WIWW: Flag Scarf + Link Up

  

Last weekend Chris and I were on a hunt to get him some new fancy business shoes and a new belt that didn't look like it had been through a war. We hit the jackpot on some shoes from Marshall's, but it was a no-go in the belt department. Luckily, a couple stores down was Stein Mart and I just happened to have a store credit there from last Christmas.

In we went and right away spotted a belt that was perfect. But, since Chris had gotten four new suits (thanks to Jos. A Bank's buy one, get three free deal), a new pair of dress shoes, and a new belt, I figured it was my turn to get something.

I spotted this American Flag scarf and was in love. It is not too bright, so I won't scream "I love America!" everywhere I go, and it isn't too bulky. Some of those bulky infinity scarfs make me feel like I am a little swaddled baby trying to gasp for air.

Also, can we talk about this lighting that my husband managed to catch in these pictures? Way to go, hubby! These pictures were taken before I had actually gotten ready for the day, hence the sunglasses because I am wearing absolutely no make-up. Just trying to keep it real.

Scarf - here
Jacket - here 
Boots - here

And don't forget about Shopbop's 25% off sale going on now! Start that Christmas chopping early!

PS: The Lovely Lookbook's theme for November is stripes. I can't wait to see what y'all come up with. Come back on November 1st to link up your striped outfits!

Now for the link up!

- All I ask is you link back to my blog and link to a specific post.

- Write about something fashion related!

Thanks for linking up and to see other WIWW posts, click here.

Linking up with Because Shanna Said So, Get Your Pretty On, The Pleated Poppy.

Whole 30 Recipes and Meal Plans

I am no meal expert, y'all. Some nights I eat cereal and call it a day. Other nights I am on my game and concoct a yummy meal that I put on repeat.

Since cereal is not in the cards right now, and whipping meals up on the go is not the name of my game, I've been diligent about scouring Pinterest and other websites for recipes and ideas to keep this girl from going hanngryy. (You can see my Whole 30 Pinterest board, here)

Saturday mornings are when my meal planning/grocery list prepping goes down. The only bad thing about Pinterest is that 99% of your pinning friends are not on board with your clean eating so they be pinnin' stuff like this:

source

and you be like:

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The struggle is real. I love you, Pinterest, but I hate you oh, so much!

Moving on. 

Monday, October, 6th:

Breakfast - Eggs baked in avacado skins with the avacado baked in the middle of the cookie sheet. Basically you scoop out some of the avacado, place it in the middle of the cookie sheet, crack an egg in each of the halves, and bake at 350 for about 15 mintues.

Verdict - Freakin' disgusting...literally I was gagging.

My friend Caitlin told me about this recipe and it has been her favorite so far from Whole 30. I texted her telling her that it was gag worthy, and I'm going to say I just screwed it up, someway, somehow. The texture of the eggs was like rubber and the flavor of the whole things was awful. Never will I ever do this again because I can't get the taste out of my head. Cait, you need to make this for me!

Snack - Apple with almond butter.

Verdict - This is like candy to a person who isn't allowed to have sugar...so good.

Lunch - Leftover crock pot pork, broccoli, carrots, and strawberries.

Pork rump roast, coconut aminos, whatever spices you want. Cover pork in aminos and spices, put in crockpot on love for around 4 hours. We got a pretty small roast, so it didn't need a full 6 hours.

Verdict - It was alright.

The pork was't bad, but it wasn't good. It was edible and just blah. It was sort of dry and the gravy from the crock pot wasn't enough to make it taste better. Maybe using better spices or something would do the trick. 

Dinner - Beef stir fry. 

Cup up steak sauteed in cocout aminos. Then add any veggies you want and add about 2 cups of water, simmer until veggies are soft.

Verdict - Once again, it was alright. Not Chinese food stir fry worthy. The meat was tough and it just needed more spices.

Dessert - Another apple with almond butter while staring at Chris was was eating this:

Rude.

Tuesday, October 7th:

Breakfast - 2 scrambled eggs, a banana/strawberry/spinach smoothie.

Verdict - Compared to yesterday, delicious! The eggs were eggs and the smoothie was interesting with no milk or yogurt. I just added ice and a little water. It wasn't bad, but I won't be putting in the effort to make it again. Plus, Whole 30 suggests that you not have smoothies because drinking your food messes with your brain and a lot of this program is training your brain to not be emotional about foods.

Snack - Apple with almond butter.

Lunch - Leftover stir fry, carrots, and a kiwi.

Dinner - The last bit of the pork with veggies. 

Chris's dinner? Just a large pizza and a Pepsi. Kill me now.

Dessert - A kiwi...a lone little kiwi.

Wednesday, October 8th:

Breakfast - 2 scrambled eggs, a banana, and strawberries.

Snack - Apple and almond butter.

Lunch - Leftover stir fry, carrots, and a kiwi.

Dinner - Baked chicken thighs with veggies.

5 boneless, skinless chicken thighs. Preheat oven to 350 and bake for 20 minutes. I just added random spices and a little olive oil.

Verdict - Really good! Chris said this recipe was a "repeater." Winning!

Thursday, October 9th:

Same breakfast and snack as the day before.

Lunch - Left over baked chicken and broccoli. And, as usual, a bag of carrots.

Dinner - Chipolte! I had parent/teacher conferences this whole day so during my break I found out that I could have Chipolte! If you're doing Whole 30 you can have the salad with carnitas, guacamole, and tomato salsa. That's it! Because of the oil they use, you can't have the fajita veggies and they glaze their other meats with honey, so those are a no-go. 

Verdict - It was gone in 3 minutes when I got home...

Chris came home with a foot long Subway sandwich, a bag of Cheetos, a large Coke, and three cookies. I could have swatted his toosh into the next county. Fo' real, dude?! I didn't know he had cookies until he warmed them up in the microwave that THE WHOLE HOUSE SMELLED LIKE A COOKIE!

Friday, October 10th:

Same breakfast and snack.

Lunch - This was a struggle. Because I had ate all the leftovers and had Chipolte the night before, we literally had no meat I could eat. Our fridge was empty of options for me. All that was left was pico de gallo, an avocado, and some spinach leaves. So what did I have for lunch? Spinach leaves topped with a diced avacado, pico, and lemon juice. I also had carrots and strawberries.

Verdict - To be honest, it wasn't that bad! I was dreading it, but it was not as bad as that egg thing I ate on the first day! It was fresh and the lemon juice was a smart addition.

Dinner - Mooyah! I got a lettuce wrapped burger with onions, pickles, avocado, and mustard.

Verdict - The smell of the fries were killing me, but the burger was pretty good. I miss my ketchup though.

Some recipes I tried out last weekend:

- This chili recipe. The best thing I had made yet, plus there are plenty of leftovers.

- This homemade mayo recipe. This went straight in the trash. So gross.

- These sausage balls. I can't wait to finally have more than eggs and fruit for breakfast. These are SO good!

- These sweet potato fries. Not bad! I still prefer regular white potatoes, but these were better than nothing! I just found out we can have all potatoes, so I am pretty pumped about that! I also looked up the sugar grams in a regular sized serving of Mooyah's sweet potato fries...yikes! 25 grams of sugar in those babies! You might as well drink a Coke or have a shake!

Whole 30 Confessions

Hello friends!

After Thursday's post revealing that I am doing the Whole 30 challenge, I had no idea so many of you had done it, are doing it, or want to hear all about it. I can tell y'all are going to be what keeps me going because Chris and his Cokes and cookies are not helping the cause.

If you have been around here for awhile, you know that I keep things pretty honest and I'm not good at the whole "of course eating celery instead of cookies is great" thing.

So, let me be honest, last week sucked. I was hungry, grumpy, in a brain fog, and all around pretty much wanting to gorge on pizza and ice cream. I was irritated at having to cook so much, only to wind up with a meal that wasn't even 1/100 as good at the Little Caesar's pizza Chris was eating. It was not good.

After some requests, each week I will try to let you know my grocery list and the meals I plan on eating. I think this will help me stay organized and it will help you decide if this is for you or not!

I have found the hardest thing is snacks. When I get home for school, I want a snack. It used to be a bag of chips or bowl of ice cream. Last week it was an apple, banana, orange, or a bag of carrots. Noting equivalent to ice cream, or chips.

Before I started this, I thought my eating habits were pretty good. I felt like my protein shake with fruit and Greek yogurt was a good start to my day. The Belvida breakfast biscuits I had for snack were delicious and a better choice than other snacks I could have opted for. For lunch I usually had left overs from the night before, and my dinners were normally a meat and some veggies, or spaghetti and some veggies. On the weekends Chris and I would normally go out to eat, but then again, nothing I ate I ever felt was terrible or loaded with carbs and sugar. Oh how wrong I was.

During the Whole 30 challenge you can consume absolutely no sugar, added or natural (fruits don't count). None. That eliminates basically everything. Almond milk, yogurt, bread, spaghetti sauce, noodles, grains, cereal, granola, Belvidas, and pretty much everything else I was eating. Of course my beloved Cokes, pizza, and ice cream are out the door, which has not been easy.

Last week I could tell that my brain was lost. I made so many dumb mistakes that even I was dumbfounded as to how much my brain relies on sugar to get through  my day. I am usually pretty with it and I wouldn't be one to consider myself to have a lot of "blonde moments." By Wednesday I had: put face wash on my loofah, opened the deodorant and just stared at it not knowing what to do next, put leftovers in their containers and went to the trash to throw them away, got out an apple to cut, but stood there for two minutes thinking about what I needed to do with this apple, left the bathroom door at school unlocked and someone walked in, called my classroom phone looking for a parent, walked around looking for my keys and they were in my hand, walked around looking for my phone and it was also in my hand, and this is just to name a few.

Y'all, that is bad.

I went to bed before 8:30pm every night last week. As in I was dead asleep by 8:30pm. I also noticed that I did not toss and turn as much as I used to and never once did I feel sick from my acid reflux, something that is a huge blessing.

I am typing all of this out to say that here I sit on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon feeling really good. Do I want sweets, yes, 100%. Do I crave them? Yes, 100%. But, I feel better. My brain is functioning better, I feel more alert and less like I am about to pass out at any moment. I feel skinnier and less blah. I feel healthy.

Tomorrow I will be back with some recipes I made this weekend, the hits and the misses! I won't lie to ya...if I say is is bad, it is probably pretty nasty! I was a cooking fool this weekend and I feel much more prepared going into my second week of the challenge.

Happy Monday!

Linking up with Leann and Kimberlee!