Pre-Challenge – 10 Days Ago….
Getting ready to start an extremely strict diet creates it’s own challenges:
- Making a mental list of the foods I’ll miss the most
- Enjoying my lunch of sushi and dinner of tacos
- Shopping and filling house with healthy foods
- Removing/giving away/drinking the things I don’t want in my house during the challenge
- Meal planning…
The majority of the weekend was spent prepping food for the week. A new AIP cookbook helped me find new meals and I love the authors for including a “batch cooking for the busy person” section. Why did they even bother with the rest of the book, who isn’t busy? In addition, everything I made needed to be frozen. With a six-day trip coming up, there needs to be food ready when I returned.
One of the recipes was a “healthy beef soup” that I purposely made on Saturday. It called for one cup of wine. For a diet that excludes alcohol. Confusing, but since I made it a day early, I finished the rest of the bottle. I probably won’t be able to make it again until I’m drinking again, because really. Having an open bottle of wine in my house at this point sounds like a terrible idea.
Almost daily I find myself wishing I enjoyed cooking. Friends find it relaxing, they love the magical combination of ingredients to make amazing meals.
I don’t care. Audiobooks keep my company while I cook and then throw the end product into individual containers for the week or the freezer.
8-6 Days Ago….
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I ate the food I had prepared without much thought. I’m not normally a soup person, but the “healthy beef soup” I made turned out pretty well. One of the other meals had an interesting flavor but I’m not sure I’d make it again. The “mojo chicken” was my favorite as it took very little time (crock pot) and had lime and cilantro flavors – as close to real Mexican food as I’ll get now.
My food prep also included snacks for me while traveling. Breakfast is hard enough when I am cooking, planning, and have control of everything. Traveling makes breakfast impossible, so I pack food. For traveling emergencies I made beef jerky and a toasted coconut snack. Not glamorous but it saves me from getting crazy and hungry.
Six Days Ago…
Saw a friend holding a glass of whisky and nearly mugged him for it. It was a Gollum moment as I wanted to steal it and hover over “my precious.”
But I didn’t.
5-4 Days Ago…
On Thursday and Friday everyone was getting drinks, Mexican food, and everything else I can’t eat. I wanted it all, but settled on a plain piece of salmon and sparkling water. I forgot how much I need to justify not drinking to those who are. At least the food part wasn’t terrible, everyone who knows me is used to my quirky, limited diet, so that part wasn’t a huge deal.
On Friday evening, I met up with my sister and self-proclaimed cousin who are doing the Whole30, which is close enough to what I’m doing that eating became easy. A trip to Mission Heirloom cafe in Berkeley allowed me to order something directly off the menu without changing anything, for the first time in forever. I want to marry the restaurant. I got a lamb shepherd’s pie. While I’m not a huge lamb person, the flavor combinations were great, and did I mentioned I was able to Order Directly From the Menu?
Sometimes it’s the little things that make a difference.
The one concession I made was on caffeine. Normally I don’t drink it, but with my travel and work schedule there were two nights in a row of 4-5 hours of sleep. The second day I caved and had caffeine, and it was amazing. I never wanted to go back. I mean, I will, but I don’t want to.
Looking Forward…
As I start getting further into Week Two, I need to start my planning now. There will be more shopping, cooking, and prepping in the short time I’m home, then I’m off to a girl’s trip to Austin. If I can, some work, sleep and working-out would also be great additions to my schedule while I’m home.
Trying to figure out how to adapt, move forward, and be happy with the decisions I make each day are what makes it a challenge. If it was easy, I would have done it a long time ago.