Whole30, Day 32: back on the horse

It is now 2 days after the end of my Whole30, day 2 of my grains reintroduction… and I didn’t eat anything forbidden today aside from some SWYPO food: last night, I made some fake ice cream from blended frozen bananas, and some chia seed pudding lightly sweetened with fruit puree, and today I had some of the pudding for lunch. I went to Trader Joe’s today and didn’t buy anything forbidden despite all the salty, crunchy snack foods beckoning me! So I may as well continue writing down what I’m eating, I guess.

Breakfast: 

2 fried eggs with tomatillo salsa

Coffee with coconut milk

Lunch:

Pineapple-coconut chia seed pudding

Pistachios

Snacks:

Jackfruit chips

Dried mango

Cinnamon-cayenne cashews

Dinner:

Fried eggplant slices with ground turkey-tomato sauce

Pineapple-Coconut Chia Seed Pudding

1 can coconut milk

1/4 frozen banana

1/8 cup frozen pineapple chunks

1 fresh lime

2 Tbsp chia seeds

Salt

Put the coconut milk in the fridge for a day or so. Open it–the coconut cream will have risen to the surface in a solid blob. Scoop this into a container, avoiding picking up the clear coconut liquid beneath. Zest the lime into the coconut cream and add a sprinkle of salt. Whip in a food processor until smooth and fluffy.

Blend together the clear coconut liquid with the banana, pineapple, the juice of 1/2 the lime, and a sprinkle of salt. Add the chia seeds, stir well, and place in the refrigerator overnight.

To serve, top the chia seed mixture with the whipped coconut cream.

  

Whole30, Day 31: It’s over! And here are my thoughts

So it’s the day after the last day of Whole30. I actually ate almost completely Whole30-compliant all day–for breakfast, I had a couple of fried eggs with half an avocado, black sesame seeds, and a splash of red wine vinegar (and coffee with almond milk, of course); for lunch, just a handful of pistachios, since my breakfast kept me full all day; and for dinner, my first knowingly non-Whole30-compliant meal, and it was only barely that. Last week, I cooked up some ground turkey with onions, tomatoes, and taco seasoning, without looking carefully at the taco seasoning container–turned out it has flour in it. I put the leftovers away for after Whole30, and had to eat the food today so it wouldn’t go bad. So it was really only a trace amount of flour. My husband had some corn today, but neither of us went nuts and ate a bunch of forbidden foods.

Apparently we are meant to do a slow reintroduction protocol, so I’ll have grains in my diet for a few days, then move onto something else like dairy for a few days, and so on. Grains would not have been at the top of my list, honestly, but I had to eat that leftover turkey, so grains it is. I’m thinking about maybe going and getting some tacos now that corn tortillas are permissible again… I really would have rather gotten dairy back into my diet first, then sugar, so that I could have some ice cream, which I’ve been craving; but grains will do.

Also, it was the first day I could weigh myself. I was pleased to find I had lost 6 pounds over the course of the month, without ever thinking about portion control, and while eating a lot of steak and hamburger and fried eggs. I did get really hungry some days, but not because I wasn’t allowed to eat–just sometimes my food never seemed to fill me up or satisfy me, and I’m not sure why, but I’d kind of get tired of eating before feeling completely full.

My thoughts after following this diet (aside from the few minor and accidental slipups) for 30 days:

• It’s not as hard as I thought it would be! I was sort of annoyed when starting out, as I didn’t really particularly want to do such a strict diet and I felt like all my favorite foods would be off the list, but my husband was so enthusiastic about it I couldn’t say no–and if you’ve been following along from the start, I had a number of doubts and concerns about the diet, its rules, and basic premises. But I’ve actually had a lot of great meals and cooked at home a ton. I think this would be a really difficult diet if you were a vegan, though–I ended up relying heavily on meat and eggs. But maybe that’s just my own mental laziness?
• I’ve lost weight. Six pounds in one month isn’t bad at all. I think my husband has lost even more–people have remarked on it to him. Bear in mind, though, that I also bought a bicycle desk at the beginning of the month so my general activity level has been a bit higher in addition to my eating habits changing.
• While I haven’t felt a miraculous change in my health like some people seem to experience–none of this “colors are brighter, foods taste better” stuff–I do feel better overall: less bloated, less tired, with fewer ups and downs in blood sugar/hunger levels through the day. I doubt I’m actually sensitive in a meaningful way to any of the foods I’ve cut out; my theory is that these positive changes are mainly due to eating more home-cooked meals, more whole foods, more protein and fat and fiber rather than simple carbohydrates. My husband, who has non-severe asthma, says he’s been breathing easier. I’m interested to see how my numbers are on my next physical.
• I’ve saved money. We spend more money on groceries on average, I think, because we’ve been buying tons of meat, but we’ve spent very little on eating out at restaurants or drinking alcohol at bars. We normally do both of those pretty often. I would get club soda in bars this last month, and they would usually end up giving it to me for free.
• Shopping at the grocery store became incredibly quick and easy. It’s like the whole “shop the perimeter” idea, except that the entire dairy case and bread section of the perimeter is completely off limits as well, so there’s really a very small permissible area of the store to shop in. Stop in the meat section, pick up some eggs, get a bunch of fruits and vegetables, maybe a quick detour to buy more coffee or coconut milk, and that’s it. No chips, no crackers, no ice cream, no canned soups or sauces, no Popsicles, none of the delicious, convenient, tempting foods in the middle of the store.
• It does take time and planning, but I didn’t find it overwhelming. (Then again, I love cooking.) The main thing I found that was key was to have a little container of nuts on hand with me to snack on if I got hungry outside the house, because most places don’t have any Whole30-compliant snacks. And I when I’m busy, I tend to eat quick, easy convenience foods like packaged noodles, canned soups, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and frozen potstickers. I couldn’t do that, so I had to rely on making sure I cooked and had leftovers around. Canned tuna and oysters were really helpful for days when I couldn’t, and of course, I ate a ton of eggs, which are the ultimate quick-and-easy-and-filling Whole30 food for me, easy to cook in minutes and throw some veggies into. I also enjoyed having fork-ready vegetables I could take a portion of, like the premade sauerkraut bag I’ve had in the fridge all month, or the raw broccoli salad I made that lasted several meals.
• Grains are a crutch. I want to try and cut them out of my meals at home as much as possible. The spiralizer is great, and I’ve actually found that substituting vegetables for pasta or rice makes a meal really healthy and usually just as satisfying to me as the original version. My mental model for a quick meal used to be that I would make pasta and throw something on top, but I think I could easily substitute in zucchini or cauliflower in a lot of cases and not miss the grains. No bullshit here, I do love grains, but I think I could keep eating Whole30-style at home most of the time and be perfectly content.
• Would I recommend it to others? Yes, I would, actually. I feel good after eating this way all month, and I think it is an instructive way to reset your eating habits and think about a lot of things you take for granted. My husband and I spent a summer in another city once when he was doing an internship, and we took only a very minimal number of possessions with us. It was an interesting exercise seeing which ones I actually missed and felt like I needed to purchase while we were there. I’m thinking of this sort of like a food version of the Marie Kondo method. Not thinking of it as “which foods do I have to get rid of” but “which foods do I get to keep?” (Although terrible foods certainly spark joy in me, so maybe this is not really the best analogy.)

I do want to revisit my original doubts and concerns list, too.

• The all-or-nothing approach. This still bothers me. As I wrote in my last post, I believe in the saying the perfect is the enemy of the good, and I think the frustration of being told you have failed and need to start over again after accidentally eating a trace amount of sugar or carrageenan or something would cause a lot of people to give up on this, when sticking to the diet and figuring you succeeded 99% instead of starting over (as I did) still has its health benefits. However, to be honest, the all-or-nothing, no cheats approach made it easier to stick to the diet. I’m sure otherwise I would have been making exceptions left and right for a beer at a party or just a bite of ice cream on a hot day.
• Privilege. Yes. Definitely lots of time and money involved in this diet. You have to cook to some degree. I saved money, but only compared to eating out. If you’re already used to cooking at home and your meals involve a lot of cheap proteins like beans and TVP, switching to meat and nuts is going to skyrocket your grocery bills. Eggs are still cheap, I guess…
• The profit motive/weird authority thing. This also still really bothers me. My feelings about it haven’t changed through the course of the month.
• SWYPO. This also still really bothers me and I disagree with it. In fact, now that my month is over and “sex with your pants on” can go out the window, I think I might go make myself some fake ice cream out of frozen bananas, and put a batch of unsweetened chia seed pudding in the fridge for tomorrow.
• And just to add a bullet point, here’s some interesting reading from Scientific American about debunking the Paleo diet (which shares a lot with Whole30). I’ve put a hold on Paleofantasy at the library as a followup.

I know there are some people reading who have done or are doing Whole30. What are your thoughts on it? How do you feel?

Whole30, Day 30: This Is The End

I didn’t even realize for half the day that today was my last day of Whole30. I’ve failed already, by some accounts–the bacon I ate that probably had sugar in it, the jackfruit chips fried in rice bran oil–but I did my best. I also firmly believe in the saying the perfect is the enemy of the good so I wasn’t about to throw in the towel after realizing I accidentally slipped up a couple of times–I think I did fine for most of the month! Anyway–I had a long day, it’s late, I’m tired, and not quite ready to write up all my thoughts about the month as a whole, so here’s what I ate today, and I’ll write more later! Hard to believe it’s over now.

Breakfast:

Hash browns

Fried egg

Sauerkraut

Coffee with coconut milk

Lunch:

Steak

Tomatillo salsa

Leftover roasted cauliflower

Leftover roasted sweet potatoes

Snacks:

Honeycrisp apple

Cashews

Dinner:

My husband made dinner, so I don’t know the details–this is what he told me about it:

Chicken thighs cooked with lemon juice and chili powder

Green cilantro sauce

Red romescoesque sauce

Whole30, Day 29: Time Goes So Quickly

This day seemed to just race by! And I can’t believe I’m gearing up to write my Day 30 post…

I had a long day of work, so most of my food was whatever ended up being easy and fast.

Breakfast:

Eggs and tomatillo salsa

Coffee with coconut milk

Lunch:

Leftover tuna and cauliflower salad

Leftover steak

Leftover Szechuan shrimp

Dinner:

Steak with green sauce

Cashews

Whole30, Day 28: home stretch

Almost there! Long day of running errands and doing projects at home, so I didn’t think about food all that much. 

Brunch:

Fried eggs with tomatillo salsa

Roasted potatoes

Coffee with coconut milk

Dinner:

Szechuan-style shrimp–stir-fried (precooked, frozen, thawed, tossed with tapioca flour) in coconut oil with Szechuan peppercorns, dried red peppers, fresh sliced jalapeño, sliced garlic, chopped celery, salt, and walnuts, then dressed with toasted sesame oil with ginger extract

Roasted sweet potatoes with smoked paprika

Roasted cauliflower

Snacks:

Brazil nuts

Pistachios

Jackfruit chips

Whole30, Day 27: adventure

We went out tubing on the river today with friends and had a long and tiring day involving missing the landing and having to be rescued by someone with a motorboat… so I’m behind on my posts! Lunch was prolonged snacks all day; dinner was a restaurant in Spring Green we were ecstatic to see after about 5 or 6 hours on the river. My husband skipped breakfast and doesn’t like fruit, so hadn’t had anything to eat all day except nuts! We watched longingly as our friends ate Munchies and corn chips and salsa and Honey Dijon kettle chips, and drank a whole cooler’s worth of beer through the course of the day.

Breakfast:

2 fried eggs with tomatillo salsa

Coffee with coconut milk

Lunch/snacks:

Grapes

Jackfruit chips (which, to my chagrin, I found out are fried in rice bran oil so I’ve been violating the rules periodically this whole month!)

Dried pineapple

Brazil nuts

Almonds

Apple

Dinner:

Salad with vinaigrette, black olives, beets, hard-boiled eggs, broccoli 

Grilled shrimp

Steamed broccoli

Hash browns 

Whole30, Day 26: colorful foods

Woke up at 4 AM today, lay in bed for about 2 1/2 hrs trying to go back to sleep, then gave up, got up, washed my hair, washed the dishes, and made some salsa.

Breakfast: 

Poached scrambled eggs

Tomatillo salsa

Coffee with coconut milk

Lunch:

Chopped Summer Salad

Snacks:

Cinnamon almonds and Brazil nuts

Dinner:

Steak with cilantro sauce and romescoesque sauce (I don’t know exactly what’s in them–my husband made them. Look at how beautiful this plate looks!)

  
Dried mango

Chopped Summer Salad

Crunchy, full of veggies and protein, savory, and refreshing. No cooking required (and minimal prep–I didn’t even mix the vinaigrette separately, just threw everything in the same bowl)–so it’s even easier than the vaguely Mediterranean pasta salad I based this on. I usually would make my summer pasta salad with orzo instead of cauliflower, and with green peas thrown in there, but the cauliflower is a lovely, crunchy, low-carb substitution. (I’m not just saying that, and it’s not just good “for a Whole30 dish.” This salad is freakin’ awesome by any standards.)

1/3 cauliflower, chopped into small pieces

1/8 yellow onion, finely chopped

1/2 green onion, chopped

1 can tuna, drained

1 Tbsp capers

1 Tbsp fresh flatleaf parsley, chopped

1 tomato, chopped

1 rib celery, chopped

Juice of 1/2 lemon

1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Salt

Pepper

Mix everything together.

  

Whole30, Day 25: beets and shrimp

Breakfast:

Hamburger patty

Sauerkraut

Coffee with coconut milk

Lunch:

More coffee

Honeycrisp apple

1 package precooked, peeled beets–I like keeping a package of these around in the fridge for emergency salads. I used to like to throw in some feta, vinaigrette, pine nuts, and fresh herbs, but today I just felt like eating them plain. Yum.

Salt and pepper pistachio nuts from Trader Joe’s

Dinner:

Zucchini spirals with avocado cream sauce and shrimp (precooked from the freezer–just thawed and tossed on the raw zucchini–it was quick and delicious!)

Avocado Cream Sauce

1/2 avocado

Juice of 1/2 lemon

1 Tbsp chopped green onion

1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Salt

Pepper 

Blend all ingredients together.   

  I am getting SO TIRED of my breakfast options. I like eating yogurt, cottage cheese, or oatmeal for breakfast, and none of those are an option anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I love savory breakfast and eggs and hash browns are some of my favorite foods in the universe, but sometimes I just wake up and want to eat a creamy bowl of Greek yogurt with toasted nuts and honey.

Whole30, Day 24: nothing to see here

Breakfast:

Half a banana (the other half had turned waaay more brown than I was willing to eat)

2 fried eggs

Coffee with coconut milk

Lunch: 

Eggplant casserole

Hamburger patty

Snacks:

Dried pineapple

Dried mango

Jackfruit chips

Dinner:

Leftover chicken thigh from yesterday

Leftover raw broccoli salad

Pretty much everything I ate today was leftovers. The hamburger was a little old and I spent some time feeling anxious about food poisoning, but didn’t end up feeling sick at all in the end. Nothing exciting.

Whole30, Day 23: winner winner chicken dinner

Breakfast: 

Banana

Coffee with coconut milk

Lunch:

Cold eggplant-tomato casserole

2 fried eggs

Salt and pepper pistachios

Snacks:

Water with lime juice and chia seeds

Dried mango

Cashews

Salt and pepper pistachios

Dinner:

Crispy lemon chicken thighs

Arugula

Spicy sexy broccoli

Fried potato slices

Just look at this amazing dinner (I managed to take a photo outside at the golden hour, as we ate dinner sitting on our front stoop, so it looks especially nice):

The chicken was probably the best chicken I’ve ever made! The skin was so crispy. I followed a recipe from Food52’s Genius Recipes cookbook, but I didn’t have any preserved lemons on hand, so I had to make a quick version:

Crispy Lemon Chicken Thighs

2 lemons, washed and quartered

2 Tbsp salt + more salt to season

1 cup water

4 chicken thighs

Pepper

1 Tbsp olive oil

Combine the salt and water in a small saucepan, bring to a boil, and add the lemons. Turn the heat to a simmer and cook for about 30 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool. Remove the seeds and pulp and chop the lemon rind into small pieces.

Heat the olive oil in a large cast-iron skillet over medium-low heat. Season the chicken thighs with salt and pepper and place them skin-side down in the skillet. Do not move them–let them cook like this for about 30 minutes, until the fat renders out and the skin becomes crunchy and golden. Turn them over and stir the lemon rind from one of the lemons into the rendered fat. Cook till the chicken is cooked through, about another 15 minutes. Serve with the lemon pieces and lemony chicken drippings spooned over the top.

(I also fried unpeeled 1/4 inch slices of waxy potatoes in the same rendered, lemony fat over medium heat until golden on both sides.)