Halfway done!

Can you believe we're already halfway through the first month of the new year?  It's insane how time keeps on speeding up the older I get.  Which, by the way, with be exactly 25 years old in about 38 hours and 35 minutes.  Yes, I was born exactly at midnight.  Ask my dad, he was watching the clock!  I'd say ask my mom but she was otherwise occupied.

So we're halfway through the month, and I'm also halfway through my first Whole30 bout.  I didn't make a big deal about it when I started, as usually when I have some kind of food or life revelation and get all gung-ho about a particular method enough to blog about how I'm going to omgztotallyRAWKit, I end up failing within the first week or so.  But...I haven't failed this one yet.  And I don't foresee a scenario where I'd have to completely abandon it, and after this much effort, even the iffy, possible scenarios (forgot to pack lunch for work, don't have the cash to buy it) don't outweigh the desire to finish this goal.

hope i'm not jinxing myself with this picture!

The Whole9 style of eating isn't all that far off from what I was doing before - no grains, no added sugars, no processed foods - with the addition of no alcohol and no dairy, which is the toughest area for me, as I am normally a milk fiend.  The biggest difference is that it allows absolutely no room for cheating - no beer or wine with dinner once in a while, no half-ounce of chocolate chips after a 10-hour shift, not even a drop of cream in coffee (I use coconut cream, so I don't miss that TOO much).  I never really realised how much I do take those little tiny sidesteps off the path of real, clean eating.  I firmly believe that it's okay to enjoy sweets and treats and things you wouldn't have every day...as long as you don't have them every day.  And I wasn't having them every day, but it was a lot closer than I'd like.

In the interest of full disclosure, I'll tell you that I did "cheat" once, just a few days after I started the whole deal.  The Man's holiday box of goodies finally arrived in the mail, containing all kinds of sugary deliciousness that tempted me sorely, all of which he spent a long time picking exactly which gift would be perfect for each member of the family, or which would mean something extra to me.  One of the things included was a little block of eggnog fudge from White House Chocolates in Middlefield, Ohio (if you're ever in that area, you MUST stop there. period).  They make it once a year and, it being super-good quality without many preservatives, it would have gone all stale by the time February rolled around.  So I cut a little chunk off the corner, just enough to taste, and then called up The Man to tell him merci muy mucho and yo te iubesc, and then put the rest of the goodies out of sight and mind until Feb.

But anyways.  It's been really interesting, at the very least, to try out a deal that's both very stringent and at the same time feels can feel ridiculously decadent, based on what you can have.  I've also realised that left to my own devices I will eat any coconut product - dried flakes, coconut cream, coconut butter, coconut oil, any of the last three dipped in the first... - out of the jar with a spoon.  Which is not always a good thing.  But for the most part, my meals look something like this:

This was breakfast yesterday.  Roasted brussel sprouts, a couple orange and grapefruit pieces, macadamia nuts, a palm-sized hunk of cow and coffee with coconut cream.  Note that I don't have coffee with every meal, although I wish I could.  But yeah - there's so much awesomeness here that I barely miss things like sugar and dairy (although I'm daydreaming about the raw milk I'm going to get when I finish this up...but that's another story :D)

Lurkers: did you change your diet (by which I mean all the stuff that you eat, not an action you undergo) for the new year?  What's your take on food/diet "challenges?"  Are you a coconut fiend as much as I am?  What do you think I should eat on February 1st?

-Nelly