Okay! Whew, let's get back to pretty food pictures. So, Whole30 went good. And um...then I disappeared for a few days. So a little catch up. One...Birthday parties and date night.

Annies birthday was Nov15th but because I was in the middle of Ironman land I didn't plan her party. Last weekend I had put it off enough, 8 is a monumental year, and I needed to throw a party. So I did. Imagine intense Whole30 Sonja thrown into Birthday party planning. Yea, there were lots of trips to party city, the living room was cleared, decorations were done to the 9, all the food was home made and kid friendly and looked like a catered event. The games were home grown and to the theme of the party which was RAINBOW. It was a ton of work for 2 hours worth of SCREAMING 8 year old girls. They had an absolute BLAST.

So a couple things.

ONE: nobody does "old school" birthday parties any more. These are the actual words out of one dads mouth as he dropped his child off and stayed to watch for a few minutes. Things like limbo, and living room games that required very little money but engaged parents. These are relics. And the odd thing is we are by far the youngest parents in Annies class with probably the lowest home value in her class as well. Yet, who is down on the floor playing games, US (old school) parents. No judgement....just interesting.

TWO: Birthday cake. I had a slice. It was ice cream cake and I was Whole 30 all darn day and through the party. But I had a slice of ice cream cake and it was 100% worth it. No headache after which I was really surprised about. Would I do it again, yes, yes I would.

THREE: Birthday fall out. So Annie got a ton of crafts from her friends at the party. Oh and we opened presents in front of the friends, this is not done any more either...ever... ??! She got a doll making kit, and headband kit, and a jewelry kit. So I haven't been blogging because we have be crafting every night. She loves crafts and art.

Date Night:

We had this planned well before Whole30. We had booked tickets to a comedy club and it was awesome. It was so much better than going and seeing a movie because we laughed together, like BIG TIME laughs and that's good for a marriage. The bad....TWO drink minimum. No hot tea. I had 2 Hot Chocolates. The rest of dinner before hand was Whole30 (steak) but I sipped two cocos during the show AND LOVED EVERY SECOND!

Other than those two instances, it's been pretty easy to stay Whole30. I'm used to it now, and don't miss grains at all. I feel good! There were a few pizza incidences when I threw a hissy fit, like walking into the house after a hard workout and there is nothing in the fridge but two fresh hot pizzas on the counter! Come On! Throw a girl a bone here! Haha..love my husband!

So, I got thinking through these 5 days about what I really wanted to do next with this blog. I just started it to be accountable and I feel good along those lines.  One thing I just haven't gotten down yet is the: Exercise + Whole30 bit, and specifically the pre and post workout meals. Example:

Yesterday I went to Masters swimming at 11am-12noon. then I drove to a trail and went running from 1:15-2:30. Then I lifted weights with my trainer from 5:30-6:30. I was stumped on how to deal with the meals TOTALLY stumped. Here's what I actually did:

9 - breakfast

11-swim

1:15 - run

3:30 - eat again

5:30 - weights

7:00 - go to the store because Troy went to the store but got pizza and chips....

8:00 - eat again.

Here's what I was supposed to do I think??????

9 - breakfast

10:30 - pre workout meal

11-swim

12:00 - post workout meal

1:00 - pre workout meal??

1:15 - run

2:30 - post workout meal?

3:30 - eat again

5:00 - pre workout meal?

5:30 - weights

6:30 post workout meal??

7:00 - go to the store because Troy went to the store but got pizza and chips....

8:00 - eat again.

What???????!!!!!! There is NO WAY. Especially given the pre and post workout meal template:

How am I to eat that much protein and what on earth is that supposed to be? How am I supposed to keep it cold. I know I can figure this out, it just seems really hard to me right now.

SO....that's where the blog is headed over the next 30 days. There seem to be a lot of questions on the forum but the answers are always the same....they just reiterate the guidelines. I think they really assume only one workout session a day. The other problem is digestibility before running, or even lifting. Eating chicken and avocado before I go run....I'm not sure how that's going to sit.

As usual, many more questions than answers, so I'm going to try a whole bunch of stuff and report back here....for 30 days.

Okay, another question...post workout meal....I'm supposed to have this within 15-30 minutes. But think about swimming. After swimming I sit in the hot tub, take a shower, etc etc. I'm not going to eat in the hot tub or shower in a public locker room. If I could do a recovery drink that would be no problem and I would drink it in the shower, but I'm not going to pull out 1/2 a Chicken breast in the hot tub. By the time I get to my car after a swim it's been 30 minutes. So I'm not exactly sure how to roll here.

But, again...I'll figure it out. I've got 30 days of mistakes ahead of me!

So, what do you think? Sound fun? Will you follow along?