Asian Cole Slaw for Company (Whole30/Paleo Version)

Well, really, we were the company. Kind neighbors invited our family over for (perfectly) grilled salmon tonight and this was our humble offering.

They know I'm doing the Whole30, so we agreed that I'd bring a side dish that satisfied my current dietary needs. This more than worked out. Everybody was pleased and it took all of ten minutes to assemble. Make it! xoxo E-NC

Asian Cole Slaw (W30/Paleo version)

Yields 6-8 generous side servings, more if there are many sides available

For slaw

6 cups shredded cabbage (I used a bagged mix which had carrots too)

Handful (or three) of chopped cilantro

Handful of chopped mint

2-3 seedless oranges or 2 mangoes, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces (Cara Cara oranges are the best if you can your hands on some)

1 jalapeño, minced (optional)

1/2 teaspoon salt

For dressing

Zest and juice 1-2 limes (at least 3 tablespoons juice)

Juice of half an orange

2 tablespoons coconut aminos

2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil

2 tablespoons olive oil or melted coconut oil

1 tablespoon fish sauce (or 2 teaspoons more coconut aminos + 1/4 teaspoon salt)

Toss cabbage with salt in a large serving bowl. Add oranges, chopped herbs, and jalapeño, if using. Place all dressing ingredients in a bowl and whisk together. Pour dressing on salad ingredients and toss everything together. Taste and adjust seasonings. Add a little more lime juice or a splash of rice vinegar if it tastes flat or oily. Add up to 1/2 teaspoon salt if it's almost there but needs some gussying up. Allow to rest for at least 15 minutes and up to 2 hours before eating. Leftovers are good too, stored in refrigerator, but not as fresh and beautiful as the first day's version.

Days 11 and 12: I Didn't Give Up!

I was just busy! Because, even though it seems like my entire life consists of Whole30, it does not. I have people to teach, menus to plan, board meetings to attend, leadership initiatives to advance, folders to stuff, cardboard to cut, iron to pump, shoes to get repaired, library books to return, library fines to pay. Oh and also children to raise, spouse to support, laundry to fold, dishes to wash. It's more than a day's work. So sometimes I don't get to the blogs, even when I fully intend them to be a priority.

The good news is that I have stayed committed! I am stronger and clearer-headed and more even-tempered and have not had to nap since Wednesday. I have an unfamiliar can-do attitude about things right now. My theory: the result of combined W30 compliance (i.e. if I can do this, I can do anything!) and enhanced mental clarity. I want to get organized, get up earlier, accomplish more, delve deeper into everything important to me. I've made it to daily Mass twice, addressed work issues and responded to emails almost expeditiously, lifted heavier weights, returned phone calls in a more timely fashion, mapped out our summer. Most significantly, my jeans are loose.

The bad news is that I have super mixed feelings about what I'm learning about food and how it affects my body. Sugar is the devil. I get it. BUT. I don't think I wanted to learn how horrible it can make one feel once the habit of it's been placed on hold. This morning I drank a Naked Juice that was technically compliant (though not recommended). I wasn't even thirsty, but I was somewhere where I had to buy something in order to occupy a particular space (and use space in question's wi-fi), and I thought a little juice would taste nice. To be safe, I only drank half of it (one serving). Also important: I had eaten an ample breakfast about an hour prior, so I wasn't loading up on sugar on an empty stomach. Nevertheless! Within five minutes my body revolted against me/it. I had horrible cramps and nausea and a little bit of shakes. It went away after about forty-five minutes, but all day my stomach has continued to feel varying degrees of unsettled.

I don't think I mind being a normal person who's stomach can decently tolerate all kinds of foods, including sugar, however poisonous it is. Isn't that one of the rad things about being human? And raccoon? Certainly, I don't want to be a high maintenance eater who gets sick from a swig of juice. Dining out with a tree nut allergy is annoying enough! These thoughts are all troubling me. Also - I can't remember if I've mentioned this before - but raw tomatoes have started to give me an itchy mouth. They never have before. Is the W30 Challenge causing me to develop new sensitivities? Because that is not what I'm after. What I was after was information. This was about as scientific an experiment as I get to do these days. I didn't anticipate such drastic changes however, and I find some of them disconcerting.

Those are today's (and yesterday's) impressions. I'll finish up with the food now. Have a lovely weekend! xoxo E-NC

Thursday, Day 11

Breakfast at 7:30: "The Usual" - sauerkraut, kale scramble topped with salsa

Post-workout snack at 10:30: Raw bar (felt right - I've stopped obsessing about workout food and am just eating something W30-approved immediately post-workout)

Lunch at 1 pm: big salad with almonds, seeds, beets, avocado, sprouts, arugula and romaine and last of my herbed mustard vinaigrette. AND A BLACK COFFEE. That is mega. You have no idea how mega.

Dinner part 1 at 8:30: chicken thigh from work (no picture - I promise, you don't want one)

Dinner part 2 at 9:30: cold red roast (not bad, but not worth photographing), microwaved sweet potato with coconut oil

That sweet potato was stupid delicious.

Friday, Day 12

Breakfast at 7:30 am: The Usual. (Yes, I'm over it, but it tastes good and doesn't require thinking. I am newly appreciative of the benefits of some routine in one's life.)

Poison at 8:45 am: Naked Juice

Lunch at 1 pm: W30 curry tuna burgers, arugula, guacamole (not pictured: seconds) (so good! W30 variation on these guys - revised recipe forthcoming!)

Dinner at 6:15 pm: Salmon with olive oil, W30 Asian cole slaw (a variation on my favorite salad - I'll share revised no sugar/alcohol/grain recipe soon!)

I also had two LaCroix grapefruit sparkling waters, an iced coffee, some herbal tea, and a ton of water today. More thirsty than hungry for some reason. Let me reiterate: I am barely ever hungry. Even yesterday, as I watched my thirteen lovely students and two coworkers eat food I'd helped to prepare, conscious of the fact that I wasn't probably going to eat for seven waking hours, I was not hungry. When I got home though, I needed food fast. Hence cold roast, which totally hit the spot.

Day 10: Just the Food

I am tired. I think a whole bunch of the stuff that was supposed to happen to me earlier is happening now. Like, I'm breaking out, I've taken naps two afternoons in a row (this is v. unlike me), I'm finally crashing at night but I'm not as refreshed in the morning as I felt last week. My body is learning how to get energy from fat and it's a steep learning curve.

So I'm going to bed soon but wanted to stay on top of my food tracking, and also I wanted to share something from the Whole30 website:

Days 10-11: The Hardest Days.

Fact: you are most likely to quit your Whole30 program on Day 10 or 11. By this point, the newness of the program has worn off. You’ve made it through most of the unpleasant physical milestones, but you’ve yet to experience any of the “magic” the program promises. You’re still struggling to establish your new routine (read: you’ve eaten eggs prepared ten different ways over the last ten days), and while you’ve been trying really hard to have a good attitude, today you are incredibly aware of all the foods you’re “choosing not to eat right now.”  Everywhere you look, you see the things you “can’t” have: the melted cheese on a greasy burger, the creaminess of that double-scoop cone, the cold beer in your best friend’s tailgate cooler. Dammit, this is hard! And right now you’re wondering if the results will really be as good as “they” all say it is.

You’re cranky, you’re impatient, and you’re really, really tempted to just eat the stupid cheese.

This is where you really start to experience the psychological hold that your food habits have on you. You’ve put in a lot of effort to get to where you are right now, but you’re still waiting for the results you’re hoping to see. Your  brain tells you that you deserve some kind of reward (don’t you?) and, of course, we’ve been conditioned to think of food as the best reward out there. Right now, you’re craving that ice cream, beer, or whatever treat you think would make for just the right reward. But, instead of that treat, you’re standing face to face with the realization that you have 20 more days of deprivation ahead of you.

The key here is to redefine your idea of reward.  Think long and hard about the foods you’re grieving and ask yourself what need you’re expecting them to fulfill.  Are you feeling anxious and looking for reassurance?  Are you feeling sad, and looking for something to cheer you up? Are you worried you won’t successfully finish the program, and it’s easier to self-sabotage than fail? Remind yourself that food cannot fill that void for you—cannot make you feel truly accomplished, comforted, calm, happy, beautiful. Then, find another way to fill that need that does not involve those foods. Prepare yourselves for these days, knowing that all you have to do is see them through to the other side before things get much, much easier.

To which I reply: YES. I do want a reward. Unfortunately, I want that reward to be a latte and scone, ideally with clotted cream on it. Where can I get a scone with clotted cream in this town anyway?

This morning, I wasn't hungry. I had chicken stock for breakfast at 7:30. Then, at about 9, on our way out the door to the YWCA, I ate a handful of nuts and a spoonful of coconut oil. I worked out hard from 9:40-10:30, ate a Lara Bar, and then swam for twenty minutes, showered, and walked home alongside my scootering son.

At 12 pm, I ate lunch: leftover chile verde stew + 2 scrambled eggs with salsa + crumbled kale chips + a few barely compliant packaged baked green peas. I have been settling for barely compliant when I work out. It's just too much to think about otherwise.

At 2:30-3ish pm, I had a second lunch: roast beef, carrots, celery, plantain chips.

At 5:15 pm, we ate dinner - a little earlier than I would have liked, but I had a meeting to go to. I made a W30 version of my favorite red roast. I subbed orange juice for mirin, and a combination of coconut aminos, chicken stock, and fish sauce for the soy sauce. It wasn't the same, but it was still slow-cooked roast, which tasted good but left my house smelling overpoweringly of fish sauce. I ate my roast on a salad of romaine, arugula, cilantro, sprouts, avocado, and some plantains that I pan-fried and cut into crouton-like bits. Dressed the salad with pan juices. It was fine but nothing to write home about. Nothing to blog about for sure. I never really use soy sauce that often but I sure miss it since starting the W30. I think because it makes meat taste good, and I'm eating a lot more meat than usual.

At the meeting, the smell of grocery store bakery cookies was all kinds of intense. My senses of smell and taste have become hypersensitive. I expected that about as much as I expected the irresistible urge to nap at 1:40 pm two days in a row.

Ten down, twenty to go. That sounds so not close to the end. Carry on warriors.

Day 9: It's All About the Sauces, featuring... Garlicky Sunbutter Sauce + Herbed Mustard Vinaigrette

I teach a class called Sauces 101, but I think "It's All About the Sauces" is much sexier. Next time we throw it into the mix, I'm changing it. Because seriously, one of the eight hundred things I've learned about myself and food in the last nine days is that sauces can sure make a meal. Especially when the meal is eggs. Again.

In the spirit of sharing what I'm learning, I'm going to share two sauce recipes today. Both are versions of personal favorites, which I enjoy at home and use in class. Both make everything taste good.

W30 Super Garlicky Sunbutter Sauce

Makes about 1 1/2 cups / 6+ servings

5 cloves garlic

1/2 cup Sunbutter

1/3 cup coconut aminos

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

2-3 pitted dates

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 raw or cooked carrot (optional - thickens it up a bit)

Blend everything until smooth. Serve with chicken, shrimp, anything grilled, noodles, quinoa, fresh or sautéed vegetables, or over salad. We enjoyed it (twice) with carrots, green beans, shrimp, baby spinach, and kelp noodles. This afternoon I enjoyed it on a green salad. Scrumptious.

The Super Garlicky Peanut version of this sauce, as featured in my Quick Weeknight Meals class, is as follows: Blend together 5-10 cloves garlic, 1/2 cup peanut butter, 1/2 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar (or rice vinegar or white wine vinegar), 3 tablespoons honey, 1 tablespoon sesame oil. Everybody loves it. It totally makes the veggies go down.

Herbed Mustard Vinaigrette 

Makes 1 cup / 6-8 servings

Note: This dressing is always W30 compliant unless you use mustard with wine or some other prohibited food in it. Natural Value Dijon works and that is what I used.

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/3 cup white wine vinegar or red wine vinegar or white balsamic vinegar or champagne vinegar*

1 tablespoon dijon or grainy mustard

1 shallot or 1/4 red onion, minced

6 leaves fresh basil (or more), minced (I also used some oregano because I had it)

1 teaspoon dried Italian herbs or Bouquet Garni (I used 1/2 teaspoon marjoram + 1/2 teaspoon Bouquet Garni)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

Place everything in a jar and shake well.

* If all you have is balsamic, go for it, with this caveat: if it's really high quality, just go balsamic vinegar + olive oil and save this dressing for another time. It won't shine amidst all the herbs and mustard.

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And now for your daily dose of W30 mumbo-jumbo!

Today was harder than previous days. I worked out hard and also swam a few laps as a cool down. Yesterday or maybe the day before I mentioned that my body composition is changing. This was much more obvious in the pool. I felt more buoyant, and faster. This, after skipping the pool for ten days! And after a v. challenging HIIT/Chisel class. I don't want to downplay how this feels. It's rad! 

So that was the good part of the day. The bad part is that I'm exhausted and insatiable. I have not figured out what to eat post-workout. Historically, I'd have coffee with milk in the morning, work out an hour or two later, shower at the gym, then come home (or go to Lucia's) and eat an enormous lunch. I am trying to follow the W30 eating template, however, which calls for pre- and post-workout meals, separate from your other meals. The workout-contingent food is a bonus! Except that I don't want to prepare another meal. Three is hard enough! Today I thought I was super on it, working out within two hours of breakfast and bringing a post-workout banana and two tuna-sweet potato cakes in a cooler to the gym. I ate them right after my shower and they felt good. But I was ravenous by the time we came home. I ate what I thought was a decent lunch (it followed the W30 guidelines, anyway), but I was still hungry. So then I had three Navitas chia snacks (they are kind of like Lara Bars, but smaller and with a few more ingredients, all W30-compliant)... and a handful of nuts... and some strawberries... and some plantain chips and a few olives. All decidedly snacky foods that were unsatisfying but handy. What was not handy: a giant burger and fries. I contemplated for a long while whether I was hungry or something else. I think I was tired (I took something like a power nap a little later - a closed-eyed lie down with Bob the Builder whining at me from 22 centimeters away - which, surprisingly, still ended up being refreshing), but mostly hungry. Maybe I need more fat, but I thought I wasn't supposed to have much post-workout. I don't know. Pardon my rambling. This is something I should have probably taken to the W30 forum, where, invariably, a moderator tells the newbie like me to chill out and to eat a sweet potato.

That marks the end of today's impressions. Other than that I really want an iced latte.

What I ate:

Breakfast at 7:20 am - 2 eggs, spinach, salsa, coconut oil (same as yesterday; why mess with a good thing?)

Post-workout meal at 11:10 am - 2 tuna-sweet potato cakes, banana

Lunch at 12 pm - salad with red lettuce, egg, tomatoes, roast beef, sprouts, cilantro

Post-lunch snacks (no picture) - chia snacks, nuts, strawberries, plantain chips, olives, chicken stock

Dinner at 5:30 pm - leftover sausage and roasted vegetables, green beans with mustard vinaigrette, apple, spoonful of coconut oil 

Board meeting snacks - about 2 liters of water, while everyone else enjoyed chocolate and lemon-thyme shortbread

Tomorrow night I'll be a third done. Hooray!