Dreaded Day 1

Ok, so here goes nothing.  

Ordinarily, when I think of "paleo", I can't help but pause and observe a moment of silence for all of those poor souls that willingly deprive themselves of the very best things in life.  Wine.  Bread.  Wine.  Bread.  That about sums it up. In fact, if I'm ever forced to choose a last meal, it's going to be . . . wait for it . . . wine and bread.  I love bread so much that just the thought of a freshly baked baguette, pieces torn and dunked in olive oil, can evoke a Pavlovian response. 

The problem is that I'm almost 10 months postpartum, and, well, I'm running out of excuses. Now, if you know anything about Whole30, you know it's NOT touted as a weight loss program, and you can conceivably follow the plan but not lose weight.  I understand just enough about metabolism, however, to be dangerous, and I know that this plan can yield weight loss if done correctly.  It's this last part-- the "correctly" part, the exact details of which I have yet to nail down--that I imagine may be the source of some consternation, but I figure I have 29 more days to sort that out. P L E N T Y of time.  Ha!

So, here I am on Day 1.   How did I get here?  I have an old friend from my college days that introduced me to this plan.  She declined a glass of wine when we reconnected recently, because she was currently midway through the program, and she explained the concept to me.  I might have discarded it as a piece of useless (to me) information if not for the fact that she served me an amazing Whole30 compliant meal.  It was then that the wheels started turning.  I can cook. I like good food.  Why CAN'T I do this?  The more I researched, the more I felt increasingly confident that I actually might be able to pull this off.

As a little experiment (I'm a scientist by training, and I love little experiments), I decided to Whole30ify two meals a day for a week in preparation of going all in.  I stuck to the rules for those 2 meals, and I made some of the recipes from the books that I ordered.  That strengthened my resolve, because, yes, I liked the food, yes, I was satisfied, and yes, I could manage the time commitment needed for the simpler meals.  And I work from home, so I can cook my meals on the fly, eliminating some of the advance prepwork that most folks that work out of the home would need to do.  Truth be told, I might have been scared off otherwise.

This weekend I planned my dinners for the week, grocery shopped for all meals, and did a few little things.  I roasted a spaghetti squash.  I made some breakfast sausage (which is awesome).  I grilled some veggies for my breakfast eggs.  That was pretty much it.  I have to be honest that I'm relying a LOT on Trader Joe's to keep me on track for lunch.  They have an array of Whole30 compliant foods that take next to no time to prepare.  For breakfast and dinner, though, I'm doing all of the cooking.

So, here I am.  So far, so good (haha!).  Today's breakfast was an egg white (not a fan of yolks) scramble with grilled veggies and salsa, 2 sausage patties, and a half banana.  I had two cups of coffee with coconut "beverage" (try it!  It's not bad!).

Lunch was two Spicy Chili Lime Chicken patties from TJ's, 2 tbsp of guacamole, a half sweet potato with a little ghee, and an apple.  About an hour ago, I grabbed a handful of almonds and a date (yes, one measly date), and that seemed to help stave of an oncoming wave of low blood sugar. 

Dinner was spaghetti squash with a homemade bolognese sauce and a grilled portobello mushroom.  Super filling and excellent!

Tomorrow I will weigh myself - I didn't have a chance this morning.  At the end of this, I will report on any weight loss (or lack there of).

That's all for now!