Whole 30 – Day 7

I’m finally in the zone where I feel good, my tummy is flat, bloating is gone, and my appetite has lowered to the point where hunger comes on so slowly that I can get to 4pm and suddenly realise I’ve forgotten to eat lunch. Not that I don’t want to eat, I love food, and I usually eat three meals a day and a handful of nuts when required, but it happened today that I went 7 hours after my morning omelette before I realised I was hungry. That, if nothing else, demonstrates that I am well and truly off the bloodsugar rollercoaster. Thank you Jaysus.

It’s nice to be at this point because the beginning of the week was slow and sluggish and I was tired and headachy. I guess that’s proof that my diet needed cleaning up; my body was definitely in withdrawal for something and I reckon it was sugar (honey, bananas etc, not cane sugar).

I suspect I’ve lost a pound or two but I haven’t weighed myself because a) you’re not supposed to focus on weight while on Whole 30 and b) I’m not particularly interested in the scales anymore. I just want to feel good and eat well. Whatever happens alongside that is fine with me.

Whole 30 – Day 3

I started Whole 30 on Saturday. And what did I do on Friday? I ate pizza and went out on the piss. Standard issue. No, I don’t feel bad about it and yes, it was worth it.

So, in case you were wondering what Whole 30 consists of, you’d best read about it here. If you’re more partial to cliff notes, here’s my basic summary: you eat whole, unprocessed foods, mostly in their natural state. You avoid inflammatory foods and anything with sugar in it. It looks a bit like this:

EAT:
– Meat, fish and shellfish
– Vegetables (including potatoes)
– Eggs
– Nuts and seeds
– Fruit

DON’T EAT:
– Added sugar or processed foods
– Grains
– Legumes, soy products, peanuts
– Dairy
– Alcohol

There is also an emphasis on getting enough sleep. This is something I’m really bad at as I’m a total night owl and unfortunately my 2 year old daughter is not. She wakes up around 7am on a good day and because I rarely go to bed before midnight it can be slightly torturous upon waking. I’m going to aim for 11pm this week and see if it makes a difference to my energy levels.

I’m also trying to up my water intake. For about two years now I’ve drunk lemon juice and warm water first thing in the morning. It’s a good start, but once I hit the (black) coffee at 11am I tend to let myself get dehydrated because I’m running around after the pooch and toddler. That’s a fairly shite excuse, though, so I’m hoping I can improve on this in the next month.

So that’s it. My meals have been pretty standard so far. I slow-cooked a nice pork shoulder on Saturday, so I’ve had that a couple of times in lettuce roll-ups. I’ve got a load of courgettes in the fridge so I’ll probably eat a lot of zoodles for the next few days.

Garlicky meatballs with zoodles in a homemade marinara sauce.

That’s about it. If I eat anything particularly sexy in the next few days I’ll be sure to photograph it and stick it on Instagram. Make sure to follow me on there if you’re not already.

Peace out, paleo on. Snort.

Bone broth

Bone broth. Sounds gross, doesn’t it? It’s one of those weird paleo things that I read about a year ago, but instead of exploring it I just made a face and got back to my ironing. That’s a joke, I never iron.

Anyway, since I’m at the height of my paleo smugness at the moment, I thought I’d save up some chicken carcasses and make a batch. I’m not going to drone on about the health benefits here. There are plenty of good articles that will tell you why it’s so awesome, and I’d only be plagarising anyway, so I’ll just say this: it’s really, really good for you. Need a little more? Ok, off the top of my head, it’s supposed to heal your gut, it’s great for joints, and it contains all sorts of minerals and amino acids that you wouldn’t otherwise get.

So I made some. I dutifully shoved the remnants of several chicken dinners into the slow cooker, covered them in water, plus a random selection of dying veg and herbs, and then left it for 20 hours. I’m not sure I’ll get the smell of not-quite chicken soup out of my soft furnishings ever again, but so be it.

Anyway, I gave a bowl of it to my hungover husband today and he loved it. I tried some myself and was surprised by its rich, almost syrupy texture. But it’s still a broth, so it’s light. It kind of tastes like stock (as you’d expect), but it has a much meatier flavour. I’ll be honest, I wouldn’t be rushing to down pints of it. But then again, this is a health thing, not a taste thing, so I’ve decided I’ll use it as a base for some really awesome chicken soup. If it comes out well I’ll probably blog about it. If not, well, go on about your business, nothing to see here.