Wholesome

Note to self: do not have a massive pissup the night before you start a full-on clean eating regime.  I spent day1 of whole30 lying on the sofa groaning and ready to murder a small child for a coke.  Luckily I had only prepared paleo food for the party so I had oodles of healthy whole30 compliant leftovers to eat.

I even had raspberries to put in my fizzy water to give myself the teeniest sugar boost or at least feel as if I was having a treat.  I did thank the Lord for the spicy nuts - definitely going to have to make another batch of those once I've inhaled the remains of the party nuts.  They are really easy to make - big bag of nuts in the oven to dry roast, melt some butter and mix in a handful of finely chopped rosemary, 1/2 tsp of cayenne, tsp of smoked paprika, 2 tsp brown sugar, add nuts, shake it all about, serve.
For anyone who doesn't get to suffer being bombarded with my endless status updates on Facebook, Whole30 is a 30 day 'clean up' regime where you eat clean, cutting out sugar, grains, legumes, and dairy (unfortunately cutting out sugar means cutting out alcohol - but my liver needed a rest anyway!)  Typically days 1-7 involve carb hangovers, headaches, tiredness and general grumpiness at not being able to reach for a choccy bar whenever you want.  It does however 'reset' your body to stop craving sugar and allows you to really taste what is in your food (fruit for example starts to taste really sweet and sugar laden desserts just become too sweet and overpowering).

Sooo my normal hangover snacks would include a big bag of chocolate, fat coke, tropical lucozade, some chinese style snacks from Sainsburys, and a takeaway curry with peshwari naan.  Saturday's regime included spiced chicken thighs, guacamole, spicy nuts, raw vegetable crudites, sweet potato fries and smoked paprika mayonnaise with sparking water and raspberries.  I also had some slow cooked pork and apple in the fridge so I heated that up and had it with guacamole for dinner.   I can't say there wasn't a huge tiny part of me that just wanted to inhale a large bar of Green & Black's, but I felt too ill to leave the house and buy chocolate stuck with it through sheer iron will and determination.

After about 12 hours sleep Day 2 dawned and I dragged myself bounced out of the flat to go to an open session at Crossfit to be greeted by "Wow, you actually made it!".  Hmmm I think I have been giving out the wrong impression as to my levels of dedication and determination.  Mistake number 2 of the weekend was to go to the open session without a plan.  Normally I have a workout in my head - 20 minutes of mobility, 20 minutes of technique work on something at which I do not excel (plenty to choose from!) and 20 minutes alternating strength and cardio for a minute each.  Everybit of me hurt today, including both my thoracic and lumbar so I wasn't happy doing deadlifts or squats.  I went for extra mobility,  and then 4 sets of 5 pullups with a green band and 10 sets of 10 american swings with 12kg.  Nothing very taxing but all stuff I haven't been able to do for about 6 months since my shoulder went mad and I had to shoot it.

Then I came home and rustled up a yummy paleo brunch.  I still can't say I'm not willing to kill passing strangers for craving chocolate, but I am going to weigh and measure my self now and that should be enough to make me cry more determined to stick to it for 30 days.