Here we are, just five days away from the end.
As hoped and expected, though, the end of this strict eating regime will not mean returning to our prior eating habits. Yes, there might be a small plate of nachos now and then, but our eyes are open, and mindlessly stuffing processed "goodies" in will not be happening.
This morning, Pierre hopped on the scale and realized that he's down almost 20 pounds from the week prior to our start date! (We actually started cutting out junk a little before the actual beginning -- eased in to make the transition less abrupt.) He's lighter than he's been in 15 years. Woohoo! My darlin's getting healthier every day!
I've only dropped about four pounds, but then I'm not very overweight, and this diet isn't so different from my usual one.
Pierre's comment: "I now realize just how efficient my body is at converting simple carbs into fat." Indeed. :)
I especially like the feeling of knowing that we're building healthy cells by eating almost exclusively whole, real foods.
The only exception we've made to the perfect W30 rules has been a recipe, that I made last week, which the Whole30 group calls a "Sex With Your Pants On" food. SWYPO refers to anything resembling a simple-carb food (paleo muffins or cookies, for example) that will eventually lead you back to the real thing.
Ours are Coconut Flour Tortillas. They're actually more like crepes than tortillas and act as a grain-free sammich holder alternative to the cold-and-messy romaine. They taste fine, freeze well, and we know that everything in them is healthy (eggs, arrowroot powder, coconut flour, coconut oil, water, and salt). I'll make a second batch this evening. Yep, you could call this a bit of a cheat, but this diet is not supposed to be torture, right? And we've decided that finding something that will keep Pierre off bread is a giant win.
We made the decision to purchase the annual subscription to RealPlans, the meal planning / shopping list / recipe app recommended by Michelle Tam at NomNomPaleo. I've tried a few more recipes from them and we've been happy with them all. The team at RealPlans were totally accessible, answering my "How do I..." questions, as well as starting our lower-priced annual subscription at the beginning of last month. Handy, creative, AND kind!! Gotta love that.
Last week a couple of girlfriends inspired me by introducing the concept of Once A Month Cooking (OAMC). I spent part of a day researching OAMC / Whole30 / crockpot / freezer meals, and wound up with a list of 21 recipes that I want to try! Of those, I've chopped, bagged, and frozen five, and we've already eaten two: Beef, beet, and cabbage borscht, which was yummy, but wasn't meaty enough for Pierre's taste; and last night's scrumptious peppers stuffed with
spiced ground beef, grated onion, carrot, mushroom, and cauliflower. Who
knew rice-free stuffed peppers could be so good?
This has been a grand adventure of discoveries! I'll write again next week to address our other goals, and fill you in on how this final leg goes.
Hope you are enjoying your summer.
If you have a moment and are so inclined, please pray for rain and for the safety of the residents and firefighters in and around my native Washington State.
Until next week...
Musings, observations, and wonder at life's width and depth through a U.S. ex-patriot's eyes.
Thursday, August 27, 2015
Thursday, August 13, 2015
Whole30 - Day 11
Hard to believe that it's already 11 days into our Whole30!
Thus far, it's been a pretty easy journey. The biggest change, as I mentioned before, is Pierre's switch away from bread. He has discovered the deliciousness of romaine wraps, and sounds as though he'd like to continue this trend after the month is over! Yay!
Our days have been crazy-busy full (as usual), and the food has been fab. Breakfasts have consisted of a combination of pan-fried zoodles, hash browns, eggs, left-over meats, homemade pork sausage patties (YUM), and fermented veggies. We usually have two of any of the above. Pierre's doing fine with black coffee, instead of having it with his usual glug-glug of milk. I'm still loving iced sun-tea. And we enjoy three or four ounces of booch each morning, too.
That's been keeping us full until lunchtime. Then, Pierre usually has a canned salmon or tuna sammy and a bowl of gumbo. Last batch -- and the one I'll make tomorrow -- are without the usual brown rice addition, but he's liking the extra veggies in each tub.
My lunches vary wildly. Usually there is some sort of ferment -- cortido, currykraut, or kimchi/kaktugi. Egg salad with homemade mayonnaise is yummy in either romaine or just on a fork. Sometimes there's a piece of meat left over from dinner the night before. And ocassionally, I'll join Pierre in a small tuna or salmon romaine wrap.
Eating dinner at a decent hour is still my biggest challenge. (Can you say a lifetime of eating late?) I'm trying to set a goal to eat by 7:00, which I know is still late for many, and most of the time we're sitting down closer to 8:00. Students, art, friends, writing... so many things mess with that goal, not to mention the fact that I've always been a forget-to-eat person. Perhaps setting a timer to begin preparing dinner would be a wise plan.
We stayed on the RealPlans schedule last week, only switching a few dinners to fit our tastebuds and timing. Fresh Italian sausages and chard from the garden got slipped in one night, as we'd been out boating and didn't have the patience to defrost and then cook. Picnics at the marinas have been easy, though, with cold bbq chicken or steaks barbequed out there, along with big mixed green salads.
I'm not sure whether or not I'll continue with RealPlans. The first week, I input breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, and it was a LOT of work. Because of that, I haven't kept up with it. There may be time in the next couple of days to do dinners only for the upcoming week, but we shall see. The recipes are so very tempting...
My only slip up has been a small one. I ran across town to buy ingredients for our kitty, Penny's, raw food at T&T, the giant Asian grocery, and forgot to eat before I left. (See?) By the time I was finished shopping, it was 1:30, and my stomach was complaining. Across from the grocery was a Saint Hubert's roasted chicken joint, so I went through the drive-through and ordered a quarter dark, no slaw (because the dressings are made with sugar) and no fries.
The woman on the headphones (good salesperson that she is) said, "Are you sure? Fries are just 70 cents more."
Ugh.
My brain said, "Potatoes are okay on the Whole30. And so is oil."
My mouth said, "Okay. Fries."
The tray came with a LOAD of deep-fried spuds.
My brain said, "Oops! Deep fried = not allowed!"
My mouth said, "Just a few..." and my hand agreed.
Luckily, my brain stopped my hand before too many made it to my mouth, and at least three-quarters of the cold fries got tossed into the compost when I got home. The chicken was about as far from organic as one could get, but it was roasted with no sauce, and was scrumptious to my hungry belly.
Speaking of which... here it is, almost 1:30 again, and I've not had lunch. Off to eat!
Hope you're all enjoying your summer, and enjoying delicious, healthy meals. :)
[Oh, and did I mention that I'm down 2.8 pounds, and Pierre's lost 6 over the past 11 days? It's not our only goal, but it's an easy one to track.]
'Til next time... bon appetit!
Thus far, it's been a pretty easy journey. The biggest change, as I mentioned before, is Pierre's switch away from bread. He has discovered the deliciousness of romaine wraps, and sounds as though he'd like to continue this trend after the month is over! Yay!
Our days have been crazy-busy full (as usual), and the food has been fab. Breakfasts have consisted of a combination of pan-fried zoodles, hash browns, eggs, left-over meats, homemade pork sausage patties (YUM), and fermented veggies. We usually have two of any of the above. Pierre's doing fine with black coffee, instead of having it with his usual glug-glug of milk. I'm still loving iced sun-tea. And we enjoy three or four ounces of booch each morning, too.
That's been keeping us full until lunchtime. Then, Pierre usually has a canned salmon or tuna sammy and a bowl of gumbo. Last batch -- and the one I'll make tomorrow -- are without the usual brown rice addition, but he's liking the extra veggies in each tub.
My lunches vary wildly. Usually there is some sort of ferment -- cortido, currykraut, or kimchi/kaktugi. Egg salad with homemade mayonnaise is yummy in either romaine or just on a fork. Sometimes there's a piece of meat left over from dinner the night before. And ocassionally, I'll join Pierre in a small tuna or salmon romaine wrap.
Eating dinner at a decent hour is still my biggest challenge. (Can you say a lifetime of eating late?) I'm trying to set a goal to eat by 7:00, which I know is still late for many, and most of the time we're sitting down closer to 8:00. Students, art, friends, writing... so many things mess with that goal, not to mention the fact that I've always been a forget-to-eat person. Perhaps setting a timer to begin preparing dinner would be a wise plan.
We stayed on the RealPlans schedule last week, only switching a few dinners to fit our tastebuds and timing. Fresh Italian sausages and chard from the garden got slipped in one night, as we'd been out boating and didn't have the patience to defrost and then cook. Picnics at the marinas have been easy, though, with cold bbq chicken or steaks barbequed out there, along with big mixed green salads.
I'm not sure whether or not I'll continue with RealPlans. The first week, I input breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, and it was a LOT of work. Because of that, I haven't kept up with it. There may be time in the next couple of days to do dinners only for the upcoming week, but we shall see. The recipes are so very tempting...
My only slip up has been a small one. I ran across town to buy ingredients for our kitty, Penny's, raw food at T&T, the giant Asian grocery, and forgot to eat before I left. (See?) By the time I was finished shopping, it was 1:30, and my stomach was complaining. Across from the grocery was a Saint Hubert's roasted chicken joint, so I went through the drive-through and ordered a quarter dark, no slaw (because the dressings are made with sugar) and no fries.
The woman on the headphones (good salesperson that she is) said, "Are you sure? Fries are just 70 cents more."
Ugh.
My brain said, "Potatoes are okay on the Whole30. And so is oil."
My mouth said, "Okay. Fries."
The tray came with a LOAD of deep-fried spuds.
My brain said, "Oops! Deep fried = not allowed!"
My mouth said, "Just a few..." and my hand agreed.
Luckily, my brain stopped my hand before too many made it to my mouth, and at least three-quarters of the cold fries got tossed into the compost when I got home. The chicken was about as far from organic as one could get, but it was roasted with no sauce, and was scrumptious to my hungry belly.
Speaking of which... here it is, almost 1:30 again, and I've not had lunch. Off to eat!
Hope you're all enjoying your summer, and enjoying delicious, healthy meals. :)
[Oh, and did I mention that I'm down 2.8 pounds, and Pierre's lost 6 over the past 11 days? It's not our only goal, but it's an easy one to track.]
'Til next time... bon appetit!
Monday, August 03, 2015
Whole30 - Day 2
Okay! Another super easy day,
filled with yummy food.
One part of this regime that I
thought might be difficult was finding ways to replace Pierre’s bread. I, like
my dad, am not much of a bread-guy, so this particular part isn’t a struggle on
my end. Pierre, however, loves eggs on toast for breakfast (or a whey protein
powder and fruit smoothie, which is also out, whey being dairy), and soup and a
sandwich at lunch.
Kitchen toys to the rescue! Last
week I spent a few hours pre-prepping and freezing some goodies that we’ll
spread out over the coming weeks. One of those was a giant Ziploc bag full of
spiralized yellow squash from the garden and zucchini from the grocery. (Thank
you, Paderno!) We love slightly caramelized summer squash either sliced or
spaghetti-ed, browned in a dab of coconut oil and/or ghee.
I also peeled a five-pound bag
of russet potatoes and ran them through the Kitchenaid processor/grater,
flattened layers between parchment paper on cookie sheets and froze them.
(Reminders to self and anyone who wants to do this: zizz some sweet
onion in with it for more flavor, and it’s a good idea to score
these into a grid so they break easily into squares or rectangles before
freezing. My broken pieces look more like modern art.) The squash or hash browns do make
a lovely and tasty bed for eggs. This morning we had squash and eggs, sun-tea and
strawberry booch for me, and black coffee and ginger booch for Pierre.
Lunch was a bit more
challenging, as, unlike me, Pierre prefers clean fingers to messy ones. I’d
planned romaine wraps – the largest leaves cleaned and ready to hold his usual
canned sockeye salmon, balsamic vinegar, tomato, and homemade mayonnaise (SO
easy and containing no sugar, which Hellman’s, sadly, has.) Part of the appeal of
bread, I think, is that it absorbs all of the goop, and romaine obviously doesn’t.
Pierre ate it, but wasn’t crazy about the juice that continually oozed out
around the leaf. We’ll be exploring new wrapping techniques, and if anyone has
non-grain ideas for sandwich wraps, I’d be happy to hear them.
My lunch was a yummy tuna,
mayo, tomato, and purple cabbage cortido romaine wrap, which dripped a
beautiful (and delicious) pool of lavender juice onto my plate. I sipped that
up for dessert!
Late afternoon we had a few
almonds and Pierre enjoyed one of his favourite snacks: a crisp red delicious
apple, undoubtedly grown in my native Washington State.
And dinner… oh my! This recipe
(again from RealPlans) is a keeper – two out of two so far.
I’m not usually a big fan of
salmon (sockeye, the vegetarian salmon, fresh or canned being the only exception and, even
then, rarely. This recipe might change that!) The preparation sounded interesting, so I picked up a couple of
big wild Pacific sockeye fillets at Costco last week, froze them, and made one
tonight. It was quick and easy, and had barely any fishy taste. Made a mix of a
mustard powder and spicy deli mustard and spread it on the non-skin side, then
pressed on a layer of finely ground almonds. Baked it for 15 minutes sprinkled on a wee bit of salt and pepper, and wowed
us both! While the fish was baking, I cut a colander full of Swiss chard from the
garden, cleaned and chopped it, steamed it in a little water and stirred in a
couple of teaspoons of bacon fat for flavour and to improve nutritent absorption.
How great is it, by the way,
that we no longer need to be afraid of fat? Of course, bacon fat is saturated,
and won’t be our oil of choice most of the time – coconut, avocado, and olive
oil being tops. Nutritionist have learned, though, that even saturated fat is
better for us than the hydrogenated oils which are in nearly all disgustingly
delicious and addictive processed foods. Grrr!
Goodbye Oreos. Farewell
Cheez-its. Our unhealthy relationship is in the past.
Best news of the day: neither
Pierre nor I are craving a nighttime snack. And THAT is a wonderful thing!
Happy dreams, everyone. And
thanks for reading. :)
Sunday, August 02, 2015
Whole30 Day 1
Hello again, Interwebs friends;
My apologies for bailing on the restaurant review blog
posts last year. It may be something I return to at some point, but Pierre and
I didn’t jump into regular visits to new places in Westboro as we thought we
might...
Ah, Life. :)
What’s the old Woody Allen line? Want to make God laugh?
Tell him/her your plans!
Loads of things have happened over the past 17 months, but
the reason I’m chiming in now is that we and a couple of dear friends are
starting the Whole30 today. I could tell you all about it, but there are a
zillion webpages (some with great recipe ideas) that explain it well if you
just do a Google search, or you can just click on the link here.
[In a nutshell, we will be eliminating all processed foods
and a bunch of common allergy/sensitivity foods (grains, legumes, dairy, sugar,
and booze) for a month to see how we feel.]
Over the past month, I’ve been researching recipes and put
together a plan on a great Meal Planner app at RealPlans.com. It contains a ton
of customizable healthy recipes, plus the app creates an exact shopping list
for the menu you set up. Sweet!
Besides building a library of cleaner, better-for-us recipes, I’m hoping for a few specific results by the end of the
month:
- · A bit of weight loss
- · Better sleep
- · Clearer thoughts
- · Increased energy
- · Easier breathing for Pierre
- · Healthier skin for me
Because eating this way is one of those
simple-but-probably-not-easy things, I thought it would be fun to write about
the journey – the struggles and the victories, and the food – beginning today!
And so… Day 1:
We were away from home most of the day at the racetrack and
a wedding celebration, so I hadn’t planned our first official meal until
dinnertime. However, I was able to start this morning! (and Pierre joined me at
dinner.)
Breakfast was one of my current favourites: two eggs scrambled
in ghee with a side of homemade cortido, a spicy fermented Salvadorian kraut. Coffee
(which I don’t drink, but Pierre does) and tea (my morning drink of choice) are
allowed on the Whole30, and summertime is Sun-tea time, so I enjoyed a tall
glass of iced tea that was brewed in the sun yesterday. I also had a couple
ounces of yummy strawberry kombucha (also homemade).
Lunch was a treat from Pierre at the racetrack – the meat
and veggies wrapped in the lettuce from a Tim Horton’s sandwich. I tossed the
giant whole wheat bun, and was very happy to not eat another huge track
hamburger!
Early home from the track, I popped into the Orange Art Gallery downtown to witness
the ring- and vow-exchange of two dear young friends. After the ceremony, I nibbled on a few
fresh veggies, lamenting the fact that the gluten-free veggie mini-quiche tray
was slicked clean. (Doubly unfortunate, since I know the caterer, who is an incredible artist!) I sipped a glass of water and successfully avoided the open
wine and beer bar (easier than anticipated), then scooted out early to have dinner ready for Pierre when
he arrived home.
While I was making Super Meatloaf (a RealPlans recipe with
ground beef, pork, liver, almond flour, egg, tomato paste and spices –
delicious!), I had a small handful of raw almonds. I paired the meatloaf with
a big, colourful romaine salad with tomato, orange bell pepper, avocado, cucumber, apple-juice
sweetened craisins, and goji berries, splashed with a simple dressing made of
balsamic vinegar, avocado oil, and spices.
All in all, it was a wonderfully successful first day!
There are still a few boxes/bags of snack crackers/chips in
the house that will be bagged up and taken across the street to our kind, cat-sitting
neighbour’s teen boys tomorrow. :) A win
for everyone.
Don’t know that I’ll have time to do a daily post, but will
write when I can, and hope you enjoy what we learn!
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