It's ONLY week 2????

[BarbieSimonson]

I have to admit - I was so super excited to start this that I rallied my hubby and a coworker - who then rallied her family & a fried to join along with me - so now I'm on the hook.

 

Week one taught me a lot of things about cooking from scratch - I'm a busy mom who works full-time outside of the house. I have a hubby who HATES (& I don't use that work lightly) veggies, a teenager who detests fish, a 6-yr old who will eat just about anything I put in front of her & a 3 yr old that will and will not eat items based on her mood that minute - subject to change, mind you.

 

With that said, My hubby & I are doing Whole30 - while the kids reap some of the benefits - I'm not as strict with them. Last week I cooked salmon, pork loin roast, pork chops, LOTS of eggs and a few meat items. We had quite a few veggie choices each night, but always with a plain white potato or sweet potato or my hubby wouldn't eat anything but meat. It was a lot of hard work (as I don't get home till almost 7pm) trying to cook from scratch each night. The chopping was endless!  But we made it through & the results were good! I know weighing is frowned upon and discouraged, but I can't give up EVERYTHING the first time! He was down 19lbs & I was down 10lbs! AWESOME!  This gave us motivation for week 2...

 

Now that we are on day 9, I don't even want to eat. I don't want to even see another vegetable, let alone eat one. And I LIKE veggies! I'm definitely feeling the grumpies - and wanting to break down & call it quits. But I'm sticking it through. However, here is the question, how do you get your head (and tastebuds) to wrap around the idea that this is a better way of eating? I get the nutritional value of eating well. I get the results. My mouth does not care. Plain and simple. 

 

There are somethings I will be able to stick to past this Whole30, but some, I will lessen up on. Here are a few things I desperately still miss:

 

Diet Mountain Dew/Diet Coke (I only had one every other day or so - but boy, do I want one ALL THE TIME NOW!!!!)

Gum - I have read the blogs, the posts, seen the chemicals - I MISS MY GUM!!!!

Convenience Food - it is hard to regularly cook for 5 people ALL THE TIME from scratch! I see why convenience foods were made in the first place! 

 

*Sigh*

 

I've ranted enough. Back to work, but I thought I would share just how food miserable I am...

 

Barbie  

[Carlaccini]

Yes - we are used to that sugar reward thing going on in our brain. And yes it's hard to break.

 

Ways around this slump - create an awesome-knock-your-socks-off meal.  For me I love NomNom Paleo's Slow cooker Korean Short ribs.  I also love her Slow cooker Chicken with Gravy (Gravy FYI - all vegetables and you don't know it - great for picky people who don't do veg too quickly)

 

If you don't own a slow cooker - get one.  They are excellent to use for busy people, and they are low maintenance meals. Not a tonne of prep work required.

Have you heard of the weekend cook up?  This is where you give yourself a time slot somewhere in the weekend and prepare for the week ahead - so maybe make Well Fed's Chocolate Chili, roast a spaghetti squash up, roast some potatoes/sweet potatoes and make a giant batch of egg "muffins". 

If you are chopping 1 onion - might as well chop 2 onions and keep the second in a contained for tomorrow.

 

Also if you are not eating enough it may set you up for bigger cravings.  However strong cravings around day 9 or 10 and feeling really blah about food - not that unusual.  If you want you can post a couple of days worth of meals here for us to take a look at.

[LadyM]

Yes, preparing real food for a family is a challenge. Only you can determine whether or not it is ultimately worth it. There are many ways Whole30ers have found to make the food prep less taxing on a day to day basis and you'll find many wonderful tips and hints all over the forum.

 

Just to be clear, though, not weighing yourself is a rule of the Whole30 program, not merely "frowned upon or discouraged." Now you've seen that you lost 10 pounds in a week, and what effect is that having on your psyche and your desire to move forward with Whole30 for the next three weeks? And what effect will it have if you don't see the scale move at the end of your 30 days? 10 pounds lost over the course of a month is significant, but keeping an eye on the scale robs you of noticing all the other subtle changes for the better in terms of your health. Changing your relationship with food and your body for the purpose of radically improved health for the long run is the primary goal of Whole30. I urge you to stick with the program as written and discover for yourself just how transformative it can be.

[evaq]

Big props to you for being both the lead motivator *and* sole cook in the family. It can feel challenging enough doing whole30 without also feeding 4 other mouths (and critics). I'm on day 20 and I live alone and every time I open my fridge (which is crammed with vegetables), I wonder, how on earth do couples and families do this??? Do they buy another fridge? I'm single and I feel like my fridge is overflowing with produce.

 

As for nutrition vs tastebuds (ie. all the things you miss), I miss LOTS of non-compliant stuff too. But I also realise that my sense of taste/satisfaction/satiety needs a reset. It's so easy for us to get accustomed to sweet, salty, crunchy, and rich creamy flavours. Of course this all tastes good - but does it ultimately make your body feel good? A lot of the foods that "speak" to us are ones that have their flavour and volume dials set to 12; lots of flavour saturation. We lose the ability to genuinely taste and appreciate real food, food that's not dialed to 12 with lots of "extras" - and even more important, we muddle our relationship between hunger and appetite.

 

In terms of all the prep and cooking, I fully sympathize. It's a lot. No getting around it. Some convenience items are great (washed and packaged kale/spinach), but a lot of them are not. Remember that every time you eat out or buy something that isn't prepared by you, it can be a time saver/treat but you're also putting your nutrition and body into someone else's hands.  Here's a few suggestions and tips for helping ease your cooking burden:

 

Try doing  2 big batches of protein on the weekend (meatballs, roast chicken, slow cooker pork) so you're not starting from scratch with every meal.

Get out your food processor if you have one. Shred all your cabbage + carrots in one fell swoop. You'll prep all your stir fry and salad fixings for the week.

Do buy romaine hearts and other big salad mixes. Lunches and salad suppers are a lot easier and do-able.

Try either roasting or adding some acid to your vegetables or proteins. Roasting brings out the deep umami profile in vegetables (and of course meat) and acid ie. a squirt of lemon or lime provides the missing spark that's needed in otherwise "flat" dishes.

 

Best of luck! You're almost halfway there.

[BarbieSimonson]

Thanks guys!

 

I feel a whole lot better today. I prepped this evening's meal for the family in the crockpot before I left work: whole, roasted chix with lots of spices, large sweet onion, small potatoes, fresh carrots & compliant chix stock. Tonight I will add snowpeas at the last minute for crunch.

 

My goal last weekend was to prep ahead for the week. But to be honest, my weekends are just as crazy busy as my weeks. I guess that is life with 3 kids in the hours. And Evaq, yes, we do have a second refrigerator. We'd never make it without one!