Day 0: Cook up

I'll post my summary of each day of my Whole30. I'm also posting this on the forum.

My first Whole30 is my summer project. I've been researching and planning for months. I'm a high school art teacher with a skeptical husband (mostly re: food prices) and a spunky 22 month old baby girl.

Day: 0

Today (Sunday June 30) I did my first Cook-up day.

• Cooked up protein
• chopped up veg
• made meat-spinach muffins from Well Fed
• bagged snacks of veg and olives

Reflection: I feel mostly prepared. DIdn't go crazy with forbidden foods. I think I'll miss tortilla chips most? And sugar added into things. And my brown rice, black beans, and corn in my Chipoltle.  It's embarrasing to admit that my Cook up took 5 hours today... I can be slow when recipes are new...or when I don't thaw the spinach enough beforehand...noted.

meal planning wk 1

Prep mode

Meals all planned and strategized for week 1. -check
Grocery list for week 1. -check
Attempted to recruit friends and family. -check
Working some new recipes into this week's rotation. -soon (tonight and tomorrow)
Asking questions on forum re: replacements for husband's allergies. -not yet
Call Mom to gauge her interest level so far. -soon
Enjoying some forbidden foods, without going overboard. -check
Farmers Markets. -try again today
Take measurements, before photos, skin photos. --> before Monday
Cook-Up for next week --> Sunday

I'm looking forward to starting this thing!

A very articulate log of a journalist's Whole30

Margaret Brinson, of the Jackson Sun's Whole30 week 2
http://www.jacksonsun.com/article/DQ/20130617/LIFESTYLE/306170011/Columnist-Cravings-dissipate-natural-foods-satisfy-Week-Two-Whole30

Prep mode

Just returned from a business trip to Salt Lake City where I ate convention center food all week. It was an interesting experiment to begin moving towards Whole 30 goals. But honestly the quality of the food was kind of "eh", so I relied on their Ceasar salad at lunch and dinner and oatmeal at breakfast. But no guilt here, it was a good hard working trip.

I also spent much of my plane time in both directions re-reading and meal planning using the book Well Fed.

So much of this looks like it will depend on preparation. I've probably said that several times here...

Food goals for this pre-week include:

• finsh week 1 meal planning
• try out Wednesday Shady Grove Farmers Market
• finish assembling Week 1 grocery list
• try out a 1-2 new recipes for husband's sake
• get word out to more friends and try to find a couple that might want to join me

First Well Fed recipe

I'm practicing and trying to ease my husband into the reality of at least my meals changing, which I hope he'll adopt at least part-time.

I made my first "hot plate", in a Greek version. Husband approved, mostly. We both thought that the many seasonings I added didn't quite come through.

But I can foresee really making a habit of her hot plate system, batch cooking meat and veg on the weekend and throwing it together on week nights.

Reading Well Fed

This weekend my copy of Well Fed finally arrived from amazon. It might be a game changer. It might be the biggest reason a true Whole30 experiment is successful for me. It's teaching lots of practical tips for food prep, both how to do a big batch prep on the weekend, and lots of tips for daily food prep of fresh veg and dressings and meats.

So yes, I am a fan.

Farmers Markets

Wandered into my first farmers market of the season. I'm not good at impulse buying, so I asked for business cards and if some vendors minded if I took photos of their price list. Came home and started recording prices for grass fed beef and lamb.

Meanwhile, I'm asking my husband to price grass fed beef at Costco and other stores he frequents, since he does the bulk of the grocery shopping for the family.