Amidst all the projects, commutes, traveling and house guests, we gave in to the convenience of less than stellar nutrition. Eating well and for nutritional value is not hard. For those of you familiar with Nick Boles, he did a Facebook post a while back about that *H* word. He hit the nail on the head. There are many things in life that aren't easy. There are many things that take thought, effort, planning or perseverance. There are very few things that the word hard accurately describes. Think about that. We can make an excuse for anything we care to, and we can make those things out to be as difficult or as simple as we choose. Personally, I believe our outlook is our choice, and I hope we each use that power for good.
What I am getting at here is you're not about to hear me say, "I wanted to eat better, but it's been hard." Or "I want to get healthy, but it's hard." I don't believe that. I believe that knowledge and will power are the most vital tools to success. When you know better, you can choose to do better, or choose not to. When something is important to you, make it a priority. What I will say, is that I (Jason as well, but I take the most responsibility as I do the majority of our grocery shopping, meal planning and cooking) got lazy. I allowed my better judgement to be surpassed by what was quick and required little thought. And it didn't feel good.
So after five months of knowing we deserved better, we decided the best way to break the cycle was with re-comittment. We loved our Whole30 experience, and we know that the program is designed to only fuel our bodies with the best of the best. So are we doing another strict and to-the-T Whole30? No. We talked about this with my dad and stepmom, who completed the program themselves back in January and were planning another round soon. We considered it, but we were focusing on the long term, not a set time frame. We took a hard look at what our motivation is, and what our desired end result would be. For us, this was about a clean slate with no end in sight. It was about tweaking what we love about Whole30 to fit what is realistic for our lives long term. For us, that looked like this.
We agreed to focus on conscience choices and getting back to the basics. We decided that we would design our own program of sorts, that would force us to think critically and creatively. We talked about why we let ourselves be lazy the last few months, and more times than not that answer boiled down to two things: lack of inspiration/repetitive menus or losing track of time. So for last half of August and first half of September, we were focusing on addressing those two issues. Trying new recipes, pulling out some tried and true favorites we hadn't made in a while, picking things that were quick and easy, or (my personal favorite) letting the tools do the work. By this, I most definitely am referring to my beloved crockpot and instant pot.
We chose to get back to meal planning (by we, I mean I am meal planning), and using the focus of lean, quality proteins, abundance of veggies, plenty of fruit, and healthy fats in the forms of avocados (I'm slightly obsessed), nuts and seeds as our guide. If you recall from my previous breakdown of the Whole30 program guidelines, they exclude all grains, sugars, alcohol, and dairy, and they also exclude beans & legumes (including peanuts) as well as corn due to the fact that they are considered to be inflammatory triggers for many. Because we already have completed the program and reintroduction process before and found no allergen or inflammation links, these items were things we were okay with including this round. Think leafy greens with southwestern chicken, roasted corn, black beans, avocado, toasted almonds and clean, organic chipotle dressing. I don't feel those two high fiber and plant based ingredients are derailing the mission here. Apples with peanut butter, or a filling banana peanut butter protein shake - still on the right track, yes? To be completely honest here, this initiative was about getting Jason to stop eating PB&J or cereal numerous times a week, for me to stop giving in to the baked goods or desserts as often, and for both of us to stop grabbing for the box of pasta when we got caught up in a project and needed lunch ready in under 15 minutes. You feel me?
We also had a few special occasions that we chose to loosen the reigns for if you will. A belated anniversary dinner was a night of celebration. A friend visiting from out of town meant that cocktails and sushi were on the agenda, a friend's birthday bash in the city, and our first town festival in our new community meant we wanted to go enjoy the local offerings. Now I'm not saying I was going hog wild and ordering deep fried Oreos, but what I am saying is life is too short to not enjoy dessert or a cocktail every now and then. The point here is to find a balance and to know what we are putting into our bodies. The best way to do
that? Make it ourselves. If we decided to enjoy dessert or muffins,
making them ourselves gave us control over the ingredients. We needed to be thinking more critically about the choices we make and the impact they have on our physical, mental and emotional well-being. We can either be empowered or self-destructed, but the choices are ours.
photo credit: Pinterest
