Day 0: Preparation, Expectations, Goals and more.....

I'm calling the couple days before I turn this whole thing on "Day 0". I have read lots of blogs, looked at umpteen recipes, been to too many stores and I'm not sure if I'm ready or not! But ready-or-not August 4th (DAY 1) is tomorrow! I have a meal plan, which I need to get in better order so I can share it here easily. I have stocked up on the necessities. I started this blog (which I'm hoping will help with accountability). I also have annoyed a few of my friends with all the details and ordered a couple a copy of the book. I'm calling myself ready regardless of any other feelings pulsing through me.

I expect the next few days to be rough for all three of us as we adjust, but at least we know to expect that part. I'm trying many new recipes, so I'm a little stressed about the idea of cooking a meal we all hate....but eh trying new things is good. 

We treated today like a prep day! We had no grains, no legumes, and no alcohol. I had diet soda (farewell bad-for-me friend) and a tiny bit of cheese, my husband had a last cup of hot cocoa and a bit of cheese, and our roommate had cheese (plenty of cheese). We tried one of the new recipes for dinner, it is one I am hoping to have work for breakfast. Whole30 provided a post with links to MANY recipe blogs and they are all great! Making the meal plan was hard cause there were too many options not cause there weren't enough; tonight's adventure was Italian Brunch Bake! I'm going to freeze one serving to see how I like it frozen and re-heated. I love her ideas and I'm excited to see what I can do to save time and still eat clean!

I've included some pics of our first Whole30 meal, which will be breakfast for Day 1. I doubled the recipe since we have 3 people eating, we think it will make 8-10 servings.

This is how it looked before I added the ground beef and eggs. The zucchini is from our garden!

 Here it is ready for the oven!

 Fresh baked!

One serving! 

We also had a few tomato slices (fresh from the garden) on the side. I am not a mushroom fan but that is based on texture not flavor, in this dish the flavor was great and the texture not bad at all!! I loved it! My roommate said he liked it and could eat it again. My husband said he "could choke it down and that's pretty good for beef" (he is not much of a meat eater). Overall everyone agreed we should make this meal again so in the rotation it goes!!!! YAY a win on Day 0, that has to be a good sign!

Now to document our goals and concerns:

Me

Goal: Lose weight; master my sugar cravings; improve my joint pain 

Concerns: 100% no cheats...that's hard but that's the plan!

Husband

Goal: Lose weight; improve allergies
Concerns: "Being able to do it"

Roommate:
Goal: To determine if dairy (cheese, milk, and whey protein) needs to be limited going forward
Concerns: Getting enough protein; maintaining muscle mass

There's always something to learn...

L

The Facts, The Problems, and (with any luck) the Solution!

I'm very new to this whole blogging business but I'm very excited about the step I'm about to take in life and I want to tell EVERYONE about it! However, not everyone in my life wants to hear it so I decided to tell the Internet, this way the people who do want to listen can and the others don't have to!

Ok, I've titled this post "The Facts, The Problems, and (with any luck) the Solution!" mostly to remind myself where to start and to put in writing the why behind this blog. So here are my facts:

1. I'm 31 years old and life is pretty easy at the moment!
2. I have an amazing, supportive, kind, and honest husband!
3. My friends and family are out of this world! Seriously, I hit the jackpot many times over in this department!
4. My career is where I want it to be and I enjoy it!
5. I love learning new things!
6. Now the less rosey facts...I have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), I've had this particular issue since I was 14, although the symptoms have become more significant in recent years.
7. I'm fat! I want to stop here and address the use of the word fat. I'm technically (medically) obese, but we're talking about my body and my mind and obese is a far more repulsive word for ME than fat is.

Those are the BIG facts about me of course there are many more aspects to me and my life but I doubt anyone wants to read more then whats above! SO let's move onto the problems (which I hit on the the facts), my weight and my health. I'm fat and I'm not happy about it. I love most of my life until I look in the mirror, then I see someone I just don't recognize. I feel more vibrant, more active, more shiny, then I look. I know this could mean to many that my weight shouldn't matter...but it does. It matters to me and one thing I've learned in life (which took lots of learning) is that my feelings, I, matter! Therefore, that makes my weight a problem. With that being said, obliviously, my health is a problem. PCOS patients who are overweight increase their risk of type 2 diabetes; that does not sound fun! In addition to future risks I have pain now. My knees creek like 100 year old wooden floors, my lower back aches like I've been out doing physical labor all my life, and nothing is further from the truth there, my upper back tingles when I've sat in one place for too long, and I have a headache...constantly. I've had all these issues looked at by doctors and they've all had many pieces of advice but also always a common piece of advice....lose weight! Now that you understand the problems let's explore the proposed solution!!!

We had an intern at work this summer and she and I connected with the common bond of both having PCOS and both needing to lose a few pounds. Anyone who knows me personally knows that I've tried many "diets" before, some even with great short term results, but I've been searching for a real meaningful way to change my overall diet for life. I've been confronted with the worsening symptoms of PCOS and acknowledge the need to address them! During our bonding this intern told me about a book she had read "It Starts With Food" and that she was on a 30 day challenge, the book details, to eat clean and reset your body! I toyed with the idea and asked a few questions.  My main question was; what can't I eat? answer: NO sugar (real or fake), NO grains, NO alcohol, NO legumes (a word I still don't pronounce correctly), and NO DAIRY. With that I left the idea alone for a couple weeks, cause come on, NO DAIRY, NO SODA!

Then I went to my endocrinologist who, despite her blunt honesty or maybe because of it, I love!!! She was glad I knew there was a weight issue and that I agreed we had to address it. I told her about the program I had learned of and she said it sounded like a good idea. She said most of her PCOS patients must stay on a limited-grain or low-carb diet to maintain a healthy weight and avoid additional complications. She also said that the food groups being eliminated are common foods people don't tolerate well and that she likes that they are not banned forever, but rather you determine how you react to them. So I had a pity party (and threw a tantrum that would rival any 2 year old) cause I don't want to have to watch everything I eat so close and I don't want to find out what my body doesn't tolerate! I want to stick my head back in the sand and ignore the facts and the problems! But remember that "amazing, supportive, kind, and honest husband" I mentioned....well he only lets a pity party go SO far! He listened and agreed that the plan (any plan I'd need to try) would be hard, but that he thought I should really consider it. So I decide (at 9pm on a work night) to go to Barnes and Noble and look at the book, not buy it cause come on it's far cheaper on amazon. I left Barnes at 10pm book in hand! I had read the preface, forward and first chapter and I was hooked. I was NOT sold on doing this myself but I was certainly intrigued enough that I could not wait for amazon two-day shipping.

I stayed up till midnight reading, then read more the next morning while getting blood work and on it goes. By Thursday evening I was darn close to being completely in but I live with a husband who eats cereal, milk, plenty of cheese, hot cocoa, and more daily! And, someone I didn't mention earlier is our roommate (and my husband's business partner) he is SUPER healthy and currently eats close to the proposed plan 90% of the time, with the exception that he eats a TON of dairy and occasionally drinks. If I was going to do this I sure could use some help....

So I asked! My husband reluctantly said he would do it for 30 days, I had added in the fact that many people on this plan eliminate season allergies which he suffers form greatly. My roommate said he has always wanted to try an elimination diet but wasn't sure he could cook enough food to keep him sustained (seriously this dude eats A LOT). We all three decided to give it a try, but only with a clear meal plan to avoid not feeding the monsters!

This is all happening fast (I bought the book July 31st and we officially start tomorrow, August 4th)! We all have one or two main concerns and a few key things we want to monitor (more on that in the next post) but I really think this is my solution; my method to finding the right fuel for MY body! Oh and please excuse the HORRIBLE punctuation, I never remember the rules for comma's (or parentheticals), and I LOVE exclamation marks!

There's always something to learn....

L