Whole30 Day 17 - WF NE meeting to Another Day in NYC...

Good Morning NYC:-)

After my Whole Foods meeting meeting I worked out at CrossFit Hell's Kitchen...

WOD: Double Grace (60 Clean & Jerks #95/135)

Then I went to Times Square, stood in line for Broadway tickets. 

You can get 40%-60% off face-value tickets the day of the show if you have time to wait in line.

Then walked to Whole Foods Market Columbus Circle to check out our products and grab some Whole30 approved snacks.

Thank goodness I had a healthy lunch before walking the streets because this was a street a used to walk when I was a younger and was very tempted from a few of my go-to spots...

The Soup Nazi, from the Seinfeld, really serves up amazing soup...

Pick-A-Bagel, probably one of the best NY bagel shops in NYC...

A hot dog or pretzel from any NY stand, totally nostalgically delicious:-(

Anyhow, bypassed all that and checked out our product at Whole Foods.

Then hit the salad bar and got some snacks for the trip home tomorrow.

Then headed to see 'Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night', which I highly recommend. It was't your average Broadway musical. Actually there was't much singing or dancing at all.

Today's Stats
Water Consumption:

110 oz - I need more water

Sleep:

6 hours

My body couldn't go to sleep because my body didn't know what time zone it was in:-(

Daily Meals:

7am - Coconut Milk Latte & 2 Hard Boil Eggs

11am - Handful Macadamia Nuts & Homemade Chicken Salad

2pm - Salad & Sashimi

6:30pm - Salad from Whole Foods Market

Whole30 Day 12 - Another Long Day

From Extended Stay America to Whole Foods NA Category Review to CrossFit Medusa to HealthWorks to CrossFit Back Bay to PPL Labs to The Club by George Foreman lll to San Diego for a bachelorette party (on the Whole30)...

Was it serendipitous that I stayed at Extended Stay America...???

There are perks staying at Extended Stay America...

Woke up to an image of Carl's Jr Thickburger on 
Good Morning America...
I couldn't even image how I'd feel after eating one of those...

CrossFit Medusa, a woman's only CrossFit Box.


The Club by George Foreman 111

Look who it is...???

A snack before my 6 1/2 hour flight from Boston to San Diego. Although my tuna salad was good, the guy's pizza next to me looked a lot better:-(

Temptations all over the place. 
Jet Blue actually handed out FREE snacks. 
No airline does that anymore... 

Ate a quick dinner before I met my friends out at the bar...
Whole30 TIP
Try and eat before you meet up people, then you won't be tempted!

Should I stay or should I go...???

Well, I went and it wasn't hard to stay Whole30 compliant:-)

Today's Stats
Water Consumption:

90 oz - I need more water

Sleep:

6 1/2 hours

If I didn't get re-directly to Extended Stay America, I would've gotten to bed earlier and slept in a more comfortable bed.

Daily Meals:

7:30am - Coconut Milk Latte

7:45am - 2 Hard Boiled Eggs

11am - 3 Pieces Beef Jerky

2pm - 3 Pieces Beef Jerky

4:30pm - Tuna Salad, Carrots, Broccoli & Asparagus

6:30pm - Handful Macadamia Nuts

9:30pm - Homemade Chicken Salad and Veggies

Whole30 Day 11 - What a Long Day:(

From Atlanta to Boston to CrossFit City Line to Dinner at New Ginza to Whole Foods Newton to Westin & Redirected to Extended Stay America and Finally to Sleep...

Traveling on the Whole30...??? 

TIP

Travel with the tools you need to start your day off right 

and in your routine. It might take up some space in your suitcase (like my Mini Magic Bullet), but it helps sets the tone for the day.

Worked out at CrossFit City Line, great facility, great coaching & great community:-)

Ate dinner and then headed to the Westin Hotel to get some sleep, so I thought...

Maybe if I cried, they'd find me a room:-(

All I wanted to do was get some sleep...

Today's Stats
Water Consumption:

120 ounces
YEAH, I'm finally drinking enough water!

Sleep:

8 hours - YEAH!!!

Daily Meals:

10am - Coconut Milk Latte with Macca

10:30am - Homemade Chicken & Egg Salad

11:30m - 3 Pieces Beef Jerky

3pm - Homemade Chicken & Egg Salad

4:30pm - 3 Pieces Beef Jerky & Handful Macadamia Nuts

8pm - Dinner: Sashimi & Hamachi Collar & Eel (for dessert)

Day 29 on the Whole30 - DONE in Atlanta!

What a flippin' day...

I wake at 5am to teach.

I immediately went home and finished packing for my trip to Atlanta, another Whole Foods trip. 

Starting from top left, I packed mixed nuts (unsalted), homemade beef jerky (dry rub), veggies (carrots, snap peas and cherry tomatoes), figs, homemade ginger-jalapeño pesto sauce (much thicker than last time so I don't get harassed by the TSA), homemade chicken & egg salad (coated in pesto sauce), veggie noodles with seared salmon, blender bottles and supplements.

My third trip on the Whole30, I feel like a pro Whole30'er on the road. I got so my tips and tricks traveling while on the Whole30. 

I get to the airport without any stress, unlike last week. I had over a hour before my flight. Departure was at 11:59 and I was checking in at 10:45am. For some reason the kiosk prompted me to talk to an attendant who informed me that it was too early to check-in. 'But my flight leaves in about hour', I said anxiously. 'Your flight leaves at 11:59pm tonight and arrives at 4:30am tomorrow morning', she said with smirk. 'WHAT! When did Frontier start doing over night flights?' 

I asked if there was any connecting flights I could take to get me to Atlanta today. She politely checked as she shook her head no. It takes days for me to recover from red eye flights, but I was stuck. I had no other choice then return later tonight for my flight. At least I my hotel room is booked for two nights so I had a place to crash for a few hours before my 11:30am meeting tomorrow. 

I left the airport stunned (I can't believe I did that), but also grateful. I had the whole to ahead to be productive and I took full advantage of that! 

I was so exhausted by the end of the day I took a Uber ride to the airport instead of driving. I thought it would be less stressful, but it wound up being more stressful because the driver drove so slow I didn't think I was going to make my flight:-( 

Anyhow, I wound up making it, took 2 Night Rest (herbal pills to promote sleep) upon check-in, fell asleep upon take-off and woke in Atlanta about 2 1/2 hours later.

Todays' Stats

Water Consumption

120 ounces

Sleep

Who knows...about 2 hours:-(

Daily Meals

5:30am - Morning Beverage : Coconut Milk Latte with MCT oil

8am - Breakfast : Fried Eggs & Sautéd Veggies 

12pm - Snack : Homemade Beef Jerky & Nuts

2pm - Lunch : Seared Salmon & Homemade Veggie Noodles

8pm - Dinner : Seared Bone-In Pork Chop & Homemade Veggie Noodles and Kale

I love my new spiral slicer. I spiral sliced a bunch of veggies on Sunday (prep day) and cook them as needed.

Day 23 on the Whole30 - DONE & Back from Austin...

So as soon as I checked into my hotel I ordered a refrigerator. It's actually a standard accommodation in most hotels nowadays. I stocked it with all my food and made sure the cooler wasn't too high so my food wouldn't freeze overnight like the last time.

I woke up at 7am and felt pretty good so I had a little frittata and few supplements and headed to CrossFit Central  to take the 7:45am class. 

1 Pull Clean & 1 Thruster, EMOM x 10, followed by a mini metcon. Afterwards, feeling good, I headed to Whole Foods to get coconut milk and an americano. I couldn't wait to get back to my room to make my coconut milk latte. Although a little tricky to figure out I finally opened the can opener with my traveling can opener.

I poured the coconut milk into the americano, turned on the frother and dipped it slowly in...NOTE: Turn the frother on after you've immersed the end into the coffee or it will spray everywhere!!! OOPSIES:-(

The frother worked OK, but my morning Pick-Me-Up was just not the same as the one I can make at home with my Nutri-Bullet:-( Either way, it was better than nothing.

After some computer work, I met my brokers at Whole Foods for a meeting and to my surprise their salad bar was labeled the way it should be labeled...the way they make us (as suppliers/vendors) label things. I voiced my concerns to them over a year ago and although nothing has changed yet in our region (Rocky Mountain) I've seen changes in the Southwest region (where global is located) which means there should be changes in other regions soon which makes me so very excited.

What changes am I talking? 

Well, many of the Whole Foods salad bars don't include the finer print. For example, the hard-boiled eggs...are they organic, free range, pastured raised, conventional? You might assume they are organic because it's Whole Foods, but I think they are probably conventional because it's not labeled. It's a marketing thing, right. Well, the question has finally been answered since they've decided to label it.

Cage-Free Organic eggs...Well, they aren't pastured raised, but who's really keeping track...Now, if they could only start using coconut oil instead of canola oil in some of their prepared foods, that would be amazing...I might not cook as much...???

After my meeting I went to my table top where I met all the SW GTL (Southwest Grocery Team Leads). These are the guys that make execution at their store happen which means better sales and team loyalty for our brand. In order to get their buy-in and create a buzz for them to bring back their store I had to give out tons of FREE SWAG (shirts, cooler gloves, stickers, buttons, free tea). 

After the show I headed to a few stores to check product then I went to the airport. And guess what? Yep, TSA wanted to confiscate my pesto sauce and chicken salad again. Well, my little white lie worked again. So if you are ever get in that situation (Christine) just tell them you have severe food allergies and you won't eat for days if they take your food away from you. 

Blogged on the plane ride back as I ate my 'almost confiscated two-time homemade chicken salad'...

Today's Stats

Water Consumption

125 ounces

Sleep 

7 1/2 hours

Daily Meals

7am : Breakfast - Frittata

9am : Coconut Milk Latte

12pm : Salmon Sashimi & Salad with Avocado, Pico de Gallo, Shredded Carrots & Squash

4pm : Snack - Homemade Jerky & Nuts

6pm : Snack - 2 Hard Boiled Eggs

8am : Dinner - Homemade Chicken Salad 

Day 22 on the Whole30 - Austin Bound...

So I'm heading out of town again on a business trip. This time to Austin for a Whole Foods meeting and regional table top show...

I planned and prepped all day Sunday to ensure I had another successful trip on the Whole03. I even went to Sur la Table and bought a can opener and frother for my Coconut Latte.

I brought my homemade beef jerky, raw/unsalted mixed nuts, figs, homemade chicken/egg/olive salad in a cilantro/coconut milk/jalapeno/lime pesto sauce (cabbage wraps), side of pesto sauce, lamb/veggie frittata and supplements...

I had over two hours to get to the airport, plenty of time, I thought... until I hit Route 36. It was a parking lot going eastbound. After traveling 1 mile in 20 minutes a cop car parted the double lanes and I realized I was going to miss my flight. A burst of anxiety rushed over me and for some reason I screamed at the top of my lungs while hitting the driving wheel. My dad used to do this all time when he was stuck in traffic (which was everyday to and from work  as he crossed the GW bridge between NJ & NYC - a 12 mile trip took him 2 hours on a good day). 

Anyhow, I've never reacted this way to traffic before, but for some reason that scream calmed my nerves and I began thinking straight again. I followed a few cars who jumped on a construction ramp to exit and made my way over to Table Mesa, bypassing the traffic. YEAH! I was out of that mess, but I still needed to get to the airport on time.

As I hit the toll road I also hit the pedal. I finally slowed down to 50 mph as I exited Pena Boulevard. NOTE: that spot is the biggest speed trap in Colorado...And sure enough, a cop was gunning cars down at the exact same place I got a speeding ticket about a year ago... 

By the time I got to the airport I was exhausted from all the adrenal racing through my body, but there was no time to spare, I had to rush to make my flight...

No lines at security, awesome! I walked through seamlessly until a TSA guy said he needed to check my bag. I pulled the liquid tea samples from my bags at my car since I knew I had no time to check my bag. 'What else could be in there?'... 

Well, it turns out that they considered my chicken salad and pesto sauce a liquid and they wanted to confiscate it. I wish I had my reaction on video...what a sight!!! There was NO WAY I was going to let them do that, so I quickly made-up a little white lie. I had to, you have no idea how much time and love I put into making that chicken salad and pesto sauce. 

"I have really bad food allergies. I'm lactose and gluten intolerant, among other things, so I have to travel with my food. If you take it I won't have anything to eat for a couple of days." 

Well, after a few minutes of him getting approval from his manager, he gave it back to me and I headed to my gate.

Note to self: don't make such a soupy sauce next time or maybe freeze it and also use it as a ice pack to chill my food.

After my Whole Foods meeting, I checked into my hotel exhausted, but I mustered up just energy and to go to CrossFit Central. I mean what else was I going to do, hit the hotel bar and order a burger and fries...

The WOD and the community was just what I needed to get me through that Happy Hour urge I was feeling. CrossFit Central is my go-to box when I'm in Austin. I would recommend it to anybody. 

For some reason, I was thinking about during the workout was where I was going to get a big, fat, juicy Texas steak. I hadn't really eaten all day. I think that adrenal rush left my stomach unsettled.

Anyhow, after CrossFit, I walked aimlessly downtown while yelping steakhouses. After about 20 minutes, I stumbled into Fleming's Steakhouse. I usually try and stay away from the chains, but it was close and I was hungry. 

I informed the waiter that I was allergic to gluten and dairy. He said no worries, he'll tell the cooks to use oil instead of butter. 'Great, I'll have the Bone-In NY Ribeye and grilled asparagus.' Ordering was easy and although I sat at the bar, I didn't even crave a glass of wine. All I was craving was a piece of meat.

After dinner I made my way back to the hotel, took a hot bath and blogged. I turned my lights out around 11pm with the 'intention' of going to CrossFit Central for the 7:45am class...

Today's Stats

Water Consumption

135 ounces

Sleep

  7 hours

Daily Meals

5:30am - Morning Beverage : Coconut Milk Latte with MCT oil

7am - Morning Beverage : Homemade Bone Broth

7:30am - Breakfast : Fritatta

4pm - Snack : Nuts & Beef Jerky

7pm - Dinner : Bone-In NY Ribeye & Grilled Asparagus