Whole 30

So, right after I decided to try and go gluten free, a friend of mine mentioned a program called the Whole 30 to me.  A few days later, another friend was talking about how great she feels since she's gone Paleo and also told me about the Whole 30.  She was about to start her third round of the Whole 30.  After some googeling, I decided to join her.  I also suckered two coworkers into joining me. :)  Bonus, we set up a lunch rotation so we only have to make lunch two days a week and just bring enough for the three of us.  So three or four days a week you have no lunch packing to do!  Wa hoo.

Anyway... what is the Whole 30 you ask??  The Whole 30 is basically Paleo but on steroids.  It's so intense.  Here is their website:
whole30.com

First off... whole 30 is not intended to be a life long diet change.  The purpose is to strip all things from your diet that could potentially have a negative impact, give your body 30 days to heal, and then as you reintroduce the foods, really pay attention to how they affect you.

Before you think I'm crazy and I tell you all the things involved, I have "seasonal allergies" ALL. YEAR. LONG.  It's super duper annoying.  I blow my nose every day, all year, multiple times.  It wasn't until people around me (nephew, student at school) started getting diagnosed with gluten intolerance that I started to wonder if something in my diet was causing my allergies.  So this is why I'm doing this.  30 days for my body to reset and heal and then hopefully figure out what's making me stuffy.

Ok so here it goes.... What exactly do you eat on the Whole 30?
Eat:
Protein- Chicken, beef, pork, seafood
Fruits- all, but limit dried fruit
Vegetables- all of them, all the time
Fat- Healthy fats like olive oil, almonds, cashews, avocado, coconut oil

From their website, "Eat meat, seafood, eggs, tons of vegetables, some fruit, and plenty of good fats from fruits, oils, nuts and seeds. Eat foods with very few ingredients, all pronounceable ingredients, or better yet, no ingredients listed at all because they’re totally natural and unprocessed. - See more at: http://whole30.com/step-two/#sthash.txtOMZOv.dpuf

What you can't eat:
From their website:

Do not consume added sugar of any kind, real or artificial. No maple syrup, honey, agave nectar, coconut sugar, Splenda, Equal, Nutrasweet, xylitol, stevia, etc. Read your labels, because companies sneak sugar into products in ways you might not recognize.

Do not consume alcohol in any form, not even for cooking. (And it should go without saying, but no tobacco products of any sort, either.)

Do not eat grains. This includes (but is not limited to) wheat, rye, barley, oats, corn, rice, millet, bulgur, sorghum, amaranth, buckwheat, sprouted grains and all of those gluten-free pseudo-grains like quinoa. This also includes all the ways we add wheat, corn and rice into our foods in the form of bran, germ, starch and so on. Again, read your labels.

Do not eat legumes. This includes beans of all kinds (black, red, pinto, navy, white, kidney, lima, fava, etc.), peas, chickpeas, lentils, and peanuts. No peanut butter, either. This also includes all forms of soy – soy sauce, miso, tofu, tempeh, edamame, and all the ways we sneak soy into foods (like lecithin).

Do not eat dairy. This includes cow, goat or sheep’s milk products such as cream, cheese (hard or soft), kefir, yogurt (even Greek), and sour cream… with the exception of clarified butter or ghee. (See below for details.)

Do not eat white potatoes. This is somewhat arbitrary, but if we are trying to change your habits (chips and fries) and improve the hormonal impact of your food choices, it’s best to leave white, red, purple, Yukon gold, and fingerling potatoes off your plate.

Do not consume carrageenan, MSG or sulfites. If these ingredients appear in any form on the label of your processed food or beverage, it’s out for the Whole30.

No Paleo-ifying baked goods, desserts, or junk foods. Trying to shove your old, unhealthy diet into a shiny new Whole30 mold will ruin your program faster than you can say “Paleo Pop-Tarts.” This means no desserts or junk food made with “approved” ingredients—no banana-egg pancakes, almond-flour muffins, flourless brownies, or coconut milk ice cream. Don’t try to replicate junk food during your 30 days! That misses the point of the Whole30 entirely.

- See more at: http://whole30.com/step-two/#sthash.txtOMZOv.dpuf

Doing this involves lots of meal planning, lots of grocery shopping at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods and lots of will power. Yesterday I went to Trader Joes and got a few things (kale, clarified butter, Lara bars).  I was pretty disappointed by my shopping experience.  The prices were good, but the selection is so much smaller than Whole Foods.  After school today, I went to Whole Foods and finished shopping: almond milk mixed with coconut cream, almond flour, sausages, lots of veggies, salad dressing, marinades, more Lara bars, coconut milk).

Today was Day One for me.  I woke up and realized that since Trader Joe's didn't have any coconut milk or almond milk without added preservatives, I had nothing to put in my coffee.  I also am not using stevia for 30 days.  Just perfect.  I decided to have green tea instead because I knew I could drink that without milk or sugar.  I also made scrambled eggs instead of my normal toast with peanut butter. 

 

 

I used Power to the Greens from Trader Joe's in my eggs, with garlic powder and pepper.  I cooked them and put them in Tupperware to eat at school.  In the car on the drive to work, I had an apple and green tea.

By 9 am I wanted to break things.  Not having coffee was not a good idea.  On the Whole 30 website they have a timeline for how you might feel each day.  On day one you are supposed to feel great and empowered.  I did not.  I felt cranky, tired and pissed off.  I took a bite of a Lara bar that had cherries and dates and that gave me a little bit of a sugar boost.  I also drank A TON of water (causing me to have to get my class covered twice before lunch so I could use the bathroom).  By lunch time I was starting to feel a little better.

Today was Emma's day to bring lunch.  She made tuna salad with avocado, peppers, and onions.  We ate it with celery and carrot sticks.  While I definitely was aware that it would be even more amazing on a piece of bread, lunch was really yummy.

After school, I went to Whole Foods to finish all the shopping I couldn't do yesterday.  Thank goodness, I found almond milk mixed with coconut cream.  And, the only ingredients were almonds, coconut and water.  I am excited to try it tomorrow morning with coffee. 

 

 

 

 

When I finally got home around 6:30 pm, I heated up a chicken kabob and grilled zucchini (with olive oil and salt/ pepper)  that was leftover from a cookout on Monday.  I went through all my cabinets and made one cabinet Whole 30 ingredients only.  I also did the same thing with shelves in the fridge.  Then I washed and cut strawberries, grapes, celery, lettuce and peppers.  I hard boiled some eggs too.  Now there are plenty of things to grab when I want a snack.  I really wanted a glass of wine while I was doing all of this, but I survived on water.

 

Side note- Tom thinks its going to be hardest for me to give up alcohol for 30 days (which might be true because there is a bachlorette party in there...).  I think dairy is going to be the hardest.  I really like cheese.  Sugar is tough too.  And lets be honest, I just got three boxes of girl scout cookies that will be hidden for 30 days until I can devour them again.

Giving gluten free a shot

Oh look, my semester of grad school is over and I have time to blog again.  YAY!!!

I've been thinking about going gluten free for about 4 months or so.  Never actually seriously thought about it, but every now and then following a gluten free or paleo diet comes up and I think about it.  Tom and I have talked about it a few times in passing but never seriously.

Three weeks ago I went to the doctors bc my blood pressure was OUT. OF. CONTROL.  I'm talking 150/100.  Yikes.  So now I'm on medication.  Let me start by saying that I am not someone who is anti medication.  If the medicine is going to make me better, then I am all for it.  However, I tracked my sodium intake for the first week I was on the medicine just to see how close to the recommended 2000 mg a day I was.  I averaged between 2000 and 3000 mg a day.  On a day where even one meal came from a restaurant.... we're talking 4000 or 5000 mg!!!!  It is insane the sodium in a flour tortilla from Chipotle.  Anyway, I'm getting side tracked.  I was noticing while I tracked sodium that bread seems to be the biggest culprit in my diet for sodium.  I normally have a slice of bread with peanut butter for breakfast and then a sandwich for lunch.  Even with the homemade bread I eat, there is 300 mg in one slice.  My bread consumption alone is 900 mg of sodium a day!!!!  That's insane.  So this is when I started to think more seriously about being gluten free.

I have a co worker who is allergic to gluten so I've been talking to her about it too.  We had a staff breakfast two weeks ago so I decided to try gluten free baking and made muffins:

http://www.spartan.com/food-of-the-day/recipe-of-the-day/lemon-strawberry-muffins/

 

 

The batter was so stiff and not at all like normal muffin batter.  I figured that it was just a product of all the weird ingredients so I baked them anyway.

 

They didn't rise!  Like at all.  They were these hard, tasteless muffins. :(  I still had half the batter left so I emailed the author of the recipe and asked for help.  She suggested adding more coconut milk or egg.  I added both.  I also decided to go to the store and get more vanilla extract.

 

While I was at the store... I found out that Aldi now carries gluten free products!!!  I got all of this (granola, crackers, mac and cheese, pizza crust mix, baking mix, chocolate chip cookie mix) for only $22.  Take that whole foods!

 

 

Anyway... the second round of muffins turned out better.  The taste was still a little weird but I guess that's to be expected when you bake with quinoa flour.

 

In the last few days I've been experimenting with other gluten free stuff.  I'm sticking to mixes from a box for now so that I don't have as much to try and get right.

 

 Sunday morning I used this baking mix to make waffles. They were delicious!

     

Sunday night I made gluten free pizza dough (again, from a box).  I spread the edges of the pizza a little too thin and it burned but other than that it was yummy.  The sodium is still really high in this mix so I need to find a better option, but for now it was great.

Tonight for dinner I had gluten free brown rice pasta with sauce, peppers, onions, spinach and meatballs.  The meatballs are not gluten free because I have frozen meatballs to use up.  But the brown rice pasta was good!