I can say that Whole 30 was overall a valuable experience.
It's been a while since my last post because I've been busy not being busy. :) Actually, it was spring break, my oldest's 5th birthday, and we've had some projects to work on around here...there's always a project in progress!
So, some of my final thoughts on Whole 30. I now realize that I am indeed very 'addictable' ( I'm not sure if that's an actual word, but I'm making it an actual word for now). I should have realized this when my husband bought me a tv DVD series intended to last for a few months and we finished it in one night. Just as I am easily addicted to tv drama series, I am indeed a little addicted to sugar... or just the taste of 'sweet'.
Whole 30 has at least adjusted my palate for sweetness and now I don't require so much 'sweet' to satiate my sweet tooth. Ok, enough 'sweets'.
Something else more significant I've noted: when I don't have to eat a certain way because I'm not on Whole 30 I actually enjoy eating Whole 30 compliant. Does that make sense? In the past few days since Whole 30 has been over, I've actually made some dinners that were Whole 30 compliant without really intending to...it's just how they turned out. And for some reason I thought they tasted even better than they probably would have just six days ago.
Lastly, I know that I have certain 'triggers' that can set off a foul mood... I still can't say that having more sugar is necessarily one of those triggers, but going to bed too late, not getting enough sleep, not waking up early enough to read my Bible and be ahead of my kids, not exercising and not having a creative outlet are some of my personal triggers. In lieu of maintaining a strict Whole 30 diet, I've realized that maintaining these personal disciplines are more important for my daily routine.
I hope some of these observations have been helpful or at least entertaining for anyone reading this....I'm glad for the experience of Whole 30 and even more glad to have enjoyed my bowl of ice cream tonight!
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Monday, March 11, 2013
Day 27 - cost and balance
Can I get a whoop whoop for tomorrow being my last day?!?!? I'm pretty excited....and even more excited to celebrate my oldest's birthday!
I read an article earlier today about an extreme successful businesswoman who, in reflection, talks about how her success in the business world came at a cost that was not worth it. The cost was her personal life...or rather lack of.
And it got me thinking about how everything has a cost.....not just in dollars, but in time, mental and emotional energy, personal relationships, etc. And we often struggle to keep the costs in balance.
Speaking in terms of Whole 30 - regarding monetary cost: it certainly costs a bit more for a diet in mostly meat and produce...BUT I did become more aware of how much I had previously spent on alcohol, dairy, and baked goods. And of course, I became much more aware of how much time I spent in the kitchen during Whole 30...and the cost of it.
And the same applies to the cost we're willing to pay for entertainment, clothes, furniture, exercise, etc. The same goes for saving money: what am I willing to pay to save money? my time, energy, etc. For me, it all boils down to my priorities. What do I consider important enough to spend my time and energy on? See, you can't have it all. Everything costs something.
With Whole 30 I've seen just how much healthier I can eat...and now I know firsthand the costs associated with it. Same goes with the job I used to have....I know how much fulfillment, enjoyment, satisfaction, identity, security, significance, etc I can find in a job, but having been a stay at home mom for almost five years now I know the cost is more than I am willing to pay.
Just as I am grateful for the time I had working, I'm grateful for the chance to do Whole 30, but I am ready to rebalance my priorities for what I consider to be an acceptable price.
I read an article earlier today about an extreme successful businesswoman who, in reflection, talks about how her success in the business world came at a cost that was not worth it. The cost was her personal life...or rather lack of.
And it got me thinking about how everything has a cost.....not just in dollars, but in time, mental and emotional energy, personal relationships, etc. And we often struggle to keep the costs in balance.
Speaking in terms of Whole 30 - regarding monetary cost: it certainly costs a bit more for a diet in mostly meat and produce...BUT I did become more aware of how much I had previously spent on alcohol, dairy, and baked goods. And of course, I became much more aware of how much time I spent in the kitchen during Whole 30...and the cost of it.
And the same applies to the cost we're willing to pay for entertainment, clothes, furniture, exercise, etc. The same goes for saving money: what am I willing to pay to save money? my time, energy, etc. For me, it all boils down to my priorities. What do I consider important enough to spend my time and energy on? See, you can't have it all. Everything costs something.
With Whole 30 I've seen just how much healthier I can eat...and now I know firsthand the costs associated with it. Same goes with the job I used to have....I know how much fulfillment, enjoyment, satisfaction, identity, security, significance, etc I can find in a job, but having been a stay at home mom for almost five years now I know the cost is more than I am willing to pay.
Just as I am grateful for the time I had working, I'm grateful for the chance to do Whole 30, but I am ready to rebalance my priorities for what I consider to be an acceptable price.
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Day 25 & 26 - recalibrate
Our pastor has often talked about how sometimes we need a little bit of 'recalibration' in our relationship with God. In other words, sometimes, we're walking in step with Him...then along come distractions, bitterness, busyness, indifference, ingratitude.... all things that get us out of sync with Him and then we need to 'recalibrate' to get back in step with Him.
We talked a bit last night about what we'll do after Whole 30. There are definitely some benefits gained from Whole 30....but it's not a regimen that is sustainable for this season of our lives. So, do we totally ditch what we've gleaned and go back to all our old habits or is there a medium?
For me, now that I've experienced it, I can use this to recalibrate my diet. If I know that I've been indulging in a little bit too much of this or that, or feeling like my insides could use a good 'clean' the guidelines of Whole 30 will be a good place to start. It certainly can't be a bad thing to strip my diet down to the basics of vegetables, meats and fruits.... for a limited time, at least.
And back to the question from Friday.... to eat or not to eat. cake. Well, I think I've made up my decision. I will be doing the Whole 28. :) I'm happy with the decision. And being very honest with myself I have absolutely no heartache over the decision. And now I will finish out the last two days and be ready to share some ice cream and cake with my son, who is soooooo excited to turn 5! 5 years is the mark of us being parents for half the time that we've been married....seems significant to me. :)
We talked a bit last night about what we'll do after Whole 30. There are definitely some benefits gained from Whole 30....but it's not a regimen that is sustainable for this season of our lives. So, do we totally ditch what we've gleaned and go back to all our old habits or is there a medium?
For me, now that I've experienced it, I can use this to recalibrate my diet. If I know that I've been indulging in a little bit too much of this or that, or feeling like my insides could use a good 'clean' the guidelines of Whole 30 will be a good place to start. It certainly can't be a bad thing to strip my diet down to the basics of vegetables, meats and fruits.... for a limited time, at least.
And back to the question from Friday.... to eat or not to eat. cake. Well, I think I've made up my decision. I will be doing the Whole 28. :) I'm happy with the decision. And being very honest with myself I have absolutely no heartache over the decision. And now I will finish out the last two days and be ready to share some ice cream and cake with my son, who is soooooo excited to turn 5! 5 years is the mark of us being parents for half the time that we've been married....seems significant to me. :)
Day 24 - my dilemma
So, after I wrote yesterday's blog I realized that I had miscalculated day 30. For whatever reason, I had in mind that day 31 was my oldest's 5th birthday......but after I wrote that yesterday was the one week mark I realized that my son's birthday is actually Day 28! :( Yep, it's kind of embarrassing that I miscalculated the dates, but I can blame it on February being a short month.... or just that I did bad math! :(
So, here is my dilemma. Do I finish out the 30 days like I had intended or will I just call it and partake of ice cream and birthday cake??? It's not so much that not eating ice cream or cake would ruin the birthday party (my son probably wouldn't even notice), but it's what I would remember. I don't want to remember his 5th birthday party (which is extra special just because he is sssooooo excited about it!) and always have the 'yep, but I didn't have any ice cream with him because I was doing that whole 30 thing' as part of it.
And so far I haven't felt any extraordinary effects as a result of Whole 30 so I don't think two less days would be notable.... and just like the exclusion of regular white potatoes is somewhat arbitrary, I wonder if the '30' versus '28' days is arbitrary.
Then again, I'd be ssoooo close to doing the whole Whole 30! It may be my pride that gets me in the end....
As for today's recordings: it was a long day....and today we were snowed in so that always makes for what seems like even longer days. Which leads me to more of a 'getting by' standard of eating....which means I ate a LOT of brussel sprouts today! I've been trying out new recipes and I'm a bit addicted (I know, I know...isn't the whole point of Whole 30 to break me of food addictions???) to the savory taste of roasted brussel sprouts. Seriously. I. ate. a. lot. of. brussel. sprouts. Probably the equivalent of a month's worth.
More to follow this weekend on my decision about 28 vs 30!
So, here is my dilemma. Do I finish out the 30 days like I had intended or will I just call it and partake of ice cream and birthday cake??? It's not so much that not eating ice cream or cake would ruin the birthday party (my son probably wouldn't even notice), but it's what I would remember. I don't want to remember his 5th birthday party (which is extra special just because he is sssooooo excited about it!) and always have the 'yep, but I didn't have any ice cream with him because I was doing that whole 30 thing' as part of it.
And so far I haven't felt any extraordinary effects as a result of Whole 30 so I don't think two less days would be notable.... and just like the exclusion of regular white potatoes is somewhat arbitrary, I wonder if the '30' versus '28' days is arbitrary.
Then again, I'd be ssoooo close to doing the whole Whole 30! It may be my pride that gets me in the end....
As for today's recordings: it was a long day....and today we were snowed in so that always makes for what seems like even longer days. Which leads me to more of a 'getting by' standard of eating....which means I ate a LOT of brussel sprouts today! I've been trying out new recipes and I'm a bit addicted (I know, I know...isn't the whole point of Whole 30 to break me of food addictions???) to the savory taste of roasted brussel sprouts. Seriously. I. ate. a. lot. of. brussel. sprouts. Probably the equivalent of a month's worth.
More to follow this weekend on my decision about 28 vs 30!
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Day 23 - one week left!
Can I get a big whoop whoop???
Homestretch...... then I canraid slowly start enjoying all the little goodies that i've stashed away in the freezer. :) Delayed gratification will taste soooo good!
I think the biggest thing I realized today is that just in the same way that I like variety in all things ( clothes, color, sports, hairstyles, etc), I like variety in my foods/tastes. It's what I miss the most while doing Whole 30. I've mentioned before that I like to end meals on a sweet note (a mint, or dessert!)...and I think it's because it rounds out the variety of flavors I crave. I like savory and sweet. One isn't quite so good without the other.
On Whole 30 it's mostly been a palate of savory.... and I get tired of just one thing pretty easily. Sweet isn't such a bad thing - sweet and sour, sweet and salty, etc. Just like you can't appreciate the light without the dark, you can't fully appreciate the savory without the sweet (or at least I can't). And so I find that my appetite is not quite satiated at the day's end because I haven't had that 'sweet' variety. I keep trying to make up for it with a different flavor/seasoning on my meat, different veggies, different way of preparing veggies, different types of nuts, etc, but you just can't use a counterfeit for the real deal.
I think that can apply to many areas of life...trying to fill our soul's real need for a Savior with so many other 'shiny' things. Our souls , deep down, know the difference and my taste buds do, too! Ain't no chicken rub/sautee/veggie wrap/roast/whatever gonna fulfill the yearning for a lick of some sweet, creamy ice cream!
So, what's my conclusion? Everything in moderation. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Moderation.
Homestretch...... then I can
I think the biggest thing I realized today is that just in the same way that I like variety in all things ( clothes, color, sports, hairstyles, etc), I like variety in my foods/tastes. It's what I miss the most while doing Whole 30. I've mentioned before that I like to end meals on a sweet note (a mint, or dessert!)...and I think it's because it rounds out the variety of flavors I crave. I like savory and sweet. One isn't quite so good without the other.
On Whole 30 it's mostly been a palate of savory.... and I get tired of just one thing pretty easily. Sweet isn't such a bad thing - sweet and sour, sweet and salty, etc. Just like you can't appreciate the light without the dark, you can't fully appreciate the savory without the sweet (or at least I can't). And so I find that my appetite is not quite satiated at the day's end because I haven't had that 'sweet' variety. I keep trying to make up for it with a different flavor/seasoning on my meat, different veggies, different way of preparing veggies, different types of nuts, etc, but you just can't use a counterfeit for the real deal.
I think that can apply to many areas of life...trying to fill our soul's real need for a Savior with so many other 'shiny' things. Our souls , deep down, know the difference and my taste buds do, too! Ain't no chicken rub/sautee/veggie wrap/roast/whatever gonna fulfill the yearning for a lick of some sweet, creamy ice cream!
So, what's my conclusion? Everything in moderation. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Moderation.
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Day 22 - Control
Expanding from yesterday's topic of 'if I only knew'... it comes down to control (personally, speaking...and maybe for you, whoever you reader person may be :)).
It's about wanting to have control... I'm tempted to say more moms are controlfreaks advocates than the rest of the general population..but I could be wrong (it's just because that's the world I'm most intimately familiar with right now...I guess high powered business/career folks are, too?). Anyway, we like control...and to a certain degree it is good. While my children are young, it is good for me to have control over them lest they run into the street, climb on a hot stove or jump on their infant sibling. BUT, we often want to have control because we're under the delusion that we actually have control.
The thing I've learned a lot of recently is that we DON'T have control... (self control and reacting to situations, is a different type of control that I'm talking about). Often times, we are faced with situations that were simply out of our control. After that, the only thing we DO have control over is how we react to the situation that was out of our control. Make sense?
And so it goes with Whole 30 and any other food belief system. Based on all the scientific evidence, research, testimonials, 'proof', we think that we need to control what we eat because of what it will do/does to us. And it can become consuming. I thought of this because I was remembering again when we were deployed and had pretty much no control over what we ate... aside from the mess hall versus Burger King (yes, we had BK in the middle of the desert!). My choice was shelf stable chocolate milk or shelf stable banana flavored milk. Yep. Chocolate milk every time and you know what? I actually thought it tasted good! I had no control of the food I ate and I don't remember being stressed once about food while I was deployed (except when we had to scrounge the MRE box and found the jambalaya.... no thank you!).
Once I realize/remember that I am not in control, it actually brings a great deal of freedom. So what? - I didn't have a chance to put together an organic, free range, non-GMO, gluten-free, paleo/whole 30 compliant lunch for my kiddos. Breathe. They had pop tarts today. Breathe. Something fell off my plate (no pun intended), they had a pop tart (and loved every bite of it) and they're going to be just fine. I can only try to control so much, but the rest is in the hands of the God Almighty and that is quite a relief to me.
It's about wanting to have control... I'm tempted to say more moms are control
The thing I've learned a lot of recently is that we DON'T have control... (self control and reacting to situations, is a different type of control that I'm talking about). Often times, we are faced with situations that were simply out of our control. After that, the only thing we DO have control over is how we react to the situation that was out of our control. Make sense?
And so it goes with Whole 30 and any other food belief system. Based on all the scientific evidence, research, testimonials, 'proof', we think that we need to control what we eat because of what it will do/does to us. And it can become consuming. I thought of this because I was remembering again when we were deployed and had pretty much no control over what we ate... aside from the mess hall versus Burger King (yes, we had BK in the middle of the desert!). My choice was shelf stable chocolate milk or shelf stable banana flavored milk. Yep. Chocolate milk every time and you know what? I actually thought it tasted good! I had no control of the food I ate and I don't remember being stressed once about food while I was deployed (except when we had to scrounge the MRE box and found the jambalaya.... no thank you!).
Once I realize/remember that I am not in control, it actually brings a great deal of freedom. So what? - I didn't have a chance to put together an organic, free range, non-GMO, gluten-free, paleo/whole 30 compliant lunch for my kiddos. Breathe. They had pop tarts today. Breathe. Something fell off my plate (no pun intended), they had a pop tart (and loved every bite of it) and they're going to be just fine. I can only try to control so much, but the rest is in the hands of the God Almighty and that is quite a relief to me.
Day 21 - Glad I don't always know...
what is going to happen. Often times, I think "if I just knew it was going to happen" or "if I could just have some predictability"... I think it a lot - in regards to what my day is going to be like, what the traffic is like, where/when our next move will be, etc. When my kids will reach certain milestones, etc. So often I think 'if I just knew'.... if would all be better.
But the thing is, I've come to learn and appreciate the fact that I do not know. If I knew what was about to happen there's a good chance we might not have a fourth baby (and I CAN'T imagine NOT having her with us). I think our minds our too finite to be able to know, process and grasp the infinite world of 'knowns'.
And sometimes, just sometimes, the unknowns and all that goes along with it, is good for us. It makes us trust, produces faith and perseverance and reminds us that we are such limited, finite beings. The unknowns are often trials we're forced to go through, but in the end we come out even more refined...but had we known of the trial to come, we might not have chosen to endure it.
I'm not exactly sure how this is linked with Whole 30....and sorry if I'm not articulating what I mean very well....but it's what's on my heart and I hope to better explain it later.
In the meantime, I had another egg breakfast (with guac, salsa and homemade mayo...can you tell I LOVE condiments?), chicken salad for lunch and another salad for dinner while we were out. Nothing out of this world or exceptional....
But the thing is, I've come to learn and appreciate the fact that I do not know. If I knew what was about to happen there's a good chance we might not have a fourth baby (and I CAN'T imagine NOT having her with us). I think our minds our too finite to be able to know, process and grasp the infinite world of 'knowns'.
And sometimes, just sometimes, the unknowns and all that goes along with it, is good for us. It makes us trust, produces faith and perseverance and reminds us that we are such limited, finite beings. The unknowns are often trials we're forced to go through, but in the end we come out even more refined...but had we known of the trial to come, we might not have chosen to endure it.
I'm not exactly sure how this is linked with Whole 30....and sorry if I'm not articulating what I mean very well....but it's what's on my heart and I hope to better explain it later.
In the meantime, I had another egg breakfast (with guac, salsa and homemade mayo...can you tell I LOVE condiments?), chicken salad for lunch and another salad for dinner while we were out. Nothing out of this world or exceptional....
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