This week I had to stretch myself to try new recipes in order to keep my food choices fresh and interesting.
Day 7-9 I ate a lot of leftovers from week one- spaghetti and zucchini, chili, and pulled pork.
Those days I had cravings for all kinds of sweet and salty things. I wanted a vanilla cream Dr. Pepper from sonic thanks to a friend who casually mentioned vanilla Dr P. I saw goldfish crackers at work and like a small child, I wanted them. (And I don't even really like them that much!) I didn't give in, but my brain was throwing a full on toddler fit trying to get me to cave.
Day 9 for dinner I kept things simple since I was home alone. It was delicious though. I sauteed potato in coconut oil and paired it with steamed broccoli and bacon.
It was on this day that it really occurred to me how often I have a tendency to treat my kid free time as special "treat yo self" time. With the kids gone for 3 nights visiting their cousins, I had to endure much more intense cravings. Maybe it's all part of the process of whole30 anyway.. but, I distinctly remember thinking that I was missing out on something. Its like my brain thinks that when the kids are gone it's time to eat all the unhealthy things!
Definitely going to pay more attention to this in the future, and make sure treats really are treats and not habits. #lessonlearned
Day 10 was worse, y'all. Imagine with me for a minute. You haven't had any sugar, grains or dairy in 9 days. You walk into your work place to clock in and right at the door is a box of donuts. You ignore them, clock yourself in so you can get paid for this torture, and then you head over to the break room to get your morning coffee. You pour it in your cup and out of habit go to the refrigerator to grab the hazelnut creamer, only to remember you can't have it. You close the refrigerator and what do you see? A box of some sort of pastry.. drizzled with sugar. It looks fruity and sweet, but you can't have it so you turn back and make your way to your desk.
A few minutes later along comes a coworker who has brought a crock pot filled with barbecue pulled pork, Hawaiian rolls, and baked beans for lunch to share with the office. You then remembered it was "crock pot" day and it was her turn to bring the food. But you can't have it. Because the barbecue that is covering the pork has sugar in it, the rolls of course are grains, and the beans are legumes. You go throughout your work day smelling it and watching your coworkers eat it. You silently throw a little pity party and wonder why you are even doing this to yourself. You should be able to have a little bit, right? A little bit won't hurt...
This is where pure determination and maybe a little pride stepped up to keep me going. I can't fail at this.. not after I have told the general world I'm doing it for 30 days. Nope, I had to see it through. But the cravings were pretty strong. I also seemed to be starving that day.. which was weird because, I ate a ton of food. I'm not starving myself at all on this "diet." I'm not counting calories. I'm just making healthy choices when I eat. Once again, it was probably in my head that I was so hungry because of all I the times I told myself no.
I tried a new recipe for dinner on day 11. It called for fresh tomato, garlic, onion, jalapeno pepper, lime juice and olive oil blended into a marinade for chicken. The problem is, I pulled out my blender and realized the actual blades were missing. I searched and searched but couldn't find them anywhere... rendering the blender useless. So, I improvised and chopped everything up, put the chicken in a gallon sized bag with the spices for a couple hours in the fridge and then cooked them all together. I sauteed some squash and made up some cauliflower rice, and I have to say, it turned out pretty tasty. The chicken was definitely flavorful, but once I get a new blender I will have to try it again.
By day 13 I had a crazy thought. I actually WANTED to get some exercise in. I didn't have any crazy boost of energy, I just had the desire to move. That is huge for me! I haven't felt a motivation to exercise in probably a year. Now, I still didn't... After work we had back to school events so, I didn't get any more exercise than usual.
But I made a delicious dinner. Taco fries! Taco salad on a bed of sweet and russet potato fries.
After running errands most of the day, I finished out strong on day 14 with another new recipe. And it was also delicious. Both kids actually liked it. Coconut lime chicken.
It was similar to the other chicken recipe in that I put it over cauliflower rice, but the coconut and lime flavor of the sauce was really yummy.
All in all, I feel like it's getting a little easier to make good choices. The dishes and cooking is wearing on me though.. its exhausting to use so many dishes that you take them out of the dishwasher and dirty them back up an hour after they finished cleaning.
Oh well, I guess we'll see if week three brings on that energy I've been waiting for. I could use it right about now.
*P.S. Does anyone really want to know what I'm eating? No? Oh well, too late. This is to prove eating healthy is more than just baked chicken and raw veggies. (Not that there is anything wrong with either one!) 😉
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