Whole30: Day17 - I Can Smell the Tiger Blood

Wake Up: 7:45am I went to bed at 9:45 last night, so that's 10 hours of sleep. I'm finding that sleep and mood seem to be quite connected. Sometimes I just can't sleep 10 hours, but when I can and I do, I wake up in a great mood it seems. I think the key is to tire myself out a little bit so I sleep good and deeply.

Breakfast: 8:35am

Even though my photo says 9;45, it was actually 8:45 that I ate. I did a much better job at getting breakfast in my belly within an hour of waking up. This continues to be a challenge for me. I did left over sweet potato hash with 2 eggs on top and 1/2 avocado. I gotta say, this breakfast makes me feel like a Whole30 expert. It is so filling and so healthy and just makes me happy.

Run: 11:00am

With my friend Andrea, we busted out about 5.5 miles and chatted the whole time. It was super cold today and she was dragging her feet to get out the door. Since my season is over it was great to be able to join her without a watch, or a workout planned. Freedom! That's what this time in the season is all about. Legs felt great! No feelings of Ironman in there at all.

Lunch: 1:00pm

Andrea treated me to lunch after our run at a sushi restaurant. I am not a fan of sushi but love going to sushi restaurants because they can always make me the most beautiful piece of fish and you know it's fresh caught. The restaurant was fantastic, as was the company. It was the first time I have celebrated the 9:35 and it really got me thinking about celebrating with food. I will elaborate below. I had fresh sea bass, with a pesto (no dairy in it). On the side were steamed veggies and they gave me a little homemade ponzu sauce on the side. I feel this was pretty darn Whole30 and I didn't have any repercussions in the way of headaches which is what usually happens when I accidentally get a little sugar.

Dinner: 7:00pm

This was probably the best meal I have made during Whole30. We had guests over for dinner and they eat Paleo so I was excited to cook for them. It's not everyday you can feed someone cauliflower rice and expect them to say "This is great." So, this meal I would make again for anyone, it was a huge hit and I would make it again tomorrow if I had all the stuff. So so so good.

So the white stuff is Coconut Cauliflower Rice from Well Fed 2 on page 202. At first I thought I might not like it....but nope, it's really good! It would be great with sauce but I just served it as a side and it disapeared.

The real hit of the evening was the other two dishes I served. I made Veggie Hash from Clean Start page 118. This recipe is a little laborious for a side dish, but let me tell you, it's well worth it. It's a huge hit with sweet potato, onions, zucchini, and squash cooked until everything is caramelized and uber yummy.

Then, the final big hit was Cinnamon Pork Tenderloin with Fresh Apple Salsa. I saw this recipe the other day and printed it out thinking it looked good. Oh my lanta, it was amazing! I left the honey out of the salsa, and it didn't need it. It's perfectly fine without. I did 2.5 pounds of pork and 4 of us pretty much gobbled it all up. It was to die for. The rub on the outside was beyond words.

I wish the photos did this meal justice, but they just don't, it was a party in my mouth.

Dessert: 8:00pm

What?! The nice thing about having Paleo friends over for dinner is that they bring Paleo dessert. It was Paleo pecan Pie made with dates! I don't have the recipe, but hopefully Devon will share because it was so tasty! No added sugar! No grains!

Mayo!

From Well Fed 2 page 53 in case you are wondering. This time I actually made sure ALL the ingredients were at room temperature before starting and I strictly followed the directions. This is my conclusion...mayo is REALLY EASY...IF you follow all the directions. If you don't it sucks and makes you cry because you wasted expensive ingredients. It tastes amazing and I can't wait to start making things with it...like SAUCES!

Celebration:

As promised earlier I thought I would discuss celebration and my thoughts around it. First off I feel lucky that I even have something to celebrate.  So, this isn't meant as complaining, more just recognizing culture. Why do we use food to celebrate? When 9:35 happened I definitely wanted to celebrate but I didn't want it to be about food. So I tried to think of some other ways to celebrate and I read a few things on the web. Most of them suggested celebrating with stuff, like new yoga pants, or kitchen gadgets. Some new cookbooks would be nice. Others said something like a pedicure or a spa treatment. And I think all these things are cool, but for some reason I wasn't drawn to them, and then today I realized why. I want to celebrate WITH PEOPLE. I want to be social, and trying to think of celebratory SOCIAL events that don't involve food is pretty darn hard. A celebratory run...? schedules, people work, people think this is crazy. A celebratory bike ride? snow on the ground. A celebratory swim? I can't even go there. Then I thought....celebratory ROLLER SKATING! But I think I'm the only adult who really likes roller skating.

See, everyone eats, and people who want to celebrate together...well they eat together. I can't think of really any other group celebratory event that doesn't involve food. So that's where I'm at. I don't want lululemon pants...not after the CEO said I can't wear them because my thighs rub together (Ummm by the way....I'm a 9:35 IRONMAN ATHLETE and MY thighs rub together....that dude needs to grow up). I don't need a pedicure. I just want to get together with my friends and be happy about a great year. Thoughts?

Mood Grade: A+++

Such a wonderful day in so many different ways. So happy, can't get me down today