Go, Me! 30 consecutive healthy-eating days have passed, and I feel like a champion!
Looking back to my first post, I see that my #1 motivation was finding a magic food portal to the kingdom of energy, focus, and well-being. (Can you tell I've been watching "Once Upon a Time"?) Didn't really happen. At least, I don't think so. I feel good, physically. Mentally... I'm still the same. Boo.
I also hoped to lose weight, shop locally, feed my family healthier food, and model good behavior for my daughter. That all happened, so here's to small victories.
What I Did
- For 30 days, I ate three meals of protein, vegetables, and healthy fats, in the proportions dictated by It Starts With Food.
- I abstained from dairy, legumes (including peanut butter), sweeteners, gluten, soy, alcohol, and vegetable oils (except canola - on occasion).
- I went to the local farmer's market and Whole Foods almost weekly to get fresh produce.
What I Didn't
- I didn't make my own mayo and instead chose store-bought mayo with canola oil (but no sugar and soy, etc). Canola oil is a "no" on Whole30.
- I didn't always buy grass-fed or pastured meats, although I did buy these more often than I ever have before (which was never), and I always bought wild-caught fish.
- I didn't always sit down for my meals. More often than not, I ate breakfast in the car.
- I didn't always buy in-season or local produce.
- Occasionally, I ate off-schedule or out-of-proportion and suffered the consequences of hunger, mood swings, and dizzy spells.
- I slipped up with one bite of banana bread and one, doneness-test pasta shell.
- I ate small snacks of nuts or fruit most afternoons.
How I Felt
- I felt good about my self-discipline. I just jumped in and stuck to it! Believe me, I'm not often like that.
- I enjoyed what I was eating. In the absence of junk, good-for-me food tasted better and better as the month went on.
- I feel awake, for the most part.
- I felt satiated.
- I lost weight. Probably 5-10 lbs, but I don't step on a scale unless I'm at the doctor's office. I'm just guessing, based on the looseness of my pants.
- My mysterious breast soreness disappeared.
- Some new intestinal weirdness is happening. I haven't figured it out, but I'm working on it.
How I Didn't Feel
- I never felt the Tiger Blood or super-focus.
- I never had a miracle skin transformation (although, my skin did stop itching so much).
- No niggling long-term health problems disappeared. Fortunately, I don't have any major health issues, so I can live with these.
What I Learned
- I can do something new and difficult, if I set my mind to it, even with a toddler, a full-time job, a long commute, and a fixed-income. It helped to have the support and witnessing eyes of my dear friends, especially Ms. Stacy.
- My stomach ailments are primarily caused by one or more of the things I've left out. I very rarely felt bloated, constipated, or windy while doing Whole30.
- While on Whole30, I noticed my impulse to thoughtlessly toss any loose food into my face any time of day, when I'm cooking, when I'm feeding Lo, when I'm at the office, when I'm cleaning, when I'm driving, etc.
- Sweet potato chips are a food-with-no-breaks for me.
- Spinach and leftovers are my friends.
- Yogurt, soy milk, cereal, whole wheat bread, etc. I'd rather eat any of them and skip my veggies, so for now, they are out out out. I'm choosing vegetables.
- Just to be honest, healthier food doesn't taste better than junk. It's not packed with sugar and MSG and salt and other evil yumminess. As I said above, I'm making a choice to eat healthy.
- I don't want to be a blogger. I can't pick a tense and stick with it, and I bore myself.
The Kid and the Husband
- Since I cook dinner, my husband accidentally benefited from the Whole30. He was glad that we were eating more vegetables while not getting too adventurous with the spices and such. No curries for Tim.
- I don't think I've inspired him to quit smoking. =(
- Lola is going through a phase. She's avoiding vegetables right now. I've decided not to force her to eat healthy things, because I want her to choose to. I'm going to continue to offer her food from my plate and introduce new things, and hopefully someday, she'll follow my lead.
- My husband and I have decided not to take yogurt, milk, and grains out of Lo's diet right now. We're going to go whole fat, whole wheat though. We're cutting out legumes as much as possible. After this jar of peanut butteris empty, Lo will try almond or sunflower butter.
What's next?
- More of this. I plan to continue eating this way, after I do a trial reintroduction of gluten. I already know about dairy, and the literature on legumes is enough to convince me to keep them out of regular rotation. Gluten, however, is still a mystery to me. I'd like to know once and for all.
- I plan to let myself eat non-compliant food on special occasions. I know I'll feel very bad afterwards, but this has been my relationship to ice cream for 20 years, so I can do it with crackers, cheese, sugar, etc.
- If things get out of balance, I'll go back and do the Whole30, with no cheats, and begin again.
- As of last night, though, I realized that my family will not be as supportive of this diet now that the Whole30 novelty is gone. I'll have to make a better effort to make our meals delicious. I admit, some of the things I made, especially the fish dishes and some of the veggies, were not very tasty. I'm not a cook, but I am The Cook. I still control the menu, and I vow to keep making healthy food.
