Day 7 of 2nd Whole30/Strict Paleo Challenge

I was greeted with another loss on the scale this morning - love staring the day like that!

Brought the kids to CrossFit again, and they were pretty good again.  It was a weird WOD today - had 20 minutes to just play around with strongman equipment as we pleased. I started with pushing a weighted sled - I don't know how much weight I worked up to, but it was easier than I thought with like 100# on it. The I tried doing farmer's carry with a 25# plates on each holder and walked around for 2 minutes - that got heavy! Later I tried just standing still while holding 45#s in each hand - even heavier! Then I did deadlifts & cleans with sandbags. And then tried deadlifts & clean & jerks with a fat bar. The fat bar was a little weirder to hold, but otherwise, just the same as usual. Was able to C&J 95# and probably could have done more. Oh, and the best part of the WOD was playing the Fish Game as  a warm-up and getting the high score among my WODmates - then I got to watch as they were punished with 10 burpees. ;) The last bit of the WOD was 5 attempts at max wattage on the rower. It only takes 10 seconds or so to reach your most powerful wattage before you level off. Twice, I was cranking so hard that I fell of the rower seat! I ended up with 555 watts as my max - respectable for a girl. ;) Once the WOD was over, I rewarded the kids for their good behavior with some time to play, and my little monkeys ran directly to the rings. 

Then I took the kids shopping and stocked up on veggies for the week. I did not get organic though - oranic berries are SO expensive right now! And I really can't decide if it's worse for them to have washed non-organic, or not have berries at all...


Food: 1850 calories  13% carbs (58g)/ 34% (156g) protein/ 53% fat

• Breakfast: 
• 2 eggs scrambled with peppers & onions sauteed in coconut oil
• 3 Jones sausages
• Lunch:
• bowl of leftover pulled pork and beef from dinner the other night
• Dinner:
• Homemade low-carb chili over a couple ounces of leftover cubed beef for a little extra protein
• Snacks:
• baby carrots w/ guac
• 6 gummi bears (shame on me - but at least I was able to restrain myself to only 6!)
• more baby carrots w/ guac...

Exercise: 

• CrossFit

Sleep:

• About 8 hours - in the end - woke up around 3:30 for a while, but finally dozed back off and slept in with the babies. Wasn't even sleepy when I laid down for a nap with my son in the afternoon. 

Day 6 of 2nd Whole30/Strict Paleo Challenge

Started the day off right: slept in with the kids, and then found a 1 pound loss on the scale! Woo hoo!

Had to bring the kids along with me to CrossFit today since Brian is away on a boys' weekend. They were very well behaved for the hour, with the promise that they could play on the rings and stuff later if they were good (may daughter even made a bracelet for Coach Tim - awww). I did the Oly lifting class, and was thinking about staying for the WOD afterward, but I don't think they would have lasted 2 full hours (missed out on 100 burpees - darn!). My knee was feeling pretty good today, so I decided to do some full squat cleans instead of just power cleaning. I only worked up to 80 pounds since I didn't want to completely kill my knee. It still felt pretty good throughout at least 20 deep squats. Got a little stiff later on, but not bad!! Maybe it's turning the corner... 

After CrossFit, we went sledding, so got plenty more exercise dragging the kids back up the hill! Managed to squeeze in a nap with my son afterward though, which was wonderful. :) 

Ended up having a late lunch at 4:30, so that became dinner too. Brought the kids to a winter carnival at their preschool for their dinner, where I watched them enjoy cotton candy, popcorn, and cupcakes too. The old me would have been all over that stuff (especially the cupcakes)! Okay, I did take the tiniest lick of Josh's frosting, and about 5 kernels of popcorn...

Food: 1600 calories  15% carbs (55g)/ 31% (117g) protein/ 54% fat

• Breakfast: 
• 2 eggs scrambled with peppers & onions sauteed in coconut oil
• 3 Jones sausages
• Lunch:
• skipped while watching the kids eat Wendy's. Smelled delicious.
• Dinner:

• Misc frozen veggies sauteed in coconut oil with garlic, Italian seasonings, grassfed ground beef and Simply Enjoy Tomato Basil Sauce
• Snacks:
• a couple slices of Boar's Head chicken pre-workout
• post cardio shake with coconut cream, 1/2 banana, and a little rice milk
• a few slices of Boar's Head Cajun turkey
• small handful of popcorn from my kids' winter carnival at school

Exercise: 

• Oly lifting class

Sleep:

• Good 8 hours - got to sleep in. And then took an hour nap with my son. Life was good today. :)

Day 5 of 2nd Whole30/Strict Paleo Challenge

Started the day with a great WOD. I knew we'd be doing the 4th week of the Wendler Strength cycle for deadlifts, but I didn't know what else we'd do. The coach told us to keep it a secret, but we did biceps curls and triceps overhead extensions with a barbell (CrossFit doesn't usually encourage those isolated movements!). My 35# barbell got heavy toward the end! Then we did some bent-over rows (did 5th set of 5 at 95#) before the deadlifts, which were pretty light since it was a deload week. I actually did 10# more on each set than I was supposed to since I forgot that 2 of the plates were 15s, not 10s, when I was doing my math. Ooops. Then the really crappy part happened - should have known when the board said "HOLY S**T"! Had to do 1 min apiece for max calories on the AirDyne, Air Assault, and rower. Would have much preferred to do all rower! Ended up with 26 cals on AirDyne, 24 cals on rower, and 7 cals on Air Assault. Ugh, exhausted after each minute. Hate the Air Assault the most since it barely gives up any calories!

Brought the kids to Panera for dinner after swimming lessons. I got my favorite Cobb Salad with Chicken & Avocado, but I do miss the cheese crumbles in it (not to mention the baguette!). I also miss the Greek dressing that comes with it - I found out that it has MSG, of all things! Shame on Panera for doing that! I don't know why they don't focus on making good dressings with EVOO as a base instead of crappy seed oils...

Food: 1670 calories  18% carbs (74g)/ 31% (131g) protein/ 51% fat

• Breakfast: 
• Frittata -  Basically 12-16 oz sausage, brown that. then i did the veggies (red peppers, onions).  Put the sausage back, a little fat if needed, then 10-12 eggs scrambled. Cook on the stove top until the edges start to firm then into the oven until almost firm then broil 1-2 minutes 
• 1/2 grapefruit
• Lunch:
• pulled pork with Cajun seasoning
• sugar snap peas & broccoli
• Dinner:
• Panera Cobb Salad w/o cheese
• Snacks:
• post cardio shake with just 3oz rice milk
• mandarin orange
• a few slices of Boar's Head Cajun turkey

Exercise: 

• WOD

Sleep:

• Probably around 6 hours. Woke up for a while around 3 and couldn't get back to sleep (but did not pick up a book or anything - just went to the bathroom). Dozed off for a while eventually.

Day 4 of 2nd Whole30/Strict Paleo Challenge

Well, all things must come to an end: the miraculous weight loss stopped this morning. But feeling so much better already. Just for hahas, I took a ketosis test this morning and was definitely in ketosis. Burn that fat!!!

Brian is heading off for a boys' weekend on Friday, so I gave him my Thursday WOD this morning so he could fit in one more WOD before leaving. So I hopped on the elliptical and did some lightish-intensity cardio for 40 mins, keeping my heart rate around 135bpm. I watched the second-to-last episode of Biggest Loser - I'm so mad that I saw a spoiler on Facebook and know why the winner is! And does she look waaaaaaay too skinny - she definitely went too far. Like to the point of looking anorexic. I hope she puts some weight back on now that she's won the prize. 

Had another disappointing visit with the chiropractor. Ugh. My cholesterol dropped even lower - only 137! Although my HDL is decent at 62. And my triglycerides were REALLY low at 38 (should be 75-100). So, again, signs of malabsorption. He thinks the round of antibiotics I did in November might have really knocked things out of whack (like killing off some of the good bacteria) and undone some of the progress of my first RepairVite, leading toward leaky gut all over again. So, he suggested another month of RepairVite, which I had planned to ask him about doing anyway. My T3 only increased the slightest bit, so he wants me to try combining the Thyro-CNV ( which is supposed to increase T3 conversion) with Thyroxal (which is supposed to support T4 and T3 production). He also wants me to back off the fish oil because he thinks it may be thinning my blood, leading to the low triglycerides. So, more trial and error... Getting another thyroid panel done at the end of February. 

I also mentioned that my knee has been bugging me to the point where I'm taking anti-inflammatories and PT, so he did a little analysis. He confirmed that my right thigh is 3 centimeters smaller than my left, so there's definitely some muscle atrophy on that side for some reason. He had me abduct my legs into his hand while having me touch various pressure points on my body. Then he did some kind of adjustment where I bent my right leg while laying on a table, and he pretty much tried to jam it upwards into my pelvis. Who knows! He's like to investigate it from a neurological standpoint, but it's just too inconvenient to go to his office - it's 45 minutes away. Maybe I'll think about finally visiting my chiropractor friends' office.

In more exciting news, the WODs for the spring Festivus were released today! Woo hoo!!! Can't wait for another competition!! Gotta get me knee back in shape by then though... 


Food: 1900 calories  15% carbs (72g)/ 28% (134g) protein/ 57% fat

• Breakfast: 
• homemade turkey sausage
• 1/2 grapefruit
• Lunch:
• big salad with chicken & avocado & homemade dressing (with red peppers)
• Dinner:
• pulled pork with Cajun seasoning
• sugar snap peas (fresh)
• Snacks:
• post cardio shake w/ coconut cream and a couple frozen banana pieces
• mandarin orange
• a few slices of Boar's Head Cajun turkey - spicy!
• strawberries & blueberries

Exercise: 

• 40 mins on the elliptical

Sleep:

• Just shy of 7 hours - sleepy on my drive into work this morning until 11ish, but felt good the rest of the day

Supplements: My prescribed supplements for the next month:

• RepairVite: 1 scoop 2x/day
• Strengtia (probiotics): 2 pills 2x/day
• Vitamin B12: 1000mg 2x/day
• Vitamin D3: 3 drops 2x/day
• Thyro-CNV (increase T3 conversion): 2 pills 2/x day
• Thyroxal (increase T4): 2 pill 2x/day
• MagneGel (magnesium): apply 1/4 tsp 2x/day applied to skin
• Lecithin (increase cholesterol): 1000g 2x/day
• HemeVite (increase iron): only 1-2 pills/week 
• EPA-DHA (Omega 3 fish oil): 2 pills 2/x day after stopping for 1 week

On my own: Provocation & CrossFitting

Well, it's been a few days since I finished ClearVite and haven't had any real program to adhere to, other than slowly reintroducing allergens. I'll be honest, I haven't been too good about following the provocation protocol of trying just one allergen 1 day, then going back to the RepairVite diet for the next 2 days while looking for adverse reactions. I reintroduced pork and nightshades (tomatoes and peppers) on Friday, and added in a hamburger and corn tortilla chips (in addition to more pork and nightshades) on Saturday. However, I wasn't overly concerned about them since I'd already reintroduced them when I went to Disney, and didn't feel any adverse reactions. I am also happy to report that provocation of alcohol during my annual girls' weekend away was also success according to the testing I did on Friday and Saturday. ;) However, I was still very careful to avoid dairy & gluten while away, which especially sucked while watching my friends fill their drunken bellies cheesy garlic bread and pizza at midnight Friday, and while making them delicious pork nachos on Saturday (especially cutting up the cheese - so easy to pop some creamy cheese in my mouth!). So, no issues this weekend (well other than what I expect from somewhat excessive alcohol consumption...).

While on our weekend away, I had a lot of fun shopping for clothes to fit my new, slimmer figure. I even bought a clingy dress to wear with tall boots! Never would have worn that before! I found 2 cute t-shirts at the Under Armour outlet. The "Fittest Chick" one caught my eye first since that's my goal here: Fittest by Forty! They were 2 for $25, so I thought the "Beware of fast women" one was another good "goal shirt" - after all, my trainer wants me running 8 minute miles next year, and I'd say I qualify as a "fast woman" by then! When I first saw the shirts, I was disappointed that they didn't come in size large, then had to laugh at myself after realizing that large people probably have no business wearing these messages! So, I tried on the mediums, and to my surprise and pleasure, they actually fit! But they'll fit even better the longer I'm on my journey when reward myself with wearing them in a few months. :) 

After getting back on Sunday, I resolved to get back on track, especially in light of my first competitive CrossFit event on Saturday! Instead of eating all the yummy leftover goodies, I froze the leftover df gf brownies for treats and set aside the leftover candy corn as rewards for my son's potty training efforts at day care. So, just being strictly Paleo right now - more like Whole30 than having the various restrictions of RepairVite and ClearVite. And I decided to get back to CrossFit on Monday since it had been 4 days since I worked out between my head cold and weekend away. Crunch time!

note my daughter's kitty drawing at the bottom

On Monday, I got another personal session at CrossFit since I was the only one who showed up for the 10am class. Which is good, because I brought the kids, and they would have been very distracting if anyone else was there. My son was good - he just sat in a corner with the Kindle and entertained himself, as I'd hoped. But my daughter, the monkey, was very excited about all the things to play with there. Her favorites were the rings, and one set just happened to be low enough that she could jump up and swing on them. The coach commented that she was pretty strong, and I told her the girl is obsessed with monkey bars! She also did some exercises along with me: Frankensteins, high skips, push-ups. The coach was kind enough to go over the squat thrust move again with me in preparation for Festivus - ended up gaving myself my first bruises/scrapes on calves and knees from whacking them with the bar. Guess I need some tall socks! Then we worked on the day's MetCon which was 5 rounds of 10 power cleans alternating with 10 push-ups to be completed in under 12 minutes. I only used 65# instead of the female prescribed 100#, and did the push-ups on my knees (my triceps were on fire!!), but I made it through in 9:43. Would have been longer if the coach wasn't on me about making my rest breaks really short! She was tough! But I was proud of my 9:43 finish (even if it was the easier level 1).

Today was strictly a weight lifting day at CrossFit. After a bunch of warm-ups (one of which was inching your feet up the wall into a handstand while trying to bring your hands closer and closer to the wall several times - ow!). We focused on finding the max overhead squat. It was my first time doing this move. Apparently, I was not squatting low enough since the coach finally rolled a medicine ball under my butt and told me to hit it each time. Wow, that was REALLY low. I felt like a bit of a wuss since I was the only chick today, and only worked up to 65# before the coach told me to drop back to 35# to focus on my squatting, while the other guys were using lots of weight. Oh well. Then I dropped to just 25# and did 5 squats every other minute for 12 minutes. It was so light that it really wasn't that hard, but I still had to focus on squatting so low each time. But apparently it was enough to make my shoulders sore just hours later. The coach advised me and Brian to take Thursday and Friday off in preparation for Festivus on Saturday. So I can't decide if I'll try to go on Wed night so I don't miss 3 workouts in a row, although I already WODed Mon & Tues...

Food (on Tuesday): 

• Breakfast: 
• homemade turkey sausage
• apple
• Lunch:
• leftover grilled chicken & green beans
• Dinner: My daughter asked to go to Red Robin. Left my tummy a little grumbly, but nothing serious... 
• Red Robin A-1 steak burger (no onion rings or cheese, lettuce wrapped)
• Red Robin fries (only ate half my side order - stuffed!)
• Snacks:
• deli turkey
• raspberries (Sam's Club had organic raspberries - who knew! They tasted even better in mojitos over the weekend though!!! )

Exercise: stopped tracking calories. I know I'm working hard!

• CrossFit Monday - lifting MetCon that had me sucking wind
• Crossfit Tuesday - strictly weight lifting

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

Day 30 of RepairVite / Whole30 / Making the Cut !!!!

Day 30! We made it!!!

Well, I may have had a couple very minor indiscretions here and there, but by and large, I adhered to the super strict RepairVite diet for 30 days, thereby doing Whole30 as well (and Paleo AIP and Wheat Belly). Somewhat bigger indiscretions today though, at least according to my doctor: I had a small couple pieces of bacon for breakfast, and pasture-raised pork chops for dinner <gasp!>. Close enough! I still don't really understand why pork is the only meat that's excluded from my doc's version of RepairVite since it's allowed in this version. Whatever. I'm eating bacon now!

As of this morning, I was down 14.5 pounds since starting the program 30 days ago. Not bad for a month, eh?! I had been down another pound, but it bounced back up. But I'm not complaining. It will come back off again, and more now that my body is finally starting to work right again! On my way to Onederland! I think the ClearVite protocol will give me a little boost - it will be a good way to recover from vacation (not that I really intend to be that bad!). I have learned so much about what has been making my body unhappy. So excited to finally see some results now!

I finally looked at the ingredients of the GI Synergy today, and noticed that it contains Black Walnut extract (hull). This could be bad since I've had a life long allergy to walnuts. When I touch the oils from a walnut, and then touch my eyes or lips, they swell right up. And as soon as I bite one, my mouth tingles and I start salivating like crazy. Nothing a little Benedryl can't fix, but still... I took doses last night and this morning, and didn't feel too worse for the wear...maybe because it's in a powdered form and going straight into my gut. So, I wrote the doc for advice. He said to discontinue it until he can research it more. As the day progressed though, I think I was having an adverse reaction to the walnuts (upset stomach and lots of gas). I finally took a swig of Benedryl to see if it would make my stomach feel better. I definitely feel some inflammation going on.

He also advised me to do the 14-day ClearVite plan instead of the 21-day plan so that I could do it sooner than later. So I'll start that the Tuesday after I get back from Disney since I'm going to see him the day before to buy the shake.

I took a pre-vacation vacation day today (without the kids!) to clean the house and start packing for the trip (and write a couple blog entries!). We made some fresh applesauce from some of the apples we picked over the weekend. Mmmm, soooo yummy. And what better to go with applesauce than pork chops! At least they're pasture raised. Asparagus (with bacon!!!) rounded out the meal. The asparagus was DELICIOUS - I ate all the asparagus first, and then put the onions, bacon, and apple on my pork. Best dinner we've had on this program (maybe because it's pork?)! I am stuffed!

Food:

• Breakfast: 
• homemade turkey sausage (fresh out of the pan - yum!)
• 1/2 grapefruit
• Lunch:
• stir fry with leftover steak (made enough for leftovers tomorrow)
• Dinner:

• Brined pork chops
• homemade applesauce
• Asparagus with bacon, onions, and apples sauteed in the bacon fat (!) with balsamic vinegar and a hint of maple syrup 
• Snacks:
• baby carrots

Exercise: 

• Day 22 of Making the Cut ~540 calories - did one of the 2 hill runs, but at only a 10% grade since I haven't run in a while. Hip is finally starting to feel better, and I don't want to kill it again, especially before a vacation where we'll be doing A LOT of walking. Went on the stepper instead of the second hill run - that got my heart rate up JUST FINE.

Day 29 of RepairVite / Whole30 / Making the Cut

A little disappointed in the scale today. I had dropped down another 2 pounds last week, but they came back this week, and stayed there this morning. I wonder if it could be partially from dehydration - I did not drink my typical 3-4 liters for the past couple days while running around for Josh's party. However, I did have a realization today while I was working out and noticing how much leaner my legs looked in the mirror: yesterday, I was wearing a pirate costume with a skirt for 5 hours or so while running around Josh's birthday party. Since I've always had a bit of a thigh rubbage problem, when I wear skirts, I always either wear leggings/spandex beneath or apply a healthy layer of deodorant to prevent stickiness. However, I was in such a rush to prep for the party that I didn't think to do either preventative measure, and I never even thought twice about it! No rash today! Less thigh rubbage!

When I woke up, I was still full from my second helping of pot roast last night. I usually pop a couple pieces of beef jerky before heading to the gym by 5:30am, but no need today. Had a solid night of sleep, and a great workout (even if I didn't do all by burpies. Hate those so much).

Had a check-in with the chiropractor today. He told me I have all kinds of bad stuff going on in my gi tract based on the testing I had done. There are definitely signs of inflammation, some kind of less common parasite hanging out (maybe from pets?), and some kind of less common yeast/fungi issue (most likely from mold exposure), and signs of low stomach acid which decreases my absorption of nutrients. And I'm too low on healthy bacteria, and too high on bad bacteria, including of H Pylori bacteria DNA which can cause ulcers (although, thankfully, it's not active currently - apparently, about half the world has it lurking in their gut). So, lots to fix in my gut. So, not surprisingly, I've got some new GI Synergy supplements to take which are supposed to kill off the bad guys so that the healthy stuff can thrive (see my updated list of supplements below - it's getting long!). 

After I return from vacation, he wants me to start a new 21-day regimen which typically follows RepairVite called ClearVite. It's a protein shake that's packed with a bunch of other good stuff that's supposed to help me detox. It also has a strict diet - basically the RepairVite diet, except no beef at all for all 3 weeks. NO BEEF!!! And poultry and fish are only allowed during the 1st and 3rd weeks. Otherwise, pretty much all the protein comes from the shakes (ramping up to 3 shakes/day during the second week). I'm not too excited about this. And I need to figure out when I'm going to do this since I'll be leaving for my annual Girls' Weekend only 18 days after getting back from Disney, which would cut the program short. So I'll probably hold off on this program until after Girls' Weekend (not to mention that my liver will definitely need some detoxing after those couple days! <grin>). If I start on the Sunday I return from Girls' Weekend, the 21st day will be our next FitAthlon, which is followed by a big cookout that I fully intend to enjoy (mmmmm brisket and pulled pork)! Close enough.

So, here's my planned timeline:

• 8/12/13 - 9/10/13 - 30 days of RepairVite/Whole30/Paleo AIP (Autoimmune Protocol) - almost done!!!
• 9/11/13 - 10/12/13 - Paleo (not AIP) including eggs, pork, and nightshades (provided they don't bother me). Probably some liquor in there too during Disney, Girls' weekend, and a couple work happy hours. Have to figure out low sugar mixers.
• 10/13/13 -  11/2/13 - 21 days of ClearVite (reintroducing beef/pork on day 21 for lunch/dinner)
• 11/3/13 onward - Paleo lifestyle, avoiding my allergens of gluten, dairy, tapioca, coffee, amaranth, and tree nuts.

Brian and I checked out the new CrossFit box in town that we're going to join at the end of the month for a 30-day trial. We had a long chat with the owner about the CrossFit philosophy and what kind of work outs to expect. I'm excited - I think we'll like the challenge, and I'm looking forward to seeing some big changes in my physique by lifting heavy. He mentioned a pretty good discount if we commit to 6 months of membership, which we're torn about. We'd like to see if we do actually like it first, but if we're not among the first 50 members to sign up, then we miss out on the discount. We have to make up our minds before we leave for Disney because they're having an open house on Sunday and will likely get more sign ups then.

I went a little crazy tonight. I put paprika on the sweet potato fries. OMG, a nightshade!!! Is it a coincidence that after a few nights of solid sleep, I did wake up at 2 last night? Hmmm... 

Food:

• Breakfast: 
• homemade turkey sausage (fresh out of the pan - yum!)
• 1/2 grapefruit
• Lunch:
• chicken leg on the run
• Dinner:
• steak
• sweet potato fries
• Snacks:
• white nectarine
• watermelon
• baby carrots
• beef jerky
• 2 pieces of my daughter's kettle corn - for shame!!!! 

Exercise: 

• Day 21 of Making the Cut ~470 calories (intentionally stopped at 10 burpies instead of 20, and skipped the squat thrusts since I forgot how to do them, but later realized that I inadvertently skipped the pyramid leg extensions and scorpion push-ups. Oops. Still got a good workout.)

Supplements:

I loaded up a pill box with 2 weeks' worth of pills to try to make life a little easier now that there are so many pills (especially while on vacation next week). It's kind of bordering on ridiculous... I'm putting a lot of faith (and money!!!) into this "investment in my health." I have to keep the box in the fridge since the probiotics need to stay cool. 

• X-FLM (supports TH-2 immune response): 1 pill 2x/day
• Strengtia (probiotics): 1 pill 2x/day
• GI Synergy (cleans up gi tract): 1 packet of 3 pills 1x/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
• RepairVite (heals leaky gut): 1 scoop 2x/day