I Can't Believe I Just Did That

If you would have told me a year ago to endure 30 days without a single processed food, ounce of sugar, grain or dairy product, or alcoholic beverage I probably would have punched you in the face. And now, to have arrived at the end of just such a journey, to have accomplished HEALTHY EATING - ME! - it is an amazing feeling. By and large, I would say that it has become second nature to have this as my primary way of eating.  I can't imagine ever skipping breakfast again or making drive-thru's my go-to.
How I've benefited:
My energy: I am no longer wilting after lunch, ready to just curl up and nap the rest of the day away. I also sleep more soundly and less restlessly at night (when my kids aren't waking me up, that is) and find it SLIGHTLY easier to awaken in the morning (though I can't say I'll ever be a full-fledged morning person).
My mood: I have always been kind of a moody person, with big ups and downs and a fair amount of melancholy. These days I feel much happier (and my husband has even commented on this as a change he's noticed) more of the time.
My body: While I've never struggled with weight issues, I was working on a healthy muffin top pre-Whole 30, which is now virtually non-existent.  I can feel around my waist that there has been some shrinkage. (I wish I had taken the before pictures to prove it). I feel overall HEALTHY, for I think the first time in my life.
Peace of mind: knowing that I am doing something great for my body and brain and treating it, I believe, as God probably originally intended. With good food.
Food doesn't control me: I've learned that I CAN, in fact, say no, and this is huge. Before I always just gave in to the cravings no matter what. I felt I had no control, no willpower. I now know that part of this is the way those crappy foods are designed - to keep us wanting more. But 30 days of good food choices have proven that I am the one in control of what goes into my maw. This outcome made even the hardest of moments SO incredibly worth it.

Where I struggled:
There's a lot of cooking.  And dish washing. And cooking.  And dish washing.  This was tough. And I don't have a full time job outside the home. And I DO have a husband who cooks.  Yikes - so what can I say if you're a single mom or working full time? COOK AHEAD! I have three boys who are a full time job, and my husband is gone a lot these days, so those were not sure-fire answers to the constant cooking conundrum (alliteration nerd!). But by cooking and prepping ahead (taking an afternoon or evening on the weekend) the weeks were MUCH easier to bear. And I will say that dishes ain't no thang anymore and that I like cooking a little better than I did before.

Sticking to organic/grass-fed/pastured, etc.  That's expensive stuff, peeps. I was lucky to have some meat resources that made good meat a little less painful to come by, but there were a couple times I paid $20 for two pounds of chicken and it made me a little ill.

Fighting the urge to snack.  I still have this in my system a bit, even though 90% of the time I was just sticking to three meals a day with no "snacks".

Success in my Whole 30 goals. (See this post)   I still averaged about six hours of sleep a night most nights. Staying up too late doing things other than cooking and washing dishes, I guess. I did not reach the five-days-a-week that I was hoping to as far as developing greater spiritual rhythms in my life. And I did too much reading or Facebook checking during my lunches.



What did I miss the most?  cheese, ice cream, and alcohol

Missed least - bread/grain products and white potatoes. As a Dutchie, I NEVER ever thought I'd say that.

So what now?
Going forward I'm going to keep this as primarily my way of eating. I'm going to do a little experiment over the next ten days, as recommended by the authors of the book, to start slowly building foods back in and see how my body and mood responds to those things. I start with....DAIRY!!!  Had a little cheese on my stuffed acorn squash this morning. It was great, but I would have enjoyed it just as much without I think. Huh.  Weird.
I'm still pondering how much of this to build into the lives of my kids. It's going to take baby steps but changes definitely need to be made sooner rather than later.  We leave on a two week long vacation tomorrow, so probably I won't be doing anything too drastic during that time.

A few last meals to share:

http://www.eatingforidiots.com/paleo-chicken-tostadas-rancheros/ - these were really good but our plantain tostadas ended up a little burnt and chewy. Something we would definitely try again though.

For lunch this entire week I did a little riff on eggplant parm. Without the parm. Obviously. I broiled eggplant slices and then topped them with pork sausage patties.  I placed these stacks on fresh spinach and then topped the whole thing with a Trader Joe's approved marinara. Super duper yummy.  As evidenced by the fact that I ate it all. week. 

Breakfast for this week was a little hash the ingredients for which I saw on one of the Whole 30 forums. Sauteed in a pan were red onion, apples sprinkled with some cinnamon, sweet potatoes, some kale, and shredded cooked chicken, then I seasoned with paprika and sea salt.  Oh and there were mushrooms.  Because mushrooms make so many good things even better. I topped this all with a poached egg. A-mazing.

So that wraps up this installment of "What crazy program is Julie getting on board with now?!" 
Wow.
I can't believe I just did that.
But I'm SOO glad I did.