It's a new year. I made resolutions like anyone else, only mine can't include immediate weight loss, because lets face it, there is no way I'm going to come out the other end of this year weighing less than I do now. Even if I somehow miraculously lose the baby weight in 4 months (HAHAHA!!!!), I will likely not be smaller than I am now. I'm ok with that. What I did resolve to do was to be HEALTHIER. Ah, see what I did there??? Look at me, being a grown up and looking out for my body. I hear people getting up in age have to do that. And judging by my increasingly early bedtime and sudden dire interest in my colon health, I think I fall in that category. I am not the kind of person who "diets" well. I am seriously able to rationalize a piece (or 4) of pizza into an OK dinner by cancelling it out with exercise I have not yet done, and will likely not do. Better yet, I will blame it on the weekend, or Friday or Thursday (because you know, Thursday is almost Friday which is almost the weekend), or just "put it off until Monday" altogether. Same thing with dessert. I really need black and white rules. I need someone to tell me "eat this" and "don't eat that" and "this is why pickles and cinnamon toast crunch is not an acceptable dinner". I need that. So, I found it. I was Pinterest-ing one day (remember when Pinterest wasn't even a word?? now it's a verb. Who knew? Kind of like "texting". Yea, that used to not be a word like 5 years ago. Seriously.) and looking up Paleo recipes that I thought my husband might eat when I came across Whole30. I did some research and turns out it's like a reset for your body. It's January. It's literally the month of the year that people reset things. So, why not?
Here are the rules. Basically, you eat REAL food for 30 days. No sugar, no grains, no dairy, no alcohol (if I were not currently pregnant, I'd be out on this business), no MSG or other crap that people put in food to make cheese its taste like heaven. JUST. REAL. FOOD. So, I'm doing it. One day at a time. And I'm going to attempt weekly updates with what I'm eating and how I'm feeling. There is a book called, It Starts with Food that I am planning on reading this month that describes how to do what you're doing with Whole30 and why it's important. I'll give my cliffs notes version of that as well in case you're interested (assuming I actually buy it and have time to read it before the month is over - we'll add it to the old "To-Do").
Week 1 -
What I ate:
Breakfasts - Grapefruit, raw nuts (Walnuts, pecans), hard boiled eggs, Chicken salad (I was starving Friday morning!), eggs over easy with sausage and bacon and half a grapefruit, apple with almond butter and walnuts
Lunches - Tuna with avocado on spring mix with Cherry tomatoes and an apple, tuna salad on romaine hearts with strawberry/blueberry/blackberry mix, Cobb Salad (chicken, bacon, egg, avocado, tomatoes, vinegar and oil), chicken salad on field greens with cherry tomatoes, Cobb Salad with Avacado from Panera (minus the bleu cheese/only reason I usually eat salads), cobb salad from Chick Fil a with grilled chicken (I forgot to specify no cheese or corn, but tried to eat around it....kind of),
Dinners - Grilled Salmon on spring mix with avocado, onion, tomatoe and a red wine vinegar, olive oil and lemon vinegarette, Bunless bacon burgers with baked sweet potatoe fries, leftover burgers, tuna salad and chicken soup (weird dinner night), Tuna salad (Dan was out, I ate leftovers), pork carnitas in lettuce wraps with guac and pico, pork carnitas (click for recipe) in baked potatoe with salsa, chicken legs and roasted red potatoes
Snacks - Raw nuts (walnuts, cashews, pecans), snack mix with dry roasted almonds and pistachios and dried fruit, frozen grapes, celery with almond butter, Fruit (strawberries, blueberries, blackberries), green smoothie, Strawberries, raw nuts and dried fruit, larabar (cherry pie flavor)
How I feel:
First of all, I researched what to expect on this because I am serious about it and I'd really like to know what I'm in for. I found a lot of things, but they all seemed to be right along these lines:
Day 1: My head was pounding way too hard to think anything was "breezy".
Day 2: My headache continued....consistently. I had read that the headache is part of your body detoxing, but knowing myself I would imagine it was the detox in combination with my complete caffeine withdrawal. You are allowed coffee on this plan, but not cream and sugar. So I can no longer tell people I'm a coffee drinker. I just can't do black coffee. Not even to rid myself of this terrible headache. I tried two different types of hot tea, but in case you're wondering, hot tea does NOT taste like coffee with cream and 2 sweet 'n lows. Not even a little.
Day 3: I still had a headache, but it seemed to be managed pretty well with Tylenol (whereas on days 1 and 2, it was not). I also discovered that while hot Green Tea is nothing like coffee, it is palatable enough to enable me to drink some caffeine. I feel like with lemon and sugar, it wouldn't be bad. Again, NOT coffee, but a mediocre substitute.
Day 4: I felt pretty normal. No headache and I don't feel hungry. Although, it should be noted that I am eating every 2-3 hours during the day.
Day 5: I walked into the kids' school in the morning and a little boy was eating a donut. It was one of the big ones, covered in chocolate and sprinkles and it was in the shape of a person or tree or something. I'm not sure how long I stared at him, but it was long enough to creep him out. Donuts will be my first post Whole30 breakfast. And maybe lunch. Possibly dessert....I know this picture says you're not supposed to be "Sleepy" until day 6, but I was all over that dwarf on day 5. All. Over. Maybe I got to skip a day of "I hate you and all things", it's hard to say. I am 13 weeks pregnant with a 1 and 3 yr old and a full time job. When I haven't slept in 3 days and have 5 deadlines all RIGHT NOW and my 3 yr old has decided that not only will she boycott sleeping in her bed, she no longer wants to poop EVER...then YES, I hate all things. Especially on mandatory poop days. Day 5 though, I did not hate anything on an out-of-the-norm level.
Day 6: I really felt normal today. I had energy enough to take Mia to Urban Air and do a little bouncing myself (a dangerous undertaking for a woman who's had two vaginal births and is currently pregnant), take all our inside Christmas decorations down with the "help" of my sidekick, Boo. I was the normal amount of sleepy for someone who is 13 weeks pregnant with two small children and I did not bite anyone's head off. *WIN*
Day 7: I woke up STARVING. I wanted to gnaw my arm off. I wanted donuts and coffee with cream and sugar and a chicken biscuit drenched in gravy. And it pissed me off when I sat down and ate an apple with almond butter....and dry walnuts. I mean REALLY pissed me off. I picked up my kids from my parents' house, bit Mia's head off about 6 times when she walked through the door....then I caught a glimpse of how ridiculous I was being. I apologized and pulled myself together. The rest of the day was much better. Rough morning though. Rough. Morning. Wow.
So I made it, kind of. I have a confession to make. On Sunday, we went to lunch at Red Lobster. I was weak. I had 2 cheddar biscuits. They were so warm and gooey and they were just calling to me! I also ordered shrimp tacos (not a bad choice), but they were in tortillas, and I didn't care. They also had ranch. Also, didn't care. One thing that this program specifies is not to let yourself cheat. And you know what.....I did. And again, I don't care. I'd say for a week on this program I did pretty good. I have broken myself of coffee (although I will have coffee again in 21 days). And I have been able to curb major sugar cravings with fruit and salty cravings with nuts. I have planned for/cooked every night and made my lunch or had a compliant salad every afternoon. I'm proud to have made it through week 1! I can't say I won't have another "cheat" during the next 21 days.....let's face it, I'm not the only one calling the shots in my skin these days....but I'm going to try to stay on program. It's only another 3 weeks, right? ;)
What I can tell you is that I feel good. My goal with this program and this pregnancy is to BE HEALTHY. I found that I was eating a bunch of CRAP. I was embarrassed by what was in my fridge and what I was choosing to snack on AND what I was choosing to feed my kids. I wanted to change that and if I am going to be a cliché, well then, the change starts with me. Right? So, since I took on this 30 day plan, both my husband and myself are making better choices with what we put in our bodies (if you know my husband, McDonald's BIGGEST advocate, then you know this is HUGE for us/him). Our kids are eating healthier(-ish, let's face it, my 3 yr old has a very specific palate, I feed her whatever she'll eat) and I am no longer ashamed of what is in my refrigerator or what's in my body.
I, as I'm sure you expected, have not bought the book yet. It turns out making dinner every night from scratch and prepping lunch for the next day takes TIME! Who knew?! I'm still shooting to buy/finish it before the next 21 days is up though.
So, that was my week. Hope it was as interesting for you as it was for me. I'll post next week as well, and the following....until I no longer have any blog followers. Who knows, it may not take 2 more weeks ;)
What I can tell you, is that you should expect another post this week about what will be joining the Jones Family in July....Boy or Girl. Feel free to cast your votes in the comments! :)
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