Day ??

So I lost track of days, in much the same way I lost track of the detox.  But it's been a week since my last post, so where am I?

After some soul searching (not deep soul searching, mind you, but just deep enough to think about my eating habits), I came up with the lazy man's detox, which is not a detox at all!

I am pretty in tune with how my body feels.  When I eat well, I generally feel pretty good.  When I eat junk, I don't feel that great.

My journey with food is not something new.  It started years ago, probably when I first moved to Austin, which was 19 years ago!

One of the first experiments was trying to eat vegetarian.  It only lasted a couple of weeks.  I found myself really tired and lethargic.  Of course, I probably wasn't balancing things out the right way, but nonetheless it didn't stick.

Next, there were years where I didn't eat red meat.  I had discovered that eating it gave me terrible stomach pains, so I just gave it up.  I do eat some red meat now, definitely small portions.  With small amounts, balanced with other foods, my body handles it fine.

When I was pregnant with my oldest (who is 13 now), I gave up sodas.  Never really went back to them.  I will have a small glass every now and again, but it really throws my blood sugar off and I feel jittery.

About 5 years ago, we started green smoothies for breakfast.  I really miss this ritual when we don't get to have one!

It was around that time that we also stopped drinking cow milk.  Rice milk, soy milk and almond milk are all staples at my house.  We do eat cheese and yogurt (and ice cream!), but they don't seem to have the same bloating,etc effects that milk did.   Well, ice cream does, but in small doses it seems to be not too bad.  We are talking ice cream after all!

At various times over the past 5 years, I have also tried gluten free.  I would say we are about 75% gluten free.  Some days more so than others.

But most important to any of the diet changes that we have done, is that we have added good things.  The added things crowd out the things we are trying to control.

Drink lots and lots of water.
More fresh fruits and vegetables.
Different homemade grains.  Waffles, bread, snacks, all gluten free and low sugar.
More home cooking in general.

But we aren't strict about the eating.  Which actually seems to work for us.  Nothing to rebel against when there aren't rules.

We like feeling good, which translates to us wanting to eat well.

So no more detox.  I'll save that for when my diet gets really out of sorts.  Which hopefully means that I won't need a detox!

Day 12

And today I was slapped in the face (so to speak) with the fact that my body likes simple, nutritious foods.  I just need to commit to paying attention to those communications.  And I need to refocus my energy on eating better.

Breakfast was a smoothie.
Lunch was a ham and cheese sandwich on GF bread, an apple with almond butter.
Dinner was Mexican food at a restaurant.  Chips, yep.  Gooey cheese enchiladas, you bet.  White rice, for sure.  Refried beans, absolutely.  Digestion issues an hour later, unfortunately :(

So it always comes back to motivation, time and effort.
Why do I eat the things I do?

My health coach friend that I did the detox with previously, she told me to come up with what my future looks like with better eating.  What would better eating do for me?  What would it do for my family?  How would it affect my health and attitude?

I think it is time to take a look at that.  I won't get there today, but I will start the conversation with myself.

Gluten free.  I find myself less bloated with less gluten.  Or is it because I eat less carbs when I am watching the gluten.  This is something to investigate. 

Dairy.  I have known dairy to be problematic for quite some time.  Milk definitely sours my stomach.  Ice cream, sour cream and yogurt, as well, though I can tolerate them in small amounts.  Cheese doesn't seem to have too much of an affect, as long as I am not overdoing the dairy in another way. 

Sugar.  I get huge cravings for sugar if I start indulging.  I also start craving saltier snacks with the sweets.  So I am really better off staying away from the sweets.  There is an exception, when the sweet is mildly sweet and loaded with healthy fats/proteins, which fill me up, then it doesn't really seem to bother me nearly as much.

What does my life look like if I avoid these 3 foods?  I think I am feeling less bloated and more energetic.  My skin doesn't break out nearly as often.  My hormones stay more balanced, and everything more regulated. 

Those are all really good things.  Why do I fight them?

Day 11 -- The day the detox portion ended...

So now I must say, completely off the wagon.
There were some days of being kinda sorta off the wagon.
Today, no questions.

Breakfast was a smoothie.

Lunch was Massaman Curry with Chicken.  And an eggroll.  So yes, yummy fried food.  White rice with white potatoes. 

Dinner was Torchy's Tacos.  I looked at the menu.  I thought about it.  But there really wasn't anything there that would fit any of the rules I had set for myself, not without some major modifications.  So I had the Fried Avocado taco, with breading on the fried avocado, cheese, corn tortilla and the creamy poblano sauce.  Followed with a mint.

But I haven't decided to do with the rest of the month.  I will see how I feel.  So far, I feel really great.  No sleepies after the heavy carb lunch.  Too soon to tell after dinner. 

I do like feel better when I eat right.  It would seem that I am just not motivated enough to clean my diet up 100%.  I've been reading where there are those that recommend 80-20 split.  80% good, with 20% wiggle room.  I am not sure I even need 20%.  Maybe 10%?

Alas, I feel like a cop out.  I know its hard to make big changes, but I thought I would be stronger. 

Day 11, you win!

Day 10

Another day in the life of detox.  Though more and more it doesn't actually feel like anything.  Just feels like personalized eating choices, which is what we all need to be doing for ourselves anyway.

Lets look at what a lot of folks are eating day in and day out.  I think you will agree that the acronym SAD is appropriate for the standard American diet.

So ask yourself the following.
How many times did I eat this food today?  last week?  last month?
   Pizza?
   Hamburger and fries?
   Hot dogs?
   Pasta?
   Sub sandwich?
   Pancakes/waffles?
   Dessert?
   Soda?

Stop there.  There are many other options we could talk about, but lets just talk about these as a starting point.  Not all of these are bad in themselves, but then we have to talk about ingredients.

Did you make any of these foods yourself?  Did you find healthy recipes with whole foods?  Did you try to avoid sugar and processed ingredients?  It can be done, but it takes effort!

If you didn't make them yourself, did you read the labeling?  Do you really know what you put into your body?  When I am buying food, I try to keep it to mostly whole foods.  And the products that are packaged, I always read the ingredients.  If I can't pronounce the ingredient list, then I don't want to put it in my body.

No, I am not perfect at the eating game.  I love donuts and chips and ice cream.  But to be honest, when I make the effort to eat healthy, I don't miss them.  Not that I would go and hang out at the Krispy Kreme all day and just drink water.  But I don't feel the urge to go there in the first place.

So I think I am making progress!

As for what I ate today.
Breakfast was a green smoothie.
Lunch was some leftover chicken breast, quinoa with spinach, an apple.
Dinner was vegan lentil shepherd's pie.  It was really good.  I was kind of in a rush and had to grab something from the store formerly known as Sun Harvest.  The vegan bakery here in town made it.  I need to find me a recipe to recreate at home.

Snacking was a cereal I found called Qi'a.  Which was chia seeds and quinoa and some dried fruit.  Suprisingly yum.  Really.  And satisfying.  Chia seeds are fairly popular nowadays for being high in omega-3's.  so as long as I don't start sprouting greet shoots out my head, I give it a thumbs up!


 

Day 9

First, I must acknowledge that my youngest pointed out to me that the recipes I was posting were not there.  So thanks to him, I added that little bit of joy to the blog.  Not that the recipes I have mentioned are all there, but they will be. 

This blogging thing has been an interesting experience.  I feel like the most boring person in the world typing it up, yet on some strange level I find it cathartic.  I don't even know if anyone is reading, which is fine, too.  Even if its just me, myself and I, who could refuse that audience?

I also feel like the world's most boring blogger.  I read friend's blogs, which there are a good number that do.  They talk about food, kids, family, travels, etc.  Here I am talking about what I am eating.  Ah well.  Its only for a month.  And then I can reassess what I want to do with this whole blogging thing.

So let's do the food thing.  It's Tuesday.  So school morning are pretty routine.  I had a large glass of green smoothie and a 3 mile walk with my friend. 

Lunch was leftovers today, which included quinoa with spinach, green beans, and one slice of barbecue turkey.  Dessert was a banana with almond butter.

Dinner will be a vegetarian salad at Chipotle. Lettuce, guacamole, pico, salsa, brown rice and black beans.  Really, its good.  Try it some time if you don't believe me. 

Speaking of walking 3 miles.  I got myself a FitBit Zip for Christmas.  I also got one for my husband and my parents.  It has provided some rather enlightening realizations about myself.  I always considered myself a pretty active and healthy person.  And I still like to believe I am in that category!  But the FitBit is tending to show me that I need to be more active.  The goal is 10,000 steps a day, which is roughly 5 miles.  There are days I only get about 3,000 steps.  So I am making a more conscious effort to get those steps in.  Who knew?

Day 8

The day started out with my regular green smoothie.

Lunch was definitely not within the bounds, but it was good  :)

Went out for sushi with the hub for lunch.  Salad, miso soup, California roll, and salmon teriyaki.  Soy sauce has gluten in it.  One of those weird processed food things, and its in there.  And white rice, which is on the no-no list.

So I think that I like eating out too much to stick to a detox 100%.  Because this is how I faltered the last time, back in October.  But I will get back on the wagon, and try to be stronger.

Why does it seem like such a burden to me, that I would need to cook my own food all the time?  Back in ye olden days, its what people did.  There certainly has been an explosion of restaurants over the past few decades.  So now because its there, is that just making me lazy?

Anywho.  Around 3:00 I noticed that I was pretty darn tired.  So I can't decide if it was because of the lunch, perhaps the white rice did me in (some sort of carb spike). Or maybe it's because Austin is in the thick of allergy season with the cedars.  Something to watch.

Dinner today was a version of chicken Parmesan, brown rice noodle spaghetti and steamed green beans.

Planning on hitting the hay earlier than usual tonight.  Because you know, sometimes I a tired because I need more sleep :)

Day 7

Barbecue.  While technically still within the bounds of the list of foods, I am pretty sure barbecue is not exactly a clean food.  But I live in Texas.  Barbecue is not just a food here, it's an art form.  And I really love me some good barbecue.

So day 7.  Barbecue, you won.

Breakfast was a smoothie and 1/4th of a gluten free waffle, which I will post.
Lunch was quinoa with spinach, some turkey lunch meat, carrots with hummus and an apple.
Dinner was barbecue turkey and brisket, beans and a sweet potato.
For snacking, I made some gluten free squash spice bread.  I will post that.