DAY 30: I DID IT, I DID IT, I DID IT!

ERRMEGHERD!

Well folks, today is the day. Day 30. Honestly, I hate to say this but I woke up today pretty much feeling like it was any other Tuesday. And do you know why? Well it's because I have gotten so used to eating, drinking, and living this way that I was not in pain and agony waiting for today to come. This may sound super cliche but I honestly think that Whole30 changed the way that I am going to view food and "diet" for the rest of my life. I really don't look at this as a fad that is going to pass. Now, let me stop here and say that the biggest thing I will take away from Whole30 is to stay away from processed foods and stay away from chemicals. So when I say that I have adopted this as a lifestyle I am saying that I am conscience of what I put in my body and I truly want to live a healthier life.


The debate of what is healthy, unhealthy, good, bad, and everything in between is one that you could have with just about anyone. As I have said in previous posts, it gets confusing trying to figure out what in the hell you "should" and "shouldn't" eat. Whole30 does have some help in this department. Once you have finished your Whole30 they have steps for you to take that can help you to not feel completely overwhelmed. They also have a guideline on how to reintroduce foods properly. They don't expect you to live Whole365. They just want you to break your bad habits and feel more in control of what you're putting into your body (my words, not theirs).

I keep thinking about what I am going to reintroduce and what I am going to completely cut out. I think one thing that I am hardly ever going to have are gluten grains. What I mean by this is cutting things like: bread (all kinds), white/wheat flour, pasta, and bagels. I will probably incorporate things like brown rice, quinoa, corn, and couscous every now and then but I have to pay close attention to how my joints are feeling after reintroducing these non-gluten grains. Now dairy is going to be a little bit harder for me to refrain from. I have never noticed my body acting negatively towards dairy (i.e. I don't bloat up like a Macys day parade float after drinking a glass of milk) but I am well aware that cheese holds no nutritional value. So if I have to chose between cheese and no cheese on a salad for example, I will come to the conclusion that no cheese is better - it's not worth it. Now if I am making some zucchini lasagna and I want to use some cheese in that I will probably do so.

In the end it is all going to come down to the big question of "is it worth it?" Is that slice of pizza worth the extra 20 minutes I will have to do on the elliptical? Is that pint of ice cream worth the sugar rush my body will experience and the crash afterwards? Well ya, that second one seems kinda awkwardly framed. But you get the point!

Mhmmmmm - you go girl

The feeling I have today though is indescribable. I feel a sense of accomplishment but I also just feel GREAT! I don't have headaches, I sleep well, I have sustained energy throughout the day, I cook good food, I am in a better mood, and overall I just feel better. It is amazing to me that some people argue diet isn't a big part of health and longevity - that you can eat whatever you want as long as you exercise. I am not sure I buy into that logic because I used to eat pizza, burgers, ice cream, chips, and drink a bunch of beer and I felt sluggish and tired and didn't sleep for shit. All I know is changing my diet helped me feel better - and it could do the same for you!

What's going to happen to my blog? Well I am going to keep it around because I will more than likely do another Whole30 soon enough. I want to say thank you to my family and friends for supporting me in this endeavor. It means a lot to have a great support system around me. I also want to thank my readers and I hope that, if nothing else, my blog inspired one of you to make at least one small change in your lifestyle. Cheers!

(Oh, and for those of you who are dying to know... I lost 8 pounds in 4 weeks with only 3 trips to the gym. Just imagine what you could accomplish if you did a Whole60 incorporating exercise 3-6 times a week. Go out there and do it people!)

Day 27: Cooked, Cleaned, Shopped

Mah stocked fridge

Saturdays used to be so much fun and now they're full of grocery shopping, meal prep, and cooking. I honestly hate when you read a recipe and it says prep time is supposed to be like 15 minutes, because it always takes me twice as long. I mean they have to be talking about robots when they time that shit out. There is no way a normal human being takes 20 minutes to prep/cook a shepherds pie (which is what I made today). Aaaand on top of it taking a while to prep and measure and combine and brown all the stuff it takes like twice as long to clean all the extra bowls and spoons you use. Okay I'll get off my soap box about cooking - but seriously. My hands are all pruney from all the dishwashing. First world problems.

Mashed cauliflower

I went to Sprouts today and bought a good amount of stuff. Some fruit, veggies, almond milk, ghee, and some other random things. My fridge is stocked! I just have to remember when I bought what veggies so that they don't spoil before I cook them. That's the hardest thing is trying to cook all the fresh stuff you buy before it grows mold or little extremities. I've had to throw away some veggies a few days ago because they were all shriveled and nasty. So word to the wise if you're doing Whole 30: either pay super close attention to when you buy your produce so you can cook it before it goes bad or go to the grocery store like 4 times a week. Buuut I guess that's pretty much common knowledge...

Sprinkled paprika on top - yum!

So the shepherds pie I made was out of the first Well Fed cookbook and it came out pretty tasty! I'll put the recipe up on my blog soon, along with the recipe for mashed cauliflower. Mashed cauliflower is actually very delicious. The consistency came out a little wonky - a little too runny. So if I make them again I will have to add a little coconut flower or arrowroot powder to thicken them up. One modification for the shepherds pie would be to double the recipe for mashed cauliflower. I didn't feel like it covered enough of the meat layer. I also subbed ground turkey for ground lamb because I did not have any of the latter handy. The author of Well Fed offers other modifications to change up the flavor as well. My picture doesn't really do the dish justice because it tasted better than it looked. Overall it was a successful, but antisocial, Saturday... really craving a drink right about now though...

Day 25 & 26: Food Groups... What?

A Smörgåsbord of crap

Yet again I have not posted for the last few days... This week has just been a long week for me. And I am NOT finishing up my Whole30 very strong. Still lacking in the veggie department. It really does take a decent amount of prep to keep up with this routine. Yesterday I had extra time and I woke up and made this ground beef, egg, spinach mixture thing. It was okay but I don't think I would make it again. Plus it smelled funny. Tonight I cooked the Taj Mahal Chicken again, just because I really enjoyed that recipe and it was so simple. I need to thaw more meat though, because I am out...

With gas please (Euro style)

I feel like my experimenting in recipes and my blog have both been slacking. I started off funny, or at least roused up a little smile from those of you who read this, and now I it's just sad. I would hate to have my blog be boring as shit - but I feel like we've already reached that point. Like honestly, the most exciting part of my day was trying flavored sparkling water. La croix grapefruit. That was the most exciting part of my day? What in the hell is wrong with me? I enjoyed it so much that I seriously contemplated, and am still contemplating, going to Target to get some of the new summer release flavors. Yup. This is my life.

So lately I have been doing some research about Paleo and the Paleo diet, which is pretty much what the Whole30 is... Minus the Paleo approved desserts and snacks and stuff. The more and more "research" (if you can call Googling educational research) I did the more confused I was as to what is good/healthy for you. Eat meat because animal protein is great. Don't eat meat because there is no evidence it's beneficial to your heart. If you cut out grains and dairy you don't get the right vitamins. Cutting out carbs is bad. Cutting out carbs is good. Eat only lemons. Kale all day every day. Milk rocks. Milk rots your soul. Whole wheat is great, but it slowly eats away at your small intestine. At the end of the day it all makes my head spin. All I know is that the information and the way it was conveyed in It Starts With Food made sense to me.

Is this true?

You can live your life consumed with what you are consuming. But in the end it is ultimately up toyou what you decide to put in your body and why. I don't want to live my life constantly thinking about what foods I can or can't have. But at the same time I don't want to fill my body with chemicals and overly processed foods. It's a balance that I am struggling to figure out still. Once my Whole30 is up on Tuesday night, what am I going to start eating again? Cheese? Brown rice? Creamer in my coffee? Ahhhh. I wish the scientific community (aka nutritionists, doctors, the FDA, dietitians) got their shit together and just agreed on something. Oh, and that they would ban fast food restaurants because they're causing immense health problems in America and the rest of the world. But that conversation is for a different time.

*Day 24: Get to Know Your Hormones People (Please Read)

Okay, so since today wasn't very exciting food-wise for me I thought I would take the time to talk a little bit about one of the things I read in It Starts With Food that really stood out to me. It is kind of a long passage but if any of you are like me, which I am assuming at least some of you are, this scenario applies to you:

Not So Healthy Hormones: A Bad Day

Your alarm goes off at 7 a.m., and again at 7: 09, and 7: 18, at which point you head straight to the kitchen, ready for that first cup of coffee. Your cortisol levels are abnormally low in the morning (a dysfunctional situation created by an overly stressful life and worsened by unhealthy eating habits), which means you’re not feeling very bright or perky. You grab a low-fat blueberry muffin, a banana, and some orange juice on your way out the door, and stop at your favorite coffee shop for a large soy latte. Since your breakfast is almost exclusively fast-digesting carbohydrate (and sugar!), it quickly raises your blood sugar and insulin, aggressively driving energy into your liver and muscles. The high levels of blood sugar give you a kick-start, but by 10 a.m . lots of insulin has pulled too much sugar out of your bloodstream— which means you’re now experiencing the crash that often follows a sugar spike when you’re insulin resistant. This stressful blood sugar crash prompts a cortisol response, which uses glucagon to get your blood sugar back to normal. Glucagon breaks down liver glycogen and increases blood sugar, but since you’re metabolically overreliant on glucose for energy, you can’t use fat efficiently for fuel. Your brain translates these events as, “Need energy now!”— so you have another cup of coffee, plus half a bagel with peanut butter. Since you’re generally sedentary , your liver and muscles are still full. Some of the carbohydrate from the bagel is used for fuel, but the excess fuel is stored (or remains circulating in the bloodstream). At noon, you grab a small turkey sub (whole-wheat bread , turkey, low-fat cheese, and mustard), a small bag of baked potato chips, and a diet soda from the deli next door. Again, your carb-dense meal drives blood sugar and insulin levels up, and the caffeine in your soda also prompts a cortisol (stress) response, both of which serve to give you a short burst of energy. Even though there is some protein in the turkey, glucagon’s attempt to releasing stored energy is overshadowed by elevated insulin levels, so once again the sugar is used as fuel, while fat is stored and blood (and liver) triglycerides accumulate. A few hours later, all of that insulin has driven blood sugar levels too low— again— which means that by 3 p.m. you’ve hit the midafternoon trifecta: you’re tired, hungry, and mentally foggy. Luckily , you’ve stashed some healthy snacks for just such occasions and come up with a granola bar and a low-fat strawberry yogurt. Once again, your carbohydrate-rich snack serves to temporarily prop up your energy levels and mostly stave off your hunger. Work is busy, and you’re totally brain-dead by 4, so you grab a small iced coffee (with skim milk and a teaspoon of sugar) to get you through the rest of the day. The caffeine in the coffee provokes another cortisol response, which increases blood sugar to give you some energy. That works for a while, but by the time you head home at 5: 30, you’re stressed, exhausted, and cranky. You resist the urge to call for pizza delivery and make chicken parmigiana, with low-fat cheese and whole -wheat pasta, and a side salad. To help you deal with the stress of your day, you also have a glass of red wine. Thanks to leptin resistance, you eat more than you really need, feeling stuffed when you finally put down your fork. Just two hours later, however, you find yourself craving something sweet. You forage for a pint of frozen yogurt in the freezer and settle in front of the television. By 9, half the pint is gone. You’re exhausted from your day, but because of your blood sugar volatility and caffeine intake (all provoking a stress response), as well as your poor sleep habits, your cortisol is higher than it should be. You can’t seem to wind down, so you stay up until 11: 30, watching the news and sending a few emails. You don’t sleep well, tossing and turning for hours, until your alarm blasts you awake again the next morning... But even though the day we just described wasn’t so great, it wasn’t that bad, right? You still ate pretty “healthy” food, you still feel pretty good overall, and maybe you’re just a few pounds overweight, so things must be OK. Or maybe not— because the hormonal disruptions are invisible. Due in large part to your diet, they are occurring beneath your radar. You aren’t necessarily aware of their effects today, but that won’t be the case forever. Let’s see how this eating scenario plays out over months or even years. After all, this is a “typical day” for most of us. (Hartwig, 55-58)

PLEASE GO OUT AND BUY THIS BOOK!! If this small passage doesn't speak to you, then fine. Maybe Whole30 is not for you. Buuuuuut if you saw yourself in any little part of that you should do yourself a favor and go purchase It Starts With Food. Yes, maybe you don't do each one of these things on a daily basis but this was me before I started Whole30. And if you read the rest of the book it explains what happens to your body after 3 years of eating like this... So this should act a teaser and make you that much more intrigued to at the very least go read the book.

Day 23: Need to Remember to Eat...

This is what I am going to do next week...

One more week to go! Next Tuesday I am freeeeee. But I am not going to go ape shit or anything. I have 6 hours of class the next day so it's going to be a rather calm night. I almost don't even want to treat myself because I feel so good with my progress. Today I joined a gym for the first time EVER. It's only $1 a day with no contract - I pay month by month and can cancel at any time. It's a super great deal and when I pay for things I feel obligated to use them. So exercise + Whole30 = (should equal) GOLD.

I don't have a lot of update today... except for I have been so busy getting used to grad school and all the reading that I honestly sometimes forget to eat. It's like I am not hungry until about 3 hours after I wake up and then if I eat meal 1 at that time the rest of my meals are thrown off. It is also hard not to eat an entire meal in the middle of class. For example, tomorrow I have class from 9-12 and then 2-5. So I should eat before 8, from 12-1:30, and then after 5. Well I am planning on working out early in the morning before class, which doesn't leave a lot of room to eat. And then I have an appointment at 5:30. So I am really going to have to make sure I eat enough and at good times throughout the day. People who say they honestly have time for everything they want to accomplish during the day are full of crap.

My "dessert" = pear with cinnamon 

The lesson here is that eating is important. I know that I should enjoy every meal and not scarf it down. But it seems like my life does not allow for this. Besides, my schedule changes every day so I am constantly on the go, not on the go, at home, not at home. I am not complaining because I enjoy what I do and my hard work is going to pay off. I am just saying there is a delicate balance between eating and my schedule. Sometimes I need to remind myself to eat, which is probably caused by stress but honestly I think that by eating fresh, natural, and unprocessed foods my stomach has "shrunk". Or I am more frequently satiated if you want to put it that way. Either way you put it, I am feeling full more easily and I am forgetting to eat. The good and bad of Whole30 coupled with grad school...