyone): brisket, pulled pork, ribs and ham served in a big cast iron skillet. It came with some sweet potato fritters that looked so good, but were breaded, of course, so none for me. The sides of veggies where full of butter, so I balanced having a couple curly fries with a side salad. ;) And I had a Mexican mojito.
• Snacks: some watermelon and Terra chips
• How did I feel - I was peeing like crazy all morning - I hopped on the scale before leaving on Saturday, and I was up 3 pounds (from what? hot wings? drinks?), so I was obviously retaining water for some reason. I think it must have been on its way back out again... Stomach felt great all day though - didn't feel any adverse reactions today. Took a quick nap with my son after our lunchtime swim. :)

Monday (Epcot)

First stop: princesses! Several months ago, I made reservations for the Princess Storybook Breakfast at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall. I called ahead to let them know about my food issues, and then spoke to the chef upon arrival. This restaurant serves a family style meal of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, and a potato casserole (all of which is ok for me except the casserole). However, after talking to the chef, he prepared my very own dish of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, and a huge portion of crispy hash browns in place of the casserole, and it was all DELICIOUS. I tried to be brave and tasted a piece of the traditional fish from the cold bar, and although it was seasoned nicely, it was just too fishy for me. I was going to taste the lox too, but never got around to it. So I just got some fruit from the bar, and passed up all the pastries (which I really don't miss that much). And, by the way, the princess parade was adorable here. For lunch, my daughter was dead set on spaghetti, and since we couldn't find spaghetti take-out, we all sat down at Via Napoli restaurant in Italy (well, Josh continued to be passed out in the stroller). The bright orange thing pictured to the right is virtually the only thing I could have for lunch there - not a gluten & dairy intolerant person's kind of place! But this week is all about what the kids want, not me! Besides, I really wasn't all that hungry after my huge breakfast. So, while walking past America later, I snagged a giant turkey leg and chowed it down - very filling! We had dinner at La Hacienda de San Angel (here's a great review on the Gluten & Dairy Free at WDW site). The chef said I pretty much had nothing to worry about there other than cheese and flour tortillas, although if I was Celiac, he would have fried the chips in a different fryer (I risked it). We started with their fresh chips and salsas (spicy red and mild green) and ordered some guac, and then the four adults all shared "La Hacienda" which was a mixed grill offering New York strip, chicken al pastor, chorizo and vegetables, served with beans and fresh salsas - while intended for 2 people, it was plenty for all of us!  I went back for more veggies since I've been a bit short on them (and another tasty little chorizo). I had a couple of their Rosita margaritas which were infused with rose petals - delicious! We had a wonderful table by a window overlooking the amazing Illuminations fireworks display too. And they even brought a free ice cream out to my in-laws who were celebrating their 41st anniversary. It was a perfect evening to end a 14-hour day in the park. Snacks: I brought some beef jerky along, but barely needed it. Had a few of the kids' sugar-free gummy characters How did I feel: Great all day, although I was a little gassy in the morning (probably the chips). But despite walking 20,000 steps according to my FitBit, I'm not tired or sore at all!

Breakfast Liquid lunch my turkey leg 1/4 of La Hacienda

Tuesday (hanging around our resort again)

Breakfast: Made breakfast in the condo this morning: bacon, sausage, fruit, and scrambled eggs with zucchini, peppers & onions (fried in bacon fat - yum!). And buttery toast for the kids. That still smells delicious to me. Lunch: We planned to hit the poolside cookout for some Angus burgers today, but found it closed. Boo. So, after searching the fridge, we found some veggies, leftover rotisserie chicken, and bacon, and did what we could for a stir fry (with only bacon fat, salt and pepper as seasoning). Better than cold, dry chicken, anyway! Dinner: T-Rex in Downtown Disney. I saw a couple good reviews about them catering to allergies, so I felt confident I would find something tasty so the kids could enjoy the crazy dinosaur ambiance. The chef came out and took my order personally, and delivered it personally. I went with the Guacasaurus burger, a tasty, hearty burger topped with guac and bacon, and wrapped in huge lettuce leaves for me. Sadly, the chef didn't recommend the waffle fries because of cross-contamination, so I had a side of kettle chips. Brian and I got a couple Raptor Ritas - we didn't realize they cost a whopping $15/apiece since we got to keep a souvenir glass. Yay. We did not want souvenir glasses to lug home. So, we were finally able to exchange it for a pair of plastic T-Rex plates for the kids. The kids loved the decor and animatronic dinosaurs. But OMG that place was so loud (which I should have known from visiting Rainforest Cafe before - same idea). Snacks: I got very excited about the prospect of visiting Babycakes after dinner (an allergen-free bakery) because I LOVE ME SOME CUPCAKES! However, a look at their ingredients online revealed (no surprise) tapioca. However, it's not in the cake, as I expected - it's in the frosting. Weird. Although, what's more strange is that on their web site, they have 2 pages listing all ingredients: one lists tapioca in most frostings, and the other does not. So, I called to see which was true (hoping for the latter!). Unfortunately, they confirmed the frosting has tapioca. But, they said they could set some vanilla cupcakes aside with no frosting, so I brought my own jarred frosting (Duncan Hines is dairy-free) from WalMart and enjoyed! It was a very dense cupcake - almost more like cornbread, but tasty enough. :) Also had a little bag of Lays chips that was lying around. And maybe a couple extra finger-fulls of frosting. Exciting find at Wal-Mart today though: Betty Crocker makes some gluten-free bake mixes that actually DO NOT contain tapioca!!! Now I CAN make my own cupcakes! And brownies (with Smart Balance organic instead of butter). How did I feel: no stomach issues whatsoever, and still completely satisfied. So far, so good!

Chef Brian's eggs - just as good as eating out! Simple stir fry Our cupcakes: Chocolate brownie with chocolate chips and vanilla frosting (which Brian said was tasty) Vanilla with my Duncan Hines frosting Vanilla with their vanilla frosting  Carrot cake

Wednesday (Magic Kingdom)

Breakfast: Made breakfast in the condo again: bacon, sausage, fruit, and scrambled eggs with zucchini, peppers & onions (fried in bacon fat) Lunch: We went to Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe in Tomorrowland for lunch. When I mentioned an allergy, the cashier called someone over to take my order. At first, I was looking at the pulled pork sandwich, but she said there was gluten in the sauce. So I settled for a burger, and she tried very hard to find a bun that would work for me (they have 2 brands), so she showed me the ingredients for each in "the big allergy book" but they both contained tapioca. So, I just fork & knifed it. She was able to get me some "allergy fries" though. Dinner: The kids wanted pizza for dinner, but the one restaurant that serves flatbread pizza (Pinocchio Village Haus) closed at 7pm, 10 minutes before we arrived. So, we headed back to Tomorrowland to hit those rides, and went back to Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe again, and I got another burger since the other one was pretty tasty, actually. This time, I checked out the toppings bar and confirmed that I could have the grilled onions that were there (just cooked in 2 types of oil, no butter). So I topped my burger with grilled & raw onions and some pickles to make it even tastier. Instead of fries, I got their cucumber salad which was simple cuc chunks and onions in a light, sweet vinegar-based dressing - very tasty. The burger was sturdy enough that I could hold it and eat it instead of having to fork & knife it (a little messier, of course!). Snacks: Fresh popcorn from a stand (the butter isn't really butter!) and some bagged kettle corn from a shop.  And a few of my daughter's candy corn and sips of her strawberry slushee (mmmm treats!). I was only going to get one slushee and have the kids share it, but when the cashier gave me the second cup I asked for, she decided to fill it up instead and only charge for one - she said Mickey doesn't like half-filled cups. ;) So that was nice, even though I wasn't trying to save money so much as NOT fill the kids up with that much sugar! Oh well, it's vacation! How did I feel: I was so full after eating the fries - I could definitely tell a difference after filling up on crap food like that. Hit 20,000 steps again - whew, that's a lot of walking! As we were driving home, we realized that we had a vacation day without any booze - what happened there?!

Thursday (Hollywood Studios)

Breakfast: Quick breakfast in the condo so we could get on the road: sausage, fruit, and plain scrambled eggs (fried in leftover bacon fat from yesterday) Lunch: The kids wanted pizza, so I didn't have many options at "Pizza Planet." I wasn't really hungry yet anyway, and didn't want a full stomach before my big American Idol Experience performance (so fun to sing on the stage!). Dinner: We had dinner at the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater because when we ate there last year, the kids liked the novelty of sitting in a fake car and watching movies on the big screen like it's a drive-in. However, all the cars were booked up, so we got a regular table (boo - curse you, seasonally discounted Disney Dining Plan, filling up all the restaurants!). I didn't really feel like a big meal, so when the chef came over, I asked if I could just get the bbq chipotle wings app, except with buffalo sauce instead of bbq chipotle. He said yes, but it would just be Frank's hot sauce straight out of the bottle instead of how they usually mix it with butter and some other stuff. It was hot! But pretty tasty. We also got margaritas, but they weren't too great.  Snacks: I grabbed a turkey leg around 3 since I was getting pretty hungry and a little lightheaded from all the profuse sweating (it was a hot one!). There was a frozen margarita stand next to the turkey leg stand, and an adult slushee definitely hit the spot! The kids and I snacked on more candy corn and gummy body parts too (the Halloween candy was stocking the shelves already!) How did I feel: Stomach felt fine, but I've noticed the patches of eczema on my feet flaring up again. I don't know they're being irritated from the straps of my Birks from so much walking or what... I've heard it can be exacerbated by allergens, but I've been pretty good about avoiding allergens so far this week... Only 16,000 steps today, but I sure have been out cold all night all week, getting a solid 8+ hours each night!

Friday (Typhoon Lagoon)

Breakfast: Another repeat of bacon, fruit, and scrambled eggs with zucchini, peppers & onions (fried in bacon fat) Lunch: a standard park burger, no bun, with ketchup, and some allergy fries Dinner: A couple of us felt like steak for dinner, so we went to Black Angus Steak House since we had a 15% off coupon. I got the twin 4oz bacon-wrapped filets, and finally convinced the waitress that the kitchen should be able to grill up some onions in just oil (no butter). I had some steamed veggies on the side. Although the filets did not look like their photo in the menu (mine were much thinner and really skinny pieces of bacon), they were pretty tasty. I started with a side salad, and although I ordered a balsamic vinaigrette, she brought me plain oil and vinegar cruets. I'm not sure what kind of vinegar it was, but it definitely was not balsamic! Oh well, I still scarfed it down. Oh, and a mojito and margarita. Just to change it up a little. Snacks: a frosty margarita to cool off, some of the kids' gummies & candy corn, and the last Babycakes cupcake before bed How did I feel: Just fine!

Saturday (Animal Kingdom)

Breakfast: Quick breakfast in the condo so we could get on the road: bacon, fruit, and plain scrambled eggs (fried in leftover bacon fat from yesterday) Lunch: Pulled pork from the Flame Tree Barbecue. Apparently their pulled pork does not use gluten like they do in Magic Kingdom - you'd think it would be consistent - just proves that one should ask every time! So, just got the meat on a plate without a bun (after insisting that I can't have either of the buns they offer - they really want to give me a gluten-free bun!). For sides, I asked for the kid sides of baby carrots and grapes. I did steal 4 of my mother-in-law's fries which were probably cross-contaminated in the fryer... Dinner: We ordered a pizza poolside at the resort while bringing the kids for their first after-dark dip (oooohhh that smelled so good, even if it was just crappy Pizza Hut). After we got the kids into their pjs and set up with a movie with their grammy, Brian and I returned to the Smokehouse Grill ALONE (!) for a late dinner date. We shared the Smokehouse Platter for 1 with curly fries this time - still PLENTY of food! And a couple margaritas to toast to a nice, and successfully dairy- and gluten-free vacation! Snacks: a couple frozen margaritas to keep me cool throughout the day, and some of the kids' gummies & candy corn. Maybe a couple licks of that canned frosting for dessert. ;) How did I feel: I had a couple twinges in my gut while waiting in line for the Kali River Rapids ride, which I thought could be trouble while stranded on a raft for a while... I instantly wondered if those 4 fries could really be taking an effect on my 20 minutes later! However, an hour later, I realized the culprit was likely Aunt Flo deciding to join me on vacation too (her monthly visit always gives me IBS symptoms, although not as bad since I've been dairy- and gluten-free). Ugh.

Sunday (departure day - boo)

Breakfast: Finished off the breakfast food in the condo: bacon, fruit, and scrambled eggs with zucchini, peppers & onions (fried in bacon fat) Lunch: Got home around 1:30pm to a house with no food, but a flyer to a new Chinese place in the door. Perfect! Got some chicken & broccoli with pork fried rice, and added extra soy sauce like I've always done in the past. Had to skip the wanton soup, and watch the kids eat my favorite: golden chicken fingers. Mmm, first Chinese in 6 weeks, at least! Dinner: Skipped it - still full from late lunch Snacks: Passed the time on the plane with an impulse buy of Swedish Fish at the airport, some beef jerky, finished off the Terra chips and a snack bag of Lays from the resort.  How did I feel: Like I never even went on vacation once I got home. But still afraid to look at the scale. ;) So, in the end, sticking to my allergen-free diet really was not that hard while on vacation. Being at Disney was definitely helpful since they are very sensitive to dietary issues, however, I found most other restaurants to be very cooperative too. There was only one time at the beginning of the week that I felt I was exposed to something. The main downside was usually having to wait a little longer to get my meal at counter service places since they were making it more from scratch. My success definitely makes me feel a little better about the allergen-free life ahead of me. Sure, I was a little bummed out while watching my family indulge on taboo goodies (pizza, ice cream, cheese curls, etc...), but there are still plenty of things I can enjoy (margaritas!). Besides, vacation isn't ALL about food! Other than the increased sodium intake and a couple margaritas most days, I don't even think I went too crazy with calories. Oh, well, that was that tub of frosting... But I walked over 40 miles throughout the week (like over 100,000 steps!)! Give me a break here!