So… Since February I have been cooking a lot.
And when I say a lot… I mean A LOT.
I launched into The Plan
I lost 14 pounds in the first 2 months I adopted this eye-opening food philospophy. As life got busier, and food options started feeling mundane, I put back 5 of those 14. Then lost. Then put them back. Then lost. Then… if I could only always eat food I prepare…
I have learned a lot about my body and eating through living a life through Plan lenses. A big part of the Plan process is food testing, but once mid-April hit I was unable to continue my testing momentum… due to excessive travel and a busy family. But I was able to incorporate much of my new knowledge. Just not as vigilantly. Thus that 5 that wants to keep visiting me.
Not only did I lose, but I felt better. However, as the April turned to May and May turned to June, though I hadn’t completely fallen off the wagon… I was definitely being drug behind and the rope was getting thin.
Busy-ness is a killer of healthy.
My friend Meg of Whatever in this post shared about this sugar detox things she did and that she was going to do it again and everything Meg does inspires me so I was all, “I’M IN!”
I am now on Day 5 of the 14 day sugar detox and am down that 5 I keep fighting with. But this video was my Day 2. I can’t say I had INTENSE cravings on Days 1-3 (as I expected), but I wasn’t cravings-free either. I think having changed my diet so much from my months following The Plan have helped with that a lot…
As of today… I am longing for cheese. Because when I signed-up for this little project I didn’t realize it was also a dairy and gluten cleanse as well. So cheese is the hardest thing for me.
If you put a block of cheese next to a cake, I’d grab the cheese. Though I was at a party last night with a Chocolate Costco cake and it looked. so. delicious.
BUT I RESISTED AND I AM STRONG.
Why am I doing this? Well, lots of reasons… being over 40 is the biggest. Shhh… don’t tell anyone I am over forty. But just barely, FTR.
As I get older, I feel I am more in-tune with my body and I am suspecting food has a little to do with the exhaustion that remains despite getting my hypothyroidism controlled… the depression, the dark circles under the eyes… and stuff. Actually food has A LOT to do with it.
I spent many years on a fitness kick, and while it was good… I am thinking nutrition is 80%. I used to say “I work out so I can eat what I want”. Bad way to think, Miss Jenny.
I saw Fed Up last week, days before the detox began (as luck would have it) and though I’ve heard Americans consume too much sugar… that movie communicated that message SO clearly. When *they* say we consume too much, we have no idea.
Watching that movie gave me just the extra inspiration I needed to totally own these 14 days.
If I were to try to filter any of this down and share the most important thing I have learned these last several months it’s… Prepare and cook your own food. We (our society) do not make it easy. Not at all. With all our busy-ness and fast food options… and clever marketing.
In these last months I have managed to avoid countless fast food lunches by taking an extra 5… sometimes 10 minutes to pack my own lunch. Usually a big salad with lots of veggies and sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds and when not detoxing… goat cheese. I love you, goat cheese. 10 minutes is not easy to find, so I have had to decide to fight to take those minutes to set my food choices and health up for success.
Outside of the temptations and cravings (a whole other topic), the hardest part of both The Plan and this detox has been… integrating a lifestyle of almost all home-cooking. It just takes more time and as I feel better and better and my clothes fit better and better… that trade for time has become easier. AND… as I work to integrate it more and more, it doesn’t feel as time consuming. Maybe it’s because I have go-to recipes that I have mastered and have a system, or maybe it’s just getting used to making that choice instead of leaving 10 minutes early so there is time to swing through a fast food place.
This is a way longer post than I planned. I guess I got a little soap-boxy!
Since I always try to share a photo… here’s a picture of my breakfast this morning… a Paleo pancake (made with coconut flour) with raw almond butter and strawberries. Honestly, it’s no pancake. But as my cravings and palette expectations are evolving as I cut the sugar, it’s fulfilling. The problem with traditional pancakes is just one makes you crave another and another. It’s this vicious cycle that they illustrate well in Fed Up.
