We will be cutting out gluten, dairy, added sugar, alcohol (me, not my daughter since she doesn’t drink), coffee, soy…it is very similar to Whole30 in many respects, but a little more forgiving.
We will be increasing our vegetable intake, finding better choices for snacks and beverages, and doing an overall clean out of our system.
Upon reflection of this present week, I’ve been trying to figure out what will be the hardest part to do. When I did Whole30, I had the least difficulty with the elimination, and my biggest challenge was adding in “good” foods. So here’s hoping I do well.
But I’ll be heading into the weekend with a sense of enjoyment – not binging – and planning to enjoy delicious foods both before and for the following month.
This time last year, I started thinking about doing my first Whole30. It was a daunting thought, really. No added sugar. No grains. No dairy. No legumes. That’s a lot of no’s. And the really surprising no, was the legumes. Because really, haven’t we always been told that beans are good for you? Good source of protein in the absence of meat; filling, tasty. But boy did that cut things out…peanuts, soy anything, hummus. And how many of you are not used to reading labels? Did you ever realize how many things have some sort of soy product in its recipe??? But what was really worrying was coffee.
As previously mentioned, I was hooked on Dunkin’ Donuts coffee. My regular order was Medium Coffee, Milk, 2 Sugar. Let’s face it. 2 Sugar at Dunks is almost equivalent to a quarter-cup. I mean, it’s usually a heaping spoonful, with a dripping trail of sugar. If the person putting together your coffee can swing it, that trail lands in your cup too! How on earth was I going to cut milk and sugar from my coffee? The thought had crossed my mind to just give up coffee for the month of April. I’d giving it up for longer periods of time during Lent. Surely I could do it for 30 days. The question was, did I want to? At the same time, I purchased a Yeti. I was tired of paying $2.39 for a 14oz cup of coffee. And I managed to save a TON of money by making my own coffee.
During the month of February, I decided that I would have to prep myself to drink black coffee. Each morning, I’d wake up, and before I got out of bed, I thought, today’s the day I try to drink black coffee. I’d make my way to the coffee maker, and then I’d put 2 spoons of raw sugar and a splash of milk in my cup.
Sigh.
Sometime around Winter Break, I caught a cold. A nasty one. Colds are usually when I stop consuming dairy; cheese, butter, milk, ice cream. So I resorted to tea – delicious Earl Grey. Delicious and fragrant, it is something I drink with no modifiers…no milk, no sugar, no honey…so tea it is. Then I flew to Seattle.
Working in my sister’s house, I had great coffee available, and I started by putting about an inch of black coffee into a mug. I managed to finish that. It wasn’t terrible. So then I added more warm to the mug – I doubled the first amount. And so on. This is how I learned to love black coffee.
I guess there *could* be a part 3 to this saga. We’ll see. Check back in about 8 months. HA!
So I signed up for the 5k at my kids’ school. It is 10 weeks away. TEN WEEKS!!! So I’m GOING to complete a C25K program. I MUST! I came in last in 2013 at the same 5k. I walked most of it. I don’t want to walk most of it. My goal is to run at least half. Right now, I am searching for headphones. I usually use the earbuds that came with my phone. But I think running might be easier without wires. So I’m looking at Bluetooth. And I am looking at ways to make training easier – more streamlined. Apps. Programs. Calendar. Can’t quite find what fits. I have Ease into 5K. I am also contemplating C25K: Couch to 5k. I think I will have to keep trying the App I have and see if that doesn’t work. At the very least, I want to beat last years time and run more than I did last year.
