whole30

days nine and ten.

Posted on by thedingismything

Oh, restaurants.

How great are restaurants?? Not even fancy ones, but just plain ol’ restaurants.

It’s so comforting to know there is a place you can go at the end of a long day of work, where you can sit down and relax and tell someone what you want to eat. Then minutes later, they bring it to you and all you have to do is eat and enjoy. When you’re done, you just pay and get up and leave. No work. No dirty dishes. No risk of burning your food (or yourself) or making a disastrous mistake in your kitchen. Everything is taken care of for you.

God, I miss restaurants.

Nine days into our Whole30, The Husband and I are getting real sick of cooking. Honestly, I think the biggest challenge hasn’t been dealing with missing out on junk food, but rather having to cook every single meal. We’re running out of steam.

Million dollar idea for some Silverlake fitness hipster with time and money to spare: Open up a Whole30 restaurant. I’ll be there three times a week and I’ll hug you after every meal.

There is a restaurant close to our apartment that we both especially miss. It’s an upscale Argentinian place called Malbec. Their chimichurri sauce is the stuff a flank steak’s dreams are made of. I drive past it each morning on my commute to work, so I’ve been especially feeling it the last few days.

The other night, when it was time to play “What’s for dinner?” I was really craving some flavor. We had bought a package of sirloin strips at the market that was 30% off because its sell-by date was approaching. (Note: This is one of my favorite ways to eat healthy on a budget. If you know you’ll use it right away, get the discounted good meat at the market. Saves at least a few bucks each time.)

Flipping through our Whole 30 cookbook, I found a recipe for chimichurri steak kabobs and we had all the veggies needed. While I didn’t have the ingredients or the time to make the actual chimichurri sauce from the recipe, we bought a jar of it from a winery in Temecula a few weeks ago. Gods be good, it was Whole30 compliant.

We marinated the beef in about half the jar’s worth of sauce while we soaked the wooden skewers in water and cut up all the veggies. Assembling the kabobs took the longest time, but it was also really fun. I like playing with food.

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In an ideal world, we would have grilled the kabobs out on the barbecue. However, we haven’t filled the propane tank yet for grilling season. I had to do my best using a grill pan over the stove, and it actually worked pretty well.

I personally like my beef on the rare side, so I just cooked the kabobs on a higher heat to get a nice char on the outside before finishing them on a baking sheet in the oven at about 375°. When they were done, I served them with a drizzle of the remaining chimichurri sauce.

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This would go really good with some rice or diced potatoes. Or a nice crusty bread to soak up all the sauce and juices.

Mmmmmmmbread.

P.S. A mishap with my potholder (read: a hole at the top of it) led to a minor catastrophe during the making of this dinner (read: burning the shit out of the tip of my right index finger). As a result, I’m now doing all my typing with my right hand shifted over one key. It’s a miracle I was able to get this typed without every word being soekked kuje thos (spelled like this).

Note: This is a re-post from the Tumblr version of this blog. It originally ran on April 7, 2016.

day eight: the chopped edition

Posted on by thedingismything

Before we started doing Whole 30, The Husband and I loved watching the Food Network. Now, of course, it’s a little like torture. I just can’t bring myself to watch our beloved Bobby Flay make one more waffle with bruléed bananas on top, no matter how darn cute he is. (I’m not alone on this one. The Husband has a pretty big man crush on him, too.)

But our absolute favorite show is “Chopped” – where the contestants get a basket of four wacky ingredients and have to make a gourmet dish out of them in a certain amount of time.

From time to time, when my dinner routine has become … well, routine, I will play my own game of Chopped with whatever I’ve got on hand in my fridge and pantry. I’ll take a protein and veggies and some cooking staples and try to make some sort of complete meal out of them.

Last night I took my Chopped game to the Whole 30 cookbook. I had chicken thighs in my fridge, a shit ton of sweet potatoes, and lots of greens. In the poultry section I found a recipe called Melissa’s Chicken Hash, which looked pretty darn good. It called for boneless chicken thighs (Check!), one sweet potato (Check!), spinach (Check!), a granny smith apple (Amazingly, check!), red pepper flakes (Check!) and walnuts (Nope! But I did have cashews. Close enough…).

Perfect, right?

Ha.

My brain was kinda on another planet, so things were off to a rocky start from the get-go. I forgot to cut the chicken into smaller pieces before throwing them in the pan. And in the interest of full disclosure, I didn’t realize we were out of walnuts until I’d already prepped every other ingredient and the chicken was in the pan. I had to grab our container of mixed nuts and frantically fish out all the cashews.

After only a few steps, it began to sink in that my dish wasn’t going to look anything like the picture in the book. Melissa, please.

Here’s the comparison. It’s pretty obvious which is which.

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One thing that made a big difference is that I don’t have a veggie spiralizer, which – although it doesn’t explicitly spell out in the text – I’m pretty sure that’s how the picture looked as good as it did. I used a box grater to grate the sweet potato, so it came out pretty mushy after being cooked.

The Chopped judges score the contestants on taste, use of basket ingredients, and appearance. I failed miserably on appearance. But The Husband gave me a thumbs up on the taste. I think he said something like, “If you didn’t know what it was supposed to look like, it would be really good.”

Yep.

Note: This is a re-post from the Tumblr version of this blog. It originally ran on April 5, 2016.

day seven: monday morning quarterbacking

Posted on by thedingismything

One week into Whole 30 and I’m surviving.

Just barely.

Seriously, it was an emotionally taxing weekend. The Husband and I are looking at houses, and everyone knows what the home-buying market in the Los Angeles area is like right now. Super competitive and nearly impossible for most middle class dwellers. I don’t know what makes me think we’re any different.

We spent much of the weekend looking at houses, and after falling in love with one adorable home, we spent the rest of the weekend figuring out how to make it work. We were both pretty grumpy. The Husband did some insane amount of pull-ups at his CrossFit gym on Friday and has been in pain ever since. I’ve been stressed out about making my home-ownership dreams come true. We reached a point yesterday afternoon where I turned to him and asked “How about we just call this Whole 30 thing off right now and go get drunk?”

We considered it.

To top it all off, we were invited to our friends’ house for a get-together Sunday afternoon. We were both very worried about eating something off-plan. We even went so far as to bring our own veggie tray and guacamole. Thankfully, our amazing friends were not only aware of our Whole 30 ambitions, but they were sensitive and thoughtful enough to have options we could eat, too. And we were able to relax! And actually enjoy ourselves! For a solid three hours, I didn’t think about how sad I was that I couldn’t open a bottle of wine and/or afford the house of our dreams.

Where I went right this weekend:

I know I’m patting myself on the back here, but I did just about everything right this weekend. I didn’t cheat my Whole 30 guidelines at all, and because of our diet plan we couldn’t go out to a restaurant. We probably saved a ton by eating in all weekend long. Our meals were all super easy and affordable, to boot. More on that, later.

Where I went wrong:

I have to say that planning to do the Whole 30 at a time when my stress levels were already so high was probably not the wisest choice. But it was our choice nonetheless, and we’re stickin’ to it.

Goals for this week:

There was a point yesterday when we were willing to say we did the Whole 6.5 diet. The idea of saying “Good enough,” and going out for pizza and bourbon was tough to resist. There was even a point at our friends’ house when I found my hand – out of force of habit – reach straight for the nacho cheese Doritos. I diverted it to the veggie tray just in time. But, here I am, at Day 7. I made it a week. Just three more to go.

I told myself yesterday that I would eat whole foods like this for the rest of my life, if it meant I could have booze whenever I wanted. With just about every dinner I ate this weekend, I’d find myself thinking about what wine would pair best with it. This led me to two conclusions: A) I might want to re-evaluate my attachment to liquor, and 2) I could eat like this for the rest of my life if it meant I could enjoy booze. That means my mind has started to think of this Whole 30 experiment less as a diet, and more of a lifestyle change. Which is really the point, right?

Breakthroughs, guys. So many breakthroughs.

At risk of this sounding like an AA treatment, my goal for this week is to take things each day at a time. I recognize that I’m carrying a lot of stress in my life right now, which makes the threat of breaking down more and more likely. I might lose my mind f I try to think about meal planning for the next seven days, or how I’m going to get to Day 14 without a Manhattan on the rocks. So today, I’m thinking about tonight. Tonight, I’ll think about tomorrow. Tomorrow, I’ll think about the next day. I’m still food-prepping. I’ve got my pre-cut veggies and fruits all set to go in my fridge. I’ve still got the upper hand there. If only I could have as much control over the rest of my life as I do with my nutrition right now …

Note: This is a re-post from the Tumblr version of this blog. It originally ran on April 4, 2016.

whole30: day four.

Posted on by thedingismything

Alright. Most days this week, I’ve been a little gloomy. Self-pitying, even. But not today.

Today, I gotta brag.

Day 4 was a home run, guys. Start to finish, I think it was my best day yet.

For breakfast, I had diced potatoes and bell peppers, my new favorite Whole 30 compliant chicken sausage and an egg. Lunch was half a bell pepper filled with tuna salad (with my homemade mayo I made for Day 1. And dinner was … well. Dinner was amazing.

I found this recipe for Loaded Turkey Stuffed Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes on paleOMG.com and thought that with a name like that, you really couldn’t go wrong.

Holy smokes, it was every bit as good as it sounded. And easy, too!

The recipe called for the traditional yellow sweet potatoes, but I’m a sucker for the orange ones. (I think these are technically yams?) I followed the writer’s instructions exactly, and it all worked out perfectly. Her suggestion about not getting too close to the skin when scooping out the ooey gooey yummy middles was spot on.

The turkey is seasoned with chili powder, paprika and an alarming amount of hot sauce. We used Cholula because it’s Whole 30 compliant. I was a wee bit worried, but the sweetness of the potato balanced out the heat nicely.

After I stuffed the filling in the potatoes and popped them back in the oven, I threw some Brussels sprouts in a pan to get something green on the plate. Super simple to make in a dash: just cut ‘em in half, add them to a hot nonstick pan with a smidge of coconut oil, add a little S&P and don’t let them burn. Although, personally, I like a little char on mine.

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This dinner was a success, and The Husband already asked if we can make this even after Whole 30. Um. I want to eat it again tomorrow night!

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So one quick note for anyone thinking of reasons NOT to do Whole 30. I’m guessing this all sounds like it takes a lot of time to prepare everything, and you might be thinking you don’t have hours to dedicate to cooking each day. I thought the same thing at first, too. But I’ve learned quickly that there are some easy shortcuts that will help for those days when you’re pressed for time. One of the biggest, easiest tips is to make a dinner that is big enough so there will be leftovers you can pack for lunch the next day. If you don’t like eating the same thing twice, then you’re not making food that is yummy enough. I could eat those flipping stuffed sweet potatoes every darn day.

I’m going to be totally honest. Remembering to prep your food ahead of time is the hardest part. The night of Day 3, we were settled on the couch watching TV when I remembered I didn’t have anything put together for lunch the following day. It was 9:30 at night, but I got up and whipped up my tuna, stuffed it in the bell pepper boat, threw some veggies in a baggie and was back on my ass in time for The Husband to make me suffer through the end of “World War Z.”

The potatoes I had for breakfast? Came already cut up. Our market has a nice little space in the produce section with fresh cut vegetables ready to bring home and cook. I’ll admit some aren’t worth the price. Like, I’m perfectly capable of buying a zucchini and squash and slicing them up on my own instead of paying $5 for the already sliced package of them. But other things – like the pre-cut butternut squash – totally worth it. These diced potatoes and peppers were $2.99 for a good size container. It was enough to feed both of us for two breakfasts.

As long as you’re able to think about these things ahead of time, this is an easy lifestyle to maintain. And it gets easier, the more you train yourself to do it. I can already tell you what I’m having for my next two meals. We got in a habit of waiting until late in the the afternoon to think about dinner, and by that time we’re usually too tired to develop a game plan. When it gets to that point, it’s easy to just say “Screw it, let’s go out!” By the end of the night you’ve eaten an extra 1,000 calories, probably had a drink or two, and spent $50 or more. Total dollar value for my Day 4 food was probably between $10 and $12. AND I got to eat a super duper delicious dinner.

Like I said: Home run.

Note: This is a re-post from the Tumblr version of this blog. It originally ran on April 1, 2016.

whole30: day three.

Posted on by thedingismything

Today was hard.

Not because I was hungry, or felt like I couldn’t eat anything. Today was hard because it was the first really stressful day I’ve had while on Whole 30. It made me realize just how much I actually stress eat.

Typically on a day like today, after a looong day at work when I was juggling a dozen projects at once, I would reach for a big ol’ bag of chips or ask The Husband if we could go hit up a happy hour somewhere. At the very least we’d open a bottle of wine or go pick up some Menchie’s.

Mmmmmmmmmenchie’s. I miss you so very much.

We hosted a breakfast meeting at our office today, and I had to help set up the food. Coffee, juice, fruit and a tray of bagels and pastries and muffins. Oh my.

Setting it out was no problem; I had just gotten to work and I wasn’t emotionaly drained yet. But by lunch, it was a different story.

The meeting was over and the room had cleared out. I poked my head in the empty room and saw there were still some pastries left on the tray. Ordinarily I would bring the tray downstairs and set it in the office kitchen for everyone to help themselves. Not today. I couldn’t go near it. I knew the temptation was too much. If I came within smelling distance of that sugary buttery carbohydrate goodness, I would have taken a bite.

Instead, I ran from the room and distracted myself until it was time to heat up my lunch. (Thank you, leftover meatballs.) Then I instructed someone else to adios the baked goods so I wouldn’t have to deal with it. Crisis averted.

The one thing that really prevented me from diving face-first into a cinnamon roll-induced shame was the realization that I wasn’t even hungry. But I so desperately wanted to stuff my face. How often do I eat when I’m not hungry??? Apparently, more than I realize.

I’m happy to say the day wasn’t a total wash. By the time I got through traffic and made it home, The Husband had made an amazing dinner for us.

Ladies, let me tell you something. There are few things hotter than a man who knows his way around a kitchen. No wonder I’m emotionally attached to food.

But look at this! Who wouldn’t fall for a guy who makes something look as good as this.

That’s a little Whole 30 chicken cacciatore, which was as delicious as it was easy to make. The Husband said on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being getting take-out, this recipe is a 3.5. Not too shabby!

P.S. The cute wittle face peeking up in that photo is my cat Boots. He’s a rascal.

Note: This is a re-post from the Tumblr version of this blog. It originally ran on March 31, 2016.

whole30: day two.

Posted on by thedingismything

I’m happy to report that my second day of Whole 30 was about a million times better than the first. I wasn’t hungry at all. Literally, not for a minute all day. I was able to prepare in advance a good size breakfast for this morning. It made all the difference in the world.

Also, I know it’s only been two days since I ate a handful of frosted sugar cookies at Easter dinner (oh – did I forget to mention the cookies?) but I already feel a difference. I feel skinnier! I have like, no bloating going on. My rings slide on and off with ease. It’s a little amazing how I didn’t even realize how bloated I felt a few days ago until I compare it with how great I felt today.

A little rundown of today’s meals:

Brekkie was a Whole 30 compliant chicken sausage, sweet potato hash, and a fried egg. Quick note: I made a PERFECTLY fried egg for the first time in my life today. Mark it on your calendars. The trick? A really good nonstick pan and a tiny little rubber spatula. Highlight of my day.

Mid-morning snack was a large banana and some mixed nuts, without peanuts. Insert your favorite “that’s what she said” joke here.

Lunch today was super easy because I was able to enjoy leftovers from last night. The Husband made some delish baked chicken breasts that was perfect to slice and throw on top of a green salad mix. Because I’m not a maniac, I made my own salad dressing out of olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. I also microwaved a sweet potato, and that helped keep my inner hunger demon away all afternoon.

That being said, I still let myself snack on some fresh strawberries and pineapple before leaving the office.

Finally, for dinner, I was excited to have a chance to try out one of the recipes from the Whole 30 book. I made their chicken meatballs, although I actually used turkey because we already had some on hand. Can I just tell you how good they came out? I mean, really, really good. And it was the simplest recipe to follow. A pound of ground turkey, an egg, chopped onion, minced garlic, salt, pepper, oregano, and I used just under a quarter-cup of almond flour to thicken the meatballs a bit. Brown them in a pan a bit before transferring to a parchment-lined baking sheet in the oven. Cook ‘em for about 8 minutes and then let them set for a bit before devouring them.

Here’s the part where you get to learn from my mistakes. When browning the meatballs in the pan, use a really good quality nonstick pan. I thought I could outsmart the recipe by using an oven-safe pan to brown them and then just stick the whole thing in the oven. Even with a generous amount of olive oil in the pan first, they stuck. Big time. M-E-S-S-Y. For my second batch, I just followed the instructions and used my best nonstick pan first, and they browned up real nice, with zero sticking.

Because of my mishap with the first batch, they looked a little funny and misshapen. But boy howdy did they taste go-oo-oood.

For a side dish, I sauteed together some red potatoes, mushrooms and green beans, and used savory seasonings so they complimented the meatballs really well.

And because yesterday taught me how important it is to prep for the next day’s meals, my game plan for tomorrow is already laid out. I’ve got leftover potatoes and another chicken sausage for breakfast, I’ll use up my leftover meatballs and veggies for lunch, and The Husband is making a Whole 30 chicken cacciatore recipe from the book. Much excite. Very cacciatore.

Note: This is a re-post from the Tumblr version of this blog. It originally ran on March 30, 2016.

whole30: day one.

Posted on by thedingismything

Ordinarily I would do my Monday Morning Quarterbacking today, but since it is DAY ONE of my Whole 30 experiment, I’m changing it up a bit. Instead of looking at what went right or wrong this weekend (because honestly, who does everything right on holiday weekends??), I’m going to focus on my first day of Whole 30 and how I appear to have failed miserably at prepping for it.

Admittedly, this half-Jew with no children took part in some serious Easter celebrating yesterday. While I only had two small pieces of candy all day (That’s actually a total lie – You’ll see later…) I did eat Easter brunch and Easter dinner and I didn’t hold back on the ham or the bacon or the lasagna.

That’s right. I said it. LASAGNA, bitches. And it was delicious.

Moving on.

Here we are at Day 1. I’ve read a lot about how I can expect the next week to play out. According to the book, today I should feel ready to conquer the world. By this weekend, I should hate anyone and everything in sight. Apologies to The Husband in advance.

I expected the first week to have a lot of trial and error. But less than a day into it, I’m noticing a lot of errors. I’m chalking it up to one more benefit for people to read my blog: so they will learn from my mistakes.

Back to all the Eastering on Sunday. Because most of the day was spent with family, my meal prep game wasn’t at its strongest. My goal was to get enough done that I could make it through Day 1 with minimal challenges. I started with breakfast.

Breakfasts are always the hardest meal for me, since I’m up at O’Dark Thirty to work out before having to be at work by 8 am. To prepare for this morning, I spent some time last night chopping veggies that I can keep in a container in the fridge and take out only what I need to mix in with some scrambled eggs. Five-minute breakfast. There you go. Easy-peasey, right?

Wrong.

Yes, I did enough prep to make a simple, fast breakfast. But, I used only two eggs and ended up hungry by the time I got to work. I brought a banana as an emergency afternoon snack, but ended up having to eat it mid-morning. By 11 am, I was counting the minutes until noon so I could eat my lunch. Lesson learned: Tomorrow, I’m going to try three eggs and/or adding some sweet potato to fill me up early in the day so I’m not ravenous and eat all my food before noon.

For lunch, I usually take leftovers from whatever dinner we had the night before. Because that wasn’t really an option for today, I knew I had to come up with something easy. I used the protein salad recipe from the Whole 30 cookbook to make a little tuna salad to bring to work. That meant taking time Sunday night to make the infamous Whole 30 Basic Mayo recipe. Everyone I know who has done Whole 30 has sworn by it, and now I know what they’re talking about.  I don’t think I’ll ever go back to store-bought mayo again.

A few tips for anyone wanting to give it a whirl: I mistakenly started to blend the ingredients in a mini food processor that’s really more like a chopper. WRONG. You have to drizzle olive oil into it slowly, while it’s blending, so make sure you’re using a food processor or KitchenAid mixer that you can leave open on top and pour the oil in. I had to transfer my mayo base to a mixing bowl midway through. Also, the book says you can use an immersion blender while you’re adding the oil. Don’t. Seriously, just don’t. I learned the hard way that it’s near impossible to hold the immersion blender with one hand and do a good job of mixing everything while slowly pouring olive oil with the other. Even with The Husband as my handy sous chef, it was hard to do. Use a standing mixer – you’ll have a much easier time.

Making the mayo was the hardest part of meal prep last night. Once that was done, I was able to mix the tuna salad and package up veggies for our lunches in plenty of time to sit down and watch Madame Secretary while enjoying my last York Peppermint Patties I’ll eat for the next 30 days.  (Told you I ate more than just two pieces of Easter candy.)

Maybe my favorite part of Day 1 – and so far, the only thing I seem to have done right – is when my boss brought in leftovers and set a bag full of goodies on my desk. Desserts and pizza. No joke. I brought it downstairs to the kitchen, ignored how magical that pizza smelled, and ran back to my desk and started eating my tuna salad. Suck it, pizza.

If anyone else is starting up Whole 30 or looking for some meal inspiration, I’ll be posting recipes and tips and stories about what I’m sure will be many more kitchen mishaps so you can learn from my mistakes. Like my immersion blender blunder. My shoulder is still sore.

Note: This is a re-post from the Tumblr version of this blog. It originally ran on March 28, 2016.

i will not eat this cookie.

Posted on by thedingismything

Yesterday at work, my boss brought me a cookie.

It’s adorable. A frosted sugar cookie in the shape of Cinderella’s glass slipper (or just a fancy high heel shoe) with blue sprinkles and little pink flowers for decoration.

I didn’t eat the cookie.

It sat on my desk, all day, staring at me. “Look at me. I’m delicious. I’m made with sugar!”

At one point I picked up the cookie. I read the sticker on the package. It’s obviously made at one of those boutique bakeries that specialize in custom orders. The blue sprinkles were a little melty, and had smeared on the plastic wrapper. The thick white frosting looked silky smooth, and I could perfectly imagine the way my teeth would puncture its perfect surface before sinking into the creamy layer smothered over the cookie. And don’t even get me started on the flowers. Tiny, baby pink, perfect sugary flowers.

I put the cookie down. I’m not going to eat this cookie.

With one week to go until I start Whole 30, I’m trying to be good this week so there’s no cold turkey withdrawals come Day 2 or 3. Weaning myself off the sugar slowly but surely. That will probably go out the window on Easter Sunday, but one day at a time, amiright?

Around mid-afternoon, I again looked at the cookie. I could *just* eat the flowers. They’re going to be the best part, anyway. That and the frosting. I don’t even care about the actual cookie. I’m not even hungry.

I wasn’t even hungry! I got up and walked away from the cookie.

A little while later, my brain remembered the cookie. I should just throw it away. I’m not going to eat it. … But I don’t want my boss to see that I threw it away. It might hurt his feelings. I’ll just leave it right here and throw it away when he leaves. … Maybe I could just scrape a little of the frosting off, just to see if it’s any good…

No! I’M NOT EATING THIS COOKIE.

My inner-dialogue went back and forth like this the entire afternoon. My taste buds, negotiating just a little taste, just one flower, with my brain and willpower (surprisingly, I have it somewhere) remembering to just say NO!

When my boss left for the day, I started to clean up and pack my things. I picked up the cookie. And looked at it, again. But I didn’t throw it away.

It felt a little like a victory that the cookie survived to see 5 pm, wholly intact. It’s not often that I am able to practice such self-control around food. If you give me a box of Girl Scout Cookies, I will eat an entire sleeve of Thin Mints in one sitting. I can’t have a bag of Mint Milanos in the house, because I will eat them all. At once. Cheddar-flavored potato chips don’t stand a chance around me. So the fact that this little cookie made it to the end of the day was a major effort.

I picked up the cookie and put it in my desk drawer. It’s still there, right now. I haven’t looked at it yet today, because I think the little pink flowers might do me in. I can’t tell if knowing it’s there is more like Linus’ security blanket or like when someone challenges me by telling me there’s something I can’t do – I immediately want to prove them wrong.

I’m going to leave the cookie in my desk. I’m reasonably sure that the cookie isn’t going to be good for very long. It’s probably pretty stale by now, anyway. But I’m hoping that it’s going to be a reminder that I didn’t want the cookie, I survived without eating the cookie, and that I didn’t let eating or not eating the cookie ruin my day.

I want to stop looking at food as being “bad” or “good.” I feel like that’s not a healthy route for someone like me. I know what’s healthy and I know what’s unhealthy. I eat both healthy and unhealthy food all the time. Assigning a label of “bad” or “good” to food is when it becomes emotional eating for me. If I eat ice cream, that’s being bad, but I feel good doing it because it’s yummy, so then I feel bad for feeling good. Why can’t I just feel good about enjoying myself on occasion?

I know what it feels like to feel unhealthy. I eat unhealthy food and I feel unhealthy afterward. I spend a weekend sitting on my couch watching TV and not doing anything else, and come Monday morning I’m winded just getting down the stairs. On the other hand, when I eat healthy food, watch my calories and macros, and workout every day, I feel healthy and that feels good.

A few people have asked me why I picked Whole 30, and the answer is mainly just to feel healthy again and remember what that feels like. After the wedding, I haven’t been able to regain control over my healthy habits. I’m treating the Whole 30 as a reset button for my body. Some people have the ability to just cut back, but I need something a little more regimented.

I’m keeping the cookie in my desk drawer the entire 30 days.  It’s going to be rancid by the end of that, I know, but it’s symbolic of accountability. If anyone were to ask me about the cookie between now and April 27, I’ll be able to snap a picture of the cookie and show them that yes, I’m still on track.

On a side note, if anyone is interested in doing the Whole 30 with me, I would love the company. I’m starting Monday, the day after Easter, so you can get your Peeps kick in one last time. We can start our own little support group along the way. To learn more, check out whole30.com and message me so I can keep track.