So what have I been eating besides spinach? And am I ready to sell my firstborn for a processed carb yet? The answers to these and other burning questions are on the way.
So first, the blah-blah on revelations I've had in the past 48 hours:
- Cooking takes time. The food prep. Oh, the food prep. Yesterday was an intense day of cooking, particularly considering that I'm usually too lazy during the day even to pour myself a bowl of cereal. My hubs was a big help the night before my big start, but I still tackled a significant amount on my own yesterday afternoon. Pretty much my day yesterday can be summed up by 1) cooking and 2) washing dishes. Probably I bit off a little more than I could chew for week 1. But I wanted yummy recipes, o-kay?? Seriously, though, I have given so little time to food in my daily life leading up to this point (aside from waiting in a drive-thru line), so it's definitely an adjustment committing time each day (mutiple times a day) to making myself something yummy and healthy and then sitting down to enjoy it. The program encourages eating undistracted (and clearly these authors were not parents at the time they published). So no t.v., computer, etc. A huge part of my eating time pre-Whole30 was spent watching a show, checking Facebook, even working sometimes. Now I sit down and chew and swallow, chew and swallow. And think a little too. I'll admit I've felt a little antsy. I'm not used to just focusing on FOOD. I'm starting to wonder if I ever even really knew what food tasted like before because I was paying zero attention to it.
- There's almost nothing that I miss so far. I have felt extremely satisfied throughout the day. The evenings are the hardest because these were the times I'd really pig out. On pretty crappy stuff. Last night I had a cup of tea to try to soothe away the cravings. Tonight I am blogging. Writing is now, apparently, my soft-pretzel-and-cheese substitute. You're welcome.
- I think the reason I've loathed cooking so is that it takes TIME. And I'm always thinking of all these OTHER THINGS I could be doing with my TIME. Now I'm starting to think that there are a lot of other things that are not as important as taking care of my body and mind. It's making me rethink some other things that I don't spend enough time with - like my Bible and my kids. The Whole30 team encourages (strongly) that you set out goals for yourself before beginning the program. The goals don't even necessarily have to be just about food. My goals are to
1) Eat lunch five times a week with no distraction. Just me and good, healthy food (and probably some kids screwing around in the background somewhere, occasionally popping up to filch a bite**).
2) Get 7 hours of sleep per night.
3) Develop more consistent spiritual rhythms in my life (ie: solitude and silence, reading Scripture, praying); at least five days a week.
- It's amazing how much mindless eating and drinking I have been doing previous to yesterday. I almost turned into Dunkin Donuts yesterday for my iced coffee. Iced coffee that I wasn't really even craving and certainly don't need, but that's how I do. If I'm out and about I pull in somewhere. Serving my boys lunch I almost delved into the potato chips, even though I didn't really have a hankering for any. I do that a lot, I realize. Eat and drink stuff just because it's there. (Like the fizzy, delicious, beautiful Coke that is sitting in my fridge which I almost reached for yesterday. WHY is there COKE in my fridge?! Wah.)
Ok, on to the fun stuff. The food.
Day 1 ~
Breakfast:
Meh. My pictures are not that great. And my table is kinda ugly, so I'm using placemats as my background. ;)
Yesterday's breakfast (and today's actually) consisted of sweet potato hash (recipe found in the book It Starts with Food), an egg (which I tried to make over-easy but failed; today my hubby poached me one - much better), and a spinach and mushroom saute. SOOOO tasty and good! The authors of the Whole 30 encourage you to change your meal labels from breakfast, lunch, and dinner to Meal 1, Meal 2, and Meal 3. That way it seems less awkward to be eating, say, venison for breakfast (which I was) as opposed to bacon or sausage.
**Side note: each of my kids actually did filch a bite of all this. And exclaimed repeatedly over its goodness. There's hope for my family yet!
For lunch, twice baked sweet potates and turkey, as found here,
And some roasted cauliflower. Let me just say that cauliflower drizzled with coconut oil, sprinkled with sea salt, and roasted is DI-VINE. Another picked-on veggie that turned its life around.
Dinner ~
This deliciousness is also from the It Starts book - Italian-style chicken. We sauteed some green beans (and there's that spinach again!) to go with. My main man joined me in eating this meal and was very impressed. If I could just get him to eat breakfast and lunch I bet he'd totally be on board with this thing.
Day 2
Breakfast ~ (see Day 1)
Lunch ~
I was VERY excited to try this recipe because I really love mushrooms. I would say that I was not totally thrilled with the addition of coconut oil here. It was a bit overpowering. I think the next batch I will substitute olive oil.
Roasted zucchini and carrots on the side. Very yum except that I let my zucchini get a little soggy. Bummer dude.
Dinner ~
Dinner was leftovers from last night. Exciting stuff, right? I devoted my day today to whipping my trashed house back into shape and slacked off on making anything new. But tomorrow's another day!
So far I am loving the Whole 30 adventure. I can't wait to see and feel some results, but just knowing that I am doing something so good for myself keeps me motivated. And for now, that's enough.
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