In June I purchased a book -
It Starts With Food - a guide to a 30 day Paleo food journey intended to help people change their lives and improve their health by following a few basic paleo rules. My personal paleo journey has been haphazrd at best for the last 6 months (did great in January and then...) and I felt like this book would help me make some additional changes. Even knowing the paleo "rules" and following them some of the time, there were things I was doing (or not doing) that I know I should (or shouldn't...) Artificial sweetners still entered my diet on a daily basis. I am addicted to cheese (love cheese...) and even though I don't regularly count calories, when I do they are always too high, paleo foods or not.
Enter Whole9.
The Whole9 Life, Whole30 challenge rules are simple.
- Paleo foods - Meat, fish, poultry, vegetables, fruits, nuts & seeds (but only if they do not set you off)
- no "paleo" substitutes
- No dairy (except for ghee)
- Food has to conform to the 5 Whole30 rules (all described on their website)
- No paleo substitutes.
For me giving up cheese and other dairy will definitely be hardest, and I will admit right now that I am not giving up my 2Tbs of heavy cream in my coffee. I keep trying black coffee and hate it, and now that I am officially a teacher in New Orleans and am lesson planning far into the evening and up very early to start my school day I will NOT give up my coffee. But the rest is doable for me.
Today was my official day 1. I will be taking pics of my meals and uploading them - the winners and losers - with any recipe or recipe link. I will be updating my LoseIt account daily to keep myself on track, and I will start running and strength training again. I have a half marathon coming up in October, and I will not be able to complete it (or the Disney Goofy challenge in January) if I do not get on the ball with training.
I wish I had thought about pics and updating before I had nearly finished my dinner tonight - it was so good!
This is the last 2-3 bites of seriously good thai style shrimp I made for dinner
Thai Almond-Coconut Shrimp - serves 1
3-4oz shrimp (mine were frozen and I thawed them completely, fresh would be even better)
1/4 large onion sliced
1 small bell pepper, sliced
1 jalapeno diced
4-5 sliced crimini mushrooms
fresh basil (to taste - grabbed a stalk or two)
fresh cilantro (same as the basil - but maybe 4-5 stalks)
lime juice
minced garlic
4tbs coconut milk
2 tbs coconut oil
splash fresh squeezed OJ
1/2 tbs almond butter
heat skillet or wok, add all ingredients except 1tbs coconut oil, coconut milk, almond butter, OJ and shrimp. Heat on medium until soft, then simmer with the coconut milk for another 10-15 minutes on low. Should smell fantastic. After simmering, remove tails and de-vein shrimp. Fresh shrimp will take longer to cook, if using frozen or already cooked shrimp, toss them in at the last possible minute - just before plating. Add shrimp and OJ, cook for 60-90 seconds Plate and add the almond butter, give a quick stir. Try not to inhale it all in one bite. So very very satisfying, and one of the only times I have cooked shrimp and not left it on too long. Will be making this again very soon - don't be surprised to see it turn up again in the next 30 days.
Day 1 down, and I feel good.