I am just finishing up a long post about days two and three (which I’ll post later today), but being the easily distracted gal that I am, a friend’s email prompted me to write a quick post about meals and planning.
A few people have asked me if I plan to post what I’m eating during the Whole 30, especially since many of my close friends don’t know what classifies as Paleo or Whole 30-approved. As one of my bffs wrote in an email: I just think bok choy and water.
I can assure you I am eating a lot more than bok choy and water, but posting everything I eat and photos for people to follow along takes commitment and until blogging in general becomes a habit, you’ll have to settle for smatterings of my daily menu.
Also, I’m a creature of habit. While I like to go big(ger) at dinner and mix in proteins with different veggies, fats, and spices, I can pretty much eat the same thing for breakfast and dinner left-overs for the next day’s lunch. For breakfast this week I’m enjoying ground pork and diced apples sautéed with dashes of cinnamon and nutmeg, and eggs (I switch between poached, scrambled and hard boiled). I made a big pan of the pork on Monday and portioned it out for easy breakfast on the go for the rest of the week and I just cook my eggs of choice in the morning and toss it all together. A few dashes of Sriracha and I’m set until lunch.
Eating healthy with the proper mix of foods takes a lot of planning and preparation and isn’t as simple for me anymore as grabbing a sandwich and calculating its worth in Weight Watcher’s points. Since I started Paleo nearly two years ago, meal planning has been one of the biggest keys to staying on plan. I do my meal planning and grocery shopping on Sunday mornings and spend a couple hours that afternoon prepping for the week. Making one-pot breakfast or lunch recipes, chopping up veggies and fruits, portioning out proteins and snacks, even writing a list of left-overs that I plan to take for lunches during the week helps make for a much easier week and minimizes the temptation to stray.
The planning and prepping is hard work and takes up a lot of time that I could be spending doing something else…like tormenting my husband with chick flicks or catching up on the crap programming that fills my DVR…but I know that I won’t have any success unless I’m willing to put in the time and work. I don’t have to tell anyone that weight loss and health improvements don’t just happen. The easy part for me is the exercise and workout portion; I’ve got that dialed. What I need to focus on is my diet and how to properly fuel my body from morning until night to ensure I not only have the nutrients to sustain my activity levels, but also to guarantee that I can overcome the cravings that naturally occur – especially in the early stages of a dietary overhaul.
It’s not easy to think ahead to a weekend with friends, which normally would be filled with big meals and lots of wine, and know that what I will be eating is far more limiting than what they will be enjoying. It’s tough to think about my post-workout Saturday mani/pedi without adding in a hazelnut latte (ok…ok…and the scone). It’s also a challenge to think that my normally restful Sunday will be trumped by the planning, shopping and prep portion of the Whole 30.
But I have to remind myself that it’s worth it. It’s worth looking in the mirror and seeing a slimmer face. It’s worth not having headaches or feeling unusually tired in the afternoons (and wanting a Diet Coke pick-me-up). It’s worth it to sleep well at night, without waking up at 2am to turn on the television, knowing that it will make it that much harder to get up for CrossFit at 5:30 a.m. It's worth it to know that once I get to CrossFit, my body will be able to perform to its optimum and I will be PR-ing the SHIT out of (or at least surviving) whatever wicked WOD the trainers have planned on that given day.
Oddly enough, today will be a challenge. Our CrossFit box is holding a blood drive in honor of one of our member's mother who passed away suddenly in March. My box is so cool (he he he...she said box) that everyone gets involved and we can turn anything into a reason to celebrate together. As such, we'll all be donating blood this afternoon and then hanging out for a bit as a group at another member's (my xfit bff, Beth) husband's restaurant. I won't be able to have my normal three glasses of wine...or the croutons in my salad...or the AMAZING dressing that comes on the salad, but I will have the support of amazing people who are either Paleo (ish) or have done the Whole 30 before. The same people that celebrate every pull-up with me and cheer on my labored rope climbs and push me daily to do just ONE MORE REP. The same amazing people that I also happily cheer on and share in the excitement of their successes. So, this afternoon’s challenge can suck it because I’ve got swagger, attitude and some badass people on my side.
YAY for your xfit support team!
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