Week's End and 2 Videos

Here I am again. Ha. What?  I know I'm a fickle blogger.  It's not like the old days when I'd post 2-3 times a DAY! Crazy.  I just need to get on here and see what happens I guess.  I think I have expectations.  That can mess things up.

This past week did not pan out as I had hoped in the studio.  I wanted to get some serious work done.  As it so happened I busted my hump at CrossFit on Monday and Tuesday and by Wednesday I was so sore and sick (I think I caught a stomach bug) that I was wiped out.  I spend most of Thursday on the couch but I did manage to get some pots slipped and decorated in short time spurts when I was feeling okay.  I even shot a couple of short videos of me making bowls.

I love throwing with soft clay.  It centers so easily, it responds to a light touch and the finished pot seems so much more organic and not over worked.  Soft clay paired with a treadle or kick wheel is just perfection to me.

If you're interested in how life is after the Whole 30 I'd say it's going really well.  Sarah and I have continued to eat healthy and to cook most of our meals at home.  We did have several meals out this past week as we celebrated several special occasions with friends.  Today I went to the grocery though and stocked up for the week.  I'm all set to make meals every night this week, hopefully with leftovers for lunches.

Okay, well that's it for now.  I'll post some pics tomorrow of some pots and let ya know how my Monday goes.  Cheers.

Enough was Enough

I am pretty behind in posting but I thought I'd try and give it a shot this morning and just catch up a bit.

Sarah and I bailed on the Whole 30 on Day 23.  I was fed up with all the cooking and dishes and thinking about my food all the damn time and Sarah lost her appetite after the explosion of her lunch on Day 22.  We were both getting tired of eating the same things put together in different ways.  We love to go out to eat and we had lost that for more than 3 weeks and finally we just said "Enough".

On the 24th we were in Charlotte and had a great meal at one of our favorite restaurants, Lang Van.  It's some really yummy Vietnamese food.  I had the 'hot pot' and Sarah had ginger tofu with rice and veggies.  It was sooooo good.

I do kinda feel bad that we made it so long and then just quit with 7 days to go.  But I do think we learned a lot about our connection with food.  We both felt this was an emotional challenge for us.  Honestly, I don't think I felt much difference physically.  Sarah did notice improvement or absence of acid reflux and I think she also may have slept better.

We have continued to eat well over the last week.  We have both had some wine and bread and rice.  But we are still eating good food.  My plan is to stay off the beer until at least March and see how that goes.  I don't drink much anyway so it's no big deal really.  I am very happy to have cut out sugar during the Whole 30 (the Whole 23 in our case) and I plan to stay off sugar as much as I can. I'm not going back to my milk and cookie routine at night.  I will probably have milk, but no cookie.

I think we are heading down more of a road to Paleo along with some 'cheat meals' along the way.  Sarah believes in moderation and I think that is a good plan for now.  We love Asian food and I don't see us completely giving up rice.  Oh, which reminds me...cauliflower rice, no.  It's just not good people.  I mean it's 'okay' and all but really cauliflower is not a magic bullet.  Cauliflower mashed "potatoes", cauliflower "tortillas", cauliflower "Alfredo sauce".  Get real.  Do yourself a favor and just don't bother. It's just sad.

One of the last meals we had on the Whole 23 was Spaghetti Pie from PaleOMG.  It was very tasty and I did like having spaghetti squash for the first time ever.

Okay, that's all I got for now.  I'll try and keep up a bit and also I'm sure I'll have more to add as Sarah and I discuss how we feel and how we want to continue to eat and live our lives in a healthy way.  It was nice to have some bacon at breakfast this morning.

Cheers.  And congrats to everyone who's finishing up the Whole 30 today. Very well done!!

Day 22

Wednesday this week was Day 22.  There really isn't much to say about the food we ate that day.  It was all leftovers or repeats.  Nothing exciting.

Sarah had a bad experience during her lunch hour when she blew up her lunch in the microwave at work.  It's frustrating when something like that goes wrong and there is no back up for food.  She ate what she could but she said it just felt gross and she was put off by the whole thing.

I coached CrossFit during the lunch hour and then taught pottery that night.  Wednesdays are going to be very busy for me over the next 8 weeks.  My students are doing well.  The beginners are making headway now that they've got a few pots under their belts.

All for now.  I'll catch up on Day 23 and 24 ASAP

Day 21 Whole 30

Today was great.  I got lots of work done in the studio, sold some pots online and out of the showroom, had a good workout, made 3 decent meals and just feet better all around.

Nine more days!  That seems like nothing.

For Breakfast I made skillet baked eggs.   First I cooked some sausage in the frying pan and removed it to a paper towel to drain.  I then sautéed 1/2 an onion, some red bell pepper, and a couple cloves of garlic.  Once the onion and pepper had softened I added about 6 cups of spinach and kale and let that cook down. I then added the sausage back into the pan and stirred it all up.  I made 4 wells in the spinach, added a bit of ghee and cracked in the eggs.  Then popped the whole pan in a 400 deg oven till the eggs set.  (About 10-12 min)

That was super good and filling and I may make it again tomorrow!!

Lunch was leftovers of chicken, butternut squash, salad, and some of the cucumbers from Sunday.  I finally feel like I am eating enough food.  I need a big plate like this to get me through the afternoon.

Oh, and guacamole of course!

I had used up the last of the ghee from Trader Joe's at breakfast.  I had bought some organic butter at the grocery on Monday so I was all set to make the ghee following this method I found online.  It was totally easy and mostly hands off.

 This first pic shows the butter just after it came out of the oven.  I skimmed off the solids and had this:

 I then strained that through a cheesecloth (in my case an old tee shirt) and got the following:

Easy peazy.

For Dinner I needed to make up for the lame-o, plain fish that I cooked last night so I made Wild Salmon with Lemon Dill Sauce, roasted asparagus, and roasted butternut squash.

That was flipping delicious!!  We usually have teriyaki glazed salmon but this was a really nice change and I'll be making this again next week for sure.

I got several boards of pots made in the studio today. I'll probably do a separate post on what's happening in there tomorrow.

Okay, that's it for now.  Here's to another day of the Whole 30 marked off the calendar.  Cheers.

Day 20. Whoop Whoop

Ten more days to go!  I'm hoping it's downhill from here.  I'm feeling pretty good that we've made it this far and that I haven't given in to my pizza cravings or tackled a cow to get some milk.  I've not had any headaches the past few days.  I think my energy level is pretty much normal.  I've not felt like super man or anything.  I talked to a couple people at CrossFit tonight and they said that they felt really amazing.  Good for them. Ha.

Honestly I don't know what I expect to feel from this thing.  Other than the insane feelings I've felt around my desire for food and my psychological dependance on it.  I guess if I think about it then I have to be pretty proud for not giving in to sugar or dairy.  That's a big deal to do without those things for 20 days.  I think I've lost about 5 lbs.  Losing weight is not the goal for me.  I would like to get rid of my fat neck and belly.  I do like that my pants fit better.

At this point I'm thinking about how I want to carry on after Day 30.  I have not missed beer at all.  I have not really missed bread (other than pizza crust).  And I've found that I can get through the evening without a cup of milk and a cookie.  So I think I may stay off the beer for a few months and stay off the bread as well as really watching my sugar intake.

For Breakfast today we had our usual eggs, sausage, guacamole, and sweet potato.

For Lunch I had chicken, salad with tahini dressing, and leftover butternut squash, and guacamole. Man, thank god for guacamole!  It's getting me through this thing.

Here's the chicken after it came out of the oven last night.  Sooooo good.

Dinner was pretty simple and mostly flavorless.  I cooked some cod (Sarah is tired of beef, pork, and chicken), steamed some green beans, and heated up a sweet potato.  Easy and done.  The fish could have been done a number of ways but I didn't get home from CF till 7 and didn't want to get all fancy with anything.

I coached my first official class at CrossFit tonight.  I had 12 athletes in the gym.  Most all of them were experienced and didn't need much cueing throughout the WOD.  It's going to be a challenge for me to learn to watch for things to help folks with as well as managing the time and just doing it all.  I felt really good and got some positive feedback from some other coaches and athletes.  I'd have never thought that I'd be doing any of this but it's really great.

Okay that it's for now.  So glad to only have 10 more days to go.  Weeeeeeee

Yunomi

I fired a load of yunomi last week.  Here are a few of them.  I am sending 5 to the annual Yunomi Invitational show at Akar Gallery in Iowa City, Iowa.  It's an honor to be asked to be in that show with many of the nations top potters.

Day 19. I Needed to Get Out

I felt better today.  I'm not really over my cold but I think I'm getting better.  I'm ready for Monday to come so I can get in the studio and make some pots.  I have quite a lot to get ready for so I need to get cranking.

Sarah made us a frittata for breakfast/brunch.  It had sweet potatoes, spinach and rosemary in it.  It was very good and a nice change.  We normally have frittatas for dinner during the weekdays.  Often they will have broccoli or spinach, roasted potatoes, rosemary, onion, tomato and some sort of cheese in them.  Goat cheese or feta is a good choice.

We headed over to some friend's house to watch the Denver/New England game later in the day.  We are all doing the Whole 30 so everyone brought a dish and we drank coffee or water. I really needed to get out of the house and have some social time.  Of course we all talked about food and how we were feeling and what we would cook this week.  Ha.  Very exciting indeed.

Sarah and I took a big tossed salad and a some cilantro-lime cucumbers. Sarah made a compliant tahini-ginger dressing for the salad. Others had prepared roast pork, spicy chicken nuggets, Mexican soup, veggies, fruit, salsa and guacamole.

I've got a chicken in the oven right now along with some sweet potatoes.  We'll eat the potatoes through out the week.  The chicken is so we can have another small meal this evening and also have leftovers for lunch tomorrow.  I will not let this chicken out of my sight when it comes out of the oven!

According to the Whole 30 Timeline I am supposed to be experiencing "Tiger Blood" this week.  Well it needs to kick in!  Bring it on! Come on Tiger Blood!  I'm ready baby!

Damn. Wrong Image.

Now. That's better.

It looks like I'm going to be put to the schedule to coach some classes at CFS this week.  I'm pretty excited.  Of course I'm nervous too, but the sooner I get in there and get started the more I'll learn and more comfortable I'll get.

Okay.  That's it for now.  I'll try to keep up this week with daily posts.  Have a good week everyone.

Don't Blink. Catching Up Part 2.

Wednesday evening I started teaching over at Cleveland Community College.  I have a Continuing Ed class of Intro. to Pottery.  The college got all new wheels and electric kilns a couple years ago so it's really cool to get in there and teach a class.  Consequently, CCC is where I took my first pottery class back in 1992.

In planning to be away for that evening I roasted a chicken that afternoon.  I wanted to get that all sorted so that Sarah would have dinner when she got home from work and so I could have some before I left to teach.  So I got the chicken all cooked.  I make a really nice roasted chicken.  It's one of our favorite meals.  I broke the chicken down, taking all the meat off the bones and putting it in a container.  I had to go out to the studio for something and was out of the house for about 5 minutes tops.  When I walked back in the house I saw Karma standing in the kitchen with the container of chicken on the floor beside her.  Not a morsel of chicken in sight.  She had knocked it off the counter and eaten that whole fracking thing in a matter of minutes.

So, what could I do.  Nothing.  It was as much my fault for leaving it there so I just cursed a bit and ignored her until I got over it.  I texted Sarah to let her know she'd be on her own for dinner.

Pottery class went great by the way and I'm looking forward to the next 9 weeks of class.  I have some rank beginners, and some with experience.  It's a good mix and I love to teach so I can't wait to get back in there.

So basically that catches me up.  My breakdown yesterday has passed.  I still want a pizza but I figure I just have to do this thing meal but meal until it's over.  We are getting ready to go over and watch football with some folks from CrossFit and have a potluck. That will be fun.  I missed last weeks b/c I was in Atlanta.  Oh speaking of that...

I PASSED MY LEVEL 1 TEST!!!!!  Yay,  I have to say I was a bit nervous.  The test was challenging but I knew a lot of it.  I was so happy to get my email on Thursday night telling me I had passed the course and could now coach.  I think I'll be getting put on the schedule over the next couple weeks at CFS.  It's a whole new experience for me, but I am really excited about it.

Catching Up on Days Missed Part 1.

Okay.  So I'm going to try and do a catch up on the missing days here.  I'll try and be concise since a week passed with no posting.

On Day 10  (I guess you've figured out by now that Jan. 10 = Day10)  I left for Atlanta to go take a Level 1 CrossFit Trainers course.  I prepared a bunch of food to take on the road with me and to have for meals.  I would be staying with a friend but I didn't want him to have to go to much trouble to accommodate me so I planned ahead.   I cooked chicken breasts, salmon cakes, some breakfast sausage, and made a big salad and also took some leftover soup.  Almonds, Rx Bars, and some fruit also came along with me.  What a pain to have to get all that together just to go out of town for  3 days!

On my way to Atlanta I wanted to hit a Chipotle and have a meal there.  I had read on Nom Nom Paleo that I could eat a Whole 30 compliant meal there.

It was delicious and I was happy I could find food on the road if I needed to.

My weekend at CrossFit Atlanta taking the Trainers Course was great.  I learned a lot and got refreshed on many things I've learned at CrossFit Shelby over the past year.  It was 2 days full of learning.  At the end of the day on Sunday we took a written test to decide if we would become Level 1 CrossFit Trainers.

As far as food goes.  Over the weekend I ate my salad and soup and snacked on nuts and Rx Bars.  I try to only eat 1 Rx Bar a day and usually eat 1/2 of a bar at a time.  I did fine while away from home.

On Saturday night I went out with my host and some of his friends for dinner.  I was confident that I could find something on the menu to eat.  Of course they drank beer and ate this:

I exercised self control!  I had a salad with oil and vinegar dressing and an order of oven roasted wings with no sauce (and celery).  That was fine.  Really, it was.  Really.

I had the Chipotle meal 2 more times over the course of the weekend and on the drive home I stopped at Applebee's where I had a steak and a double order of steamed veggies.  It was ok and I made it home.

Monday - Friday of the week was pretty normal.  We ate most of our standbys.  I did make Asian Meatballs one night with Zoodles.  Very yummy.  Actually that was on the 14th when Sarah and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary by going to CrossFit and working out together and then coming home for dinner.  Hopefully we'll have a full on celebration with champagne and fancy meal sometime in February.  

Here are some random meals from the week.  I didn't photograph everything.  So that's a good stopping place for now.   I'll post Part 2 later and talk about a wasted $16 organic chicken.

Day 18

I'm working on a post that covers the week that has passed.  But for now here is just a quick blurb about today.

At 4 o'clock pm I was ready to quit.  I had a plan for dinner and food in the refrigerator but no desire to cook.  Or really to eat what I had planned.  I am just bored with our food right now.  It seems like we are having the same things more or less, over and over.  I wanted pizza!  And I got grumpy and whiney and irritated.  I think I fell back to Kill All Things mode for a while there.

Anyhow, Sarah and I talked and just decided to go out to Smoke on the Square in town where we knew we could get a compliant meal.  We both had a burger, no bun, spring mix, tomato, asparagus, and I had a baked sweet potato (my 3rd of the day) and Sarah had mixed veggies.  That was fine.  It got me through the day and I'm done.  Mark Day 18 off.  I could have made that meal at home no problem, but I was thankful I didn't have to cook or do dishes.

Weekends are hard.  I want to go out, have some comfort food with my friends and be social.  We've got one more weekend to go.  Maybe I can plan ahead to make it through it a bit better.

We are missing food from Chen's, pizza, Sarah wants wine and I want milk.  I'd love to go to Lang Van in Charlotte and have a bowl of lemon grass tofu over fresh herbs and vermicelli noodles.  Ah, that day is coming.

I've been fighting a head cold for 3 days.  Tomorrow I want to just rest.  I think we have meals planned for Day 19 so hopefully I won't freak out again.

Sorry no photos.  I'll try and get that catch up post done tomorrow sometime.

Day 9 Whole 30 Challenge

Okay this is going to be quick b/c it's almost 9pm and I still have pots to glaze and stuff to pack up and ship out tomorrow.

Breakfast:  Something NEW.  Finally.  We modified this recipe a bit to make it Whole 30. (So no bacon, and ghee instead of butter). It was quite good.  I used the julienne blade on the food processor to slice Brussels sprouts.

Sarah added a baked sweet potato to her meal.  She feels like having a couple sweet potatoes a day is really helping her.

Lunch:  I had to run some errands before lunch and when I got home I really just wanted some French fries.  But I toughed it out and ate what was in the fridge.  Leftover burger, steamed green beans, some leftover Brussels hash from breakfast, tomatoes, and a few carrots.  That was fine and I just said, "Okay, done. Go to work. Don't think about food."

I had a bunch of pots to finish up today and it was good to knock them out and get them slipped.   Here are a few images of freshly slipped small dishes.  Ah, if only that was chocolate or a cheesecake. 

For Dinner: I made us a big pot of soup.  I modified this recipe (no beans, no cheese, and I added shredded cooked chicken breast).  I made a super big pot so we'd have leftovers.

No time for anything else.  Posts may be sporadic over the next few days.  Cheers.

Day 8

God it feels like Day 18, but whatever.  Day 8 was actually good.  Normal.  Not crazy.  I am ready for this to be over though.  Sheez.  Okay, so here's the rundown.

Breakfast: Same ingredients different way.  Sarah made us a spinach and tomato omelet, sausage and avocado.

After breakfast Karma and I went on a walk.

We visited the goats at the livestock yard.  They were curious as usual.  (No goat stew remarks).

Had a good 11:30 workout at CrossFit.  Loads of rowing.  I got 25 double-unders in row today, that's my new record.  

Lunch:  Pretty much a repeat of yesterday.  Big salad with hamburger.  I cooked several burgers the other day.  The best way I like to reheat leftover meat (beef, chicken, pork) is usually to do so in a pan or steam it.  I don't usually reheat meat in the microwave b/c it seems to make it weird.  Steaming burgers is a good way to go.

I really wanted some cheese today.  

Work in the studio went well.  I packed up some stuff to go to a show and also made a small run of pots.  Some of these are for mid-range glazes that I am moving forward with.  Hopefully get them through the kiln next week.  

I'm totally wanting to start working with a new clay body.  I need something with a bit more character than this smooth clay.  I may mix up a small batch soon.  Too many ideas, so little time.

I had a snack around 4pm of the leftover Paleo Nuggets from last night and some cold cooked broccoli that was in the fridge.  (I bombed it all with some Frank's Hot Sauce but that was after I took the picture)

Man, I hope I start seeing some physical results from this Whole 30 in the next couple days.  I mean, yes, I feel okay.  But not really that much different than I normally do.  My sleep hasn't been any better and my energy seems about the same.  I need to make it through my training this weekend. If I can do that then maybe I'll be okay.  I'm pretty bored though.  Maybe we just need to get our Direct TV back.  Hell, I don't know.

Anyhow, here's

Dinner:  I got these super hoss organic breasts at Trader Joe's on Monday.  Cooked them tonight following the recipe for Coconut & Almond Crusted Chicken.

 

Dang, these things were huge!  Sarah and I split one and made a big salad to go along with it.  The other one can be somebodies leftover tomorrow for lunch.  They were good and I'd recommend that recipe but really I'd been just as happy pan frying them without the crust.

Usually on Wednesday evenings we'd have gone to Dragonfly and had some wine and hung out with friends.  Now, it's pretty much 9pm and I'm ready for bed.  

Hell, before this I thought I didn't have much of a social life.  On this Whole 30 I'm realizing I had more than I thought.  I'm ready to have it back.

Okay. Good night.

Day 7

Today felt like a normal day. Finally! We got up early had our usual breakfast of eggs and sausage, guacamole, and whatever.  Coffee.  I'm cool with eating mostly the same thing everyday for breakfast.  I do miss some cereal and milk though.  Oh well.  Eggs are good.  Tomorrow I may get crazy and fry them instead.

After breakfast I had to take a heater back to Tractor Supply.  We had gotten it to heat our spare room. (Also, known as Ron's room for when he snores at night).  The girl at the counter tried to make me feel guilty for returning it.  Really, I think it was a dud.  It didn't heat very well and the fan on it was loud. (Keeping me awake and from getting into my good snoring sleep).  Anyway, I didn't let her get to me.  I just told her to refund my credit card.  I hate it that she tried to make me feel bad.  I mean, she looked like hadn't washed her hair in two days and I didn't say a word to her about THAT.

I went back home and ordered a new heater off Amazon.  (I've got two more days on my free trail membership for Amazon Prime which entitles me to 2nd day Free Shipping.  I gotta remember to cancel that before Friday)

I mixed up test glazes in the studio today.  I lost of bunch of pots due a miscalculation in my amber glaze back before Christmas.  It's got me on edge so I'm covering my bases by testing some variations on that glaze.  I always feel like a cool drug dealer when I get my triple beam scale out and weigh some white fluffy power.
Yo, that's 100 grams of strontium carbonate G.
Street value....$0

Lunch:  For lunch I had a Man Salad.  That's just a big ass salad with a hamburger patty.  Yum.  No dressing, just some olive oil and vinegar drizzled on top.  I did add a dollop of my Ron-mayo on the burger though.

I cant' tell you how good it felt to be having a normal day.  Getting back in the studio was helpful.  I was thinking about pots and my next firing, my glazes, and all that stuff.  NOT food.

I helped coach the 4:30 pm class at CrossFit and then worked out at 5:30.  The 4:30 class was huge.  They were all supportive when the coach Traci told them I was going to Atlanta to try to get my Level 1 Certification this weekend.  We have a fun group at CFS and it's cool that we are doing this Whole 30 thing together.

Dinner:  I cooked chicken nuggets in some coconut oil.  They were spiced up and really good.  We also had roasted okra (from Honduras I think.  Again too bad I'm not doing this in summer) and steamed green beans with some ghee on top.  It was yummy and pretty much something we would have had on a week night anyway.

That's a wrap.  Looking forward to Day 8.

Day 6 Whole 30 Challenge

We have made it through Day 6.  It's been pretty fun today with some laughs and sort of weird moments for both me and Sarah I think.  We are both a bit slap happy, grumpy, and slightly violent (me) all at the same time.

We both slept late.  Sarah didn't have to see clients till after lunch and I haven't gotten into full production in the studio just yet.  So we didn't have breakfast till around 11:30 and that counted as lunch too.  Sarah wanted a baked sweet potato w. breakfast so that set us back a little.  We had that with some scrambled eggs w. herbs, sausage, and guacamole.

I've gotten a nice group of mugs and yunomi ready for the bisque kiln.  I'll get them all loaded tomorrow.  I have cups going to a show in Philly and the yumomi are going to Akar in Iowa City.  It's going to be nice to see some new pots come out of the kiln.

I knew we were going to Charlotte this afternoon and evening so I looked at the menu at one of our regular restaurants and figured out what I'd order.  That sort of put me at ease about going out and trying to eat.

We headed to the city around 2 and while Sarah went to work for a couple hours I knocked around a bit and also popped into Harris Teeter and picked up a few things.  I sure miss having Harris Teeter in Shelby.  I also sat in the car outside Sarah's office and studied for my CrossFit Level 1 coaches test which I have coming up this weekend.

While studying a car pulled up in front of me and 3 people got out.  The guy in the passenger seat had 2 big boxes of Krispy Kreme doughnuts in his hands.  He turned and put them back in the car before walking with his friends into Starbucks.  I had a serious urge to get out of the car and get those doughnuts!  It would have been fun to eat like the whole box and just stand there laughing insanely when they came back out.  

After Sarah got off work, and I didn't steal the doughnuts, we drove over to the restaurant for dinner.  Surprise, they are closed on Mondays! Snap.  And I had it all worked out to order.

Okay, fine.  I need to change gears for a second and say this:  This Challenge is really stressing me mentally.  I needed to have something happen and while thinking about where we were going to eat I came to this conclusion.  I'm not going to be so damn strict and beat myself up if things don't go exactly as the food 'rules' state.  I have done really well for 5 days and when dining out I'm not going to be a nit picker or one of those people who ask what's in every damn thing on the menu.  It's annoying.  Now if you have Crohn's disease or some serious allergy then I'm cool with that.  But I don't want to do it and it was a big relief for me to say to Sarah, "Let's go find a restaurant and do the best we can."  She was cool with that and suggested a place we had just passed, 131 Main on East Blvd.

We checked out the menu and I decided on a steak and Sarah on the trout.  We ordered both of those things stating we didn't want any marinades, only salt and pepper.  We declined the potatoes and asked to substitute green beans.  No problem.  They also had kale salad on the menu so we ordered a side of that to split.  Cool.

When the food came I was so happy.  My steak looked delicious.  I rarely cook steak at home so it's a treat for me to go out and get a good one.  The green beans had a sauce on them.  It was a vinaigrette of some sort and more than likely had sugar in it.  The kale salad def. had some bread crumbs and parmesan cheese in it.  I felt like we had done the best we could ordering and I sure as hell wasn't going to send anything back.  I was hungry and that steak had my name on it.  

Man, it was good.  We ate slowly and enjoyed our food and the fact that we weren't being so uptight about this whole/Whole30 thing.  

 Sarah had dug into her trout before we got a picture.

We finished the meal and declined dessert (maybe in a few weeks dude).

So tomorrow is a new Day.  We hit Trader Joe's on the way out of town and picked up some organic chickens and other goodies that are compliant.  We have done really well about sticking to the rules when we cook at home and I'm not going to let tonight's dinner out (with minor violations) dissuade me from continuing on with the Whole 30.  That's a pretty big deal for me.  To give myself some slack and not to worry about any food nazis or nay sayers (real or imagined).

Over and out.

Day 5

It's 7:30 pm on Sunday.  This weekend was extremely dull.  I'm saying that in the nicest possible way.  I'm thinking about this food thing waaaay too much and it's pretty much taken over my brain.

I wish I could look forward to a normal work day tomorrow.  It would probably take my mind off this.  As it stands I'll probably have an early workout and then a few hours in the studio before going to Charlotte.  I'm heading to the city with Sarah.  While she sees a few clients I'm going to go buy clay and then hit Trader Joe's for groceries.  Normally I'd look forward to a trip to TJ's but tomorrows trip just means thinking more about what food I can and cannot eat.

I'm grumpy.  And not satisfied.  And maybe bored.  Really this seems pretty pathetic to feel like this.  Am I that controlled by my food?  Do I need to get a life?  Ha!  Of course the cold and wetness of today has not made me feel like doing a whole lot.  Winter sucks for me anyway.  Maybe I should have taken this on in summer.  When there's tons of good, fresh food around and I am more active.

It's Day 5 and I'm tired of meat, eggs and coconut.  And I sure as hell don't want to see a sweet potato until at least Wednesday.  Maybe tomorrow I just need to focus on salad.

Breakfast:  Pretty much the same old thing except we had some brats from Poverty Creek Farm.

I was okay with that meal.  And we didn't eat till about 11:30 am so we didn't have a lunch.

I spent the afternoon on the computer doing some work and then got in the studio for a little while.  Sarah has been busy on the computer most of the day doing stuff for her work and paying bills and such.  I mentioned that we'd be eating leftover curry for dinner and I don't think either one of us thought much of that.

Sarah has been frustrated.  She never eats much meat to begin with and most of what I have been cooking or thinking about cooking has focused on meat.  I think we are both discouraged.  I joked about going out to get a burger and fries and we reveled in that moment.

Then we heated up the leftovers and had dinner. No pic necessary.

Tomorrow we'll try again.  Breakfast and lunch won't be a big deal.  We will probably be in Charlotte for dinner.  I'm thinking we'll be able to have a successful meal out somewhere that will be nice and satisfying.  I hope so anyway.  I need a boost.

Most of the CrossFit Shelby group are starting the Whole 30 tomorrow.  It will be good to see how they do.  Only a handful of us started on the 1st and we've been supportive on our FB page.  It's gonna blow up this week as more join in I think.  Should be interesting.

Time for a cup of herbal tea and some reading.  Then early to bed I think.

Day 4

I'm so tired of thinking about my food.  It seems to be constantly on my mind.  "What's for breakfast?"  "What's for dinner?" "Do I have spinach?" "Did I thaw out enough beef?" "I want a milkshake!"

Grrrrr.  Okay.  So maybe I am in the "Kill All the Things" stage.  I just want to go about my day.  (And make a damn sandwich for lunch if I want one!)

Breakfast: Nothing new here.  More eggs. Three scrambled eggs, sausage patties.  I did find a bag of prepped celery in the fridge left over from NYE.  So I added a few sticks and a carrot. And a clementine.  And coffee.

I hope you've noticed by now that we have some really nice pottery that we use daily.  If you are having trouble with your Whole 30 experience some nice pottery may be what you need.  I can help  you out. CLICK

Lunch:  Oh wait!

I made mayonnaise today!!  (Pretty sad that that's a highlight)  Anyhow I followed the recipe in It All Starts with Food.  If you don't have the book you can find out how to do it HERE.  Or check out this video HERE.  I had made an attempt to make mayo on Thursday and failed.  Today was a success.  One tip, let your egg (or egg yolk) come to room temp. before you do the blending/whipping.  I used Extra Light tasting Olive Oil from Ingles.  Laura Lynn brand.  The book says Extra Virgin Olive Oil won't work.  

It tasted damn good.  I may just have to give up Dukes!  

Okay.  Lunch:  With my Ron-mayo I prepared tuna salad that we ate on Romain lettuce.  Like a wrap.  We also had more guac.  And for dessert some strawberries with coconut creme drizzled on top.  (That was pretty yummy).

I had a good afternoon in the studio.  No photos, but don't worry you'll not get many more posts that don't include something pottery related. 

Our friends Caroline and Linda came over after lunch to show Sarah the secrets of making kombucha.  We now have a gallon jar with a living organism growing in our kitchen.  I'll try and get a picture of it tomorrow if I can get it to stand still.

Dinner:  We zapped up some zoodles and topped them off with a homemade meat sauce.  I needed some red meat.  I think that helped me be less cranky.  Zoodles are easy to make.   This is a meal we've had several times.  We pretty much gave up pasta months ago.  I slice the zucchini using my mandolin.  You could also use one of THESE but I get lots of different uses out of the mandolin so it's the tool I invested in. (I mainly use it to cut French fries or sweet potato fries).

To cook the zoodles just sauté them up in a bit of olive oil.  You may have to do it in two batches.

I continued to have a very mild head ache all day.  I'm not really loving this Whole 30 thing.  It's very psychological for me.  It's also something to obsess over, which I am bad enough at already (just look at me blogging about it for god's sake!).  It is a good lesson in non attachment.  

‘Attachment is the origin, the root of suffering; hence it is the cause of suffering.’

Damn those Buddhists!  So smart!!

Okay. Well that's all I got for now.  It's fracking 8:30 pm on a Saturday night, I'm home, no beer, no salty, buttery popcorn for my Netflix watching.  Grrrrrrr.