Thursday, October 16, 2014

Day 3 - Whole 30

Day 3 - October 15, 2014

Breakfast - scrambled eggs with kale and onions, bacon, black coffee


Snack - banana, almonds, water
Lunch - tuna, veggies, water (Ethan had leftover taco salad)
Snack - macadamia nuts
Dinner - pork pumpkin chili, avocado, water
Snack - sweet potatoes and pecans

I was really tired today, but other than that, feeling good and still happy we're doing this!

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Day 2 - Whole 30

Day 2 - October 14, 2014

Breakfast - scrambled eggs with kale and onions, bacon, strawberries, black coffee


Snack - macadamia nuts, green tea
Lunch - sausage, raw veggies (zucchini, bell peppers, carrot, olives), water
Snack - pistachios
Dinner - pork pumpkin chili, avocado, water


Snack - apple w/ almond butter

Day 2 was just as delicious! I was craving something sweet by the evening, but pushed through. We can do this! 

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Day 1 - Whole 30

Day 1 - October 13, 2014

Breakfast - scrambled eggs with kale and onion, strawberries on the side, black coffee
Snack - almonds with honeycrisp apple, water
Lunch - sausage cooked in cast iron skillet, sauteed zucchini and onions, water
Snack - green tea
Dinner - Mexican salad (seasoned ground beef over kale, onions, tomatoes, olives, avocado, guacamole, and salsa) **This was exceptionally delicious.

Wish I would have taken pictures of my food because it was so good! Everything was delicious and extremely filling.

Apparently day 1 is the easiest. We shall see!

Monday, October 13, 2014

Whole30

Whole30.

It's something I've wanted to do for about a year and a half, but I never pulled the trigger. But being home from Germany (I need to post an update since we've been home a while) and eating the food here again, I realized that we needed a restart. And that's exactly what Whole30 claims to be.

I was chatting with a friend and I asked her randomly if she ever thought about doing the Whole30 Challenge and she had. We decided right then to do it together, starting today! We took the weekend to clean out our cabinets and fridge, to make a good grocery list, and to restock on all Whole30 compliant foods.

I am so excited about this! If you don't know what Whole30 is and you care to read up on it, click here. If you don't want to read about it, I'll say this: it's basically a strict Paleo style diet for 30 days to "nutritionally reset" your body. When I was reading through all the things I couldn't eat, I was thinking this would be hard. But then I read the list of things I CAN eat and realized, this is going to be both delicious and doable!

I've rallied some friends together and we are going to keep each other encouraged during these 30 days. We will share recipes and meal plans and tips and tricks. We will pat each other on the back and give high fives and hugs.

I don't expect anyone to read these blog posts about our Whole30 journey, but I wanted a place to share my experience that wasn't Facebook.

Have a lovely day and enjoy some whole foods!

Monday, August 11, 2014

Jewish Memorial

I tried for weeks to find the right words to use to express how somber this site was. I didn't expect to be so moved by it. This is the memorial in Goettingen for all the Jewish citizens who were forced out during WWII era. The memorial is built where the original town synagogue was burned down.








Last Bit from Around Town

Thought I'd share some pictures from our last few days.

The square downtown and the Altes Rathaus. One of my favorite locations. It was such a pretty day this day.


When PhD students graduate, they parade around town in make-shift wagons. It is hilarious. This is one of them.


I never ever got tired of the Schillerwiese, the park near our apartment. Evening talks here were my favorite.


Locals enjoying the beautiful weather and scenery in the Schillerwiese. The building in the back is the top of the Goethe Institut.


A sunset we saw on one of our last walks through town. The night was so lovely, that we just walked and talked for nearly 3 hours!


The Deutches Theater. I love the landscaping in the middle of the roundabout.


The library at University of Goettingen. 


A statue we passed on our walk to church each week. These two are a part of the Goettingen Seven, I believe.


Church. 


Our walk to and from church was mostly on the old city wall. It was so lovely.


These are some pretty houses I liked. I passed these a lot on our walks around town.





Last German Eis. Man, it was delicious.


There is an Academic Publisher in town. This is one of their locations. They print a lot of academic theology books in German.


Where Goethe lived in Goettingen.


Where Benjamin Franklin lived in Goettingen.


This is the statue in the center of town, appropriately named the Navel.


Sadly, my favorite aisle at the grocery store. So much Haribo!


My view from the kitchen. 


On our last walk through old downtown Goettingen. We were on our way to Cron & Lanz for dessert and coffee, so we were happy.


I loved this street. We walked it daily, as it was the main road from our apartment to the center of town and the grocery store. It just looks so quintessentially German with the half-timbered houses. 


Pretty view from inside Cron & Lanz.


Our final dessert choices from Cron & Lanz. We were not disappointed.



Planetenweg (Planet Path)

I'm a little fuzzy on the details, but in 2003 Goettingen put a Planet Path in their town. It is all to scale in the city starting near the train station and going all the way into the forest. It is done to scale in length and in size of the planets. (Here's the link to the webpage if you're a geek like me: http://www.planetarium-goettingen.de/Planetenweg/) My goal this summer was to find all the plaques and take a picture with them. Success!



You can barely see the Mercury representation in the middle of the clear plexiglas, it's so tiny.








Jupiter. Forgot to take a picture with the front of it.







Pluto was too small for a representation, but it did have a plaque! We had to hike up quite a ways to find this one.