The 2nd last day of my Whole30. It's not even hard anymore.. And while it'll be over by Tuesday, I have already started planning some meals for next week, and they're all as strict as I have been eating over the last 29 days.
I'm certainly not in a hurry to add nuts and more fruits to my diet again. I do know that I will enjoy those next week, but not that much. Perhaps some berries and some walnuts. Not sure yet!
Today was a pretty relaxing day again, except for the workout I did this morning:
- 5 rounds of 7x clean-front squat-press-back squat-press
I started out with 20kg, but went back to 15kg because my clean technique was suffering from it. I'd rather do this correctly with less weight, than tiring myself out and suck at it at the same time.
Then we went on to the deadlifts! I like those much better :)
Here's what we did:
1 - 10 - 1 - 20 - 1 - 30 reps (I did: 50kg - 40kg - 52,5kg - 40kg - 57,5kg - 40kg)
Why the 57,5kg? I wanted to be able to deadlift my own weight, feels pretty awesome that you can actually lift yourself.
We finished the whole workout off with 25 pull ups.
Back home I almost fell asleep on the couch, hmm.. But after an hour of resting I felt fine again and started working on my trip planning, once again. I only need to look up a few things about Chicago and that's it!
But for now, I'm going to show you what I ate today and then I'm off to bed.
Breakfast:
Grilled trout, fried egg, 1/2 avocado and oven roasted broccoli
Lunch:
3 egg fritatta with celery and cinnamon, baba ghanoush and some oven roasted beets
Dinner:
Lettuce, carrot and beet salad with chives, smoked mackerel and sardines
On to day 26. Just 4 more days to go, and hopefully less than that to beat this virus.
I actually felt slightly worse this morning, but I took a whole lot of rest (the weather sucks over here so I didn't even go outside..) and am starting to feel better already. Let's hope another easy day tomorrow will work like magic, so I'll be all better by Saturday!
I mostly did some holiday planning today, and cooked a few dishes. It's nice to just be at home, taking your time to cook a good meal, allowing you to get a little more creative. Of course it isn't nice to be at home because you're not feeling well, but it's important to always look on the bright side!
Regarding my trip (just 2 more weeks!!), I'm going to drive all the way to Oregon City (near Portland) for a workout at CrossFit Oregon City and figured I might as well go to the Multnomah Falls, which are close by. I've seen some pictures of those and they look absolutely stunning! I love waterfalls.. I don't think there's anything more beautiful in nature.
I better keep a travel dairy next month, to keep track of what I did on which day as I've got so many things planned. Might be interesting to keep some sort of food log as well so I can do a 'how-to' blog post on road trip food.
Hmm, I guess I'm going to finalize my 'planning' (which is always subject to change) tomorrow.
Here are my meals for day 26 of the Whole 30!
Breakfast:
Egg salad, leftover ground beef and stir-fried swiss chard with some coconut milk
Lunch:
Tomato fish curry with a salad
Dinner:
Pumpkin and swiss chard mash, with a diced cooked chicken breast and chives, and some tomatoes
In my opinion, a satisfying, filling breakfast really gives you a good start for the day. In the mornings, my digestive system seems to work most efficiently and I often find myself getting hungry again before my lunch break at work. (which is when I take a quick walk to the restaurant and buy myself a boiled egg and sometimes a tomato as well)
And it doesn't just work until lunch, everytime I get hungry before lunchtime, I will also get even more hungry before dinner. Hunger makes cycling back home, motivating myself to cook a nice dinner, and not collapsing on the couch afterwards become pretty hard. Let alone going for a workout in the evening!
So, a good breakfast is key!
The breakfast I made this morning will certainly keep me going for a longer time and I'll be energized all through the day. I served this fritatta with 1/2 avocado on top, really good!
Oh and something completely different; I booked the perfect accomodation for Yosemite National Park last night! I'm going to stay at Curry Village, in a canvas tent. I always wanted to sleep in the park for a night and this seemed like the perfect way to do it. It's just for 1 night, but I'm going to love it. It's my second time visiting Yosemite NP so I felt I didn't need to stay there for a longer time. On my way there I'll drive over the Tioga pass (since I'm coming from Lake Tahoe) and I plan to do some hiking in the valley in the afternoon. Let's just hope no bears will pay curry village a visit when I'm there.. Just the idea that I need to store all food and scented items (toiletries and such) in a bear proof locker on the outside of my tent gets me all excited. (and hoping none will attack my tent of course, you never know, but if this would happen on a regular basis, the village would probably have closed down by now)
Planning my roadtrip is still going well so far. People are giving me lots and lots of travel tips and ideas; where to go, where to work out, where to eat, and much more. I love discovering new things! If only my debit card would arrive soon.. Then I could start making reservations..
I made some salmon patties last night, and well, they were absolutely delicious! I often make the mistake of adding too much coconut flour and they end up dry, but these were still nice and moist and the celery gives them a huge flavour boost. This recipe definitely is a keeper and I will be making these much more often!
I served it with some stir-fried bok choy, keeping it really simple just by adding some creamed coconut and black pepper, and.. arrowroot! Thanks to Elana's recipe for Ginger Bok Choy! She uses arrowroot in her recipe to thicken the sauce and it works so well. I only needed 1/2 tbsp for a huge bok choy, and it thickened right away. Normally, lots of flavour stays behind in the fluids from the bok choy when stir-frying, but this way it tastes much better. Besides, I hate it when those fluids run all across my plate, soaking everything along the way, and that didn't happen either!
My flights have been booked! I really can't wait to go and booking my flights just made my trip to the USA come even closer. Of course I was kind of late in realising it would be convenient to have a debit card (for hotel reservations, car rental, etc) so I filled out an application form and I guess I will have to wait a little while longer before I can book a car and hotels. Although for some of those you don't need a creditcard or you can pay right away, I'll find out soon enough.
My dad's colleague lent me 2 really good travel books about the USA; Guide to Scenic Highways and Byways, and Guide to the State Parks of the United States, both by National Geographic. They already caused me to change the route I'd planned a little.
I've also started looking for places to eat, places to work out (CrossFit gyms!) and I'm 100% sure I'm going to enjoy myself over there. Plus, there are some great hiking and sightseeing opportunities along the road, especially in the National Parks and State Parks.
For dinner was this eggplant and sausage mash. Yum!
Just a quick post today.. Yesterday I've been busy planning my trip to the USA almost all afternoon and evening and it's not going as I want it to. I have way too many things I want to see, and too little time to do so. What a shame..
So now I've been thinking what places I should let go for now and what I want to see most of all. (which is pretty much everything I planned, but that's not going to work) I didn't even sleep that well because of it!
Anyway, I went for a run this morning (I woke up early..) which went just great and made me realise I've still got plenty of time to figure all of this out.
Maybe I should skip Colorado? I really don't want to though..
Anyway, I made some olive and basil tapenade this weekend. My first attempt on something like this. For serving, I chopped up a large tomato and a yellow pepper, but a generous amount (approx. 2 tbsp) of tapenade on top and mixed well. Along with some grilled salmon, it made a nice dinner.
I'm back from my trip to the Big Apple! Totally loved every minute of it!
While typing this, I have a huge lack of sleep (I kind of skipped a night, since my flight was at night and I couldn't keep my eyes closed for over an hour) but I still don't feel too bad. I just wanted to share my stories, food finds and pictures with you all.
To summarize our trip: eating, walking, shopping, eating, walking, shopping, eating, walking, sleeping.. Etc.. Oh and some sightseeing too.
Both my mom and me had a really great time in New York City!
Finally, my suitcase has been packed and I'm ready to go to NYC! Well, packed, it's still almost empty because I don't need to bring much and it's actually lying open in the middle of my living room. (I'm proud I haven't stumbled over it, so far!) All there's left to do is throw some remaining items in it (hairbrush, facial cleanser and creme, stuff like that), close it and pull my front door closed behind me.
Oh and I still need to go to work tomorrow too.. I tend to forget about that..
Today my colleagues asked me why I acting was so quiet, and I hadn't even noticed I was. My head was in just a few places, but most certainly not at work. I was just physically being there. (I guess my hay fever contributed to that feeling as well)
I'm sure that last day at work will be over before I realise it. My parents will pick me up later tomorrow evening, so we can leave early for the airport the next day.
I'll be back in the Netherlands again next Tuesday morning (the 19th). It's a bizarre idea that next week, around this time, my trip will already be over and I'll be jetlagged at home again. But.. In just 48 hours, I'll be in New York! (even in local time) So cool!
So you can expect an update on my blog again next Tuesday. I'll make sure to take lots of pictures, of the city itself, and -of course- of my food finds and paleo meals and post them all over here.
For now, here's a simple yet tasty recipe for you to enjoy:
Yay, weekend again! Only 2 days this time (normally I have 3, I know, I'm lucky), because I switched some days to be able to go to New York without having to take a lot of days off.
I don't have much planned for this weekend, besides going to get some US Dollars and buying stuff to pack in my suitcase (mini-shampoo, mini-shower gel, stuff like that..). I try to take as little with me as possible, so I can bring a whole lot of stuff back, without having to leave stuff behind because I did too much shopping. (yes that happened to me once or twice)
Tonight's dinner was this cauliflower mash. My colleagues asked me what I was going to have for dinner and when I said 'cauliflower puree with sausages' they looked at me as if I was insane. It tasted really good though!
The sausages I used were made of lamb and beef, I'd never had those before but they were very good! I'm going to stock my freezer and fridge all the way up again tomorrow. Although I do need to make sure I don't buy too many veggies, because my fridge needs to be almost empty before I leave next week.
A small update on my trip to New York: I found a wonderful place where you can get organic dairy-free ice cream. And it's not just their sorbet ice cream that's dairy-free, no EVERYTHING is dairy-free!! It's Ice Cream Heaven!
The place is called Stogo, so go check out their website to see their flavours. The ice cream is either coconut-, hemp- or soy-based. Of course I won't have the soy ice-cream (another one of my food intolerances), but the coconut and hemp ice-cream are great options. And the flavours they offer are amazing; toasted almond joy, cookies 'n cream, key lime, peaches 'n cream, vanilla chocolate chip, maple walnut.. Yum!
Everything's gluten-free too by the way!
My mom and me have already been drooling just by reading the flavours on the phone, and we can't wait to try some of them. The place is pretty close to our hotel, but it should've been a little further so we'd have to exercise a little more to work the ice cream off.
On their website they mention that they also feature other gluten-free vegan and raw desserts, and I can't wait to try those either. I guess we'll just have to get 2 scoops to eat right away, 2 for the walk home, and another type of dessert to enjoy back at the hotel. I don't see any other option!
Since I had to attend some classes today I needed to make myself a quick lunch. This fritatta is what came to mind and it worked out pretty well!
Luckily I had a large part of the morning off so I went for a long run; 45 minutes. Had been a while since I ran any longer than 25 minutes but it felt so easy. It hardly took me any effort.
I actually wanted to go to the gym tonight as well, but the whole afternoon has been really hectic and I'm tired now, so I won't go. I guess I'll just go to bed early tonight and go to the gym tomorrow.
I'm still in 'New York mode' today, makes me so happy :) I'm also still listening to the Abercrombie & Fitch playlist a few times a day. Very wrong, I know, but it gives me this summery feeling with songs like 'In The Navy' (Village People), 'Get Up' (Disco Brothers ft. Weather Girls) and 'I Love Saturday' (Erasure) and I removed a lot of depressing songs from my ipod too. Occasionally I find myself browsing NYC on Google maps, just to see if I can find some nice places to go. My mom and me came up with the idea to go to the cinema in the evening over there and we might go to a Broadway show as well. I'm not sure what's on next month, but I'll find out soon enough.
I've also been browsing the USA map again to plan a trip, and I might just start in San Francisco or LA, drive through Yosemite NP, Sequoia NP, Vegas, Valley of Fire SP, Canyonlands, all the way through Colorado, into Utah and visit Salt Lake City and its surroundings, through to Wyoming and of course Yellowstone NP, grab a piece of Idaho along the way and go through to Montana, into Washington to see Seatlle. And if there's time left, down into Oregon because that appears to be a beautiful state too.
After all of that, I'll simply make a stop-over in Chicago for a few days because that's a city I really want to see.
Now all I need is time and money...
This morning I spent some extra time making breakfast, just because I felt like it. I made yesterday's turnip parsnip fritters first, and then this quick and easy dish to go with it. Very yummy!
It filled me all the way up and I feel ready to go to the gym for a good workout, CrossFit style! I love spending my Sunday mornings this way. The weather outside is beautiful and I got woken up by the birds, I feel good :)
Yesterday I made the mistake of stepping into a bookstore and going to the travel section.. Made me want to buy so many great books and book a huge trip around the world! Maybe I can make a good Indian meal someday soon, I always love those and they make me feel like I'm on a trip.
Another thing I did to get me into travelling mode was browsing the Abercrombie & Fitch website (my all-time favourite clothing store in the USA) and listening to their playlist. They always play very, very loud music in those stores, and it's often a little wrong, but I love it because of the feeling it gives me.
Now all I need is some Starbucks tea and a trip to Whole Foods Market and I'll be in heaven!
What a pity.. I had a lot of parsnips in my fridge, waiting to be used. So I just had to bake something!
I made this delicious parsnip pie. Not the most common way to use them, but certainly a good way. Since parsnips are quite starchy, just like pumpkins, I figured if I could make a pumpkin pie, then why not a parsnip pie!
It's not as heavy as a pumpkin pie or cheesecake, but the taste is wonderful. It's mostly creamy goodness with a hint of parsnip flavour.
I served mine with some coconut cream on top, which made it even better. But a chocolate frosting would be wonderful as well.
While on the train yesterday, I was reading my 'Discover America' magazine, which I took with me from the national 'holiday fair' last month. Travel magazines and me usually go together very well and they keep me entertained for a long time.
I think I know where my next trip will take me! (after going to New York and Australia that is) I think I'll go back to the USA, and drive from Seattle to Chicago, or the other way around! I'll need about a month, and I'll definitely visit Yellowstone NP and Colorado! I've heard great stories about Colorado, especially foodwise, and the nature is supposed to be beautiful too. Then there's Chicago, with its 'Magnificent Mile', for awesome shopping purposes! Ahh, I can hardly wait..
Furthermore, I simply love driving, and from what I experienced from driving in the USA during my trip in 2009 it's an excellent location. I love the many different types of landscapes and nature in the USA. So I might just go there! It would be great if I'd have more than a month to stay, then I could drive all the way through to Florida..
Eating Paleo in Amsterdam isn't that hard to do at all. There are lots of health food stores and fresh meat, fruit and veggies is widely available.
Today my mom and me went there to do some serious shopping (and we succeeded!) and besides that we bought quite a lot of food, Paleo food.
No recipes today.. Hopefully tomorrow! At least I do plan on trying a new recipe by then. I do however have something else to share;
I found another food spot in New York!
Peacefood Cafe
Everything on their menu is vegan, and they also offer gluten free options. It's not all paleo, but reading the menu makes me go hungry in an instant. They also have a small 'raw' section on their menu, including a key lime pie, raspberry pie and chocolate mousse. Sounds delicious! Hopefully we'll have some time to visit that place in April.
I wonder what their chickpea fries will be like..
I haven't had decent fries in a really long time, and I must admit that I sometimes crave them. I tried making pumpkin fries and carrot fries, but nothing tastes like the potato verson. I bought a parsnip yesterday so maybe I can try to make fries out of it, in case I don't come up with a better idea to prepare it.
Last Sunday my mom and me made this recipe from This Primal Life; Kohlrabi Casserole with Sausage and Fresh Thyme. It turned out really well! I didn't know you could prepare kohlrabi like this.
Next time we're going to add some garlic and other spices too, because it was slightly too blunt for our taste. (of course we left the salt out, which might have made a difference)
These days all I can think about is travelling.. I wish it was April already and time to go to New York!
Over the weekend I also changed my 'big holiday' plans for 2011. The only disadvantage about it is that I postponed it a few months. My destination will be Australia, and since the seasons are reversed over there it's best to go when it's Winter over here, so I can enjoy Aussie's warm and sunny weather while everyone else is freezing.
Of course I didn't work it all out yet, but I'm going to travel from Sydney to Adelaide (or the other way around) in my own small camper, along the Great Ocean Road. And on the way there and on the way back home I'm going to make a stop over in Asia for a few days. I'm not sure which cities yet, one of them will probably be Singapore, and the other one will either be Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong or Bangkok.
It's going to be my first time camping.. I wonder if I should try it out first somewhere in the Netherlands, in my own tent on a desolate place. Walking to the toilet in the dark, toilet paper underneath my arm.. Being cold in bed or sweating like crazy so I float out of my tent. Doesn't sound appealing at all to be honest. I'm sure a camper will be different, at least I'd have a decent bed and it won't be in Holland. (which probably is the point that makes most sense)
I'll probably go around November or December next year and will take about a month for the whole trip. I can't wait!!
It seems like a really long time away, and who knows what my life will be like by then, but it's what keeps me going, trying to save as much money as possible.
Eating paleo over there won't be much of a challenge I guess, besides having to resist the temptation from all the delicious looking cakes and pies.. I should definitely try and find some Organic supermarkets over there. If anyone has suggestions, I'd love to hear them!
