Waldorf Cabbage Slaw - Whole30 Last Week Wrap Up

This post is a few days late, but we finished our Whole30 a week ago!  This past week, we just kept going, not starting our Reintroduction phase until today.   Oddly, by week four, we felt we were simply cruising.   Meals were planned but not so meticulously - it felt natural to cook and eat this way, so it didn't take so much careful attention to every step in order to keep to the plan.  It also meant less careful following of specific recipes, rather than just putting together a good meal.

Breakfast & Lunches continued to be put together from dinner leftovers and what we kept on hand, following the Whole30 template (protein, sufficient good fat for satiety, and filling the plate with veggies and fruit).  We did get lax about pre-prepping fast breakfast items, like homemade sausage and egg muffins or frittatas, and putting together soups for portable lunches, and found their absence to be annoying, so we'll pick back up again with that level of pre-preparation.

I also got very lax about photographing our meals! (oops!)

This was what we ate for dinner:

Sauteed Lemon Garlic Chicken Strips with Waldorf Salad Slaw (recipe below)

Ham Steak with Baked Sweet Potatoes and Leftover Slaw

Ginger Sesame Chicken Stir-Fry with Cabbage, Carrots & Zucchini Noodles

Zucchini Noodle Spaghetti and Meat Sauce with Olives & Mushrooms, Salad

"Butter" Chicken with Coconut Cauliflower Rice, Spinach Saag, & Avocado Chutney

Bunless Burgers, Sauteed Mushrooms, Avocado & Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Slow Cooker Beef Stew

A few notes:

The Lemon Garlic Chicken Strips were simply sauteed in Ghee along with minced garlic and fresh lemon (and its zest) along with some capers to create a classic Chicken Scampi type meal.  The real star was the Waldorf Slaw and I'll share that recipe with you below.

Ghee was also used to top the baked Sweet Potatoes served with the ham.

The Chicken Stir-Fry was simply put together with little attention paid to quantities - I used some Red Boat fish sauce, a bit of coconut aminos, some grated ginger and sesame oil and then on whim threw in a splash of orange juice, and the result was delicious.  The veggies were simply onion, celery, carrots, some leftover shredded cabbage, mushrooms and a spiralized zucchini to sub in for noodles.

My husband handles week-end cooking and treated me to a delightful Butter Chicken, with Saag and Avocado Chutney - this shouldn't even be possible on Whole30, right?? But he found the recipes and the results were amazing!

The Beef Stew was also a put together with cubed beef, potatoes, mushroom, onions and celery - I found that some Butternut Puree and tomato paste made it thick enough to feel hearty, but a little arrowroot would have also made it thicker.

Waldorf Cabbage Slaw
- a mash up of my two favorite salads!
Serves 4

Slaw:
1 cabbage, shredded (set aside half for another meal)

2 Gala apples, cored and chopped into small bite-sized pieces, or spiralized

1.5 cups green seedless grapes, halved

2 stalks celery, thin sliced

1 cup walnuts, chopped

Dressing:

1/2 cup mayonnaise (homemade or Whole30 approved)

1 lemon - juice and zest

salt and pepper to taste

Combined all the prepared salad ingredients in a large bowl.  In a small bowl, mix together dressing ingredients.  Fold dressing into slaw so that all is coated.  Chill until ready to serve.

So good!

So how'd we do?

I mentioned the results we were experiencing at the end of Week 3 here and they continue to hold.  

We had take out the day after and thought everything was compliant (except for the 'psychological' no-nos. In other words, we had fries) , but I wound up having an awful night's struggle with GERD.  So I need to avoid fried foods when out - it's pretty clear that the oil they use is not for me.

But we also got to weigh and measure ourselves!  On Whole30, there is no peeking at either scale or tape measure, because part of what it is going to do is teach you to pay attention to clues about mood, physical well-being, alertness, skin health and yes, pants fitting more comfortably.  We knew the numbers would be good - but we were curious to know by how much.  We'd done our measurements before we began, and here's where we landed a month later. 

(I am only noting the difference between last month and this, not the actual numbers - we've still got a long way to go, but now we have a yearlong goal.)

I do believe a good bit of my loss was due in no small part to the loss of systemic chronic inflammation, so I'm ready for these results to slow down going forward.

Me:  

Weightloss: 20lbs

Neck: 2 inches

Chest: 1.5 inches

Waist: 1.5 inches

Hips: 2 inches

Thigh: 0 inches (time to add exercise!)

Him:

Weightloss: 14.5lbs
Neck: .5 inches
Chest: 1.5 inches
Waist: 1 inches
Hips: 1.5 inches
Thigh: 1 inch

WOW!  I had low, low expectations for that part - the last time I did this, the results were far less profound.

So what's next?

We've decided to primarily continue eating this way, with occasional easing up for special occasions.  It's working for us and the food is, simply put, delicious!

But first, the Reintroduction!  The second phase of Whole30 involves a methodical reintroduction of  the foods that were removed for 30 days (minus those you just don't want back in your life - for me, that's junk food and highly processed glop).

Over this next month, we'll be having days where one category of food is eaten (while otherwise keeping to Whole30 rules) and then a few days back to a strict Whole30 while paying attention to effects.  How long between depends on what happens -standard is 2 Whole30 days after each reintroduction, but I was experiencing so many inflammatory effects before we began that it may take me longer than that to clear up before the next test day.

The categories we're specifically testing for include a little modification from the recommendation.  I wanted to look at sugars, in particular, as I have suspected it is having a bad effect on my GERD.  I plan to avoid cane sugar as a practice, but want to know if alternate forms carry a similar reaction (in any event, added sugars can only be an occasional thing, as all sugars cause issues of their own, and it is highly addictive.

Our test series will look like this (and carry us into March):

Sugars - honey, maple, coconut sugar.  We both dislike stevia, agave and the like, so no point in testing those.

Alcohol - (timed around a social event that's coming up) - Wine, cider and/or non-gluten liquor.

Legumes - peanuts, soy sauce, beans, peas, hummus

Dairy - milk, cheese, plain yogurt

Non-Gluten Grains - oats, rice, quinoa, corn.  If this day gives me fits, i'll be breaking these out to individual tests once the main reintro is done.

Gluten Grains - wheat, barley, etc. Bread, flour tortillas, pasta, etc. I know this is going to cause me grief, so I consider this my inoculation against any further temptation to start eating this again. Yes I love it. But I love not feeling sick all the time more.

Beer - separate from the Gluten grains day, we want to test beer and see if it causes similar issues. My husband is a craft brewer and it would be sad not to ever be able to drink it!


So that's the plan!  If you're curious about Whole30, check out their website and consider trying it for yourself!

Whole30 Week 3 Meal Plan & Progress

We've now finished our 3rd week of Whole30 - the shift to the Reintroduction Phase is in sight!

Week three brought some clear evidence of results (known as 'non-scale victories' in W30 terms).  As of right now:

• I have gone from snoring like a freight train to my breathing while sleeping hardly being noticable. (Not entirely gone, but a huge difference from before.)
• My GERD and acid reflux has gone from struggling not to throw up after meals and frequently losing hours of sleep at night due to a drowning sensation while horizontal to DISAPPEARED.  I've had two episodes of sour stomach, and no signs of reflux at all.  I am amazed at how quickly this happened.
• I had an appointment with my rheumatologist that went very well - a greenlight to lower my prednisone (I expect to be completely off in a few more weeks), my infusions happening a week farther apart and the required weigh in (the one time I had to deal with a scale) showing 15 pounds gone. Well then!
• My husband is wearing clothes he's not fit into for three years - and mine, which 'just fit' are feeling looser.
• Mood swings are a little less wildly swinging than they were the first two weeks, and I'm less tempted by passing thoughts about bread and cheese.  
• We're starting to plan for the controlled reintroduction phase.  I'm looking forward to getting to taste some of what we've avoided - but I am far more interested in discovering what's been causing my body so much mayhem over the last several years.
• Once we sort out our permanent 'no more of this' list, we plan to move into a regular Paleo type lifestyle, reserving off-script 'treats' that don't actively ruin our day for when we are socializing or eating out.

So this is how we ate in Week Three (I was bad about remembering to take pictures, unfortunately):

Breakfasts and Lunches continued to be an assortment of grab and go items (hard cooked eggs, sausage patties or pre-cooked bacon, salad fixings, fruit, nuts, the occasional date or Larabar) or leftovers from dinner the night before.

What We Ate This Week

Sausage and Pumpkin Vegetable Soup (recipe below)

Pork Tenderloin with Sauteed Plantains, Pineapple & Coconut (recipe below)

Leftover Sausage and Pumpkin Vegetable Soup

Chicken Apicius with Dates & Olives, Zucchini Noodles (recipe here)

Chocolate Chili over Baked Potato, Salad (recipe here)

Panfried Sirloin Steak, Leftover Salad, Steamed Veggies
Main Dish Tossed Salad with Bacon, Hard Cooked Eggs and Mushrooms

Here are a couple recipes for you:

Sausage and Pumpkin Vegetable Soup

Sausage Pumpkin Vegetable Soup

(serves 6)

1 pkg. Aidell's Chicken Apple Sausage

1 pkg. sliced mushrooms

Ghee or coconut oil

3 cups homemade chicken broth

1 can pureed pumpkin

1 large can diced tomatoes

1/2 bag frozen cauliflower, broccoli and carrot blend, chopped smaller if desired

1/2 bag sliced okra

1 Yukon potato, diced

Seasoning as desired: salt, pepper, red pepper flakes

Dash of Cholula original at serving time, if desired

Cut the sausage into coins, then halve each coin.  Saute sausage and mushrooms in stock pot until mushrooms are soft.  Add remaining ingredients, and stir. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and let simmer at least until vegetables are soft although it's better if it can simmer at least an hour.

Serve in soup mugs or bowls, adding a splash of Cholula if desired.

We had enough here for soup for dinner twice - a good thing because I was experience a little 'what?! I have to cook again?!' at this point.

Pork Tenderloin with Sauteed Plantains, Pineapple and Coconut

The pork for this was given a dry rub of Arizona Dreaming seasoning blend from Penzeys, seared in a pan and then put into a 425F oven to roast for about 25 minutes.

The plantains (about half way between green and ripe) were sliced along with some fresh pineapple, and sauteed in a blend of ghee and coconut oil for 10 minutes or so, then sprinkled with unsweetened coconut flakes.  These were DELICIOUS.

The veggies are the other half of the bag we used for soup the day before.

Feast of Sorrow: Whole30 Chicken Apicius #cookthebooks

Every couple of months, a few bloggers get together for the Cook the Books Club to read a book, and make a dish inspired by it. The book for Dec-Jan. was Feast of Sorrow, by Crystal King.

I'd never read this before, but I happily tucked a copy of it into my Kindle just before we took a two week vacation to Germany, and I found it very compelling.

The book is a novel set across a span of years in the household of Apicius, a wealthy epicurean whose obsession is food prepared in the most interesting an exotic ways possible. The story centers on Thracius, a slave Apicius purchases because he has a reputation for being a highly skilled cook. Over time, the two work together to write a series of recipes - a cookbook - that would come to us today as one of the most comprehensive explanations of an ancient culture's foods we have available.

Apicius is portrayed as temperamental and inconsistent, by turns punitive and friendly to his closest slaves, and Thracius is portrayed as the voice of reason and the skill and brains behind the lavish meals that are bringing Apicius renown while he tries to hold the household together in the midst of external and internal intrigue.

Familial and political crises abound, and the result is a book that is both very compelling and highly disturbing, ending on a dark (but historically accurate) note.

While it is fictionalized (there is no Thracius mentioned in the annals of history), there are a lot of details 'ripped from the headlines' of the Roman Empire.

Apicius likely did exist, although it is also likely that over time his name was used by other epicureans to lend credence to their own recipes.  The surrounding characters and many of the events are historical.

Reading it while traveling through Germany, including to the Roman city of Trier (my friend and co-writer Lauren recently shared her own trip to Trier here) really helped me feel a sense of place about the story.

The food inspiration runs all through the book - too much to keep up with, actually!  Each chapter begins with one of Apicius' recipes.  I tried to keep notes and found my Kindle copy was chock full of highlights and notes.

When we returned home, I put together a few ideas, planning to create a Roman 'feast' for our New Year's Eve meal... and then we decided to go to Florida for a couple weeks for the holidays and there was simply no time to shop or plan for that feast, so I went back to the drawing board.

I had a half thought out idea for some sort of cute 'dormice' thing made out of chocolate - but then we started a month of Whole30.

WHAAAAT??? CAN YOU EVEN ROMAN ON THE WHOLE30?????

The definitive answer is: Not happily!  Apicius would have been shocked and appalled.  The Stoics would have been horrified.

Roman cuisine relied heavily on grains, wine, dairy and honey - all disallowed on Whole30. Meat was a luxury food - so Apicius enjoyed it frequently, but for most Romans the only meat they had came from the shared meat made available at civil sacrifices.

Vegetables were used as they could be had - but that meant only what was available locally and in season.

So what to do?  I grazed everything I could find about Apicius, his recipes, modern interpretations of his recipes and there was just very little to work with that felt inspirational.

There were a few things I knew I could include - dates, figs, olives, olive oil, fish sauce.

So - because I really needed to sort out my menu plan, I decided to lean hard on the 'inspired by' portion of this challenge, and started with Chicken Marbella, a Silver Palate faux-Spanish recipe born in the 1970s.

First, I had to make it Whole30 compliant, and then I had to make it 'Roman'.

(By the way, faux-foods would have totally appealed to Crystal King's Apicius, I think!  So a faux-Spanish recipe going faux-Roman? Served with faux-pasta?  On it!)

My modifications involved switching the wine for wine vinegar, getting rid of the brown sugar entirely, and switching out the prunes for dried dates (why? Because I have dates in the house, love them, and dates and figs feel more Roman to me).

Finally, in an homage to the never-ending fish sauce, which seemed to go into everything, I added a bit of Red Boat fish sauce, too.

The result was quick, easy and delicious!

My husband and I agreed that this was going straight onto regular menu rotation (with wine and some honey once I can cook with those again).

Even without the wine, the vinegars mellowed, and the flavor was really intriguing and delicious.

Chicken Apicius (Whole30)
(serves 4)

3-4 cloves garlic, finely minced
1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1 Tblsp. Red Boat fish sauce
1 cup dried dates, pitted
1/2 cup green olives, pitted
1/3 cup capers
3 bay leaves
1 Tblsp dried oregano
Salt and pepper to taste
8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1-2 zucchinis
olive oil

Combine all but the chicken in a baking dish, mixing well to combine.

Nestle the chicken into the pan, among the olives and prunes, flipping a couple times to coat with the sauce.

At this point, if desired, cover and put the pan into the refrigerator to marinate for awhile.

When ready to cook, preheat the over to 350F and bake for 25-30 minutes.

While the chicken is cooking, spiralize one or two zucchinis (or use store-bought spiralized zucchini, which is a thing now!), and saute for about 4-5 minutes in a pan along with a bit of olive oil or ghee and season to taste.

When the chicken is done, remove the chicken, olives and dates from the pan and serve along with the zucchini noodles.

This is where this really veers from the Silver Palate version - that recipe calls for wine and brown sugar to be added to the vinegar sauce in the pan and thickened into a sauce to be poured over the chicken. Which sounds awesome, but also impossible to modify for Whole30 and honestly, the chicken did not notice the lack at all.

Either way, this meal was a winner!

At the end of the month, the full round up of #cookthebooks Feast of Sorrow posts will be compiled by Debra of Eliot's Eats. I can't wait to see what others have done!

Whole30 Week 2 Menu & Progress

We're now into our third week of Whole30, and remain a little mystified at how much easier it seems to be this time out. The first time this was when we crashed and burned and dropped out, running away as if we'd survived a horror movie.

The second time, we got through the 30 days, but the very idea of another couple of weeks doing a slow reintroduction was beyond us.

This time, we know where most of our potential pitfalls are, and mentally prepped for them to the point where they don't seem that hard at all. We miss the occasional drink.  I miss cheese on things that are simply better with cheese - but not so much that I no longer want to eat what I have.  Neither of us miss bread, unless there's a good sauce on our plate and no easy way to sop it up.

(I do realize that I have no totally jinxed us for this next week!)

During our second week, we had a couple days where we had to eat out, and that's by far the most challenging. No matter where you go, things are either breaded, ON bread, with cheese or sugared in some way. So. Much. Sugar.

The first time, we had a day full of errands, so we stopped at lunch at a local area chain of diners called the Silver Diner. They locally source their food, so the quality was a good bet. Even there, though, the only safe-ish bet was to stick to the breakfast menu and have eggs and bacon (which likely was sugar cured, so not perfect), and we ordered a side of roasted mix veggies that turned ou to be butternut squash, brussels sprouts and beets.

Our second time out was after an early showing of The Post - we went to a Nando's Peri-Peri Chicken, which was a great choice - their chicken was flavorful and succulent, and not breaded, and here also there was a side of delicious roasted veggies in balsamic vinegar.  There were also salads that could be modified slightly and still be interesting.

I'd hate to have to wrestle with restaurants often while on Whole30, although we did pretty well.  It does make it easier if you check the menu online before you go and develop a plan.

So here's the rest of what we ate this past week:

Cashew Chicken with Stir-Fried Cabbage

No real recipe here - I used cooked chicken from last week's roast chicken.  I stir-fried a half a bag of cole slaw cabbage mix along with some sliced mushrooms in a blend of coconut oil and sesame oil   and seasoned it in a sort of vaguely curry-ish blend of spices, a bit of fish sauce and hot sauce.  The chicken was added in and heated through, and a good sprinkle  of cashews was added to serve.

Pan-Fried Rib Eye Steak,

Caramelized Onions, Tomatoes and Mushrooms, 

and Avocado Slices

This was a joint effort - I put together the onions, tomatoes and mushrooms, intending to slow-braise them.  They got away from us though and before we knew it, they'd begun to scald on the bottom of the pan. I carefully scooped out the part that didn't get burned quickly enough to avoid an off flavor.

So we had much less than I'd hoped for - but the upside was that what we did have had cooked down
to a sort of marvelous savory jam that made a very nice accompaniment for Michael's steak, seasonedwith salt, pepper and Sweet Hungarian paprika, and cooked to a perfect medium rare.

Peruvian Aji Chicken over Coconut Cauliflower Rice 
with Roasted Sweet Potatoes & Spinach

Ok, this is where it got weird - I occasionally get meal plan kits but I was sure I'd set them to Skip for this month.  Then a Plated box showed up at my door - oops. Since I hadn't planned for it, it was totally random what was in it, of course neither of the two meals were Whole30.  Fortunately, this one, chicken with a yellow chile sauce and vegetables, served over coconut quinoa, was easy to fix by switching out the quinoa for cauliflower rice.  Very tasty!

Pan Roasted Chicken Over Cauliflower Rice, Brussels and Apple Salad
This was the other Plated dish - originally, it involved Farro instead of the cauliflower, and included Parmesan and a buttermilk dressing.  We skipped the dressing and used a drizzle of a Whole30 compliant Ranch dressing, instead.  I really liked how the tart apples added flavor and crunch to the dish.

Eggs, Hash Browns, Bacon, Guacamole
Then there was the day when I hated everything, so Michael made me breakfast for dinner.

Deconstructed Salmon Sushi
I really, really loved this one.  I used this recipe, and added some wasabi paste. The brightly flavored orange sauce and hint of heat from the wasabi was delicious!  We'll be doing this again.

Egg Muffins
Finally, this is a part of how we kept ourselves fed for breakfast on busy morings.  These take just a few minutes to prepare, and are infinitely modifiable.  The are fluffy and heat up well in the microwave.  I think they'd freeze fine too, although we just kept them in the fridge as grab-and-go options.

Here's all it takes:

Egg Muffins

(makes 12)

6 eggs

3 T water or coconut milk

2 cups. cooked vegetables (tomatoes and spinach are good - we used leftover cooked Brussels sprouts this time), and meat as desired (I sprinkled in some chopped prosciutto)

Seasonings as desired

Preheat the oven to 350F.  Grease a 12 cup muffin pan with coconut oil.  

In a large bowl, beat the eggs along with the water or coconut milk, and add in vegetables, meats and any seasonings.

Scoop some egg with fillings into each prepared muffin cup, leaving about a half inch at the top.

Bake for 30 minutes, until golden brown on top.  Remove from oven, let cool a couple minutes and then carefully use a table knife to help pop them out of the muffin cups.

Enjoy!

(And yes - if you're not doing Whole30, these would be wonderful with the addition of some cheese!)

Whole30 Week 1 Menu & Progress

As of today, we've been on the Whole30 for a week, getting our support from an ever-increasing circle of local and long distance friends and acquaintences who are going through this together via Facebook!

This is our 3rd time out, but feels like the first  time it's really clicking for us, without seeking loopholes or resisting the boundaries.  I won't say it's been utterly drama-free, but it hasn't been as hard as it was the first couple of times.

There are a couple days in the first week described as "KATT" (that's "Kill All The Things") and unfortunately that was dead on accurate! But after a long talk, my husband and I remembered that we both actually want the other one around in our old age, and chose to take our aggressions and peevishness out on  decluttering projects over the weekend.

PRO TIP: Increased energy plus a bit of peevishness makes it extremely easy to get rid of junk that has started overtaking your space!

After some great, fast-paced effort, I notice that moods and environment are much more peaceful here on Monday. (Not a coincidence, I'm sure)

So, as of today, I'm starting to get actually excited by all this - I know there are more challenging days ahead, but I also know there are more glorious days ahead of increased energy and reduced pain!

Speaking of that - prior to starting, I experienced pretty intense GERD upset after nearly every meal, and my joints, as usually, were at least a little achy (I have RA, so I take this as a daily given).

The GERD has been almost 100% completely fine - two episodes, one involving a raw pear, and one a handful of raw cherry tomatoes.  I'm not entirely sure what's happening there, but I do plan to explore further later. But meanwhile, it is absolutely positive that at least one of the things I am not eating right now is the thing that's been making me miserable. (It's like a mystery novel - I can't wait to find out the guilty party!)  So no matter what - this W30 has already been a roaring success.

The joints aren't entirely fine, but neither are they as bad as you might guess, with arctic cold chills and 'bomb cyclones' out here causing mayhem.

In case I wasn't sure before - I am all in with this.

Since lunches need to be portable for work or eaten easily before leaving, we decided on these general guidelines for weekday meals other than dinner. We keep plenty of choices on hand and each one puts theirs together as desired, keeping more time consuming meals for the weekends:

Leftover salad with pork, hard cooked egg, half an avocado. Breakfast? Lunch? Yes! 

Breakfast - choose from the following:

Homemade Sausage Patties

Hard Cooked Eggs (or quickly cooked)

Root Veggie Hash

Fruit

Avocado

Roast Root Veggies, Turkey (leftovers in freezer), Mixed Olives, Cucumber Slices

Weekday Lunch - choose from the following:

Dinner Leftovers 

HomemadeSoup

Salad with Protein

Breakfast Items 

Plus Veggies/Fruits

Snacks, if needed:

Meal items not yet eaten

Fruit slices with Almond Butter

Veggies with Salsa or Guacamole

LaraBar

So this was our first week's menu - a couple of these were slight modifications of our original ideas, but for the most part, this was all according to plan.

A word on the Schweinhaxe on Day 1:  this was an out of the ordinary cut of pork for us that I'd had when we were visiting Germany this fall. The process creates a tender cut of pork with an outer later of delicious pork rinds!  Not a part of our regular rotation, but I'd ordered the cut of meat to have for Christmas and then we left to visit family, and I was determined to have it.  By switching the recipe's called-for beer to broth, it was Whole30 fine, so it became our Day 1 Kick Off Meal!

Day 1:

Schweinhaxe with Sauerkraut

Day 2:

Leftover Pork

Salad

Day 3:

Aidell's Chicken & Apple Sausage

Fried Eggs

 Roasted Root Veggies

Day 4:

Crispy Teriyaki Chicken

Coconut Cauliflower Rice

Asian-Style Cabbage Slaw (recipe to come)

Day 5:

Chocolate Chili

over a Baked Potato (with Ghee)

Day 6:

Roast Chicken

Balsamic Sauteed Brussels Sprouts with Snipped Dates & Walnuts*

Day 7:

Leftover Roast Chicken

Steamed Vegetables with Ghee

Tossed Salad

* My husband cooked this night - the Brussels Sprouts are a variation of this recipe, which is one of his favorites to cook.  He switched out dates for the cherries (which often have additional sweetener), left off the Parmesan and added some walnuts.  He also left off the Prosciutto, but by all means, use it! Check labels but it seems to be the one cured meat that's pretty easy  to find in a Whole30 compliant form!

One week down! Onward to Week 2!

Whole30 January!

January is the traditional month to try to make some positive changes, whether it is getting more organized, getting into some healthier food and fitness habits, or gaining more balance in one's work/play routines.

Or - for the optimistic among us, all of the above!

For the last several months, my husband and I have been noticing a real drift toward several poor eating habits that have had noticeable negative effects. We put off doing much about it, due to upcoming planned vacations and holidays - but when a friend of ours pulled together a big support group on Facebook to do a January Whole30 challenge together, we knew it was time, and made a commitment to join in.

For those who don't know about Whole30, it is a month long (actually more like a month and a half) eating 'reset' that is more or less a strict version of the Paleo lifestyle, where you eliminate several food categories for 30 days, and then systematically reintroduce them one at a time over about a two week span, while paying attention to how you feel physically, mentally and emotionally.
From there, you can decide which foods might need to be eliminated on a more longterm basis.

On the Whole30 we avoid all dairy, all grains (including gluten-free grains and those that are not biologically grains but act like them, such as quinoa and buckwheat), all added sugar in all its forms (so no honey or maple syrup for the duration, no any sugar substitutes, including stevia), no legumes including soy (which hides everywhere in commercial foods!), no alcohol (including in cooking), and no commercial foods containing MSG, carageenan or sulfites.

We also avoid junkfood substitutes - so no making up a faux pizza, or creating nongrain breadlike objects (that includes pancakes and waffles) or desserts, even if their ingredients are 'compliant' - this is as much a reset of habits and mental addictions as it is altering what we put in our bodies.

Finally - no breathlessly looking at the scale or taking measurements while on Whole30.  You can do that before you start and after you finish - but in the meantime, learning to listen to your body and noticing upswings in energy, alertness, clearer skin and healthier hair is much more important than your 'stats'.

(And from experience - if that scale moves slower for you than it does for your husband or support buddy, you will get mad. At him, at yourself, and next thing you know you're drowning your sorrows in a stale Reese Bar you accidentally didn't get rid of. Just don't do it!)

So what CAN we eat? Lots of well-sourced meats and seafood, eggs, veggies, a reasonable amount of fruit, seeds and nuts (other than peanuts, which are legumes), coconut & nut milks, bone broth and good fats (coconut oil, oil oil, ghee, bacon fat from uncured sugar-free bacon. Did I mention bacon?

There will be bacon. And eggs, And, inevitably, lots of cauliflower and sweet potatoes because they are just so versatile.

This isn't our first go-round.  In fact, it's our 3rd, although we did a lot of  things that were mistakes on our previous attempts.

The first time, I didn't make it more than 2 weeks!  I started having really obsessive thoughts about foods I couldn't have, including foods I didn't even particularly LIKE!  I felt like I was headed toward a food disorder level dysfunction, so I bailed.

What I know now is that cravings are a to-be-expected element that tells you something about your emotional relationship to food, and should be observed and worked through, not run from.

So the second time, I was ready for that, and had some coping methods worked out (basically, cravings pass rather quickly, so distraction until they pass will keep them at bay.

So will drinking more water - we often mistake simple thirst or for hunger. So water,water,water, and this is a great time to take up a hobby that keeps you engaged and not looking for something to nibble).

But I totally failed to work through the reintroduction phase in any methodical manner - so after all that effort, I still had no solid idea of which foods negatively impacted my health.  Also there was that whole peeking at the scale thing which made me feel like it wasn't working, when really, I had a mistaken idea of what work it was meant to do.

This past year, my digestion has developed all sorts of issues, leaving me feeling sick almost daily, so I really need to do the diagnostic part.

My mindset this time is different, too. While I'd like to lose weight (and expect to), I  am not setting that as my goal. Learning about what I can eat is what I'm after.  And I'm not letting myself worry about what I can't have - I'm focusing on what I can eat, and enjoying valuing myself enough to eat delicious, healthy foods.

Making things challenging this time is that my husband just started a new job after a year of working from home - so ALL our routines are in disarray. So this month is not only about a Whole30 reset, but a reset of ...well... everything!

To help make that easier, I plan to do a lot of food pre-preparation and batch cooking, so things are available for him to grab for a fast breakfst and to take for lunch and for me to not have to feel like I'm doing nothing but cooking constantly.

For this first week, there are some things I'm batch cook, so that we can get ahead of the game and keep things simple enough to not drive ourselves crazy:

Hardboiled Eggs - I'm keeping a dozen in the fridge at ready for a quick hit of protein as needed, and for a grab-and-go meal item when there is no time to cook.

Roasted Veggies 
Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes Radishes, Brussels Sprouts, Onions, Mushrooms, Parsnips, Carrots all work well here. Use whatever you like! I love a good variety all melded together.

Just to bite sized pieces, tossed with olive oil and season with coarse salt (and herbs as desired).

Roast in the over at 400F for about a half hour.

These can be stored in the fridge (or up in the freezer), and reheated in a saute pan as a hash with eggs and meat, or a fast side with any meal.  Crumble some sausage or other protein in there and it's a one-pan meal.

They're also good under a meaty tomato-based sauce instead of pasta.  I love me some roasted veggies!

Kitchen Sink Egg Muffins - this great recipe is super versatile, so you can make them up differently each time if you want.  I love 'master recipes' - they keep things easy but not boring.  Here again, make them in bulk, stow in the fridge to heat and eat as you need them.

Simple Slow-Cooker Soup - another 'master recipe'. We do this one a lot already.  You can certainly do this with fresh produce rather than frozen - but the idea here is to make it SIMPLE and save your energy for all the other cooking you'll be doing. (That bacon isn't going to cook itself, y'know!)

Here's how we do it:

Ingredients
2 bags of frozen veggies - as you like, but avoid mixes with legumes (lima, edamame, etc) or corn, and definitely none that are preseasoned or buttered - just good plain veggies is all you should see in the ingredients list. I like to make one of them some sort of greens, and one with something in chunks.

2-3 cups protein - we do either Whole30 compliant sausage, browned ground meat, or leftover meat or chicken

1 large can roasted tomatoes (check labels - no added sugar)

1 can pureed pumpkin or butternut squash (label should list only the vegetable - nothing else)

4 or more cups of broth. Preferably homemade bone broth. If there is a storebought broth that is Whole30 compliant, I've never found it.

If needed, enough water to cover.

Seasonings as desired.

Dump it all in to the slow cooker and simmer and forget it - this makes a great lunch or dinner, and is easy to scoop into a wide mouth thermos or microwavable container to take to work.

This week, our soup has some pumpkin puree, turkey bone broth and tomatoes, shredded turkey that was put in the freezer after the holidays, some frozen collard greens and a bag of diced frozen okra, and should keep us in lunches for most of the week.

Homemade Breakfast Sausage Patties - We made these in huge batches last time. They're delicious and quick to heat and eat, add to other things. Very tasty, and much better than storebought breakfast sausage patties full of who-even-knows what.

Cashew "Hummus" - this is a recipe from the America's Test Kitchen's "Paleo Perfected", and I'm looking forward to trying it later this week.

While I'm at it, I plan to make some Cashew Milk, just because I'm curious about it.

Finally, I'm going to put up some Curried Cauliflower Pickles because wowsa! Do these look good! As snacks or a side, good fermented veggies are delicious, and can help with messed up guts like mine.

Next week, I'll let your know how this week went and share our first week's full meal plan.

Until then, wish us luck and Happy New Year!