The Home Stretch

Hello all!

Maura kept insisting that it was my turn to write despite the fact that I wrote the last post, but here I am again! We’ve entered our last full week of Whole30. As of Sunday, we’re both down 8 lbs. That’s a pretty good chunk for three weeks.

Saturday we went back down to Shock Trauma to visit my friend, and then grabbed dinner at the Nalley Fresh right by the hospital. This was our first meal at a restaurant since we began Whole30. In case you're like me and had never heard of Nalley Fresh, it's basically a Chipotle but for healthy food. Everything is fresh and it's not going to break the bank. However, I guess being that it still was a restaurant, it upset both of our stomachs pretty well.

Sunday we made our weekly run to Aldi's (have I mentioned lately how much I love that place?) and I went a little crazy. I got a ton of produce but also a bunch of sugarless organic healthy stuff that's normally a million dollars in a regular grocery store. I also picked up some steaks, and so this meal was born:

Eye Round Steak, Roasted Asparagus, Baked Potato, 

and Salad with homemade "caesar" dressing

It was amazing. The steak was marinated in some spice combo I found on a Whole30 site, the dressing was a bit of a pain to make but totally worth it, and the meal overall was so good. The best part was that it hardly took any time to throw together. I'm officially calling the dressing my Guilt-Free Dressing. That's what I'm talking about!

Maura has really been craving pancakes, so we decided to try a pumpkin pancake recipe we found using almond flour. Well...this was an interesting outcome.

Pumpkin Pancakes, Bacon, Fruit Salad, 

and Organic Apple Sauce

Okay, so they don't really look like "traditional" pancakes. They were really difficult to flip and they wanted to burn before they cooked all the way through. Nevertheless, now we know that maybe we try a different recipe. The bacon was amazing (Isn't it always) and the fruit was super fresh. We also indulged in a little not-from-concentrate pineapple orange juice.

Last night (Monday night), the weather was so nice that we decided to make a fire on our patio and throw some burgers on the grill. Maura was trying to be proactive and help me chop up some sweet potato fries before I got home from work and the mandolin slicer bit her, so that was almost a trip to the emergency room. I'm happy to report, however, that if all goes well she should keep the arm.

Seasoned Hamburger topped with Guilt-Free Dressing

and Garlic Sweet Potato Fries

This meal was a home run. The fries could have been crisped a little longer, but the burger was cooked to perfection. The dressing on top even gave it a little bit of the "creamy" factor that you would get from melted cheese. But for someone who actively ignores their lactose intolerance (me) this was a great fix!

It's crazy how, now that this experiment is coming to a close, you feel like "cheating." We were so strong in the beginning, especially the first week. So determined. We've found ourselves saying, "I won't tell if you don't tell." And you just feel like...you're so close, why not have that beer? Or bend a little and have a few chips? You're basically already there anyway, what would it matter? But you'll know that you'll have cheated. And you'll know that you'll have wasted the last 30 days only to blow it at the end. And nothing could possibly taste as good as skinny feels. 

And so we'll finish out our 30 days and know that we've been successful, that we haven't broken, and that we've not only lost weight but gained knowledge of healthier foods and experience in the kitchen. And that was the goal all along.