Tomorrow starts Day 1 of the Whole30. What's this all about? Well, essentially (and this is extraordinarily simplified) it's about eliminating things from your diet that are the most common causes of GI distress (distress is such a great word for it) and taking ownership of making healthy choices that make you feel better. It seems intuitive and simple. I mean after all, who wants to make choice about things that they know are going to make them feel terrible? Unfortunately it's all too easy in the moment to forget (or acknowledge and choose to blatantly ignore) the consequences of the things we eat. I was doing pretty well with the whole grain free thing and actually felt a lot better than I have recent. That combined with reorganizing my kitchen Sunday (exciting!) resulted in some new motivation. Eating all the "bad foods" to 'get it out of my system' before starting the Whole30 has just reinforced the decision. I feel terrible on sugar and grains. Terrible. But psychologically also, going back to not taking ownership of "healthy" decisions - why, knowing you're going to feel terrible afterwards do you choose to do something anyway? No idea... but since I did this I got a little extra kick of motivation to get my act together. It was also good motivation to take the kitchen organization one step further and purge it of all the things I don't intend to eat. Don't worry I kept beer for guests (and Diet Pepsi for December). And the baking supplies are still around, but tucked away, because even if I don't want to eat it I still love the creation process and you never know when a friend is going to need a cookie.
I didn't really intend to follow the Whole30 letter by letter. I didn't think I would give up diet cola, but I will. Unless I end up with paralyzing migraines (possible...) I'll do my best with the caffeine. I'm a little nervous about giving up corn 100%. I'm all for avoiding high fructose corn syrup and corn as hidden ingredients in things, I'm even on board to avoid whole corn. But popcorn, that'll be back in December. Adithi's also making it much easier on me when our next intern birthday rolls around in November (hers!) for the newest variety of birthday celebration baked goods. It's her birthday and she's joining in on the Whole30 experience. She gave me inspiration and months to plan, plus on top of no baked goods for 30 days first - this will be epic.
So what is it I'm actually doing? Essentially eating as unprocessed as possible. And not eating grains, dairy, legumes, sugar or alcohol. Is this a commitment to eating like this forever? No. It's about learning to consciously make healthy choices and as an all or nothing extremist I do better with extremes than moderation. It's about figuring out what works for me. The idea is to clean house and then figure out what I can fit back in comfortably. To start feeling better and then add things back in one at a time until I've got a diet that is manageable, sustainable and works.
Bonus, There's a sweet timeline that tells me how this is all going to unfold. Nice. It's like built in support for the days where you're going to feel terrible and have cravings for something terrible. With any luck a little validation and reassurance that all is according to plan with be adequate encouragement. So what's coming up on Day 1? Apparently, I'm supposed to be feeling all good about myself and motivated by my success at making good decisions all day long and starting something new. That sounds nice. More likely I expect to experience the GI distress (yep, distress again) related to all the horribleness I ate today. And no, it wasn't worth it.
On a more somber note, my freezer is still full and I'm trying to resist buying more groceries it was a long 7 days of no grocery shopping which means no fun cooking experimentation at the moment so no new fun pictures for you guys. All in due time. I'm sure this latest adventure will push me into new directions and discoveries that I haven't found yet. And if not there's always the excitement of reintroduction :)
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