Day 07: Whole30 for the Piepers

I’m such a bad blogger!!! I totally keep on forgetting to take pictures of our meals. I’m so sorry!! (The next time I make the Beef Roast I’ll take a picture and put it in.)

I did find some FREE Whole30 resources to share with you. They are awesome!

Meal 1: Mushroom, Onion Frattata
Meal 2: Leftover Chicken on a Salad with Mango Salsa
Meal 3: Beef Roast with Sweet Potato Hash
Snacks: Mashed banana with cocoa powder

Energy levels: same
Sleep: same
Gut issues: getting better
Hormonal issues: same
Focus: some of the teens seem to have better focus

Daily Take-away:

-Eating healthy is expensive. But that shouldn’t be a reason not to do the Whole30. When I’m planning my week of meals, I check out what protein is on sale this week. From there, I see what we still have in the fridge that need to be eaten up. I make my list. The first store I go to is Aldi. I get whatever I can there; I just have to be careful to read ingredients. Lot’s of things have sugar in them. Then I’ll get the rest at our local grocery store.

-My youngest is having the hardest time with this last week. He’s 10 and a good eater. He tries everything. I think he is just worried that he will never have candy or ice cream again. 😉 The older girls have grasped the bigger picture. They don’t always like it but they do understand it.

Recipe:

Have a Blessed Day!

 

Day 06: Whole30 for the Piepers

We had a good, sunny Saturday. Greg spray-painted the outline in our backyard for our garden that we will be putting in this spring. We are getting ready for the Whole30 this summer with our own grown veggies.

Meal 1: Melon, Banana Muffin and Veggie Omelet
Meal 2: Left over Grilled Chicken and Steamed Veggies

Meal 3: Salmon Salad with Mango Salsa
Snacks: Nuts, Apples and Hard Boiled Eggs

Energy levels: Seems to be the same, back to normal for kids
Sleep: I’m sleeping better, waking at 6:30 rested and refreshed
Gut issues: slightly bloated
Hormonal issues: same
Focus: same

Daily Take-away: Being outside and active is a great way to get your mind off things you can’t eat! A nice walk, a few min shooing hoops or even a bike ride.

Recipes:

What’s your favorite outside activity to do alone or as a family?

Be Blessed!

 

 

Day 05: Whole30 for the Piepers

So the older girls went to a party with typical party food, chips, pizza, candy, soda, etc… They brought veggies & Sweet Potato Chips to share. They also age right before they left. I guess seeing and smelling the pizza was the worst. But other than that they said they kept busy, didn’t hangout by the food and it was all good. Also, the host of the party made them smoothies with coconut milk… how considerate is that!?!

 

Meal 1: Hard Boiled Eggs, Zucchini, Sweet Peppers and a Banana Muffin
Meal 2: Chicken, Carrot, Sweet Potato, Onion Soup
Meal 3: Mediterranean Grilled Chicken with grilled Zucchini, Mushrooms and steamed Cauliflower

Snacks: Almond Butter Bites

Energy levels: same
Sleep: better, more dreams
Gut issues: feeling gassy and bloated
Hormonal issues: same
Focus: same

Daily Take-away:

• Always bring snacks! It’s inevitable that you are going to be in a situation that you are tempted. If you have a healthy choice with you it is easier to say “no.”
• Surround your self with friends that support you and the healthier choices that you are trying to make. If possible, have friends join you on your journey. We have a family that is doing the Whole30 with us! (Thank you Coady Family!! You are a blessing to us!) Even if we never cook or eat a meal together this month, it helps me to know that they are making the same hard choices that we are. We share favorite recipes and the ones that flop. Even my kids got to go to the party with a friend to support them and make the same choices that they had to.

Recipe:

Do you think it gets easier to be surrounded by food that you can’t have or is it always a struggle?

Be Blessed!

Day 04: Whole30 for the Piepers

All day today, I had to walk by the kitchen at work where there were chocolate chip cookies sitting out on the table for everyone. The first time I saw them, I had the urge to take one. Normally I would have and eaten it with my coffee. I had to consciously walk by them and not take one. It made me think of how  many times the “old” me (funny the “new” me is 4 days old and I feel so wise. 🙂 ) would have grabbed things without thinking if it was good for my health or not. I’ve decided from now on, I will make a conscious choice with everything I eat. Is it all going to be good for me? No, but I will recognize that when I make the choice.

I’m feeling very empowered today. I am going to eat to live, NOT live to eat.

Meal 1: Eggs, sautéed veggies & cantaloupe

Meal 2: Lime Shrimp Avocado Salad
Meal 3: Stuffed Peppers

Snacks: clementine and nuts & Banana Muffins

Energy levels: same
Sleep: Everyone seems to be dreaming more. I woke up at 6:30 for the last two days without an alarm clock.
Gut issues: May be getting a little worse
Hormonal issues: Acne is worse for some of the girls which is a bummer. I’m just reminding them that it needs to get worse before it can get LOTS better
Focus: same

Daily Take-away: It Starts with Food says not to try to replicate food we eat now with approved items. That would be fine for me. I love trying new foods and am enjoying the Whole30. Now for my family that is another story. They seem to enjoy sitting on the couch and discussing all their favorite foods that we can’t have. I try to redirect the conversation. Doesn’t work very well. So, tonight I decided to divide and conquer.

I sent my husband and his cravings of snack food to the store. The kids went to different rooms until he return. He did return with two bags of Whole30 approved Sweet Potato Chips that weren’t on the list. They hit the spot and seemed to start brightening everyone’s spirits.
Then he pulled out cocoa powder, the younger kids put it on bananas. (My advice would be to start a little, you can always add more.) While they were eating their dessert, I made the most amazing Whole30 approved Banana Muffins! They are expensive to make but well worth it. Next time, I’m going to try to make almond flour, although almonds are expensive too.

I would recommend that if you are doing the Whole30 on your own, enjoy the new foods and recipes. If your family is doing it with you, don’t cheat, but try to make recipes that your family is excited to try and my be even something that you eat now but will have to tweak the ingredients.

Recipes:

Do you have any gluten, dairy, sugar, legume – free recipes that you want to share?

Be Blessed!

 

Day 03: Whole30 for the Piepers

Ok, the recipe for today will be Sweet Potato Chips. I made them for the kids today and they liked them. Greg and I loved them, too. The first batch I tossed with olive oil, salt, pepper and a  little garlic powder. The kids needed to leave in a hurry so I broiled the chips at the end. I don’t know if it was my mind playing tricks on me or what, but when I ate the chips that got slightly toasted, they tasted like sweet potatoes with toasted marshmallows on them. Although Greg laughed at me at first, he agreed once he tasted them. Our second batch, which was Greg and my favorite, we tossed with Chipotle infused olive oil, salt and cayenne pepper. Our only issue was that we couldn’t get them crispy enough.

 

Meal 1: Sautéed Brussel Sprouts, Onions and Peppers with Scrambled Eggs

Meal 2: Chicken Spaghetti Sauce and Steamed Cauliflower & Green Beans
Meal 3: Pork Chops and Sweet Potato Chips (They were good but a little soggy, so I changed the recipe to get them crispy!)
Snacks: Peppers, Hard Boiled Egg, nuts

Energy levels: same for me, some of the kids are feeling like they are out of energy all the time
Sleep: same, one of the children had a dream about eating chips and woke up feeling guilty
Gut issues: all kids have had stomach cramps
Hormonal issues: same
Focus: same other than obsessing about food that we can’t have

Daily Take-away:

1. Prepping is the KEY, especially if you work outside of the home. I only work part-time; so the days I worked, having veggies cut and ready to go were awesome.
2. Educate your kids, (and husband) to create a balanced meal instead of planning all the meals for them. My kids have started to cook chicken for lunch to put on salads or eat with steamed veggies. They also start to make their own choices for breakfast. (Start with protein, fill the rest of the plate with veggies, include healthy fat and add small amount of fruit if you would like.)
3. Give yourself more time. Making breakfast with whole foods and packing lunches take extra time. (The time it took me, from getting up until I was stepping into the car to leave, used to take me 55 minutes, now takes 1 hour and 10 minutes.)

Recipe:

Let us know if you have a any advice on how to make sweet potato chips, crispy! Also, any other ideas on spices to put on the sweet potato chips?

Be Blessed!

 

Day 02: Whole30 for the Piepers

Meal 1: Hard boiled eggs with an orange

Meal 2: Spinach Salad with pear, blueberries, avocado, steak and cashews

Meal 3: Spaghetti sauce with spaghetti squash and cauliflower

 

Snacks: carrots, celery, apple and almonds

Energy levels: the son was tired, everyone else was the same
Sleep: same except the kids say that they are dreaming more
Gut issues: the 3 girls had stomach aches
Hormonal issues: same
Focus: same

I had a productive day at work. Stopped

Daily Take-away: It’s amazing how we eat so many times out of habit. The last two days the son has come upstairs at 8:30pm on the dot because that is the time when the kids would have ice cream. I’m excited to break our unhealthy food habits. In addition, after the kids went to bed I totally had the urge to get up and have some snack or chocolate as I finished my TV show. CRAZY!! I’m not hungry but I have the strong urge to get something to eat.

Recipe:

Do you have any “take-aways” after changing your eating habits?

Be Blessed!

 

Day 01: Whole30 for the Piepers

 

We survived Day 01. I’m so excited to have started!

Today I didn’t really crave anything. I was keenly aware of food in commercials and in other people’s shopping carts.

Today’s Menu:

Meal 1: Broccoli, Cauliflower & Italian Sausage Fratatta
Meal 2: Salad with chicken & almonds

Meal 3: Crockpot Chicken
Snacks: Almonds and Plum

1. Energy levels: same
2. Sleep: same
3. Hormonal issues: same
4. Gut issues: same
5. Focus: same

Kids seemed to do well. They did a great job sticking to the plan. I do think that they had a lot of snacks during the day. It was probably caused because they were craving things and snacked on nuts and fruit instead. (Totally underestimated the amount of nuts we needed)

I forgot to include salad dressing (oil and vinegar) with our salads… so Greg was a little crabby. 😦
My take away is that I need to have everything for Greg’s lunches and make them special. He will quickly get bored with the same lunch every day.

To prep for Day 02:

• I made salads
• Greg cut up some steak
• cut up a pear with lemon juice to prevent browning
• added blueberries to the baggies with pears
• cut an avocado in half and sprinkled it with lemon juice and put it in a baggies
• put cashews in baggies
• packed carrots, clementines and apples
• peeled hardboiled eggs and packed them

Recipes:

Please share any Whole30 recipes that you love! Don’t forget to print the recipes above.

Be Blessed!

Day 00: Whole30 for the Piepers :)

OK… so I haven’t posted in a very long time. My apologies! Life hasn’t slowed down; it’s just cruising along in different areas.

So we, I mean I, decided to do the Whole30 for the next 30 days. The family is joining me. “All for one and one for all,” I say! With our busy schedules it would be really hard for me to plan different meals. Some days they are enthusiastic and other days they are apprehensive. But actually overall they are on board.

Ill be posting about the day before, so you don’t miss any of the “good” stuff.

So here is a little background… I’ve been toying with the idea of going gluten free. But never really did anything about it. Then, one of the bloggers I follow said that she was doing the Whole30. I had no idea what it was but I was curious. I checked out the Whole30 website. This is what the Whole30® is:

 “Certain food groups (like sugar, grains, dairy and legumes) could be having a negative impact on your health and fitness without you even realizing it. Are your energy levels inconsistent or non-existent? Do you have aches and pains that can’t be explained by over-use or injury? Are you having a hard time losing weight no matter how hard you try? Do you have some sort of condition (like skin issues, digestive ailments, seasonal allergies or fertility issues) that medication hasn’t helped? These symptoms may be directly related to the foods you eat – even the “healthy” stuff. So how do you know if (and how) these foods are affecting you? Strip them from your diet completely. Cut out all the psychologically unhealthy, hormone-unbalancing, gut-disrupting, inflammatory food groups for a full 30 days. Let your body heal and recover from whatever effects those foods may be causing. Push the “reset” button with your metabolism, systemic inflammation, and the downstream effects of the food choices you’ve been making. Learn once and for all how the foods you’ve been eating are actually affecting your day to day life, and your long term health. The most important reason to keep reading? This will change your life. We cannot possibly put enough emphasis on this simple fact—the next 30 days will change your life. It will change the way you think about food, it will change your tastes, it will change your habits and your cravings. It could, quite possibly, change the emotional relationship you have with food, and with your body. It has the potential to change the way you eat for the rest of your life. We know this because we did it, and tens of thousands of people have done it since, and it changed our lives (and their lives) in a very permanent fashion.”

After reading that, I was sold! Ordered the book. Talked about it with the family. Created excitement. Skimmed the book (I am far from being an expert!) Scoped out Pintrest for recipe ideas. Read a few blogs… and here we are.

Most everyone I read about doing this talked about a lot of planning. I do love planning but I knew if I took too much time planning that I would never start my 30 days. So after I received my book I decided to start the following Monday. Since we are basketball fans we have been watching March Madness in the evenings. As my husband yells on the couch, I picked out some recipes that looked good. I really didn’t want to have to make a new recipe every day though. My plan is to make a few new recipes but also tweak the ones that my family already likes.

After church on Sunday, I took the girls to see “God Is Not Dead.” (Loved it, I would highly recommend it!) On the way home dropped off the oldest at her Life Group. When I got home I  was ready to begin:

1. Created a menu plan for the week
2. Picked out 7 dinner meals
3. Wrote down all the ingredients that we need in a shopping list

I picked Payge up from Life Group and she was lucky enough to get to go shopping with me. (I’m pretty sure that is exactly what she was thinking.) So we did some shopping… which took maybe 1/2 hour. It was pretty easy to shop when you stay in only two departments in the store: Produce & Meat. 🙂

When we got home we all pitched in to unpack the groceries. We cleaned out the refrigerator, freezer and pantry. Then I made a Frattata for breakfasts this week. Greg also grilled a steak that we can have on our salad for lunch. I packed lunches (Meal 2’s) for Greg and I to have for lunch. I felt pretty pleased with myself. Check our blog out tomorrow to see how it turned out.

 

Be Blessed!