Day -6

Twelve years ago I went to India on a sort of college travel abroad thing.  We were gone for sixteen days.  About a month after coming back I went vegetarian and then pierced my nose.  I think if you plop a bunch of young adults (late teens, early twenties) from the States into one of the poorest parts of a third-world country, then fly them back and land them in L.A. on Christmas Eve, weird stuff is bound to happen.

My grandpa found it pretty amusing.  "You know, you can eat the cows here," he'd said to me.

It wasn't too difficult giving up meat. There's no meat in chocolate, dorritos or cheese pizza. Let's just say that in the following two years, I made up for not gaining the freshman fifteen. 

I must credit Matt for bringing me back over to the meat side. I also must credit  full time graduate school with a two hour commute and working on the weekends for dropping the excess cushion that my dear family lovingly refers to as my 'fat time'.  

Matt was convinced that turkey that I ate only on Thanksgiving  was the 'gate-way' meat. I laughed at him, but it turns out he was right. 

Giving up grains and diet coke is going to be a bit more challenging. If I want ketchup in six days, I'll have to make my own.  Same with bbq sauce.  Yesterday I had my first Diet Coke with lunch (some sort of record I think) and one with dinner.  No headaches. Lots of tea. 

The last sunrise of 2012.  Mt. Hood is in the center. 

Day -7

In one week I'll be giving up many delicious, wonderful food items for thirty days in hopes that I will feel magnificent and be much more productive. The biggest goodbye for me will be the diet coke. 

For those of you who are not familiar with the whole30, I'll give a little background. 

Basically, from what I understand, it's sort of Paleo-ish.  I love adding -ish to the end of words.  For thirty days I won't be having grains, sugars, alcohol, dairy or legumes. I know, I know! Some of you are thinking, "What are you NUTS?" Perhaps. 

In college I majored in health and took the required nutrition class. The instructor was  a lady who'd eaten the same thing for breakfast each day for the last thirty-five years. She knew how many calories she needed to maintain her optimal body weight.  If she ate something extra, she'd walk an extra mile.

When I taught health, I shared the wisdom of the food pyramid with my students.  Grains-especially those far superior whole ones- were where it was at. 

Then...this summer I was hit with some facts. 

But Matt +Statins=notsogood. 

Fortunately I have a friend who is a pharmacist and she shared some books and information with us. 

My plan is to write each day of my 30, as well as this week leading up to it. I plan to include a photo, too.   Today is the day I start stepping down the caffeine.  In fact, I'm doing rather well. It's 11am and I have yet to have one.  I am on my second cup of green tea and I anticipate I'll be drinking it by the gallon. 

Now, some of you may want to argue on the grain issue. I did. Especially since this Paleo stuff has really gotten in the way of my Dave Ramsey beans and rice plan. 

But this is my whole30.  It will be my experiment to see how I feel. 

Plus everyone seems to agree that 3 diet cokes a day is a bit excessive. 

This is a picture of our backyard forrest.  See, blue sky! It's the first day this winter that I've seen ice on the deck. I hope to do some yard work today.