Spinach Artichoke Stuffed Chicken

My friend Kat shared a recipe on her blog for a paleo and vegan spinach artichoke dip. It sounded delicious!  It uses cashew cream instead of cheese or sour cream. Fascinating idea so I really wanted to give it a try. I'm not a huge fan of using veggies with dips like this. I just prefer the texture of a cracker or chip, but that's obviously off limits. Rather than try it as a side, I decided it needed to be in stuffed chicken. Here's what I did:

Spinach Artichoke Stuffed Chicken

Paleo Spinach Artichoke Dip

6-8 chicken breasts

Salt and pepper to taste

Prepare the spinach artichoke dip. I made mine using less water so it was really think. I didn't want the filling to be too runny.

Slice the chicken breasts so they are nearly cut in half/have a pocket for stuffing (or buy butterflied chicken breasts) and open them

Add as much dip into the chicken as you'd like, then close them

Secure with toothpicks

Season with salt and pepper

Bake at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes, depending on how thick your chicken breasts are

Serve with whatever veggies you prefer.

We really enjoyed this dish-hope you do too!

No Buns? No Problem!

After two days of eating eggs for breakfast and salads for lunch and dinner, I needed a change. No lettuce (ok, maybe a little), no chicken, and something with substance.

Time to tackle Paleo Burgers.

I should give a quick disclaimer. These burgers have pineapple on them. I think a really hardcore Whole30er would avoid pineapple because it's a pretty sugary fruit. I decided after being super good and sitting through 3 restaurants with no menu options but a basic salad for me in the past 3 days, I didn't care. I was going for it.

So worth it! The recipe is coming up next, but first let me just warn you: these things are spicy! As in, Jon and I were breathing fire and had totally clear sinuses about half way in. They were delicious, but they were HOT. Next time I will be cutting the chipolte seasoning in half. I also couldn't find any avocados that were anywhere close to ripe so I found some guacamole that was approved and it was a great short cut.

Recipe from PaleOMG:

Prep time:  20 mins

Cook time:  15 mins

Total time:  35 mins

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 1lb Grass Fed Ground Beef
• 1 pineapple, cored and sliced (see my fantastic pics below)
• 1 yellow onion, sliced thin
• 1 tablespoon chipotle chili powder
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• ½ teaspoon onion powder
• ½ teaspoon coarse sea salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper

For the cream

• 2 avocados
• juice of 1 lime
• juice of ½ lemon
• 1 tablespoon hot sauce (your favorite will do)
• 1 teaspoon chipotle chili powder
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• pinch of salt

Instructions

1. Light your grill! I love grilling season.
2. Now you should first slice your pineapple. I have no idea how to cut a pineapple very well but I try, so you can look at my pictures if that actually helps.
3. Use a big knife to cut off both ends of the pineapple, then stand the pineapple up and slice the sides off. Then cut the pineapple in hamburger slices (remember hamburger vs hotdog in elementary school? good). And finish the pineapple slices off by using a smaller knife to cut out the middle and press it out. Like a donut hole. Cute.
4. Then slice your onions.
5. Place meat in a bowl, add seasonings and mix thoroughly. Like hard core. Get in there.
6. Make 4 burger patties and flatten them out a bit.
7. Place onions, burgers, and pineapple on the grill at the same time. Try not to place pineapple over direct flame because it can burn pretty easily, being sugar and all.
8. Flip when grill marks become present, after about 5 minutes and cook about the same amount of time on the other side of until burgers are cooked to preference and pineapple is a bit charred and soft.

While the ingredients are on the grill, make your avocado cream!

1. Cut avocados in half, remove the seed, then scoop out the insides and place in your food processor.
2. Turn food processor on and let the avocado begin to break down. After about a minute, while your food processor is still running, add the rest of the ingredients for the avocado cream and keep pureeing until smooth: about 1-2 minutes.
3. Place a burger down, top it with pineapple, then a grilled onion, and then a dollop of avocado cream on top!

Yum! Yum! and Yum! This recipe made a strong argument for never using a bun again. Serve it with sweet potato chips or some grilled veggies. 

Cravings

If you read some of my previous posts, you remember that there's a timeline to this Whole30 experience. So far I haven't really experienced much of it. I had a little bit of a headache, I don't think I was too grouchy, and I've been feeling great. More than half way done-now is the downhill slide and everything is smooth sailing, right?

Wrong.

This week the cravings hit. 

I didn't really have serious cravings during my pregnancy (not going to lie-I felt a little cheated), but Whole30 is making up for it. I had to go back and look at the timeline to see if this was normal or if I was the Whole30 flunk out who couldn't hang with the healthy stuff and was going to immediately binge on all things junk food at 12:01 of day 31. Good news-I'm not. Apparently you do have cravings and for some people they rival those of pregnancy in terms of severity and weirdness. 

Mine weren't too strange in terms of foods, but they were oddly specific. All of Thursday morning (which was the worst day) I craved, specifically, 1 glazed Dunkin Donut, 1 cinnamon roll, and a vanilla latte. No more, no less. Weird.

The Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls. Make them-you won't regret it.

Other things I have craved this week: chocolate, corn dogs (no idea where that one came from), cheeseburgers, hush puppies and pancakes. Not all at the same time, thankfully. I think (hope) I'm moving past this phase, which means next really is the feel good success phase!

This was also the week we went out to dinner several times. So I was having major cravings, and was stuck eating grilled chicken salads every night for dinner. I would recommend not eating out while on Whole30 unless you are seriously dedicated. It can be very frustrating to look at a whole menu of delicious sounding and smelling and looking foods that you can't eat.

I tell you these things so you don't decide to do Whole30 and think it's a walk in the park. It's lots of fun to learn a new way of cooking and discover new recipes. It leaves you feeling great. Just know that if you hit some bumps in the road, that's normal! Radically changing the way you eat is not an easy thing, but it can be something you enjoy if you approach it the right way.

It's Pretty Here

Father's Day

Our grocery foiled my plan for the super delicious meal I mentioned in my last post. It's a lamb dish, but our grocery store didn't have the right cut. Stay tuned-I promise I'll make it before the 30 days is up!

For Father's Day we went hiking with some friends. We adventured way up in the mountains and made it over 6,000 feet in elevation.

Hitting the trail

Stunning views:

Taking it all in.

Not too shabby...

Patrick's first time in the grass:

"Um. Mama? What is this stuff?"

Oh wait, it's not so bad!

 Playing on some rocks:

Just chillin. Contemplating life. (yes, Jon was holding him out of view)

Recreating Lion King:

(Not a real cliff)

Sleeping:

Baby life is hard.

I even made it out from behind the camera. And he was happy for the occasion:

It was a fun family day! Jon mentioned that we set the bar really high for future Father's Days. That means that we will either hike every year or I am going to have to get seriously creative...

The fam

Recipe Index, Weeks 1 & 2

Easy Roast Chicken

In case anyone was wondering or needs some ideas, here are the recipes I've made so far.

Breakfast:

• scrambled eggs followed by a piece of fruit (usually an apple or a banana)
• Easy Paleo Frittata Make the night before using whatever veggies you like and just pop it in the microwave in the morning. So easy and quick.

Lunch:

• Salad with grilled chicken and veggies. Grill a bunch of chicken over the weekend and dice some raw veggies and just grab as much or as little of each as you want every day.
• Avocado chicken salad on lettuce wraps
• Leftovers

Dinner:

• Marinated Flank Steak (minus the Worcestershire sauce)
• Easy and Amazing Roast Chicken The title describes it perfectly. 
• Turkey Tenderloin. Mix Dijon mustard, garlic, dried rosemary and thyme, salt, pepper, and olive oil (just eyeball the amounts) and rub the turkey, then bake until done
• Prosciutto Wrapped Scallops  I used this recipe as a base. I didn't like how the scallops looked baked-they didn't have the good color you get when you saute or grill them-so I ended up putting them on the stove to brown for a minute.
• Spaghetti squash with meat sauce (homemade)
• Paleo Stuffed Peppers This recipe was yummy! You can find tomato sauce that's ok for Whole30 (I think) in the grocery. Just make sure you check the ingredients list. I used an arrabiata sauce (tomato sauce with crushed red peppers) to give it some extra flavor. Go that route-it ads some extra flavor and spice. It might have been a little bland otherwise.
• Pulled Pork with Mango Salsa For a paleo BBQ sauce recipe, check out my post about going to the lake.
• Spiced Mexican Tuna Steak Yum, yum, and yum!
• Herb Crusted Pork Loin Easy recipe with good flavor

Sides:

• Grilled zucchini and squash
• Sauteed kale
• Sauteed spinach
• Mashed cauliflower 
• Rosemary sweet potatoes (diced sweet potatoes, olive oil, rosemary, salt, pepper-toss, bake until soft/done)
• Baked sweet potato chips (I used coconut oil)
• Roasted asparagus

Easy Tuna Steak, and a Half Way Report

Tuna steak has always seemed intimidating to me. I was so wrong! I found a recipe for a Spiced Mexican Tuna Steak. This might be my favorite recipe we've tried so far. The flavors combined perfectly, and it's a really beautiful presentation. Perfect for entertaining-I can't wait to try it on some friends!

My avocado topping wasn't quite the same as their recipe. I just diced some avocado, added lime juice, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper. Kind of a simple guacamole. You could easily top it was store bought guacamole if you'd prefer. It was very exciting to know that tuna isn't as scary as I thought.

It's day 15 of the Whole30 challenge and I am really enjoying it. I am sleeping well, waking up refreshed, don't feel like crawling into bed at the end of the work day, and can tell I've lost a little weight. I definitely still have cravings-we'll see if that continues for the whole month or if they go away. They aren't terrible, but I would love a vanilla latte and a cookie. Surprisingly, I don't miss bread and pasta all the time! I am loving finding new recipes and figuring out ways to modify the recipes I know so they're approved. At this point, I think I'll continue to eat with paleo/Whole30 as a basis for meals once the challenge is over, but will have some dairy and grains tossed in from time to time.

It's not always easy (especially when I'm really hungry), but it's also not impossible. I didn't plan ahead very well last week and it was much harder. Today is another planning, cooking, and next week prep day. It just makes it so much simpler and there's less to deal with after work when it's already dinner time and you don't want to spend time thinking about what to cook.

The Mean Abs Challenge is, well, mean. No six pack abs yet, but I can do a few sit ups (not anywhere close to the required number per day-they get progressively worse after I start). It's my least favorite part of the month.

Tomorrow is Jon's first Father's Day and we're going on a hike so tonight I'm making a delicious dinner to celebrate. I can't wait to share the recipe-it's one of our favorites!

The Cake

Allow me to properly introduce you to The Cake. Salted Caramel Six Layer Chocolate Cake, to be exact. Is your mouth watering yet? It should be!

This recipe is fabulous! It is labor intensive, but worth every bit. The cake is moist and springy and delicious, the caramel is rich and ads a fantastic balance of sweet to the dark chocolate of the cake, and the icing tops it all perfectly. You get a blend of sweet and salty (especially toward the top where the salt garnish is). It is glorious.

I found the recipe from another blog, The Bitten Word. It's originally a Martha Stewart creation. The Bitten Word has some good tips about the process so be sure to check it out.

Recipe:

Prep Time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 3 hours 20 minutes
Yield: Makes one 9-inch cake
Serves 12

Ingredients

• For The Cake
  • Unsalted butter, room temperature, for pans
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans
  • 3 cups granulated sugar
  • 1 1/2 cups unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
  • 1 tablepoon baking soda
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • Coarse salt
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups low-fat buttermilk
  • 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons safflower oil
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• For The Caramel
  • 4 cups granulated sugar
  • 1/4 cup light corn syrup
  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • Coarse salt
  • 2 sticks cold unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons
• For The Frosting
  • 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons Dutch-process cocoa powder
  • 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
  • Coarse salt
  • 1 pound semisweet chocolate, chopped, melted, and cooled
  • Garnish: flaked sea salt, such as Maldon

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Make the cake: Butter three 9-inch round cake pans, and dust with flour, tapping out excess. Sift flour, granulated sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and 1 1/2 teaspoons course salt into the bowl of a mixer. Beat on low speed until just combined. Raise speed to medium, and add eggs, buttermilk, 1 1/2 cups warm water, oil, and vanilla. Beat until smooth, about 3 minutes.
• Divide batter among pans. Bake until cakes are set and a toothpick inserted into the center of each comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Let cool in pans set on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Turn out cakes onto racks, and let cool completely.
• Make the caramel: Combine granulated sugar, corn syrup, and 1/4 cup water in a medium saucepan over high heat. Cook, without stirring, until mixture is dark amber, about 14 minutes. Remove from heat, and carefully pour in cream (mixture will spatter); stir until smooth. Return to heat, and cook until a candy thermometer reaches 238 degrees, about 2 minutes. Pour caramel into a medium bowl, stir in 1 teaspoon coarse salt, and let cool slightly, about 15 minutes. Stir in butter, 1 tablespoon at a time. Let cool completely.
• Meanwhile, make the frosting: Whisk together cocoa and 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons warm water in a bowl until cocoa dissolves. Beat butter, confectioners' sugar, and a generous pinch of coarse salt in a clean bowl with a mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Gradually beat in melted chocolate and then cocoa mixture until combined. Let stand for 30 minutes before using.
• Trim tops of cakes using a serrated knife to create a level surface. Cut each in half horizontally to form 2 layers. Transfer 1 layer to a serving platter, and spread 3/4 cup caramel over top. Top with another cake layer, and repeat with remaining caramel and cake layers, leaving top uncovered. Refrigerate until set, about 1 hour.
• Frost top and sides of cake in a swirling motion. Sprinkle with sea salt.

Some of my thoughts/tips:

1. Any of this cake could be made from things in the store. You could easily recreate it with a jar of caramel, a box mix of cake, and your favorite icing. I would strongly encourage you to try it from scratch at least once. It is so worth it!
2. When you make the caramel, it splatters, but it also bubbles as you stir it in. Mine nearly doubled in size (temporarily) so make sure your medium sauce pan leaves room. 
3. If it's hot in your house like it was in mine, pop the icing in the fridge for a few minutes for it to set. Just give it a stir before you spread it. If your house is a normal temperature you should be fine with leaving it out. Just give it a stir and use your judgement.
4. I used Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa powder and chocolate chips for the cake and the icing because I couldn't find Dutch process cocoa powder. It was the perfect balance of sweet and dark chocolate taste.
5. I sprayed the cake pans with nonstick spray instead of using the butter/flour method this time around. Use the butter/flour method-it works better.
6. The first time I made this cake I only used about 1/2 the caramel. I froze the extra and used it in the second cake. If you follow the directions and use 3/4 c/layer (which I did this time around) you won't have nearly as much leftover. 
7. I haven't been able to get distinct layers of caramel between cake layers. The cake absorbs it and it becomes one giant, yummy, caramel infused cake. And it's perfect.

Right Now...

Right now this is happening in my kitchen:

Dry ingredients, ready to go.

Last night, this happened:

That, my friends, is what caramel looks like in its early stages. Sugar, water, corn syrup. Delicious!

It can only mean one thing. The Cake is coming...

Bets as to how long my black shirt stays black in this baking process? I'm guessing not long.

Patrick's First Lake Day

Sunday we spent the day at a lake with some friends of ours. They're considering buying a lot so they rented a boat and we cruised around scoping it out. It was great! After a minute of being very unsure of the whole idea of swimming, Patrick decided he loves it. He giggled and splashed and had a blast!

I made pulled pork from my friend, Kat's, blog. It was so delicious! Her recipe calls for a red pepper mango salsa, which I was all set to make until I realized I had to get mangoes. Jon was a good sport and went and got some for me Saturday night, but they weren't ripe so I shelved that idea and discovered a really good paleo/Whole30 BBQ sauce. Yum! My sauce had a little more kick because I used spicy mustard instead of yellow. I would highly recommend that change. We made sweet potato chips as a side and were very happy with our diet friendly picnic.

Here are some highlights from the trip:

All dressed up and ready to go!

He took first shift as driver.

Just kidding. He napped. Hard. You have to be tired to fall asleep with a life vest on.

This is how he felt about STILL wearing the life vest after he woke up.

The views were beautiful!

I've decided mountain lakes are the best.

Swim gear, minus the life vest. He rocked it. Clearly.

Still not too sure about this water stuff.

This is fun! (That's a laughing face, I promise)

It was such a fun day!! I can't wait to get Patrick swimming again soon.

A Day at the Car Show

We've had a busy couple of days around here!

Saturday started early-Jon's business was sponsoring a car show in town so they got out of the door early to get to work. Patrick and I took advantage of our day and started a quest for baby swim gear. First we went to Belk-strike 1. Then we went to Walmart, which was met with limited success. We found a baby life jacket and a rash guard (swim shirt) for our lake day on Sunday, but no swim trunks. Patrick had his first shopping meltdown (I can't blame him-sometimes I melt down in Walmart, too) so we gave up on the hunt temporarily to get that boy some food!

Um, Mama? What are you doing to me?

We went and met Jon at the car show and to bring him some lunch (fajita salad-yum!). There was a lot going on-classic cars, a bounce house, and they had a police dog demonstration. We ended up staying for the rest of the show-Patrick loved being the center of attention, and it's always nice to have family time.

It was a beautiful day!

One highlight from the day: we found Santa! For real! The back of his belt even said so. The policeman sharing the tent with us said he travels around the country and hands out gold coins to good girls and boys.

Santa!

After another round of errands it was time for dinner: prosciutto wrapped scallops, sauteed kale, and rosemary sweet potatoes. It was pretty good, but next time I think I'll tweak the scallops a bit. I seasoned them with salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and chipotle powder. The chipotle powder gave it a nice spicy/smokey kick, but it wasn't quite right for the sweetness of the scallops.

I am really enjoying cooking all of these new recipes. If nothing else, Whole30 is going to get me out of my normal cooking ruts and give me fresh ideas. I can tell I've dropped some weight, and during the day I have plenty of energy and don't want to snack. Waking up is still really hard-I'm hoping that changes soon.

Sorry for the crummy food lighting. It was prettier than that in real life. Stay tuned for all the Lake Day details!

The Cast of Characters

I suppose I need to introduce our family so you can put some faces to the names.

This is my husband Jon. Husband extraordinaire, source of giggles for Patrick, and rock star insurance agent.

This is Patrick. Funny, chunky, happy baby boy.

Millie (in the back) and Lewis aka The Boxers. Spoiled, slightly neurotic, and a great source of entertainment.

And me. Wife, mom, cook, speech pathologist, writer of this blog.

That's the family so far! I'm sure we'll be adding more 2 and 4-legged children in the future. Until then, we have plenty of adventures without the added chaos of more people (The Boxers are people, too-just ask them) around.

Planning Ahead

I think the key to this experiment (and any diet) is planning ahead. Last weekend I hit the grocery in a big way and spent all afternoon Sunday prepping food for the week, and making more baby food for Patrick.

The loot. Yes, that's cheese. Jon is allowed to have some for snacks on South Beach.

One (long) day of food prep has gotten us through most of the week with meals. Here are some of the things I prepped in advance to get us through:

• Chicken breasts. Simple, grilled chicken breasts. We've used them on salads every day for lunch and in more avocado chicken salad I made for lunch today. 
• Salad supplies. I sliced lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli, bell peppers-anything that can be pre-prepped. That way we can just toss what we want into our lunches before work and get out the door without doing all that slicing and dicing the morning of. 
• Good tip: When you wash and slice lettuce, store it in a ziploc bag with a dry paper towel. The paper towel pulls the extra water from the leaves and keeps them nice and crisp and fresh longer. When the towel is soaked through, swap it for a new one!
• Marinade for any meats. We had a marinated london broil Mon night so I mixed everything up and started it marinating. If we had been eating more marinated foods I would have prepped them all at the same time.
• Breakfast. Frittatas are my new best friend. They take about 20 minutes to make, they can be stored in the fridge, and they're delicious! I made one Sun and we ate it Mon morning for breakfast so I made another one Mon night while I was making dinner. 

I also planned out all the meals for the week. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Meats and sides. So when I get home from work every day I don't have to do any thinking. I already know what's on the menu and what needs to be done to get it on our plates. 

We went out to dinner tonight and Jon and I were both good and got salads with grilled chicken. Unfortunately there was a tiny bit of shredded cheese sprinkled over the chicken as a garnish that was melted and couldn't be removed (without WAY more work than it was worth). So I had a baby cheat, but I'm ok with it. It could have been a major cheat-we went to a pasta restaurant that also serves heavenly garlic knots. 

Update on the coffee attempts: I am also not hardcore enough for coffee with coconut milk. Guess I'll be going caffeine free for June, too!

So Far, So Good

I have determined that dieting/eating healthy is no big deal for me (at this point).

Sit ups? Now that's another story. Yuck! I started running again today. I definitely prefer it to ab work, though I'm equally out of shape in the cardio realm. The motivating factor for all this is that I will hopefully not be as embarrassed and out of shape when I start riding horses again. That's a powerful motivator (for me).

So far I'm really enjoying the meals and the cooking. I've been trying not to snack, which has been successful, but I think I'm eating bigger meals to compensate. I'm not sure yet if that's a good thing or not, but if I'm not hungry then I won't snack on things.

I've had little flash cravings on and off, but nothing too tempting. I think the biggest change is not grabbing the little snacks I didn't even realize I was eating. I almost asked our office manager for a Jolly Rancher today (she keeps a candy stash), but then I realized that is off limits. The little things sneak up on you-the big things aren't as difficult. Today was a stressful day at work and I really wanted cinnamon rolls. Baked goods are always a treat.

Speaking of baked goods-I haven't told anyone I'm doing this yet (except Jon), but I'm going to have to get brave and change that so more people can hold me accountable. I'm the resident baker at work (a regional hospital where I work as a speech pathologist). We have a PT who is leaving so his going away party is next week. He has requested a cake I baked last month to celebrate our office manager's graduation. This is not just any cake. It's a six layer dark chocolate salted caramel cake.

THE Cake. Martha Stewart-are you surprised?

 It is heaven. And it is SO off limits. Talk about a test of will power! Good thing I'm stubborn.

Grocery Adventures

I did a little research before starting this thing, just so we wouldn't be as likely to fall off the wagon. Turns out there's a whole process of recovery that has been widely documented among participants and runs pretty consistently. Check out the Whole30 Timeline for more information about what to expect. I'm really glad I read up on it and know what might be coming. I'm not sure I would have credited things like headaches to my diet. Now instead of being a bother I can look at it as progress.

Day 2 started with a headache, but thanks to the timeline I was kind of expecting it. All in all it wasn't terrible. Once I was up and moving it was better. Starting my day with this grin helped:

A very cute and sleepy almost 8 month old smile. He's quite the charmer.

For breakfast I had eggs with sauteed veggies. I also tried black coffee. Today's lesson? I am not hardcore enough for black coffee. Gross.

To make sure we are as successful as possible with this 30 days, I spent the morning planning meals for the upcoming week and going to the grocery store. Whole30 grocery shopping is easy in the sense that you completely ignore 2/3 of the store. It's hard because, in my grocery, you have to pass through the bakery to get from the produce to the meats.

For anyone who knows me, you know I am all about a loaf of good, crusty bread. I'll pass dessert any day, but fresh baked bread? Gimme! I survived the smells today, but I suspect that may become a struggle in the coming weeks.

I also learned that sugar is in EVERYTHING. I've seen lots of paleo/Whole30 blogs that discuss sugar free bacon. It does not exist. Trust me, I checked every. single. brand. of bacon. Ingles has a great selection, but they have failed in the breakfast meat section. I got some proscuitto instead-hopefully that suffices.

Our grocery has fresh made guacamole every weekend prepared from their unsold produce. Man oh man is it yummy! This adorable old lady sells it and offers samples.

I was totally sketchy and snuck a picture of her on my phone.

Shopping was cutting into lunch time, and I already had some chicken prepared so I decided (after checking ingredients) to get a container of guac and make some avocado chicken salad on lettuce wraps. It was so easy and delicious!!

All you have to do is put some cooled chicken in the food processor, then avocado and whatever other ingredients you like. In this case, I just dumped the container of guacamole. Next time I think I'll cube the chicken and avocado and dice the other ingredients so it has a little more texture.
Dinner consisted of baked turkey tenderloin in a homemade herb-mustard rub, mashed cauliflower, and sauteed kale.

The second day of ab exercises was equally difficult, but we'll keep at it and see how it goes.

Tomorrow I'm back at work where there is a cafeteria with really delicious cookies. It's going to be a challenge to stick with it, but I'm determined.

About Whole30 and Day 1

Jon (my husband) and I kicked off health month yesterday. I'm doing the Whole30 diet, he's doing South Beach (at least phase one). They're pretty similar, but he can have low fat dairy and artificial sweeteners. When I talk food I'll be sure to point out differences between his and mine.

Whole30 aka Paleo is a diet that cuts out all processed foods (with some minimally processed exceptions). There is a ton of information about it here: The Whole30 Program It's supposed to give you more natural enegry, help you lose some weight (though that is not the ultimate goal) and detox your body from all the processed junk that's out there. It's supposed to make you feel good!

I am not a health nut. I don't exercise regularly, I don't care about healthy foods (Chick-fil-a = yum!), and I am sure you will frequently hear about my love of bread throughout my posts. I chose to try this diet for a lot of reasons:

• It makes sense to me. The main goal is health, not weight loss. I think there's a big difference, and if you're only focused on what you can't have and what's bad for you, it's not as likely to be successful. This is based on what's GOOD for you. And you are not supposed to step on a scale for the entire 30 days-I love it!
• The thought of having more energy sounds fabulous. I have an 8 month old and I work full time with kids so by the end of the work day I'm exhausted. My lack of energy since becoming a mom has been very noticeable. It's not because I'm staying up all night, either. He's been sleeping through the night since he was 2 months old, and I go to sleep early. My husband teases me about being old all the time because by dark, I'm ready for bed.
• All the other benefits listed. Better sleep, better exercise, better recovery time after exercise, less aches and pains-it all sounds good to me.
• I figure, it can't hurt. If I get through the 30 days and nothing has really changed (I don't expect that to happen) then oh well-I ate well for a whole month!

In addition to eating well, we are going to ramp up the exercise this month. I found an easy* month long ab routine for June so we're giving it a shot. I can't find the original website, but here's the link to my post on Pinterest: Mean Abs June

*easy if you're a normal human. I am a totally out of shape human who has never felt the need to work on abs (thank you, baby). My current (lack of) ab strength rivals this guy:

 

While I have never been one to "work out" I was always been pretty fit until baby. Not any more. So Jon and I started with day 1. 15 sit ups, 5 crunches, 10 sec plank, 10 push ups. 

I nearly died. It was humbling, to say the least.

I didn't decide to track our progress until day 2, so there aren't any food pictures from day 1. Our meals were: 

• Breakfast-scrambled eggs and turkey bacon (I realized the next day that turkey bacon has sugar in it-I started with a cheat. Way to kick it off right!)
• Lunch-Grilled chicken salad with balsamic vinegar and olive oil dressing
• Dinner-Easiest Roast Chicken Ever (so easy, SO delicious), asparagus, and steamed artichokes

So 1 day down, 29 to go. I'm feeling good and not having any cravings, but anybody can diet for a day. I'm determined to make it all month without cheating. I'm also determined to be able to finish 10 sit ups properly by the end of the month. It's the simple things.