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What if you can't clean out your pantry?


purplediode

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Today is my 1st day of the January Whole30, and Melissa's email talks about how important it is to clean out your pantry.

But what if you can't do it?  I have a husband and three little kids, and my husband is definitely not up on the program.  Even when I tried to clean out our pantry of cereals, he ended up just buying more.  Yes, I know, I know, we have an issue there -- but it's one that we've had for years, decades even.  I've come to accept that on this issue we'll never see eye to eye.  I can eat what I want to eat, and I can feed kids when I feed them what I want to feed them, but I can't control his actions or convince him to join me.  And it's not that he's eating unhealthily, it's just that he's a true follower of all the conventional "best for your health" recommendations about needing whole grains, etc.   

 

Anyway, that means that we always have bread, dairy, etc. in the house.  And I even have to handle them, because our kids don't have any issues with dairy, and I don't want to deny them yogurt (unsweetened) or sour cream or butter just because I'm on Whole30; so I serve it to them.


but oh, it's hard to cut brie and not want to put it on my plate.  Or that yogurt with fresh fruit while my own dinner is not yet ready, and I'm tired from a stressful day at work and kids' din of voices and I so want to just fill my bowl like theirs...

 

Help!  Any advice for staying the course of Whole30? 

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3 hours ago, purplediode said:

while my own dinner is not yet ready

Food prep.

Always be sure to have compliant prepped food available in the house. Many of us here do a large batch cook session at the weekend, meaning we just need to open the fridge & piece together meals from pre-prepped proteins & veggies, and then just add a fat.

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Lots of people share their food spaces, if you can't clear your pantry, see if you can make a safe shelf, box or area where your Whole30 things can go.

If you can't, some people like coloured dot stickers or using containers. Some people just do it all in their heads.

While it can be a little harder sharing spaces, it also teaches you to manage temptations, as they're always going to be around.

Bulk cooking really helps, try and make some big batches of things, so you can just come home and fill a healthy bowl without a lot of effort.

Just remember why you're doing this, it's for you :)

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If you have any spare time (bwah ha haaa! - like people on W30 have spare time, that isn't spent food prepping!) - then you could do some reading up on persuasion techniques, try to find some way of persuading hubby that he needs to eat healthy without him realising that you've persuaded him.  If he thinks it's his own idea, he'll be much more into it.  You could ask him if he's interested in being the fittest/healthiest man in the city, and then when says no because that's unreasonable, ask if he'd like to be the fittest/healthiest man in your street/village/office - ect somewhere smaller, where he might answer 'hell yeah!'  you could try guilt - ask him if he realises how much damage he's doing to himself with the unhealthy diet he's eating?  there's all sorts of options out there.  it's not really fair to say that his health isn't your responsibility - you are a couple, and if you can see that he isn't optimally healthy, and you are, then at some point you're going to be bouncing along happily, whilst he keels over with a heart attack.  Or an alternative is that couples happines is increased by each other, you can reinforce the other persons happines with your own, the combined happines is greater than the two parts - combine with the daughter again and it's even greater!

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  • 2 months later...

I'm in the same boat... I don't separate my food from my family's though. It works for other people, but I would inevitably end up running out of space and needing to stick something on one of the S.A.D. shelves in our pantry, so I don't bother much at all with it anymore. Also, having my "weird" food things right there by the Froot Loops gives me a sense of normalcy, which I enjoy after having been a Whole30 freakazoid living with a determined junk foodist for 4 years now. :)

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As fast as I could haul it out with a backhoe, they'd haul it back in with a dump truck.

There are times when their multi-crap catches my eye, looking all cute and adorable over there on a counter.  I just tell it to shut the hail UP.  Literally.  Try it, it's a great release valve.

You can do it at the grocery store, too...if no one is around you.

I've learned to surf through cravings and trigger foods.  I keep my WHY nearby. Every day.

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As fast as I could haul it out.... they haul it back in.

At your workplace,  the breakroom fridge down the hall  is  filled with coworker lunches.

Adults  obey the coworker code of ethics.  You do not take their lunches or treats. You maintain adult boundaries and stay in your own lane.  If you don't there are consequences and hail to pay.

I don't bring the offenders home but they do.  It's no different than a workplace.  Maintain those same boundaries at home.

I don't take their things but they take my things because in the end their multi-crap never satisfies.  I share because....isn't that the way?

 

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