Week 1 Complete!

I have to say, I feel pretty darn fantastic right now. I have resisted every temptation, every opportunity to slip, and stuck to the Whole30 like glue. And my body is thanking me for it!
I don't feel hungry at odd times of the day, I don't feel sleepy one minute and wide awake the next, none of these insulin peaks and crashes making me feel like crap and make my PCOS come out to play.
I feel healthy.
It is also great not trying to keep track of every single calorie that enters my body, or leaves it via exercise. After counting calories for so long, it was second nature, but also an obsession. I wouldn't say I had an eating disorder (please, I'm overweight!) but I definitely thought and worried about calories most of my waking hours and panicked on  daily basis about it. No-one wants to be weighing carrots or crying over accidentally drinking regular coke. I would slip, eat a bunch of bad stuff, and yes I would enjoy it at the time, but the next day, and the day after that, I would want to punish myself for it.
But now I am eating good proper food...with fat! Oh my word. When I was dabbling in Paleo, I would ignore their suggestions about fat intake; I felt that that was a sure fire way of ballooning, and it would have been actually. As I was not 100% Paleo, the dairy and other 'treats' that I was eating daily would have made me put on weight if I ate a bunch of fat too. My body would get it's energy from sugar, while happily spreading the fat to my stomach!

 I know I know, it has only been a week! I am sure that I will change my mind about some of this, but for right now I am happy.

Today I spent the day making food to take back to University with me tomorrow, so that I will have some Whole30 meals ready to go for the first week of term. I made cumin carrots, Tex-mex scotch eggs, and a hhuugggeee shepherd's pie again! It is going to be tricky once I am back at uni. Going out with friends will be challenging, and living with other people will test my will power, but I am confident that I will see this through. I want that massage at the end of it!

Cooking Up A New Year Storm!

I have made it to the end of day 2 of my first Whole30! Yay me! To be honest, it hasn't been that hard so far. The food has been yummy and filling, and fairly easy to make. In fact, the hardest thing about the past two days was sitting in Starbucks! I work really well there and having my usual sugar free hazelnut latte pretty much makes my day. Alas, this drink is definitely NOT Whole30 compliant...dairy and artificial sweeteners are a big no no. Today I had my first black coffee. And it was gross. My brother was with me and said that I just have to power through, that eventually I will love black coffee. Hmm, this may take a while. For the next 30 days I will just have to be content with trying the various fruit teas that they offer, with the occasional caffeine fix that the black, gross tasting gloop will provide.

So what have I eaten in the past two days? Yesterday I roasted some chicken thighs and some carrots rubbed with cumin. Yum. Today has been a big cook-a-thon where I roasted some more veggies, made a Shepherd's Pie, and made some Scotch Eggs! These recipes came from 'Well Fed', the recipe book that I have been raving about! As I am British, I wanted to try out the 'traditional' recipes first.
The Shepherd's Pie was made with ground lamb and topped with mashed cauliflower instead of potato. It came out really well; the taste was lovely and full of depth. The presentation of it leaved much to be desired though! A bit sploggy, if that is a word. I feel that it works as a description for it! Next time I will use a food processor to puree the cauliflower, as opposed to just using a fork. It will hopefully make it much smoother and easier to dish out.

Now for the main event...the Scotch Eggs! These are beasts. Literally, the size of Mr T's fist. Instead of using breadcrumbs on the outside the recipe asked for ground up pork rinds. While I was in the supermarket, I looked at bags of pork scratchings but found that they were jammed packed with names of preservatives and other ingredients that I had trouble pronouncing; those were going no where near my mouth. Instead, I bought some pork rind and made my own!

For my first attempt I feel pretty proud of myself. They definitely look like Scotch Eggs at the very least! Next time though I will add in some more herbs to the sausage meat (homemade I might add!) and put more of the pork rind crumbs around the outside.

I hope everyone has a brilliant New Year! Remember to make some resolutions for 2013, but they need to be achievable. All goals have to be SMART:

S- Specific
M- Meaningful
A- Attainable
R- Relevant
T-Timed

There is no point setting yourself up for a failure; find something that you can reach and go get it.