Whole30 Update

We are 10 days into the Whole30 - what a week! I don't think I've ever cooked, prepped, and washed so many dishes in my life. Monday I cooked and washed dishes all day getting ready for the week. The first day of eating was pretty rough, I think we constantly ate the whole day and ended up taking a 3 hour nap in the afternoon.

The rest of the week was pretty interesting and busy. Not one bite of restaurant food for the me or Eric. This is probably the first time in our 12 years of marriage that we haven't eaten at a restaurant in a whole week. On Tuesday and Wednesday, I was on the road for work in Conway and Arkadelphia. I actually turned down homemade fried catfish and peach cobbler, two of my favorites.

I learned a few things this week. I was really surprised to learn that bacon and sausage both contain sugar. I was unable to cook 2 of my recipes because I came home without bacon and sausage. Reading labels is exhausting! I've always paid attention to the fat, calories, etc but never really looked at the ingredients. There are so many chemicals and unpronounceable words on food labels. It's really scary and gross. Things you think are "healthy" have added preservatives and other weird stuff. I really don't understand why raisins need a preservative! I couldn't find a jar of sun-dried tomatoes without sulfites (to preserve color?!). I've decided that even after the Whole30 is over, I'm going to start paying more attention to what goes into our food.

I still don't have the abundant energy that is supposed to come with eating this way, I'm actually pretty tired still. That could also be a side effect of working 9 hours a day, cooking and washing dishes for 2 hours, and then passing out at 11:00.  Our days really are work, some activity with Alec, cook dinner, get Alec to bed, and wash dishes and prep for lunch the next day. That's really the worst part of this whole thing - I really don't feel deprived of any food, it's really different than I thought it would be.

Here's some pictures of some meals I've cooked during the last 10 days. I've had some successes and failures but overall everything we made and ate was pretty good. The first week I went by a lot of recipes and that got overwhelming. So, this week I took it easier and we've had a lot of grilled chicken, shrimp, roasted veggies, and fresh tomatoes. Summer vegetables make this a lot easier.