sweetpotatosoup – Spoonful of Jun

Today was another rainy day, so I headed downstairs to run on the treadmill. Mile one was a breeze. Mile two was easy. And mile three was so much fun. I got all sweaty and felt like I was on top of the world! I’m sure it was the banana I had eaten beforehand. Well, maybe it was something more than that. After finishing NPR’s Up First and New York Times’ The Daily, I listened to a Tim Ferriss Show episode with Bozoma Saint John, the Chief Brand Officer at Uber. I always read about her in the news and follower her on Instagram, but I didn’t know what she sounded like when she talked. I used to listen to the Tim Ferriss Show quite regularly. Last spring, I picked up his book Tools of Titans, and halfway through, I started feeling overwhelmed with all of the things I had to do to become successful. I put the book down, and gave myself a break from his podcast. I received so much positivity listening to Boz. She was so energetic and positive. It was fascinating to hear about her move from Ghana to Colorado, and her “very Ghanaian” father’s reaction when she lost the student council elections – twice. Tim Ferriss’s podcasts are long; this one was two hours, so I only got halfway through, and I couldn’t wait to finish listening to it later.

I had an extremely productive morning. I was super focused as I did some strategic thinking work. Close to noon, my husband walked in to give me a kiss. After saying hi, I walked into the kitchen, made myself some green tea, and ate a handful of blueberries. It’s funny – if he hadn’t walked in, I would have continued to focus on work and not think about food. An hour later, we heated up last night’s stuffed peppers and sweet potato soup. I thought I would hit the usual afternoon slump after this filling meal, but no, I kept on staying focused! I was impressed with how productive I was.

In the afternoon, my husband and I took a break to go see the Soviet art exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago. We have a membership there, so we often pop in an out. We rushed home so that I could catch my next conference call, only to find out the minute before the scheduled start time that it was getting cancelled. I didn’t mind getting an hour back to get some work done. But before that, the rest of Boz’s interview. I got so motivated as she talked about her career, and was so touched by the story of how she met her husband and her relationship with him before he passed away. She was so confident, so powerful, so positive, so thoughtful. She gave me so much energy!

I got back to work, and was quite focused for a couple of hours. “Were you going to make the leftover squash and kale tonight?” I shouted from my office. “Yes, I’ll start cooking now,” my husband said. I continued running numbers and typing away on my laptop until he said, “It’ll be about fifteen more minutes.” That was my que. I worked on making tuna boats, which took more or less fifteen minutes. Using avocado as a replacement for mayo was brilliant. It tasted so good!

We are now all packed up for the weekend. We’ll be heading to Breckenridge tomorrow night for a long weekend of skiing. It’s his first time, so I’m excited to see how he does! When I taught him tennis for the first time this summer, I was pleasantly surprised with how good he was. He didn’t hit baseball-like home runs like beginners usually do. His strokes were clean and strong, and his footwork was precise. Maybe it’s because he’s a good soccer player. Or maybe he’s just a fast learner. Anyway, I’m hopeful!

This morning, I could not get out of bed. The alarm went off at 7am, and I just could not bring myself to do it. It took an hour for me to finally open my eyes and wake up – to a sore throat and heavy body. Concerned it was a sign of the beginning of a cold, I loaded my body up with vitamin C: freshly squeezed lemon water and lots of fruits.

My tiredness lingered on the rest of the morning, and I was clearly cranky. I lay down next to my husband who was also working from home, and tears started streaming out of my eyes. I was stressing out about my career again. He listened to me and walked me through my thoughts, and helped me feel a little bit better. When I was done, I blurted out “I sort of want Rice Krispies.” I don’t think I’ve eaten or even thought about them in a couple of decades, so I’m not even sure why this came to me at this time.

I had a big lunch, because I was extremely hungry. Lunch was a little bit of everything: leftover grilled coconut-curry chicken, scrambled eggs, mashed potatoes, and salad. Since I couldn’t work out in the morning, I had planned to work out in the afternoon. I could run outside where it was finally above zero but wet from the previous night’s rain, run inside on the dreaded treadmill, or do leg exercises. When the afternoon came, my body still felt tired and my mind foggy. One thing the Whole30 is making me better at is listening to my body. It was begging me for a day off. Once I made a decision to make today my “rest” day, I felt a huge weight come off of my shoulders.

I continued to feel a little bit off throughout the rest of the day. It was probably due to this low-carb diet, but it also might have had to do with the weather. It was dark and gray and gloomy outside. The one upside was that I was able to get more research and reading done than other days, so perhaps it was just that kind of day. Mid-afternoon, I grabbed a snack of a couple oranges and some nuts. Snacking is a habit, not necessarily a necessity.

For dinner, we cooked stuffed peppers and sweet potato soup. I could have roasted the peppers, which my husband described as “warm raw peppers,” a little bit longer. But the delicious stuffing more than made up for it. My husband made sweet potato soup, which I may have had a little too much of. Like that time I grabbed one too many walnuts and forced myself to finish the handful, I took too much soup and felt like I had to finish it. Again, the recipes in the Whole30 never disappoint.

A week has gone by since starting the Whole30. I definitely feel less bloated than before, and my nails, which have been breaking every other day from the cold and dry weather, have gotten stronger. But my mood is still very much up and down, and I still have to reenergize with an afternoon snack. The things I miss most are beer and wine. It’s funny that I don’t miss cocktails at all, since that’s what I’ve been more into recently. The key to not craving non-compliant carbs or snacks has been “out of sight, out of mind.” As long as I don’t see it, I don’t miss it. I definitely appreciate my husband going on this diet with me. Cooking together everyday and discovering new recipes has been fun and exciting, and it’s nice to be in it together. My husband and I both travel quite frequently for work, so I’m worried about how we’ll hold up once that picks up again and we’re eating more meals out and at airports, with coworkers instead of each other. So far, the Whole30 has been good. They say that the hardest days are still ahead. “This is not hard. This is not hard.”

Spoonful of Jun

Tag: sweetpotatosoup

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