Day 5/30. Day 1/6

Day 5 of 30 on our Whole 30 diet.  I know I have some teacher and math friends that would have been concerned that I didn't reduce the fraction in the title, so that's why I have both 5/30 and 1/6.  You're welcome folks. 

Also, this is probably going to be absurdly boring for some of you fine folks.  Feel free to just skip to my other blog here and go see cute pictures of my girls.

Whole 30.  So far, it's going great.  I realize we're early in, but we are off to a good start, I think.  I've been really encouraged with how the meals have gone so far, and I hope that continues.  Since I stay at home all day and don't work outside the home, I feel we have an advantage in that regard to our meals and meal planning.  Others who have done this diet indicated that prepping on the weekend was crucial for them during the week, and that isn't the case for us since I can work on things during the day.  For example, yesterday I made French salad dressing, mayo, pico de gallo and clarified butter all from scratch.  Jesse and I don't typically ever use mayo, but it was a challenge that needed done in the back of my mind, and I'll be able to use it to make Ranch dressing and chicken salad and other variety options.  Plus, I just got an immersion blender and I'm so ridiculously excited with that thing.  Ridiculously excited. 

So, what have we been eating?  I'm glad you asked.  I am trying to keep a wide variety in our meals.  Lunches so far have just been leftovers for Jesse and kind of whatever I find for me: plenty of salads, lettuce wraps, brats, etc. 

Day 1. 

Breakfast: scrambled eggs with mushrooms, green onion, sausage and Frank's hot sauce. 

Dinner: salmon with guacamole, roasted cauliflower (minus the parmesan cheese), salad and asparagus. 

Day 2.

Breakfast: avocado eggs (which weren't good), summer sausage and banana pancakes. 

Dinner: chicken cacciatore over spaghetti squash. 

Day 3.

Breakfast: steak hash. 

Dinner: pork chops, asparagus, salad and pudding. 

Day 4.

Breakfast: sausage patties, bell peppers, tomato and avocado. 

Dinner: coconut chicken, roasted beets and salad (with beet greens, of course!)

Day 5.
Breakfast: scrambled eggs (with Frank's!), summer sausage, carrots and peppers, sautéed mushrooms
Dinner: taco salad.

We discovered after the fact that the banana pancakes, while delicious, are anti diet.  Oops.  As is the pudding.  Oops.  The ingredients were approved, the idea was not.  Part of what I'm reading in the book, It Starts With Food, is about how food effects your hormones and brain function.  Now, I tried explaining this, but figured Jesse would read it and say it didn't make sense, so from the website,

"Eating eggs, a banana, and some olive oil is not the same as combining those ingredients into a pancake. There are studies that show that how your brain perceives the food influences satiation. This is often cited with liquid food (smoothies or shakes, as we reference in the back of It Starts With Food), but experientially we see this with whole foods as well, depending on how they are combined. Pancakes bring up a totally different psychological response than frying some eggs and eating a banana. And it’s that psychological response that we are trying to target with the program."

And since Jesse and I agree that we didn't see our egg/banana as different than a pancake, we wouldn't have them the rest of our diet.  But Jesse made sure to tell me they needed to be a thing when we were done.  The same with the pudding.  

As I said, I've been really encouraged reading the book.  Even if you have no desire to do this diet for a month, though I think you should, please consider reading the book.  

I've had two lightning bolt level moments of "whoa!" (accurate measurement) while reading this book.  The first was after this:

"Finally, an all too common refrain from clients, readers, and workshop attendees is, 'but I don't like vegetables!'  You know what we tell them? 

We don't care. 

...it doesn't matter if you don't like vegetables, because we're all grown ups, and sometimes, grown ups have to do things they don't like to do.  Like, or mow the lawn.  Or pay bills.  Or eat vegetables."

It goes on to detail the typical three reasons people claim they don't like vegetables, but you know, spoilers.  Go get the book and read it for yourself (ps, it's on page 156).  And as my wise dad says, eating healthy is cheaper than a heart attack.  So, how much do you value your health, or you know, being alive and having a good quality of life?  Enough to figure out a way to eat some vegetables? 

Watch out, I'm excited about this.  Check back in a week or so and see how grumpy I am about not having potatoes still. 

My second moment that spoke directly to me was about fruit:

"...your brain doesn't immediately differentiate between 'healthy' sugar like dried fruit and 'bad' sugar like a Snickers bar.   The only thing your brain knows is, 'I craved sugar and I got sugar.'  That's right, the message you just sent your brain is, 'I craved, I satisfied that craving, and I feel better now.' "

Oops.  This was me.  Totally unintentionally.  But, this is about changing the way we see food, and at the end of the day when I just want something sweet, having an apple or strawberries is still caving to a sweet craving just like grabbing a cookie.  The psychology behind this is intriguing to me. 

We haven't modified any of our meals for the girls, they eat right along side of us.  However, I am still giving them milk and other dairy products, breads and some of their favorite snacks still.  Like fruit snacks.  Judge appropriately, they're special treats in this house.

I don't want to bore you all on this, so I'll keep the rest of my initial thoughts to myself for now.  I put links to most of the delicious meals we've made, so if you're wondering what those things look like, go look at pictures of other people's food because I'm not taking pictures of 3 meals a day for 30 days.  I already struggle enough taking pictures of my girls daily.  But, as this is my blog and diary, I want to track what we are eating for the future.

Thanks for reading, your reward is now cute pictures of my girls.  Or, if you got bored near the top and scrolled down for pictures, here they are: