Whole 30- Day 15

I made it 15 days, the half way mark, and I haven't cheated or killed anyone!  Today we had a "snow" day.  There was definitely no snow on the ground but later this afternoon we had cold temperatures and freezing rain.  Nonetheless, I was very happy about a day off.  This was originally supposed to be a day off and we were making up a previous snow day.  The one issue that I had with it, was that I was home all day.  This is where I am noticing my unhealthy relationship with food.  I am a very structured person.  In all aspects of my life.  This includes my eating habits.  When I am adhering to my schedule (ie. breakfast at home, lunch and snacks at school, dinner at home) I can do anything! It is easy to not break a "diet" when you only pack certain foods to eat away from home.  My issue is when I am home all day and I have limitless options of food.  I am not as structured in anything when I am at home and it carries over to my eating habits!  I think that is why the weekends have been proving to be much more difficult for me.  I feel like admitting it and recognizing it is the first step to fixing the problem.  Today while I was at home, I tried to adhere to somewhat of a schedule.  Since I worked from home, it helped some because I had a definite breakfast time, work time, lunch time, work time, and then dinner time.

For breakfast, I scrambled 3 eggs and added about 1-2 cups of my baked veggies for dinner.  I scrambled the eggs first and then put the veggies in the pan and mixed them up and waited until they were warmed.  It was a nice break from my usual, hurried meals.  It was also very very filling.

I will say that I am gaining some confidence that I am cleaning and restoring my gut from the inside out.  I also love the fact that I am feeding my body with real, whole, nutritional food.  I am not confusing my body with chemical "food like" food.  While this process has been a mental shift for me, and definitely not easy, I think my body is breathing a huge sigh of relief.  My body now recognizes my food when I put it in my mouth.  It's food that God designed to satisfy and nourish my body.  It is a beautiful working relationship.  My body sees the food, digests it, takes the nutrients it needs, and breaks it down in its entirety.  When I put other "food like" products in my body, it is foreign to it.  It doesn't recognize it because they are chemicals created to mimic the look and taste of food.  But God created a masterpiece in our bodies and our bodies are too smart.  It doesn't see it as food but it also doesn't know what to do with it.  So it breaks it down the best it can and then stores what it can't break down as fat.  So all of these "health foods" with low fat and low calories are just chemicals with added sugar and preservatives that our bodies don't know what to do with, are in fact just making us fatter!  

Rant over...my lunch was a little bit of a hodge podge.  I had a boiled egg, some olives, pumpkin seeds, and leftover veggies.

I picked up some more LaCroix water today.  I have gone through my big pack that I got at Costco.  Publix had two new flavors and tall cans that I wanted to give a try. Um....can we say delicious!?!?  I tried the Cherry-lime flavor and loved it.  No one in my family likes these waters because they are definitely not sweet.  But Eli even loved this flavor.  I also picked up an apple cranberry flavor and I am anxious to try it too!

On the menu for tonight's dinner, I had a whole chicken on the menu.  I came across a new recipe for chicken fingers that I really wanted to try.  So I decided against the whole chicken and did chicken tenders instead.  I made some mashed potatoes to go along with them.  While whipping the potatoes I added some coconut milk and a little bit of Clarified Butter.  Then I steamed some broccoli and garnished with salt, pepper, and granulated garlic.  Oh man!  I thought that the kids would stomach the broccoli and potatoes.  But they devoured them and once again there were no leftovers!  There are many leftovers, however, of the chicken.  The coconut flour was just too much on the outside of the chicken.  We weren't a fan of the dry texture.  I may try it again one night and lightly brown the sides in olive oil and then continue baking in the oven to see if that helps some.  Otherwise it was a liked meal and everyone cleaned their plate.

I am anxious for my downward slope beginning tomorrow.  I am also supposed to weigh in for my biggest loser competition.  I am deciding whether to look at the scale or not when she weighs me in! I guess it may just be a game time decision!

15 days down, 15 to go!