Whole30, Whole Opinion: Week 1

 I'm a week into my whole30 challenge. Day 7. Steven and I tried to start last Friday, and for the most part, we were successful throughout the day, but dinnertime was a different story. We invited friends over and realized at 4pm the whole30 stew recipe I had found required a cooking time of 6 hours. Ooops! On hand, however, we had risotto so we did a yummy recipe that we had perfected. FULL of PARMESEAN CHEESE. YUM. So we restarted on Saturday and have been going alright since. So I'll do a little recap:

The Good- Eating right and bonding in the kitchen together. We've been super duper healthy and trying new things (kale chips- eck, spaghetti squash-eck, and butternut squash-yum!). I've also had breakfast almost every morning (for the most part- eggs, bacon, orange, coffee) and then I've been trying to drink lots of water. I don't feel bloated or full. I'm wearing my super skinny jeans today, so I think that's a good sign! Energy levels are great through the day, once I've had coffee. Turns out, I don't HATE black coffee, especially if it's a blend like vanilla or hazelnut. I haven't really had cravings. The food hasn't really been the issue here, although, a piece of chocolate would be amaze. I do miss bread or rice with dinner because I'm still hungry after my meal, but I'm really alright without it! ALSO- new friend has been made, Natalie, who has been my email/text buddy and we're encouraging each other! AND my friend Katie here in Amarillo has gone paleo (so not as strict) and we've compared recipes and efforts to cheer each other onward. I'm also going to the gym with her once she returns from vacation! I was bummed, however, when she wanted to bring over paleo muffins and I couldn't have any. Yay, for bacon?!

My first OMLET! (with spinach and tomatoes)

The Bad- Kale chips, spaghetti squash, and homemade sweet potato chips. All failing attempts to incorporate some sort of familiar snack or italian meal. At least we tried. And everytime I go to make a salad dressing or 'whipped coconut milk' or this or that, I realize I need >insert super random ingredient< and time for it to 'marry' the oil or refigerate overnight or become room temperature. So, I should have planned ahead better? FAIL. Don't get me started. Also bad- feeling hungry after eating a plate of food. There's just no sensation of being satisfied. And that's fine because I'm sure my body is well. Another bad thing- We've practically been living in the kitchen when we're home and it's nonstop prep, cook, clean, grocery run, meal plan, clean again, etc. This has been VERY consuming. Also, we don't have a Trader Joe's, so if we want something different than organic beef/chicken (luckily sold at our normal grocery store), say- spare ribs/bison/lamb that are organic and 'all that complies', well it's going to cost $15.00+ at the natural grocery store, along with all other odd things like ghee and oils, etc. Eeesh. I justify the fact that we're not eating out or getting take out or buying bottles of wine or even packaged foods. Steven has said many times this week in sarcastic form : Know what would be reallll good? What, Steven? Umm Chic Fi Lay orrrr....PIZZA. Yeah, no kidding, Steven. Ugh. HONESTY here, friends. Don't judge.

Spetti Squash. The sauce was AWESOME. That's all I can say.

The Ugly- Y'all. Hangry does NOT look good on me. Or anyone, really. Despite my desperate effort to have a positive attitude about all this, hanger got the best of me. A few times. In fact, you can probably sense a little of it in my tone here :-) Last night, looking back, was kind of funny, but at the time we wanted to kill each other. Our kitchen sink faucet has been clogged since we moved into our house. At this point, I've begged and pleaded and asked nicely and now NAGGED and barked :( at Steven to just fix the damn thing because earlier this week, I had attempted, yet again, to do the dishes as a freezing cold drip comes out of the faucet. I flip out because that just doesn't get the job done and I was so hungry I could have eaten my arm. New rule for everyone's sanity- I'm not doing the dishes until said issue is fixed. I'm happy to cook. So last night, lots of little disasters ensued while I'm trying to cook new things like spaghetti squash and Steven was under the sink trying to fix it (unsuccessfully) and then dishwasher overflowed and beeped nonstop because it was sort of broken and we had to fix that and then I burnt the spaghetti sauce and meanwhile, Finley has pooped on my rug, found tissues from God knows where and chewed it up all over the floor, and laundry has been piled a mile high...on top of that, dinner turned out to be CRAP and we were real fed up with each other. Oh, to be a fly on the wall :-) We went to bed agreeing that the hassle wasn't worth the mess. Yet, it's only been a week? So have we given it a good 'go'? That makes me feel like a failure. Thank goodness for a funny puppy who melts us and brings us back to a laughing state so we can just talk normally after our tempers were out of control. SOOOOO....

Where does that leave us going into the weekend and reflecting on this whole thing? Well, I've learned that Whole30 is EXTREMELY strict. I've never even been on a diet before. Sure, I've tried to "watch what I eat" and I've tried to maintain balance and then we slip into being bad and then that spirals out of control because it's just REALLY convenient to be bad most of the time and I was really lenient with all of that to try to be pleasing to Steven. That was dumb looking back, because we were truly doing ourselves a huge disfavor. I get that, but, this Whole30 thing is absurd. I stressed this week over the fact that IF we were to go out to dinner, I'd feel guilty over a steak that MAY have been cooked in butter because of the dairy. REALLY? And, honestly, so many other things have been neglected. Phone calls, laundry, and my morning goal of waking up early and focusing on scripture. I feel hungover every morning. Like a ton of bricks has hit me and only an IV of coffee will help. So I snooze a little longer. And Finn. Poor thing. He's destroying everything he can get his little paws on just to try to get our attention because we get home from work or the grocery/errands and we immediately start cleaning/prepping/cooking (because we're so freaking hungry) instead of taking a little time to play and walk with him. However, I've learned quite a bit about GOOD food this week and I don't hate it at all. Our veggie beef chili was real good and then a few other things we've tried turned out to be delicious, though they don't make us full. We've been going to bed earlier to avoid being awake and hungry. I guess that's not terrible? And at least we're not only allowed a cruton a day like Anne Hatthaway while filming Les Mis. NOW, that would be rough.

Spicy Veggie Beef Chili

 

So, I'm not really sure where we stand, yet. We agree that we need to take the reigns a bit better on eating right--especially during the week and part of the week end. Like I said, I can deal with cooking healthy and so forth each week, but now that it's the weekend and I still actually have to work tomorrow, I'm over cooking. I want a break. Steven's cravings are also out of control, I think. So, we've definitely concluded that we need to streamline our meals Sun-Fri. Maybe more crock pots, maybe doubling recipes so it's easier come lunch time, maybe not even deal with the kitchen until Finley has been given the attention he needs?

But here we are on the weekend and we have our dinners planned out for tonight and tomorrow (or Sunday?), but our friends want to get together. I don't want to feel like OH MY GOSH we still have to abide by the rules and all we want to do is relax and see this band with our friends AND maybe have a glass of wine (or a beer for Steven) so we can't go because we'll obviously be tempted to snack later because we'll get hangry around 9pm and that'll make it harder....SO....my friend Natalie had a good point that made me realize- just because you step back from Whole30, doesn't mean you've quit your goal to be healthier. Maybe Whole30 isn't the best thing for us, but maybe paleo will be, since you have a little room to breath. I don't think it's going to kill us if we eat right and whole during the week and then give ourselves a little leeway on a weekend night. I'm not sure. I'd like your input!

Are we nuts? And kudos to you if you actually read through all that. What an entry.

xo,

SugarMeg