As many of you regular readers know, I like food. Scratch that, I love GOOD food and it may even be that I like food more than most people out there. I like food, a lot. That being said:
I don’t like Oreos, but I love freshly baked oatmeal raisin cookies.
I don’t like ordinary sliced bread but I love a freshly baked loaf of sourdough.
I don’t like fish sticks but I love a thickly breaded slice of haddock with a side of perfectly done french fries and mayo for dipping.
I don’t like Nescafe but I love a cappuccino.
I don’t like candy bars but I love good chocolate.
I love potato chips. Any potato chips. :)
Some would probably call me a food snob but I would counter with the idea that the foods that call to me are the ones that are made by me, and by people who can read a recipe. The foods I love come from a kitchen rather than a factory.
Don’t get me wrong. We eat plenty of processed foods: bacon, jam, All-bran, beans, KD, condiments, salsa, potato chips… and this is just the top of my head. I’ve been known to buy frozen lasagna, perogies, premade meatballs, taco shells. I COULD make all of these things myself, but there is a finite amount of time I have to spend in the kitchen. Also, I should mention that as much as I love good food, I don’t loooooove to cook. I like it well enough, but too often it is the kind of thing that ends up in the chore column. Perhaps I’d feel differently if (a) everyone in my family loved everything I made (b) we had identical taste buds and all liked the same things. It’s disheartening to spend the time to plan, shop, and cook a meal only to have your diners grimace at the thought or make a big deal out of some offending ingredients. I get it though. I wouldn’t be happy if someone served me a plate of fried liver and mushy lima beans and insisted I’d like it IF I WOULD ONLY TRY ONE BITE.
Truth be told, there aren’t many foods I dislike, so I don’t have many issues in this regard. I’ll try anything once. (Remember the time I ate crickets? There’s video evidence in case you don’t believe me.) I don’t like organ meats, although I like pâté. I don’t like olives, but I do like tapenade. I don’t like overcooked vegetables, but I think this isn’t an unusual food preference.
Which brings us to THIS:
If by any chance you aren’t aware, Whole 30 is a monthlong dietary reset. It’s pretty much ALL YOU CAN EAT meat, vegetables, and fruit. Sounds pretty great, doesn’t it? Oh yes. You can’t eat grains, dairy, sugar, or booze.
I was debating whether or not to take the Whole 30 challenge when I suddenly spotted the official cookbook on a display table at a used bookstore for five bucks. Clearly, it was destiny calling! That sealed the deal for me, and by extension, the rest of my family. I should explain that I’m not dragging my husband kicking and screaming into this. I think he welcomes the idea of a spring trimdown but he was not pleased to hear about the “no beer” rule. My argument: We have the rest of our lives to drink beer! It’s not impossible to avoid it for 30 days. My own challenge is giving up milk in my morning brew, and my morning yogurt and granola. But this too, is not impossible. What IS impossible: asking me to cure cancer, stop a bullet in my hand, or leap over a tall building in a single bound. Leaving milk out of my coffee is not impossible. (Also, this strikes me as a first world problem for sure.)
My hope is that by the end of the month I’ll lose 5lbs as well as that sluggish and bloated feeling I’ve been dragging around with me. I’m hoping to regain some energy along with a sense of well-being that’s been missing in my life this past while.
I’m not sure how much I’ll be writing about it here on the blog. I guess that depends on how much I have to say about it. I will be tracking my daily meals on a page I’ve set up here. In the meantime, I would love to hear from you, especially if you’ve done it and lived to tell the tale. If you’d like to join me, I’d welcome that too. ;)
