Waldorf Cabbage Slaw - Whole30 Last Week Wrap Up

This post is a few days late, but we finished our Whole30 a week ago!  This past week, we just kept going, not starting our Reintroduction phase until today.   Oddly, by week four, we felt we were simply cruising.   Meals were planned but not so meticulously - it felt natural to cook and eat this way, so it didn't take so much careful attention to every step in order to keep to the plan.  It also meant less careful following of specific recipes, rather than just putting together a good meal.

Breakfast & Lunches continued to be put together from dinner leftovers and what we kept on hand, following the Whole30 template (protein, sufficient good fat for satiety, and filling the plate with veggies and fruit).  We did get lax about pre-prepping fast breakfast items, like homemade sausage and egg muffins or frittatas, and putting together soups for portable lunches, and found their absence to be annoying, so we'll pick back up again with that level of pre-preparation.

I also got very lax about photographing our meals! (oops!)

This was what we ate for dinner:

Sauteed Lemon Garlic Chicken Strips with Waldorf Salad Slaw (recipe below)

Ham Steak with Baked Sweet Potatoes and Leftover Slaw

Ginger Sesame Chicken Stir-Fry with Cabbage, Carrots & Zucchini Noodles

Zucchini Noodle Spaghetti and Meat Sauce with Olives & Mushrooms, Salad

"Butter" Chicken with Coconut Cauliflower Rice, Spinach Saag, & Avocado Chutney

Bunless Burgers, Sauteed Mushrooms, Avocado & Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Slow Cooker Beef Stew

A few notes:

The Lemon Garlic Chicken Strips were simply sauteed in Ghee along with minced garlic and fresh lemon (and its zest) along with some capers to create a classic Chicken Scampi type meal.  The real star was the Waldorf Slaw and I'll share that recipe with you below.

Ghee was also used to top the baked Sweet Potatoes served with the ham.

The Chicken Stir-Fry was simply put together with little attention paid to quantities - I used some Red Boat fish sauce, a bit of coconut aminos, some grated ginger and sesame oil and then on whim threw in a splash of orange juice, and the result was delicious.  The veggies were simply onion, celery, carrots, some leftover shredded cabbage, mushrooms and a spiralized zucchini to sub in for noodles.

My husband handles week-end cooking and treated me to a delightful Butter Chicken, with Saag and Avocado Chutney - this shouldn't even be possible on Whole30, right?? But he found the recipes and the results were amazing!

The Beef Stew was also a put together with cubed beef, potatoes, mushroom, onions and celery - I found that some Butternut Puree and tomato paste made it thick enough to feel hearty, but a little arrowroot would have also made it thicker.

Waldorf Cabbage Slaw
- a mash up of my two favorite salads!
Serves 4

Slaw:
1 cabbage, shredded (set aside half for another meal)

2 Gala apples, cored and chopped into small bite-sized pieces, or spiralized

1.5 cups green seedless grapes, halved

2 stalks celery, thin sliced

1 cup walnuts, chopped

Dressing:

1/2 cup mayonnaise (homemade or Whole30 approved)

1 lemon - juice and zest

salt and pepper to taste

Combined all the prepared salad ingredients in a large bowl.  In a small bowl, mix together dressing ingredients.  Fold dressing into slaw so that all is coated.  Chill until ready to serve.

So good!

So how'd we do?

I mentioned the results we were experiencing at the end of Week 3 here and they continue to hold.  

We had take out the day after and thought everything was compliant (except for the 'psychological' no-nos. In other words, we had fries) , but I wound up having an awful night's struggle with GERD.  So I need to avoid fried foods when out - it's pretty clear that the oil they use is not for me.

But we also got to weigh and measure ourselves!  On Whole30, there is no peeking at either scale or tape measure, because part of what it is going to do is teach you to pay attention to clues about mood, physical well-being, alertness, skin health and yes, pants fitting more comfortably.  We knew the numbers would be good - but we were curious to know by how much.  We'd done our measurements before we began, and here's where we landed a month later. 

(I am only noting the difference between last month and this, not the actual numbers - we've still got a long way to go, but now we have a yearlong goal.)

I do believe a good bit of my loss was due in no small part to the loss of systemic chronic inflammation, so I'm ready for these results to slow down going forward.

Me:  

Weightloss: 20lbs

Neck: 2 inches

Chest: 1.5 inches

Waist: 1.5 inches

Hips: 2 inches

Thigh: 0 inches (time to add exercise!)

Him:

Weightloss: 14.5lbs
Neck: .5 inches
Chest: 1.5 inches
Waist: 1 inches
Hips: 1.5 inches
Thigh: 1 inch

WOW!  I had low, low expectations for that part - the last time I did this, the results were far less profound.

So what's next?

We've decided to primarily continue eating this way, with occasional easing up for special occasions.  It's working for us and the food is, simply put, delicious!

But first, the Reintroduction!  The second phase of Whole30 involves a methodical reintroduction of  the foods that were removed for 30 days (minus those you just don't want back in your life - for me, that's junk food and highly processed glop).

Over this next month, we'll be having days where one category of food is eaten (while otherwise keeping to Whole30 rules) and then a few days back to a strict Whole30 while paying attention to effects.  How long between depends on what happens -standard is 2 Whole30 days after each reintroduction, but I was experiencing so many inflammatory effects before we began that it may take me longer than that to clear up before the next test day.

The categories we're specifically testing for include a little modification from the recommendation.  I wanted to look at sugars, in particular, as I have suspected it is having a bad effect on my GERD.  I plan to avoid cane sugar as a practice, but want to know if alternate forms carry a similar reaction (in any event, added sugars can only be an occasional thing, as all sugars cause issues of their own, and it is highly addictive.

Our test series will look like this (and carry us into March):

Sugars - honey, maple, coconut sugar.  We both dislike stevia, agave and the like, so no point in testing those.

Alcohol - (timed around a social event that's coming up) - Wine, cider and/or non-gluten liquor.

Legumes - peanuts, soy sauce, beans, peas, hummus

Dairy - milk, cheese, plain yogurt

Non-Gluten Grains - oats, rice, quinoa, corn.  If this day gives me fits, i'll be breaking these out to individual tests once the main reintro is done.

Gluten Grains - wheat, barley, etc. Bread, flour tortillas, pasta, etc. I know this is going to cause me grief, so I consider this my inoculation against any further temptation to start eating this again. Yes I love it. But I love not feeling sick all the time more.

Beer - separate from the Gluten grains day, we want to test beer and see if it causes similar issues. My husband is a craft brewer and it would be sad not to ever be able to drink it!


So that's the plan!  If you're curious about Whole30, check out their website and consider trying it for yourself!