My Vegetarian Whole30: Week Two Recap

Monday, September 14, 2015
I promised you transparency and honesty, and by gollee today's post will be filled with transparency and honesty!

But first, congratulations to my Sprouts $25 Gift Card Winner, Lauren M! Thanks for playing, and check your inbox, lady!

I'll come right out and say it: Week two sucked. Well, the first part of week two. Days 7-10 specifically. I've discovered that I do this thing where I plunge myself all excitedly into something extreme and awesome, and after the shine factor fades, I grow to really really REALLY resent it.

I started resenting eggs.

I started resenting soup.

I started resenting anything that wasn't potato chips.

Once the luster of week one had worn off, I became quickly down in the dumps. My energy levels were pretty low, and despite not attending any social events/going out to eat, I still felt like I had no time at all on my hands. This is due I'm sure to me amping up my workouts to get the most out of this program, as well as devoting HOURS to cooking (cooking not pasta, while munching on not cheese, and drinking not wine).

I am passionate about food, food with friends, wine, wine with friends, etc., so the diminished occurrences of these things from my life seemed suddenly intensely jarring. In addition, my skin was still resembling that of my 12 year old self's, which certainly didn't help lift my spirits. Needless to say, I was feeling incredibly depressed and moody for four days straight. I've read that there's a period during Whole30 where your body actually goes through withdrawal from sugar and other foods you've been "hooked" on, so this is probably what was going on.

Okay, here's what my week in food/workouts looked like:

7

M1:
squash, onion egg bake + avocado, strawberries

M2:
tomato basil soup + hard boiled egg

M3: zoodles w/roasted garlic cauliflower sauce + roasted eggplant & yellow squash

Snack: cashews, plum

Workout: circuit: arms/abs-AM
8

M1: squash, onion egg bake + avocado, apple

M2: cream of broccoli soup + hard boiled egg

M3: zoodles w/roasted garlic cauliflower sauce + roasted eggplant & yellow squash + plum

Snack: cashews

Workout: cardio-PM (30 min)
9

M1: squash, onion egg bake + avocado, plum

M2: tomato basil soup + hard boiled egg

M3: paleo veggie burger, avocado, sweet potato with ghee, asparagus

Snack: cashews, apple

Workout: hot yoga-PM
10

M1: squash, onion 
egg bake + avocado, plum

M2: cream of broccoli soup + carrots

M3: sweet potato egg boat w/avocado crema + side of roasted egg plant, yellow squash, and zucchini

Snack: cashews

Workout: OFF
11

M1: squash, onion egg bake + avocado, plum

M2: spinach salad w/apple, avocado, egg, cucumber, onion, sunflower seeds, oil + vinegar

M3: Corner Table

Snack: cashews

Workout: circuit: legs/cardio-PM
12

M1: squash, onion egg bake + avocado, plum

M2: spinach salad w/apple, avocado, egg, onion, sunflower seeds, oil + vinegar

M3: sweet potato curry stew + cauliflower rice

Workout: OFF-restorative yoga session
13

M1: squash, onion egg bake + avocado, plum

M2: avocado, blueberry, almond salad w/oil & vinegar 

M3: sweet potato egg boat w/avocado + asparagus & roasted eggplant/yellow squash

Snack: pumpkin spice "frappuccino"

Workout: OFF

It gets better though! Despite learning a valuable "Don't trust everything you see on the Internet" lesson (which entailed me literally gagging on some AWFUL tomato basil soup. I cannot remember the last time I actually gagged over food. Maybe when I was, I don't know, 5?), the food I ate this week was pretty good. The standout was the summer squash, onion egg bake I created and had for breakfast all week. I cannot stress how awesome this dish is! 

I also tried my hand at a roasted garlic cauli-fredo cream sauce over zucchini noodles, which wasn't too shabby at all.

Another star food item was a sweet potato egg boat, which I then topped with avocado. Ho.ly.smokes. I could seriously eat this every night.

sweet potato curry stew that I heavily modified for Whole30/my tastes, over a bed of cauliflower rice was pretty darn good as well.

I also upped my mocktail game with a "feax-jito," which was way better than week one's cranberry concoction. I combined club soda, mint leaves, lime, and cucumbers for a refreshing, zippy drink!

For as bad as the week started off for me, the end of the week turned out great! Several things contributed to me changing my down-in-the-dumps week around:

1) Hanging out with my friend Kate. On a random night (Thursday, to be exact), I went over to Kate's house, sipped on some water with lime, and gabbed with her for a few hours. It's incredible what a few hours of quality girlfriend time will do to lift your spirits!

2) On Friday night I went to dinner at Corner Table with Jon and our friends Heather and Dan. I had been looking forward to this all week, and since Corner Table caters to paleo diets (and vegetarians!), it was not a stressful dining situation for me at all. Also, it was wonderful getting to spend time with such great friends, as well as having a date out of the apartment with Jon. But more on that later!

(^ me, looking like a gremlin, not eating the amazing-looking/smelling dessert)

3) I decided a little pampering was in order, and with this being my first empty weekend in a long time, I treated myself to an at-home spa day on Saturday. (I also allowed myself some extra, blended coffee, which was a welcome treat). It was just what the doctor ordered-More on that later as well! Also, I took the weekend off from working out, which gave my body some much-needed rest and recuperation.

I fully believe in this program, and I know that what I am doing is very healthy (I just have to keep reminding myself of that). I do think Whole30 is much more accessible if you eat meat, so variety really is key for me. That said, I'm changing quite a few things up this week. For one, as much as I adored my egg bake, I need to do something that isn't egg-focused for my breakfasts, so I have a yummy sweet breakfast treat in store for this week (which still contains 3 eggs, but they aren't the main feature). Also I became so sick of soup (probably largely due to my scarring tomato basil experience), that I found myself - a self-proclaimed salad-hater - craving salads. So bring on the salads!

Variety, quality time with the people I love, and special treats. Those are the tools I need to get me through week three. Like the pumpkin spice "frappucino" I made myself on Sunday:

Almost halfway there!

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