Whole Thirty Life?

Day 1- 2018.2.6 火

After a week starting with a birthday celebration including cake, I’ve been quite lax in what I let past my lips. From chocolate covered walnuts (nearly a whole pack of them) to cookies and rice with meals and no care for what chemicals or hidden sugars are in the sauces. Consequentially, I’m exhausted.

Caption: The debauchery.

So today I started back on a proper dedicated whole30 to see if I can’t get these last few fat rolls to come off before spring.

I had apple slices, half a cucumber and a banana for breakfast. I made chicken wings in coconut ginger lime soup with napa cabbage, carrots and yakon for lunch. Dinner was sashimi and another nabe hot pot dish with seafood and veggies including plenty of crab and shrimp. The soup mix had a few ingredients that should not go on a whole30 but I decided to let that slide just a bit.

Whole30 Roasted Pepper Steak

I ran out of coconut aminos which is the main flavoring for all the whole30 steak and peppers recipes I could find. So I came up with this version on my own and it is quite good.

Stir fry

• Thinly sliced beef 500g
• Bell peppers thinly sliced- 2 large
• 1/2 large leek thinly sliced
• 1 TBSP sesame oil

Sauce

• 1 roasted bell pepper
• 1/2 small can of organic tomato paste
• 1 tsp almond butter
• 2 TBSP balsamic vinegar
• 2 tsp Garlic flakes or powder
• 1/2 tsp hot pepper flakes
• 1 TBSP ground herbed salt
• Extra salt to taste
• 1/4 c water

Blend and add to the stir fried vegetables and meat.

I’m a big fan of using vegetables to make sauces rather than other substitutes and this came out fantastic.

My Whole30 Experiment-part 2

Wednesday, January 16th- day 4

I technically went back on my second whole30 on Sunday. But this time around I’m feeling less enthused and less inclined to share. However, having support even if it’s just journaling my own thoughts was a big part of my first whole30 feeling like a success.

I’ve been living on different versions of curry or the stuff you put in the curry before you out of the yummy goodness. Bananas and Mandarin oranges for snacks. Today I’ve had breakfast of avocado, soft-boiled egg, and an apple along with some chicken bacon.

Then when I was shopping for more healthy ingredients to cook I felt overcome with thirst. I’m typically a really big water drinker but that’s just not what I wanted. Even though it’s not suggested, though technically compliant I went with this vegetable juice that has probably 20 different kinds of vegetables and no fruit juice unless you count the tomato.

Now I’m having what I am dubbing as bulletproof Aztec black cocoa. Yep, it’s just straight 100% pure unsweetened cocoa powder with a small spoon of coconut oil and a pinch of vanilla bean. Even though I’m just four days back into the whole 30 it doesn’t taste bitter nor sweet. Reminds me of the adult flavor of black coffee with the delights of mocha. If you’re trying to replace hot cocoa with this I wouldn’t recommend it. But if you want an alternative to black coffee that should be quite healthy this might be your option.

Sunday, January 28th- day 15

I just had to open the calendar to see what day I’m on. I really haven’t been keeping track because this kind of eating seems more like a way of life for me now. However I have made some exceptions to the rules which on a strict whole30 would constitute starting over.

Like yesterday I ate about half of a small sack of McDonald’s french fries knowing that my children would probably leave that many behind from their happy meals anyway.

I could tell the temptation was going to be overwhelming so I decided to go with it knowing that a little unhealthy oil on top of some potatoes and salt isn’t the worst food choice I could make.

Then tonight my family found ourselves out a little later than planned and hungry so we stopped into the local Italian restaurante Saizeria where I ordered bowl of green peas bacon and poached egg plus a bowl of vegetable and sausage soup. I’m sure there must’ve been some hidden sugar in the soup though it taste sweet at all. Probably some other chemicals as well. Greenpeace after some research seem to be a bit of a gray area on the whole 30. Some would argue that they are harvested fresh unlike the other legumes that are dried and cause people issues so they don’t count as a no no.

So far I feel pretty good. Overall I feel great in fact. I can see some real differences and changes in the right direction with my body. Of course I’m not where I want to be yet but I’m a lot better than I was two months ago!

My Whole 30 Experiment- week five

Sunday, January 7th- Day 29

7 AM

Persimmon season is almost over so I am enjoying them while I can. Also, three of our four lady guppies are looking like they’re about to become mommies! Husband is not so excited about having another tank in the house but our kids would really like to try and keep the babies rather than see them all get eaten by the parents. In any case I think we will have to get another tank to start separating the girls and boys or we are going to keep having this problem.

I’ve been awake since 6:30 after a fairly restless four hours of trying to sleep despite having crashed for about seven hours from 1 PM until just the start of my 9 PM classes yesterday. I have to go shopping to prepare coconut curry dinner for my husband’s friend is coming over. He’s a popular anime artist that I think will be a lot of fun as a guest so I’m looking forward to it.

I’ve been debating whether to go shopping at the 24 hour Walmart owned Seiyu supermarket or wait it out a few more hours for Costco to open. It’s probably safer to go to the supermarket. Trips to Costco are never cheap 🙂

I will have to go eventually. I’m out of the organic mashed potatoes which have been a lifesaver once or twice already on this journey. However, I learned this morning from more careful inspection of the ingredients list that butter is one of the three, the other two being organic potato flakes and sea salt. You know, on this gray snow falling thickly on everything day I’m willing to let it slide.

8pm

I’m dead tired after waking up so early in so little sleep but before I crash here’s a peek at the delicious curry dinner I made for our company. I also made French bread quiche and garlic bread for the guests. My own Whole 30 Version of quiche was super good but I didn’t have room to do more than a taste test.

My salad came out spectacularly as well. I think I really got this persimmon dressing down.

Or visitor did bring a rather tempting box of illegal goodies from my standpoint.

The crunchy almond caramel tarts, butter rolls and chocolate infused treats looked super good but not enough to sway me.

I’m still undecided if I will allow myself one naughty treat the day after tomorrow when I’ve completed phase one of this experiment, or if I will continue to be a good girl and limit myself to including only one of the restricted foods but a less evil one such as soy sauce or beans.

Monday, January 8th- Day 30!!

6am

Well I’ve technically made it to day 30 though I still have most of the day left to go.

I’m not sure if I will weigh myself today or tomorrow though I’m sure any difference will be negligible. I’m a little afraid to see that the numbers don’t reflect how I feel right now-when I’m looking in the mirror and can finally see my rib cage again! Just a little.

That alone should be enough but numbers are powerful things. I’m very grateful the ones on the scale have been banned for the last 30 days.

Tuesday, January 9th, Day 31/Day 1 reintroduction

6:50am

I’ve just eaten my first cookie in 30 days. Albeit one of the date and almond raw cookies that I made for the kids and stuck in the freezer. They have a smattering of white chocolate chips throughout.

I’m sitting here now waiting to see how the experiment turns out. If I notice any weirdness or less than kosher feelings in my body after consuming the small amount of natural and processed sugar.

I also had a small bowl of leftover mashed potatoes and coconut curry so we’ll see how that combination turns out.

I wondered quite seriously if I would find myself going back again and again to the cookie Tupperware after eating the first one as cookies of any kind tend to be a trigger food for me. I almost didn’t allow myself to have it because of the fear but I thought, this is an experiment and experiments never fail, they just teach you something.

Right now my tummy feels happy to have the cookie because the small bowl of curry was patently not enough for my first meal. My mouth is not overwhelmed with a saccharinely aftertaste due to the healthy nature of the cookie.

I’d say more than anything I’m simply dying for a new case of sparkling water from Costco. Today’s my first pay day of the new year so perhaps I can go do a little “frivolous” shopping later, although the fact that my husbands cars break pads have to be replaced in a couple more days might be a good reason to defer that idea.

It’s back to writing for me. I wouldn’t say that I am pages away from the end of book one but I’m certainly within the last two or three chapters unless something else shocking pops into my thought bank between now and the envisioned end scene.

Wednesday, January 10th, Day 2 reintroduction

Only thing I noticed different yesterday after my cookie and one packet of youth factor drink mix in a bottle of water was had a headache and my tummy felt quite heavy. But I have no idea if that was from the new foods or from lack of sleep and crazy schedules.

Today I am adding a handful of craisins to my salad.

I made coconut curry but without the pumpkin it’s just not the same. I think I have to go get some in a little while.

8:30pm

My friend runs a soba shop and I perform Jazz there on a fairly regular basis. Soba & Jazz. It’s a thing. And we first got the idea four years ago when I went there for the annual 100¥ zarusoba New Years event on Jan. 10th. This year is no exception. I enjoyed two plates of soba and now I’m waiting to see how I feel.

Thursday, January 11th- day 3 reintroduction

2:45pm

On location in Otaru! The big day has come! I started with a salad for breakfast and some fruit for a snack. The lunch was:

Fantastic! I only ate 2 bites of the rice.

Then:

And

Friday, January 12th- day 4 reintroduction

OK so I went little crazy yesterday. After the afternoon snack I had to make sushi and eat it for part of the filming process and then we had a team dinner at a hamburger restaurant where I ate a Caesar salad along with a large Japanese green tea Parfait.

I came back and slept for about 10 hours and I still feel tired with a little phlegm and congestion.

Friday, January 12th -day 4 reintroduction

I started and ended the day well with a salad and fish but in between I had a whopper at Burger King with onion rings, salmon roe and see urchin and crab at the fishmarket which was so good, and then sweets at the confectionary. I also ate more sweets after I got home including some Zero chocolate.

Saturday, January 13th- day 5 reintroduction

I woke up around 530, 730 and finally a little after nine feeling quite lethargic. Even though I wouldn’t mind sleeping some more I don’t wanna get into this late wake up schedule again even though everyone else has. I miss the energy that I had before where I’d wake up early and just be too excited to not write. I think the food choices I’ve made for the last two or three days have made a big impact. And yes the psychological side of it! I can’t stop myself from indulging now that I’ve decided it’s OK or not such a big deal. I think as hard as it feels right now that it’s time to go back on a new whole30. I feel so fat again and lumpy even after just two days!

Of course that means I’m going to have to go shopping and cook a lot. Yay. (Enter sarcasm here).

My Whole30 Experiment- week four

Saturday, January 6th -day 27, 28? I’m not sure!

My lack of blocking in this last week on my whole30 journey is not due to me throwing in the towel. On the contrary I’ve been sticking to the restrictive foods as closely as ever. But I’ve also been staying up late nights working heavily and heartily on my novel during this rare opportunity of scheduled-work-free winter vacation days.

While writing I sit down at my computer for what feels like 15 minutes and look up to find that two or three hours has quickly passed. Apples and bananas with a thin layer of almond butter have become my new best friends.

Also I’ve seemed to have over come the plateau that I felt I was in maybe just a little bit.

This is my top pick for outfit choices to wear on the Video project. I’ll be covered up in a coatas much as not but when not I think this will do well.

Sunday, December 31st -Day 22

Even though my Christmas turkey dream dinner did not go as planned due to lack of availability, my New Year’s eve dinner went exactly as I imagined and even better.

Turns out stripped think makes a really delicious temakizushi hand rolled sushi option. A sliced avocado that no one but myself wanted to eat was the perfect replacement for all the rice that is usually laden with sugary sushi vinegar.

I’m really beginning to think that Olive Oil and herbed seasoned salt might be my preferred choice for a dipping sauce.

Monday, January 1st- Day 23

As per tradition we went to my husband’s parents home for traditional Japanese New Years dishes called Osechi ryori. A lot of my Japanese friends and clients claim not to really like much of the traditional foods because they’re financially prepared early I meant to keep a long time and have distinct sometimes unusual flavors. I myself have always loved my mother-in-law’s osechi and I think this year I discovered why. It’s because she puts a lot of sugar in almost all of the dishes she makes! From the black beans which has at least two or 3 cups of sugar, I know from the recipe, to the vinegar radish and lotus root dish, to the rolled eggs, to the nimono boiled chicken and vegetables pot which is one of my favorites, they all have sugar and in the latter two cases a heavy load of soy sauce.The only dish that I could freely partake in this year on the table was the simply baked sea bream fish.Thankfully I had a ton of whole 30 friendly quiche and salad that needed to be eaten anyway brought from home to supplement my New Year’s dinner.I thought I would actually be rather sad missing out on all of the traditional dishes that I enjoy eating just once a year, but I really wasn’t. The main reason I think is because this year due to so many holidays falling on the weekends and keeping mom busy with church activities, she didn’t have the energy to make some of the more labor-intensive dishes like her Chinese fried chicken slathered in a sweet Ginger and chives soy sauce. The only thing I did miss was there not being any sashimi or other fresh seafood like the prawns and scallops that she often prepares. But this year’s food prices are no joke! I’m not sure why they’ve gone up so high but buying healthy Whole Foods is prohibitively expensive right now.

Tuesday, January 2nd – Day 24

I made a very mild chicken curry which my husband seemed to like. He asked me to make it again when his rather well known fellow comic and anime artist friend comes over for dinner on the weekend. I think he also likes it because the ingredients are not terribly expensive. I did decide without remorse this time that since non-chemical laden bacon is OK on the whole 30, my homemade chicken bacon is going to be OK as well. I do understand the whole “we’d rather you didn’t” thought on having smoothies during the whole 30 but in this case I was just tired of not having something easy and simple and enjoyable like a sweet treat. I enjoyed it but I didn’t revel in it like I was eating a whole Häagen-Dazs ice cream bar.

Wednesday, January 3rd – Day 25

Thursday, January 4th- Day 26

Friday, January 5th- Day 27

I think the previous three days were just too busy to bother taking pictures of my food, or I wasn’t eating anything new, just those bananas and apples and salads and such to sustain me through the heavy writing periods. However, on Friday I got to go out for a ladies dinner for the first time in ages and I’m very proud of myself for being able to get through it without breaking my whole 30.

I was sorely tempted to order a nonalcoholic beer on the premise of being a proper adult but barley malt would be a no no so I had Darjeeling iced tea which was perfectly lovely. And my salmon and wild variety of salad greens dish with olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette as a special requested thing on the side rather than their lemon onion dressing was fantastic. I mean, it was OK taste wise, not nearly as good as my own homemade salads but it was healthy, compliance, and beautiful and tasty enough.

Saturday, January 6th Day 28 (continued)

I did it for real this time. I made a flat out smoothie because I woke up with 30 minutes before teaching an online class hungry but with no time to fix any proper food plus no ingredients in the house. My smoothie was banana, blueberries and sparkling water because none of my store bought nut milks are sugar or dairy or chemical free. I did add some Allmond meal in which was a nice thickener and a teaspoon of morenga powder. It worked out well to sit on it throughout my two lessons and getting rushed without feeling rushed or super deprived.

Whole30 Teriyaki Mayo Almond Encrusted Chicken

For Christmas in Japan the majority of families seem to go with chicken as the main dish, Kentucky fried chicken to be precise. It’s definitely not an option for me for the next two weeks so I decided to make my own original Christmas chicken dish.

Recipe

• Three large skinless chicken breasts cut into bite sized pieces
• Approximately one cup of almonds ground into almond meal
• Herbed salt and pepper to taste

The marinade sauce

• About 1/4 cup of homemade or whole 30 approved mayonnaise
• 2 to 3 tablespoons of coconut amino’s
• 1 moderate tablespoon of almond butter

mix well and coat the bite sized chicken pieces thoroughly.

Using wax paper to mind your baking pans, but down a layer of almond meal in which to place your marinated chicken bites and then cover it with more almond meal. Grill for 20 minutes or bake at 200°C for 15 to 20 minutes checking for doneness.

Wishing you a very merry Christmas and a happy Whole30 chicken whichever way you decide to fix it.

A Successful Whole30 in Japan

Whole30 Experiment week one

Whole30 Experiment week two

Whole30 Experiment week three

As I write this I’ve just completed the second week of my first honest to goodness Whole30. You could say I attempted this once before if you count joining a Whole30 Facebook support group and basically just watching what everyone else was doing and eating as taking on the challenge. I don’t.

My motivation for beginning this a week before the big holiday season started? A video shoot coming up two weeks into the new year where my body will be immortalized on a big screen for travelers passing through the New Chitose Airport to see day in and day out for the next year.

I was determined to research this diet thoroughly so I had a perfect idea of what I was getting into but as two days turned into three and I still didn’t know enough to feel confident in my choice the crunching of the clock spurred me on to desperate action.

I figured the first week or so would be tough or at best full of boring food because I wouldn’t have many options available to me with the lack of preparation and orders from iHerb. I jumped into it with both feet and a short shopping list. Though cooking and cleaning are not my strongest fortes, I’ve found the food that I’ve been making extremely filling and satisfying and some of the best tasting that I’ve eaten in years. The occasional craving comes more as a surprise and curiosity in my “this is an experiment” mentality. I have not given in and had any sugar in two weeks no I do I feel tempted to. That in itself is quite the miracle for a sugar addict like me.

If you’re like me wanting to do a whole 30 in the land of the rising sun and lack access to Whole30 approved brand foods in your shopping center, here are some of the tricks and Whole30 treats (not the no-no kind, just yummo meals) that I’ve employed and enjoyed in my experiment thus far.

1. Chopped Hakusai Cabbage Salad Delight with Persimmon Dressing

2. Seafood Veggie Chowder

3. Grilled Fish

4. Pan Fried Potato Carrot Wedges

5. Apples and Bananas

6. Green Tea on the Go

7. Emergency Freshness Burger Bun-less Sauce-less Avocado Burger

8. Homemade Vegetable and Pork Curry

9. Grilled Hokke

10. Sashimi

11. Fresh Strawberries

12. Scrambled Eggs, Avocado and Cucumber breakfast

13. Seedless Grapes

14. Almond crusted zucchini medallions and just ginger ginger pork

15. Asian pear and lamb sauté

16. Sweet Potato Paprikash

17. Almond and Homemade Mayonnaise encrusted Sasami Chicken Grill

18. Homemade mayonnaise

19. Black Coffee

20. Teriyaki Chicken with Coconut Aminos

21. More Sashimi

22. Homemade Wasabi and Coconut Amino “Soy Sauce”

23. Taco Salad

24. Apple Berry Ginger Lemon Pan-tastic Non-Dessert

25. Soft Roe Tachinotsuyu and Wakame Long Onion Soup

26. Five Minute Flaked Salmon

27. Cold Fighting Hot Ginger Lemon TEA

28. Pineapple and Dragon Fruit

29. Seafood Nabe

These are all things that I have made on this journey and honestly not a one of them that I wouldn’t recommend trying. If I ever find the time I might try and put up some of the recipes though a lot of these were inspired and closely resemble things you can find online with a quick search. Some of them though are rather quite original. If you’d like to know how something was made send me a message and I’ll do my best to get it up toot sweet.

My Whole30 Experiment- week three

Missed week one? Check it out here!

Week two? Here!

**Week three post updated daily, several times.**

Sunday, December 24th – day 15

0:30am

I finally got the kids to bed after Christmas cake and sugary snacks at the grandparents’. We celebrated with them a little early as they’ll be busy with church duties today and worn out by tomorrow.

I have a light saber and Tokyo Mater from cars as well as a hefty investment in Fimo clay and coloring books to wrap for the boys. (No worries, my kids are not blog readers yet!)

Many might ask what we had, especially what I on a whole30 challenge had for our early Christmas dinner? To tell the truth, I left the kids to play while I went to the gym to workout for an hour. By the time I returned everyone else had enjoyed a dinner of their individual favorite things like soba, ramen salad and rolled eggs but I was perfectly content eating my own leftover curry and a lovely salad mom made with olive oil and balsamic vinegar drizzled on it.

I also enjoyed cutting the cake and NOT eating it.

I did make myself an apple berry ginger lemon bake with a touch of ghee and almond butter at home, microwave style!And I indulged myself in some new teas while hunting for pure canned coconut milk at the import store. The Caramel Apple Dream is non-guilty decadence and the Bengal Spice is in homage to my mother and memories of her drinking it when I was a kid. The scent was time transporting. My kids probably thought I was a little nuts as I walked around sniffing a tea bag with fervent relish. While I was at the gym, the second time since starting this whole30 experiment, I went through the gamut of emotions. At first I looked at myself in the large locker room mirrors and thought “I’m looking so good”! Not at all where I want to or plan to be, but still amazing for just two weeks of what feels mostly effortless.

Yes, there is effort involved in preparing healthy whole food meals and being 100% committed to not messing it up, but I don’t feel deprived or wigged out or like it’s hard.

After I got on to the floor to stretch, my feelings swung quite the opposite direction. I felt fat and lumpy and unattractive. That lasted throughout most of the workout. But I reasoned with myself as I easily pulled on the jeans that were stretched super tight in every way 14 days ago and buckled the belt in an extra notch that progress is to be celebrated and so far I’m making excellent progress.

I almost just barely felt the temptation to weigh myself but I am happily determined to follow this rule through and through. I will only weigh myself at the end of 30 days and see if the numbers match how I feel about my new wholefooded body.

Now to get back to present wrapping and writing my story. My characters are currently in 1930 NYC and have just met Buster Keaton.

2:49am

I’m enjoying a bowl of dragon fruit and pineapple.

One of the benefits of the whole 30 is that with out the extra processed sugar the pallet seems to become very sensitive to sweetness. Case in point, the previously thought rather tasteless or even dry to the point of bitterness dragon fruit now tastes quite sweet. That or this one is just extra ripe. The sweet pineapple complements it well in color and flavor profile.

6:45am

I’ve spent the last 6 hours working on the novel. Profess is sweet (figuratively) but the sweet (literally) cravings I find cropping up are not sweet at all (again, figuratively). I know it’s all the creative brain power using up the serotonin in my brain that’s causing me to want it. So I had a banana. No chocolate for me. Strong girl. Tired girl. Needs to go to bed girl. Good night.

Monday & Tuesday, December 25th & 26th -Days 16 & 17

I’m not sure what happened to all the entries I made in the last two days but here we are with just 13 more days to go on this journey.

I made a scrumptious baked mayo teriyaki almond crusted chicken for Christmas dinner and a number of other things that I couldn’t eat but my family enjoyed.

Then tonight I had some end of year classes to teach where we had a bit of a party. As usual during these 30 days I brought my own food just to be on the safe side. I made more of the aforementioned chicken as well as mashed potatoes made with clarified butter and coconut milk. My husband who has an aversion to all things coconutty was the only person who could tell the difference.

Also I decided that since bacon is allowed on the whole 30 as long as it doesn’t have any added sugars or unnatural preservatives that my chicken bacon could be allowable. Came through with a beautiful platter of sashimi and salad that had no dressing on it. I gave them a set of my favorite herb salt and four colored peppercorn grinder which went great in the olive oil.

Then for dinner at home I served salmon and almond encrusted zucchini medallions.

Then my youngest was begging me to bake more cookies. But I’ve been thinking hard about how I can encourage my kids to eat healthier even though they patently don’t like a lot of the things that I’m enjoying on this diet. So I went back to an old detox diet recipe for date and almond cookies. We added White chocolate chips and I might enjoy one of these after the whole 30 ends. I didn’t hesitate to lick the crumbs off my fingers and the bowl this time.

Thursday, December 28th- day 19

3:50am

It’s been busy! Think I wrote for 12 hours straight on my novel yesterday and went to bed at 12 o’clock noon for six hours of sleep. Then I took my kids pet shopping for our newaquarium I purchased for Christmas.

We got 8 guppies and three bottom feeders. And all named andafter Star Wars characters.

Today I made Romanian cabbage rolls for the first time ever but with my own whole 30 twist.

I used finely chopped white and sweet potato instead of the rice the recipe called for. Because of the amount of time it took to cook the dish we ate other things for dinner including the extra stuffing that was left over which my hubby said was excellent!

Some moments I’m really beginning to feel like my progress is halting when I look at myself in the mirror and others I feel like I’m doing amazing but there’s no way to tell until this comes to a close and I get to weigh myself.

Friday, December 29th -Day 20

10:10am

I want to cry. No scale could convince me that I’ve not had a major set back in my body composition over…I can’t even pin point when. But definitely the last two days my body seems to be going fat and soft and horrible all over again. It might have to do with hormones and water weight gain but whatever the case this is the point where I usually start to loose faith in a diet.

I haven’t cheated or done anything crazy like eat a half a jar of almond butter in one go.

Today’s big meal was a fresh roasted chicken with roasted vegetables. I had cherries, grapes and a banana for breakfast/lunch. Maybe another problem is that I’m averaging 6 hours or less of sleep each day. Day, not night.

Anyway, even if no one else is reading this drivel I find the process cathartic and helpful for processing. Now that the feelings are on paper they no longer have reigning control of my head.

I think Leia and Han Solo may be departing this life soon. They’re floating at odd angles in the tank and it already stinks of fishy death. But they are still moving so it’s too early for a fishy toilet burial. I learned that the hard way the last time we had fish. 😦

Saturday, December 30th -day 21

Happy note, the fish were simply stuck between a blue plastic decorative film and the back of the tank. We realized it soon enough and they’re happily swimming along with their friends.

Tonight is the only end of year party I will be attending. It’s at a studio that I work with frequently. This year I’m bringing my husband. The kids for the very first time since the younger was born will spend the night at grandma and grandpas!

Before that I’m having a big as salad with extra tomato and avocado on top. The persimmon dressing came out really nicely with a touch of sesame oil this time!

9pm

Yes, we left the party that early.

I made two kinds of quiche, the normal kind and then whatever my creative brain came up with for a version that I could eat. Mine has all the same layers of vegetables: thinly sliced potatoes, zucchini, red daikon radish, onion, bell pepper, etc. In place of milk I blended cashews and water to make cashew cream and finding I didn’t have enough added a third of a can of coconut milk mixed with almond meal for the topping. It actually was a pretty decent replacement for the usual cheese and sausage.

My Whole 30 Experiment- week two

Missed week one? Check it out here!

Sunday, December 17th- day 8

4:30pm

This morning I went downtown to do a smartphone app guided tour recording about the castle ruins of Hagi Prefecture.

I was up until about 5 AM writing a very compelling scene in my novel which made anything in the morning after a few hours of sleep a challenge including breakfast. That’s why I took left over salad and some Asian pear in bowl on the way to the studio and a banana and a couple of small Mandarin oranges for a snack. I find snacks actually quite important to have on this job because if your stomach is growling in the middle of a recording it’s not only embarrassing but could ruin the whole thing!

Healthy snacks seem to help keep the voice in good condition though my vocal coach recommends a bag of salty potato chips right before a performance if you need a little boost to your vocal smoothness. I’m not sure I’ve ever thought the chips worked well for me but in any case they’re not an option at this point anyway.

On my way home I stopped by my favorite greengrocer which has an atmosphere of an era gone by with its low shelves keeping everything at eye level. I also love it because I met one of my best friends there on a cold February day.

I always get so much value in fresh vegetables at low prices that it’s well worth the trip out of my way to go there. They always have a four packs for ¥1000 (or approximately $10) corner which I very rarely take the time to look at but I did today. I got two packs of various size shrimp, one pack of small scallops and some frozen imitation crab. Everything but the crab went into my seafood chowder which has turned out quite nicely and left me feeling comfortably sleepy.

It’s also a great way to use up the leftover fish which tastes amazing straight out of the oven but not quite so appealing cold the day after.

I have a Christmas concert coming up tomorrow night that I desperately need to practice for but I think it’s time for a nap.

8:20pm

I crashed so hard- slept for a solid 3 hours save for the multiple times the kids came in crying for mediation about missing toys and the like.

I’m trying to feed the boys dinner. I confess I’m a little envious of their bowls of white rice. It just sounds good though I’ve not been eating it that much for quite some months unless it goes with a specific dish like a donburi (aka. Gyudon– (beef bowl, katsudon-pork cutlet on rice, oyakodon– “mother and child” chicken and egg bowl, etc.)

The yakisoba bento the eldest requested after he finished his seafood chowder and rice was also a little tempting in that I usually steal a bite or two from the styrofoam pack when I make it. Habit rears its head once again.

I made another big as salad which should last through the next few meals.

I miss the craisins in it but I’m perfectly happy to leave the Chia, pumpkin and Sunflower seeds out.

Monday, December 18th- day 9

2am

After finishing teaching my last at 10pm I got the kiddos settled in bed and finally got to practice for tonight’s show. I’m very happy with my set list and I’m going to try a couple of things I’ve never done before in a live show involving a loop pedal.

Of course now I’m hungry again. I went to the fridge in search of nourishment and saw…

Yogurt. Strawberry gooy sugary tempting non-goodness. Everything in those little cups is off my list but so convenient. I wisely opted for more salad instead.

4:55pm

We’re at Costco and feeding the kids hotdogs and getting car tires changed.

The hotdog really couldn’t appeal to me less but the rotisserie chicken that I had hoped would be OK and had been seriously looking forward to has maltodextrin in it which is a no go on this whole 30 experiment. Sure it might be a negligible amount but I’m not willing to risk it. I’ll just go back home and eat more seafood chowder and salad and finally apples with the almond butter that arrived in my iHerb shipment today.

Tuesday, December 19th- day 10

0:05am

Making cookies at midnight. They are for my students who’ve worked so hard the past year. I’ve been planning the parties for weeks well before I started this whole 30 thing.

Not tasting the batter or licking the bowl was pretty hard. Thankfully this stained glass cookie recipe used a lot of olive oil which kept the dough from sticking too much to everything. My picky eater seemed to think the batter tasted fine so as long as they keep shape I’ll trust the cookies to taste alright.

I finished my last concert of the year 3 hours ago.

My audience got a good laugh when I told them about my diet for television purposes and how happy I was to find that I could easily get the zipper up on this dress which had been nearly impossible (or painfully tight and requiring manly help) to get up the last time I wore it. When I first got the dress maybe two years ago it was so big I could slip it on and didn’t even realize it had a zipper until more recently.

Win one for whole 30!

After the show the manager of the shop offered me some coffee on the house so I ordered it decaf and enjoyed a 10 minute chat with one of the concert goers who told me he’s 70 (but doesn’t look a day over 50.) I really want to be like that when I’m older. Not just looking young but acting young and feeling young.

I hardly had any time to eat before the show so I took some grapes which were a lovely throat nourishing snack between sets. Then I made this whole30 twist on an old favorite chicken recipe. I created homemade mayonnaise successfully for the first time in my life and used ground almonds to encrust this dish. Yumm!

5:10 AM

I just finished baking cookies for my students and it’s killing me that I can’t taste them to make sure they came out OK. I really don’t want to eat them myself but I’m concerned about this olive oil recipe.

When I had crushed candies coating my fingers I started to absentmindedly lick the candy dust off but immediately realized my mistake and spit it out as quickly as possible. Being mindful is so hard!

Most of the stained glass cookies came out looking pretty terrible on the first try but the plain simple cookies with metallic wires through them to make beautiful Christmas ornaments look fantastic I think.

I’m done as much preparation as I can for tomorrow. Now I just would love to get a two or three hour nap in.

5:10pm

That nap wasn’t quite enough to last me through the whole day so I just finished taking another one which felt too short as well.

This afternoon’s class party was a big hit. One of the hotel staff workers said they wanted to do games in class from now on out. I always encourage a child like sense of learning when possible so we may just attempt that from the new year.

Now I’ve got about 30 minutes to prepare for my second English lesson party of the day.

8:30pm

So I decided rather than suffering through everyone else enjoying junkfood snacks during the party that I would make something I could eat! I cooked up some ginger pork this time using coconut amino’s instead of soy sauce. The coconut amino’s don’t taste anything like soy sauce to me when used straight like dipping sauce for sashimi, but in cooking it’s a pretty good substitute. I also cooked up a batch of ginger lemon chicken with the same flavor profile. It was good but unique.

My beginners English class played Ellen’s heads up for kids and taboo while we snacked on the ginger pork, thinly sliced potatoes panfried in ghee, with grapes, mandarins and apple pie tea on the side. A great time was had by all.

Dinner was chicken, leftover fried potatoes, and sashimi with the coconut aminos and freshly made acceptable ingredients wasabi.

I had a call this afternoon from a radio station DJ asking me to do a rush job recording some jingles for a station in Okinawa. So I finally got the perfect excuse to use my music computer with the brand new software we had to purchase a week ago since our decade of use software brand announced that they will no longer be supporting or continuing it.

It sounded stellar! I’m looking forward to doing more projects from home in the near future.

Wednesday, December 20th- Day 11

4:47am

I couldn’t let the day go by without putting a few words on paper for my ongoing novel. I spent most of the time researching popular hotels in New York City back in 1930. My brain was quite tired after an hour or two and I found myself almost craving the various sweets lying around. I ate a few bites of Asian pear and more chicken instead.

11:16 pm

Had a birthday in the house so there was cake and sushi to celebrate. Not necessarily in that order. Lol. I enjoyed leftover taco salad from tonight’s advanced English class.

Wednesday, December 20th- Da y 11

Thanks to a gift of amaou strawberries I got to have dessert too.

Thursday, December 21st- Day 12

Late

I find myself fleetingly tempted in so many ways. Like driving past the donut shop and thinking I might’ve stoped there today and indulged myself in an old-fashioned honey dip calorie laden sugar monstrosity. Or seeing my favorite kind of liquor filled chocolates on sale by the checkout line. Going to convenience stores and seeing all the sugary drinks and snack foods, sandwiches, rice balls or at the supermarket through the deli section realizing even the cooked pumpkin that looks 100 percent natural is off-limits because they also cook it in sugar and soy sauce. I felt a little bit nutritionally lonely walking through these places today because I was hungry and there was nothing I could stuff in my face without at least 15 minutes of preparation and a kitchen at my disposal. I sated myself with a banana and the leftover grapes I had thrown in my bag before work.

I’m feeling a little guilty as well I suppose because I made a dish that perhaps too closely resembles a dessert even though it was just apples, berries, ginger, lemon, pecans and ghee with liberal amounts of cinnamon all warmed in a pan. Having a headache and low grade fever for the last 12 plus hours is making me feel tired and lethargic about making normal dishes, though the main problem was simply not having any ingredients to make anything else besides salad which I did have for lunch. I wouldn’t say this is quite “sex with your pants on” as the whole30 founder warns about when it comes to paleo desserts and the like but it certainly does look sexy.

Friday, December 22nd- Day 13

4am

I went to bed early- around 11:30 and am now up using the massage chair pillow to work out some kinks after a day of a low grade fever. It seems to have cleared up and my headache hasn’t retuned. I think the big ginger star in my apple dish helped knock it out of my system. But gosh, what I would give to be able to eat more of that faux apple pie with a big drizzling of my mom’s homegrown organic honey covering the whole thing! Guess I’m not as well as I thought. My body hasn’t really craved after sugar except when I’ve worked too late on creative processes and my brain is signaling for a serotonin fix. (If I’m wrong about the biology on that feel free to comment- but you know what I mean. I’m too tired to look it up right now. Lol.)

After a shopping trip when I bought more protein based items than is strictly necessary for a family of four I came home and made tachinotsuyu (as my mother in law calls it- I think it’s a Hokkaido thing because none of my clients from other parts recognize the name when I say it) or cod fish testical soup.

Of course it did take some effort for me the first time I forced myself to eat a dish that looks remarkably like brain but I found the nutty sweet flavor and soft texture of the otherwise known soft roe to be delightful. Now it’s one of my favorites. Usually it’s made with miso soup but that’s a no no so I tried making it with the usual fish stock and coconut aminos. Yumm!

I was still hungry so I nuked two slices of salmon and after that an avocado with ACV.

All in all a descent dinner. The kids ate “heathy” bentos from the market.

I still have a fever. Back to bed. Recording for JR in a few hours.

6:42am

Was hungry again so ate another avocado and some Asian pear along with a pot of Fireside Spice tea with copious amounts of ginger and lemon. Warmed me through and through where I was ready to crawl right back into bed. However, fool that I am, I opened Instagram for a final check and what do I see? The perfect Christmas present for myself just after my darling husband told me it was fine if I wanted to do my own shopping as he really wasn’t up to going out.

I was all set to purchase my own present when I decided to go back and check something and ended up losing the sponsored ad in the feed. It took me forever to find it again!! And now in 7 to 10 business days I shall be the proud owner of two 1920’s style flapper dresses! Perfect for me as I need more stage dresses and I’m obsessed with the flapper era as it pertains to my novel. It will be handy to experience wearing one such dress and see if my writing lives up to the standard.

Also it will be a huge testament to this whole30 experiment if I can fit my large behind into them both by the end of the year or even a month from now. 😉

2pm

I just finished recording announcements for the Hokkaido trains at one of the nicest studios in town. On a day like today I would be very tempted to take a walk to a favorite chocolatier shop I know, Saturdays Chocolate that’s just a couple blocks away. There’s absolutely nothing on their menu that I could enjoy it now except for perhaps a bag of cut cow nibs. I don’t feel quite worth the walk in the cold for that. A cup of chocopresso is another story.

Instead I have toget to go pick up a Christmas cake from the Park Hotel. It’s the prize my eldest won at their annual Halloween party costume contest as a Minecraft character. I will not be partaking of this cake of course but I really don’t feel any sadness at the prospect right now. Rather I’m more excited about going Christmas shopping for the boys and hunting down a turkey at Costco.

7pm

What I do feel saddened over is that Costco has no plans to get in any more of the reasonable sized turkeys before Christmas. All they have are the massive $60 birds that I highly doubt will fit in my roasting pan let alone my oven.

I was very happy to meet two old friends and four of my kindy students (four separate groups in total) while sweeping though the holiday shoppers and their carts.

I made another curry, this time with exotic additions like dark purple carrots and Lilly bulbs.

Super yummo!

And week two is in the books.

Whole 30 Lemon and Ginger on the Go

I saw a video the other night on my Facebook feed making fantastic claims that lemon in its entirety could cure cancer among other ills.

It suggested freezing the whole lemon and then grating it by hand for use in things like tea etc. That actually wasn’t a bad idea except the grating by hand part. Thankfully I do have a food processor that was given to me as a hand me down wedding gift. It sat in my cupboard for a couple of years but once I learned the awesomeness of this ingenious invention it became a kitchen favorite and has seen much, much better days. (In other words it’s on it’s last leg. No, it’s on crutches.)

So after zesting the backside of a lemon I decided to put it in plastic wrap and freeze it. By the next day it was rock solid and quite the challenge to cut in half while using an oven mitt to avoid freezer burn on my hands. Eventually I got it done and grated that baby into the finest fluffy lemony snow I’ve ever seen.

The lemon actually tasted a little sweet to me five days into this #Whole30.

After taking a teaspoon for my lemon olive oil and vinegar dip for sashimi I froze the rest in mini Tupperware containers. Then I got to work on processing my fresh ginger.

There’s a lot you can learn from Japanese variety TV shows. One thing I learned was this cool trick of using a spoon to effectively and efficiently peel the skin off of ginger root.

Also that a Magic Bullet can grate ginger or daikon radish really well if you know the right trick to it, which is simply to put a single piece of either in the blender cup and let it dance around as it gets chipped away at by the blade eventually turning into a proper oroshi.

Then I like to use silicon ice cube trays to freeze the grated ginger into easy to use portions for recipes like ginger pork or butajiru.

My carpaccio style sashimi was fantastic with this duo dipping sauce.

Some parts of a whole30 challenge in Japan are so Yum!