I had rice and oatmeal today. So yummy. I also indulged in a little paleo baking with this cassava pizza crust. Easy, even if a long process. The result is a little gummy, but still super tasty. No complaints here!
And so far no trouble with the rice or oatmeal, even though I really don't expect there to be. Yay!
So the reason I finally decided to try the Whole30 was because I knew enough people who found it really helpful and even do it regularly. Would I recommend it to others, then?
Yes, if they are concerned about potential food sensitivities and don't want to do a full on elimination diet. I am happy to know that none of the things I've been avoiding was making me feel bad in ways that I hadn't realized! It was also good to get a reminder that sugar and dairy aren't really my friends, even though they try to pretend that they are. They're so damn seductive.
I would give a few warnings, though. First, I find the online forums too negative and harsh to be useful for me. In one question, someone admitted they were new, and were wondering about crunchy foods. People who responded (including a moderator) quickly assumed that the asker was looking for snacks and were really rude about snacks being TERRIBLE FOR YOU. Well, that's not what the question was, and the topic of snacking, while discouraged by the whole30, is not a rule. Besides, that kind of question is between you and your doctor. Other questions I saw were met with a similar puritanical attitude, let me be more whole30 than you. I was looking to feel better, not be chided by trolls with nothing better to do.
Second, only do it if you can accept that you might not get any results. Most people do, but the whole30 leaves in things that bother a lot of people, like I realized the tree nuts were doing to me. In addition, while what we eat is extremely important, there are other causes to illness. I've heard from several people that did the whole30 and other eliminations for migraines, but never found a trigger. Research suggests that many migraineurs (so fancy) have a food trigger, but not all. So it might not help, and you need to be happy with knowing you don't need to fear cake if nothing changes for you. Or be happy knowing that cake WILL be a problem, and learn to avoid it. If you don't know, don't do it.
Third, this is a *paleo* diet. If you are looking for a robust elimination diet, you need to keep looking. White rice, select steamed veggies, and chicken is the strictest version. By keeping some of the top 8 allergens, like eggs and tree nuts, this is certainly not an all purpose elimination diet.
One thing Mr More Calories said at the beginning was that several people had told him how much they love how they feel on the whole30, but why don't they do it more? I think that staying mostly compliant is totally doable, so my guess is that the effort (or perhaps cost) is more difficult than they personally find to be worth whatever benefits they got from it.
I'm glad I tried it, and ready to eat a few things I miss. And I'll work on keeping the vegetables up for sure.
Was this month "life-changing"? I don't think so, but only time will tell.
Was it useful and informative? Yes.
Even though I feel largely the same, I don't regret it. There are some small ways I feel different, but not things I'd say are worth all the extra hours of food prep and menu planning. (I always plan my menus, but it's usually much quicker!)
Learning that nuts bother my stomach was useful. Getting a strong reminder that even the sugar in fruit doesn't go well on an empty stomach was good. (though Mr. More Calories was quick to point out that I'd decided that once before. Well, my sweet tooth usually doesn't care. Hmph.)
All that practice saying no to free food at the office was good. There are things people bring that I don't even really like, but I eat them because they're free and there and not bad. Don't do that. Eat a small part of things you like, and leave the rest.
There may be more things, but now it's time for bed!
So, the weekend and Monday all passed without any word from me. Sorry.
We had my nephews, as usual, and they stayed till Sunday mid - day doing exciting things like shopping for the week's food. Last night was Deconstructed shepherd's pie, but it looks like the photo didn't save, sad. Maybe I'll remember to take one at lunch if you're lucky.
I again made it through the weekend without eating food I made, so that's good. I did feed them more salad than they're used to, they were not happy with me about that. But my goal is to make them healthier, not happier. The 4 year old even ate a good bit of his hours later when he learned that the mini ice cream he picked out was off limits to salad haters.
I gotta say, I'm looking forward to reintroduction. I'll probably do my own version since not all legumes are equal. For example, soy and peanuts are much more common allergens than black beans. But white rice first since many medical elimination diets leave it in.
I think a peanut egg white oatmeal bar could make a really good small meal as long as I respond well to the ingredients. We'll see!
I picked a recipe for dinner that uses shredded chicken, but shredding it out kind of annoying. Luckily, the internets showed me a better way! Shred chicken with a stand mixer! When I first flipped it on, one breast jumped right out into the counter, but I rescued it. It was more to clean, but worked really well.
Tonight I took off from cooking, it was great. MMC got us dinner from a healthy restaurant that has several hearty salads that can be whole30. I also prepped a crock pot of lamb tajine for tomorrow, I'm pretty excited about that.
I gotta say, I'm really looking forward to peanut butter. It'll be in two weeks probably, but I'd really like some! I'm gonna be so sad if my body disagrees. We'll see!
Before starting this I thought that the idea of limiting fruit was kind of silly, because it's really different from added sugars. Well, for the lady two days I've eaten baby carrots and meat (and guacamole today) when before I like have eaten an apple. I even had to go to the fridge to grab the carrots when the apple was at my desk. In fact, I think that a couple bites of banana was all the fruit I had today. So there you have it, folks. I have curbed my interest in sugar to the point that I have almost given up fruit by accident. I would have never expected that!
I didn't post this yesterday, but you can admire my beautiful dinner picture now. Even Mr More Calories enjoyed the spaghetti squash. I had cooked everything and he came into the kitchen, saw it, then started searching the counters.
Me: what are you looking for?
MMC: Where's the magic?
Me: the what?
MMC: The magic! (I give him a confused look) (he gestures to the squash) the magic! How did you do that?
It was pretty funny. He also learned that peanuts are legumes this month. Crazy how we each know things that we think are obvious, but that the other has no idea about
More kid fun this weekend! I am getting better at it. I still wanted all the cookies while walking one down the cookie aisle to pick out dessert. And I wanted to try the coconut chocolate chip cookies we made. But I just ate my safe foods and continued on.
We also had brunch at a friend's house and they were super cool about us bringing some stuff, and they made other food I could eat. Looked up whole30 recipes and all! And made tasty coffee, it was a nice meal and hang out all around.
I feel a little better today, but I'm also afraid it's some crazy fluke and don't want to say more. It might not even be food related. But we'll see how I feel tomorrow and go from there!
Well, I have survived to another Friday. Yay? I had an appointment early in the day, but not as early as work. So I got to sleep in a little AND eat breakfast at home. So I had breakfast salad.
Well, at least no more nuts for 14 days. My stomach feels better today, but that might just be because I was a little sick yesterday. Tomorrow will tell more. I bought some single packaged meat sticks to eat instead of nuts. Hope it helps!
One of my minor complaints that I was hoping might go away has gotten a little worse. Not terrible, just notable. 🤷♂️ maybe one day I'll get things figured out. Til then I'll see what staying off of nuts does.
Well, I have made it past the halfway mark. No real differences noticed yet, but I am trying to be OK with that. I have found some easier ways to cook things, like crock pot sweet potatoes. It's great to just drop them in and come back later.
Today I roasted some butternut squash noodles under some chicken thighs and it was really tasty. And pretty! I failed to take a picture after it was baked because I was too hungry by then. But trust me that I ate the chicken cooked.
I'm debating taking out nuts because my stomach isn't very happy sometimes when I eat them. But they're so easy! And when so many other things are of limits, it's hard to find something with fat and protein to throw in a bag. Sigh. We'll see. Maybe after I reintroduce things. But now that I type it, that seems too far off and potentially confounding. Damn it. I'll think about it tomorrow while I eat more magic bars :)
Hey, I took pictures of all three meals today! That wasn't even on purpose exactly. Breakfast was as I made it, in the hopes that it would be tasty. Lunch because it looked funny to me. And dinner since that's what I've been better at photographing.
Sweet potato egg bake, in steps. I was quite pleased with my idea to use the silicone loaf pan.
Watching the nephews again, and having the same issues as last weekend. But now I want one of the cupcakes sitting on my counter. A lot. Sigh.....
Breakfast : eggs, grapes
Lunch : hot dog, leftover soup
Dinner: ceviche, sweet potato, broccoli Thai curry
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| Bigger chunks of almonds for texture |
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| Smaller bits of nuts to blend in better |
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| Dates and egg white powder when blended and ready to add to nuts |
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| Magic Bars, wrapped and waiting for me to eat tomorrow |
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| Salad lunch! |
A friend came over for dinner last and we were talking about how much prep goes into food for whole30. I have a good assortment of pots and pans and tools and even bought a spiralizer, which has been great.
But there are so many people who have never even learned how to read a nutrition label (maybe they don't even try whole30?) or don't normally cook. *I* get a little grumpy by dinner time because of the prep, and I've been cooking as long as I could remember. I used to pull out the kitchen drawers to make stairs to stir whatever pot was on the stove. (And I'm just now realizing how rough it is that I felt obligated to do that at 5 or less.) But if you're a slightly slower cook, or not as into it, there would likely be a lot more salads.
It's also more expensive for me than what I normally eat. A $1.25 box of whole grain pasta has 8 servings. Last night's daikon for 'ramen' served 3 for $ 2. I am in a position to do that and it's worth it to me to see if this helps. But I'm well aware that not everyone can say the same.
So I'm sending good thoughts to anyone out there tired of spending so much time on food prep and wish everyone great luck!
Breakfast : paleo porridge, pecans and blueberries
Lunch : salad with leftover pork
Dinner : sausage, potatoes, sauerkraut, broccoli
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| Sweet potatoes and red potatoes |
I'm a little surprised, I finally read the daily whole30 guide, and I didn't have any particular trouble so far. Too much time on food prep, I was sleep deprived for other reasons, but not a bad 'hang over' feeling or anything. I did dream about eating Naan last night, so that was pretty funny.
In other news, a hurricane is headed for Texas and while I'm live far enough inland that we'll probably be totally fine, there's just enough storm threat that people are acting weird.
I'm also babysitting from tonight until tomorrow, at the kids' house, which means taking all my food. And resisting the siren call of whatever food I need to make for children. I was proud that I did NOT grab a jelly bean from the table and eat it. But tomorrow I'll need to protect my chicken from the youngest, who's a picky eater but could eat chicken all day long. And I have to find indoor activities to entertain them if this storm really hits. Wish me luck!
Breakfast : hard boiled egg, sweet potatoes, pecans, blueberries. (it's becoming a thing)
Lunch : left over sweet potato hash
Dinner : shepherd's pie, but with the corn and peas swapped out for zucchini and broccoli stems.
Snacks : home made rx bar, nuts, apple, dried figs, half an avocado
Breakfast : deconstructed frittata (read : was too tired to make it last night, but had the ingredients.) potato, hard boiled egg, and broccoli
Lunch : salad, tuna, oil and balsamic, hard boiled egg, half an avocado
Snacks : dried, unsweetened Mango, mixed nuts (no peanuts!), apple
Dinner : sweet potato hash with ok sausage, onions, spinach
Turns out I'm not a fan of balsamic with tuna and egg. Better get on making other options!
Today was fine, but it's going to take a lot more energy than usual to make all my meals. I can do it, but I can't imagine doing a whole30 while making different food for kids!
Well, I've decided to start the Whole30 in two weeks, once I'm back from a trip, and I think that having a place to update daily will help me. So here I am, reviving this blog, at least for a month.
The 'why' part - I think I eat pretty well. I probably get too much sugar regularly. And I know I need more vegetables. But the big reasons for me are a couple of nagging health issues that are maybe food related. Maybe not. Which is why I haven't tried before. So I wanted to try an elimination diet to see, and this one is popular enough that it's a lot easier to find recipes!
I've already started pinning recipes, which I'll add here, and making menus. I can share those, too. Then I'll just need to put it all in action! Wooo!
One of my sisters is joining this quest, she already likes the whole30 and has done it twice! Even though she has to make other food for he kids! I'm pretty lucky to just be cooking for (and with) my partner who has agreed to eat whole30 at home. And we live in a big city with lots of healthy stores and even a few restaurants where you can eat on the whole30! We're really pretty spoiled. Oh, AND I've already recruited 5 cheerleaders for when I forget why I'm doing this.
So there you have it. I'm basically a wimp when it comes to food even though I'm super lucky with this. Now I think I'll go prepare by eating more of that chocolate in the cabinet....
