Whole30 Recap

You'll recall that after an unforeseen interruption, I rekicked off my whole30 on July 10. My last day was August 9 (July having 31 days and all).
On the whole, I'm glad to have done the experience. Here are some notes:

• I was good. In my 30 day stretch, the only potential issues were the trace amount of sugar in my uncured bacon and my liverwurst (still amounted to 0 g sugar per serving, and these both made whole30 doable for me), me cooking potatoes in the same pot as a beef pot roast (though my family ate them, not me except in negligible trace amounts from the broth), and me using an organic chicken broth that had potato starch in it (but still 0g carbs). I did very decently according to the rules.
  
  
• A few times I had neolithic analogues. Pancakes, my "Unbanana bread", and yes, sorbet. All technically whole30 legal ingredients, but they still violated the spirit of the whole30 injunction to avoid anything resembling neolithic foods.
  
  
• Without quality pastured dairy fats, I had a hard time eating enough fat to feel satisfied. Since quality pastured animal fats from other sources (tallow, derived from pastured meat, etc.) aren't a part of our lives yet, the whole30 made me realize how much I relied on pastured butter to keep me covered fat wise. Yes, I still consumed a lot of coconut oil and coconut milk during the whole30, but it's easy to get tired of the taste of coconut. That said, I found a dairy-free whole30 compliant coffee creamer that was a very workable substitute for heavy cream.
  
  
• I ate way more fruit than was necessary. Fruit was always readily available, technically legal, and as I said above, I was unusually hungry. (I'm still nursing, too, so that adds a whole 'nother level of hunger.) That said, too much fruit (lots of watermelon, raisins, and/or several pieces of other fruits per day, especially when staying with my parents on vacation) left my digestion out of whack and me feeling bloated. Ick.
  
  
• I did lose weight. I was down 3.8 lb. the morning of August 10. Not bad.
  
  
• My skin's state of nirvana did not last.  In my halfway-through post I mentioned that my skin was looking better than ever. Well, the last half of the challenge it did not do so well. There's a lot that plays into this: hormones, makeup, etc. But I guess that dairy-free didn't prove to be a cure-all.

So, what now? I'm not sure. In the few days since I've eaten a whole lot less fruit. I've added back in some dairy as well. My digestive issues are getting back on track, and while I don't know whether it was less fruit plus more dairy or both, I'll take the back on track!

Overall, I'm glad to have completed the whole30 - simply from the experience I've learned that yes, I can go 40 days without chocolate (eep!), and cheese (eep!), though I don't know if I ever will again! And yes, I do feel a whole lot better energy-wise without added sugar(s), natural or otherwise, in my diet.

On a Lack of Orthodoxy, and Reflecting on Michael Pollan's Food Rules

Here is where I tell the dogmatic: this is not a post for you.

We returned today from a quasi-staycation - we were spending the week at a nearby lake taking advantage of some kayaking and other summertime activities. And guess what? There were s'mores. Oh, yes.

Now, in no way would I attempt to classify any type of s'more (grain-free or not) as "paleo" or "primal". Nope, they are decidedly a rare neolithic treat. Michael Pollan once said in his Food Rules, "#39 Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself." I can't ever know whether he had s'mores in mind, but the idea here applies nonetheless. Since all of the commercial marshmallows that I found in stores contained various preservatives in addition to corn starch and corn syrups, I looked for a non-corn marshmallow, only to return the same search results over and over. You guessed it: Google was recommending via its various search results that I make my own. Me? Make my own marshmallows? I went back to a marshmallow recipe linked by Eat the Cookie, who also has a grain-free graham cracker recipe on the same page.

My mom was my partner in crime: she covered most of the marshmallow-making process. I made the graham crackers. And guess what? Total time invested in both was at least three hours. Yes: three hours. In other words, Michael Pollan knew that there was something to his statement. If someone wants a Cheeto, and they have to hand-craft the Cheeto, it's going to take them way more time and energy than popping a few quarters into a vending machine does. Because of the huge time investment, guess how often s'mores are likely to be a part of our lives? Yup; about once or twice a year, tops.

The marshmallows toasted beautifully once held close to the flame - and my entire family pronounced them far superior to commercial marshmallows in all aspects. (I didn't have any of anything, since I'm still in July Whole 30 mode, so I relied on the reviews of the s'more eaters present.) My brother said that conventional s'mores were a taste and texture bust by comparison.

And thus, my 4-year-old had her first handcrafted s'more.

Lunchbox #103

So, here's how it went down. Our home's air conditioning failed on Tuesday afternoon - on the very hottest week of the year. The last time we had our air conditioning repaired, it took a couple of weeks to get the necessary part ordered and installed, so we had no idea how long it would be before we'd be blasted with sweet, sweet cold air again. We packed up several days' worth of clothes for ourselves and all of our meat and produce from the fridge (including my husband's packed lunch for today), and headed up to my inlaws' place.

While my husband met up with the AC repairman back at our house this morning, it dawned on me that I still had his packed lunch in my inlaws' fridge. Since it was a king-sized serving of salmon, I divided it between myself and my girls, and added in some pickles, sauerkraut, and sweet potatoes that had all traveled there with us.

Today, my husband's our lunch featured:

• Wild silverbright salmon
• Romaine lettuce with parmesan cheese (I gave the cheese to my youngest since I'm dairy free during the July Whole 30)
• Baby carrots
• A peach

And yes, today the AC is flowing again. What a blessing!

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July Whole30 Update: Day 13 (or is it Day 4?)

Well, it's about halfway through July. Time for an update on my Whole30 experience!

I kicked off my Whole30 on July 1, and experienced the familiar "I'm eating right" signs: much reduced bloat, and higher, steadier energy.

One thing that really surprised me, since I've never gone dairy-free for an extended period: My skin looks so much better. Zits went down to negligible levels, and the oily/dry difference (T-zone anybody?) has evened out a lot. Why, with results like this, I'm starting to consider trying out the oil-cleansing method.

So far, the hardest things for me to give up have been:

• Giving up my coffee with heavy cream. Old habits die hard.
  
• My pastured butter. However, in the absence of butter, I've found that a modest drizzle of macadamia oil is a great dairy-free substitute for butter in topping veggies.
  
• Cheese
  
• Honey, and plain whole fat yoghurt with honey

Hrm, noticing a pattern here? Obviously I loves me some dairy. But so far, I have noticed that overall I feel noticeably better without tons of dairy in my daily diet.

Now, here is where things got interesting.

Late last week, my husband and I remembered that we had a hefty gift certificate to a high-fallutin' fancy-schmancy hoity-toity French restaurant. Said gift certificate was a very generous gift from my parents in honor of our fifth anniversary.

Guess what? We recently celebrated my sixth anniversary. In other words, we're the parents of young kids and managed not to make it to this restaurant in the last YEAR. Yea, we don't get out much.

To complicate things further, the gift certificate was set to expire 7/31.

So: keep my 10 days of Whole30 purity going and forfeit a multicourse haute cuisine date out with my husband? I was dedicated to my Whole30, but not so much that I'd give up an opportunity like this.

So we went. I even took the opportunity to wear my first pair of heels in ages: some black peep-toe pumps. I did notice that my ability to wear heels has sharply declined; I used to wear them all day in the office. Now, two pregnancies later, that I'm an at-home mother who goes barefoot or wears minimalist shoes most of the time, I nearly killed myself trying to walk in the aforementioned heels. (Note to self: find some hot-date shoes that don't endanger my life.)

We ordered the chef's tasting menu. I tried my first-ever round of fresh oysters. We had braised pork belly on a bed of risotto so good that I had to remind myself of our elegant surroundings so that I didn't lick the plate clean. There was also beef, fish, and lobster soup. And yes, a made-our-tastebuds-sing apricot souffle with a Grand Marnier cream.

Was it worth it? Three hours of daylight without changing diapers or fetching snacks, catching up with my husband over gourmet French creations?

Ohhhyea.

So now what? Since that one errant meal, I've been back to my dairy-free sugar-free grain-free Whole30 menu. I'm not sure if that makes today my new day #4, but I'm willing to make it that way to try out the full 30 days. After that I'll blog my concluding thoughts. In the meantime, you can check out some of my day-to-day Whole30 details by following me on Twitter.

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The July Whole 30 Challenge!

In the realm of brilliant ideas, today Jules of Queen of the Stone Age proposed a July Whole 30 challenge, and I impulsively said, "YEA!"

I'd been looking for an excuse to cut away some excess - but especially sugars and natural sweeteners (like honey), having celebrated two family birthdays this month. So, two web-friendly ways to follow the July Whole 30 challengers:

• Having just started up a Twitter account this very month, I suggested we tweet about it for moral support using the hashtag #JulyWhole30 in our tweets.
  
  
• There's a Facebook group that you can join for the July Whole 30 too! (I'm not a Facebooker, but figured that lots of you are and would join!)

A lot of the Whole 30 challenge I've already had lots of practice in tackling; for example, I very rarely eat grains. The big challenge for me will be foregoing my beloved pastured butter and coffee with heavy cream since dairy is out - but then again I've been thinking about doing a trial dairy exclusion for a while. I'm the only one in my family doing this for July; my husband and girls will soldier on with their usual lineups and packed lunches.

In lieu of butter, I'll be cooking with leftover bacon fat, extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, and other high-heat-stable fats.

Another challenge for me will be going a whole month without weighing myself - as the Whole 30 Challenge guidelines suggest. I'll do initial weigh-in and measurements on July 1, and a final weigh-in and measurements on July 31.

So are you in? Are you going to try doing the Whole 30 Challenge in the month of July? Join us on Twitter (with hashtag #JulyWhole30) and at the Facebook group and say "Hi!" Hope to hear from you soon!


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