Whole30 Days 12 - 15: Sugar & Rationalization, Part 2

Curried cauliflower soup

First, if you haven't read Part 1, you might want to get caught up here. 

Okay. So in Wednesday's post, we saw that sugar has a strong hold on me. Now, I’m not going to try to get too deep in my personal issues. Well, because they’re mine. Not yours. This isn't about me. It's about the addiction that many of us face, whether your drug of choice is sugar something else that is not contributing to good health. I can guess…no, I can bet that you have rationalized over food. The key to breaking those issues or habits is to understand why they exist.

Possibly it is just about the food. You like good food. You eat good food. But you have to be honest with yourself about what you are eating and why. Because when we are talking about sugar in particular, that good food equals food that is not quite as healthy for you. 

From the Whole9 website and It Starts with Food, their theory is:

“The food you eat either makes you more healthy or less healthy. Those are your options.”   

Even if you never do the Whole30, never have the desire, or even agree with the program, this quote should apply to eating in general. Sometimes the foods we think or thought were healthy most of our lives may affect us negatively in ways we don't realize. This is why this program eliminates so many foods, for 30 days. You need complete elimination in order to determine if a food is causing issues. So, no sneaking a spoonful of honey at 2am. (Surprisingly, I haven't resorted to that.) It's just 30 days.

As I ended my binge with Whole30 compliant ice cream, I was acutely aware of something I knew all along. Sweets are my comfort food. Not in the sense of an occasional comforting meal like pasta, probably macaroni and cheese to some people, but a deeper replacement-for-comfort type. Sweets replaced all the things that were lacking in my life. And while I wasn't gorging on sugar every day, when I did, I felt better. It reminded me of times where Mom and her girls would sit around and laugh over dessert. Where all the problems in our lives would somewhat diminish.

At some point in my life, I let sugary food become something it should not be. Something other than food. 

 

The ice cream breakdown occurred on Day 11 of my Whole30, so let’s see what I ate on the days following:

Day 12

I ate a lot of veggies today, eggs, tuna, sweet potato, chicken, and avocado. I wish I lived in California where I'm sure avocados are much cheaper. I did eat 1/2 a banana and a few almonds, but progress is being made. And I feel good. 

Day 13

Much of the same today. I'm getting better at eating more vegetables with each meal. I ate some more Indian spiced chicken but this time paired it with this delicious curried cauliflower soup. For dinner, I wasn't feeling hungry, so I ate an apple with almond butter and a larabar (Oh no, can't let this get me down!). Then I threw together some lamb meatballs for the week and ending up eating a couple of those.

            Day 14

 This morning I dumped some leftover sauteed veggies into a pan and cracked a few eggs on top. Instead of my usual boring scramble, I covered the pan and just let the eggs cook. Of course it didn't taste much different, but I got the pleasure of breaking those yolks right on my plate. What can I say? I like runny yolks. On a lazy Sunday, I would normally snack on sweets or nuts all day, but today I ate my last chicken drumstick. I sat outside in the sun with it, messy hands and all. Don't judge.

 Isn't it beautiful? I have a slight obsession with egg yolks.

 

 Instead of reaching for a Larabar, I ate this. Yes, outside.

Day 15

I finally gave in and boiled some eggs for quick and easy snacks. I've never been much of a boiled egg fan. Deviled eggs, good. Boiled eggs, blah. But I will attempt to eat them again. Maybe I can color them to make them more exciting. So I packed a lunch of lamb meatballs and some roasted broccoli and zucchini. Lamb meatballs are good, but would be better with some spaghetti. Or sauce...sauce would have been good. As for the roasted veggies, I over seasoned with rosemary, like way over. I honestly had to force myself to finish them. There are more of those damn things in the refrigerator. Will have to pawn them off on an unsuspecting person. Dinner was cauliflower soup, some simple chicken (just grilled with salt and pepper), and cucumbers. I am feeling fantastic, honestly. I finally realized that I was burning myself out on the hardcore high intensity workouts I was doing, so I decide to take a break and just walk, a lot. My knees are quite happy with that decision after the plyometrics beating I was giving them.

Simple, but tasty lunch.

I leave you with one more quote from the Whole9 crew:

“It is not hard. Don’t you dare tell us this is hard. Quitting heroin is hard. Beating cancer is hard. Drinking your coffee black. Is. Not. Hard...." 

Sure, this isn't easy. Sometimes you have to dig really deep, especially if you are sugar addicted like I am.

(Check out this Whole9 post if you do feel you are an addict of any type or if you have or had an eating disorder.)

Even the transition to eating real food isn't easy in today's world. But instead of choosing to accept the unhealthy foods that are shoved in our faces everywhere we go, we can choose differently. Start small if you need to. Try a week with no sugar. Or just go from eating dessert every night to maybe twice a week. Or as my sister decided to do, try a week without that extra daily sugar. You know, that huge scoop you might dump in your coffee, that muffin in the break room, or that soda at lunch. Make a commitment to a week or 30 days if you're feeling crazy.

It's only 30 days. I can do this. And so can you.