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Day 1: Whole 30 Plunge

When I decide to do something I'm all in. It's one of my husband's favorite things about me (or maybe his least favorite thing...)

For the last few weeks, I've been contemplating trying the Whole30 plan. It's kind of a bit commitment since the creator of the plan clearly states that you cannot cheat AT ALL. The point is to completely eliminate foods that could cause inflammation from your diet so that your body can detox and you can evaluate what foods are helping and what foods are harming you. If you cheat you have to start over.

The last five days I've been dealing with a pretty severe tailbone injury. I woke up one morning and couldn't hardly walk. Between that and two kids, I've been completely overwhelmed. Last night I decided as I went to sleep that I would get up and go for it. We've been eating out for nearly every meal lately and I'm just tired of having to think about what I'm going to eat next. It's a mental burden that drives me crazy. It's also financially overwhelming to eat out as much as we do. I'm literally sick of it. With all this eating out our cupboards are pretty bare so I decided now was a good time to take the plunge.

Here's what I'm hoping to accomplish with this detox:

1. Develop the habit of cooking.

About an hour before every meal I start thinking about what to eat and get so overwhelmed with having to come up with something that I either don't eat or end up with something from a drive-thru. I used to cook all the time, and I love to cook, but I'm out of the habit of thinking about what to cook rather than what to eat.

2. Get my kids on a better eating pattern.

Every morning my son eats a Clif Z-bar, my daughter usually doesn't eat, and I usually just have coffee and don't bother with eating until lunch. My kids eat mostly beige, brown, or yellow food and throw fits to avoid anything that isn't in one of these color categories. They started out eating the rainbow as babies and as our lives have become busier, most of their food comes out of an individual portioned package (fruit snacks, granola bars, apple sauce etc..) I try to avoid sugar but we've fallen into a vicious cycle where they refuse to eat anything of substance and starve and then proceed to annoy the living shit out of me and my husband until they get something they like (aka sugar). It's ugly.

3. Lose excess belly fat.
I carry most of my weight in my middle. With my recent tail-bone injury I can't help but wonder if it wouldn't have been as bad if my core strength was a bit better. It's harder to pull in your abs to support your low back when they're covered in a 3-inch layer of fat. I've lived with about 50 more pounds than I should be carrying for most of my adulthood. While I'm totally on board with the body positivity movement and I'm not completely repulsed by my reflection in the mirror anymore, I could definitely do without the serious debilitating injuries. I'm not in a hurry to run any marathons or even to exercise regularly. Honestly, I've been struggling with exercising since I started this blog 7ish years ago? When I've cracked that code I'll let you know.

So far today has gone pretty well. I've had a kind of raw empty feeling in my stomach that I don't think is related to food and is more related to my jacked up spine. I'm cooking a dinner of roasted olive oil cherry tomatoes over spaghetti squash and I think I might pan fry or grill some pork tenderloin to go with it. I discovered that basically, all bacon has sugar so I've failed already today. I'm also not super clear on the pasture butter vs. ghee thing so I plan to research that.

I'll have to read up on this for kids, but I told Charlotte that for every day she does the plan with me I'll give her a dollar at the end of 30 days. She's done really well today. She had scrambled eggs with bacon (although she picked all the bacon out and didn't eat much egg), a chicken tender and some applesauce, a tray of raspberries and she'll have spaghetti squash with garlic butter for dinner. She's VERY addicted to processed foods and sugar. I still feel kind of unsettled about cutting out grains for her, but I think for a short period of time just to get her eating more fresh food, it's a good idea.

We went grocery shopping at Trader Joes and of course she found the stuffed animal thing and of course they offered her candy at the register. The cashier offered her an orange, but she took the candy. She didn't eat it though. She said she was going to save it for the end of 30 days. I was shocked. She never turns down sugar. Ever. The cashier was awesome and gave her about 100 stickers because he was so impressed. She decided she'd use the stickers to make a chart and put a sticker on it for each day she does the whole30 with me. Gotta love this kid right?!


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