Lately, I have been craving sweets something fierce! I wanted apple cider chocolate glazed donuts SO badly on Sunday. I wouldn't normally have those, so I'm not quite sure where that craving came from. I had a dream Sunday night that I ate a turtle. Not like a swims-in-a-pond-lives-in-a-shell kind of turtle, a chocolate pecan caramel cluster kind of turtle. In my dream, someone told me the turtle was Whole30 compliant. And I ate it. And I enjoyed every bite. As soon as it was gone, it occured to me that there is absolutely NO WAY to make caramel and chocolate without sugar! Which meant that there was NO WAY that candy was compliant. Whoever it was that told me it was compliant was laughing at me. I was MAD. And disappointed in myself. It was so real that it took me a few minutes to realize it hadn't really happened when I woke up. Phew! I'm so glad that was a dream!
Yesterday I had a killer headache all day. It was just like the headache I had the first couple of days with no sugar. It almost makes me wonder if I was "dosed" with some sugar on Sunday. But, I've run through everything I ate on Sunday and couldn't come up with anything. So, I think I must have been dehydrated.
Positive changes I have noticed in the last week: my joints don't hurt, I don't get tired as early, and I can run faster. I ran 6.5 miles on Saturday (by myself because my normal running partners were both out of town) at an average pace of 12 minutes per mile! (Did I mention I was by myself? I'm pretty proud of that becaues I only ever do long runs with friends!) I had an active afternoon and was able to stay up until midnight without feeling exhausted! Normally I turn into a pumpkin at 11:00. And, on Sunday I wasn't the slightest bit sore. I ran again today (only 3.5 miles) and my average pace was 11:15 per mile! And again, I'm not sore!
As this 30 day challenge comes to an end, I need to put some serious thought into how I will change my life going forward. What foods will I allow back in and what will I keep out?
1. Based on the decreased inflamation in my joints, I think I've decided to cut out legumes. I never ate a ton of beans to begin with. But, I love peanut butter. I think I can replace it with almond butter without missing it too much. I'll probably still have the occasional PB&J, but no more pre-run peanut butter toast fueling.
2. I will most definitely continue to read food labels. Yesterday, I ran to the grocery store to pick up some salad things for lunch. I needed a protein for my salad, so I decided on lunch meat turkey. I picked up the Applegate Farms roasted turkey because I know that brand has a good reputation. Read the label and, perfect! Turkey and water. I decided to check out the label on the Sara Lee turkey and I swear, the ingredients list was a paragraph, and hardly anything in the list sounded like food! What's the purpose? Food should be food. End of story. (unless it's candy. Then it should be sugar and a conscious decision is made to eat sugar. And sometimes, that will be ok.)
3. Protein! The other day I made zucchini noodles with red sauce. I also made meatballs, but they were disgusting. I could not make myself eat them. So, I ate the "zoodles" and sauce. The whole time I was eating, I thought, "There's no protein in this! I'm going to be hungry in an hour!" Funny thing is that three weeks ago, I would have gladly eaten noodles and sauce with a side of garlic bread (who are we kidding, 3 sides of garlic bread. That stuff is good!) without even considering meatballs. I have definitely realized how filling protein is.
Stay tuned for more "life change" decisions!
Recipes to try this week:
Stuffed Pepper Cassarole: http://www.plaidandpaleo.com/2014/05/stuffed-pepper-casserole.html
Tonight, Jerry made awesome chili. Have I mentioned how much I love that man? Because I do. A whole lot.
When I started this post I thought I had nothing to say today. That's silly. I ALWAYS have something to say, apparently. :-)
Hang in there, you're almost done! Some days it's easy to make the right choice, other days you want to say "screw it" but like you said, you know you'll pay for it in other ways. I am so glad you are reading labels. That's almost always the first thing I teach my clients. It's important to eat real food, not fake supermarket processed pretend food. Love you girl.
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