365 True Things: 170/Food

I am thinking about going on a diet.

The only diet I have ever been on lasted about ten days, though it was supposed to go six weeks. I may have written about it here already. It was based on some allergy testing David and I did, and the point was to cut out all foods we react to—either because our bodies really can't abide said food or because we ate so much of it (i.e., were so addicted to it) that our bodies exhibited an immune response to it. (Or something. It never quite made sense to me.)

Me, I tested mildly allergic to white potatoes. David tested allergic to
. . . almost everything. Dairy, beef, wheat, for sure; almonds, peanuts; nightshades (potatoes, tomatoes, peppers); oranges. At one point we felt like all we could eat was shark and papaya. Which wouldn't be awful if you lived on a tropical island. But for us: we ended up obsessing about what our next meal would be.

Noooo, not more shark and papaya!

Obviously, we ditched that diet, and David has suffered from mild to moderate allergies ever since. Quite happily when it comes to mealtime, I might add.

But now: I want to give another diet a go.

The impetus: my mentor in this blog thing. She did it—it's called Whole30—and said she lost seven pounds. I want to lose seven pounds! And I like structure and rules (when I choose them). And this diet has plenty of rules, all good ones, like:

• no added sugar, real or artificial (not hard for me, except that it requires reading labels)
• no alcohol in any form (I wish I could say that I was already doing that, but yeah: I fell off that wagon a while back—but now, back on it!)
• no grains (read labels!)
• no legumes (there is a "scientific" reason for this, and what the heck, not eating beans for 30 days won't kill me—though I can have green beans, snow peas, and sugar snap peas, so thank goodness for small favors)
• no dairy (the only exception being clarified butter, or ghee)—and I'm not going to pretend that that particular prohibition will be easy
• no carrageenan, MSG, or added sulfites (read labels)
• do not re-create treats or baked goods with approved ingredients (no banana-egg pancakes or Paleo bread!)
• do not step on the scale or take measurements 

But more to the point, I'd like to spend a month where I really pay attention to eating healthfully. No matter that some would argue this is just a "fad" diet. It is: based somewhat on the Paleo Diet—lots of meat, veggies, nuts; I expect it's making the originators into millionaires. Good for them.

But still, as I said: it provides structure and rules, which is certainly good for me; and it's not unhealthy, by any means.

I haven't started yet, but I did receive the official guidebook, complete with recipes, in the mail yesterday. So I decided to practice with dinner tonight. The recipes are quite simple—and I'm not a simple-recipe sort of gal generally speaking. However, if I'm going to actually do this, it will need to be as simple as possible. And many of the simple recipes in this book look pretty yummy.

Here's a couple of photos: preparation (with my helpers) ☝︎ and finale ☟. Sweet potato and brussels sprouts, with apple sausage—the sausage, as far as I could tell from the ingredients list, kosher. I would not be able to eat this meal every day—no more than I could eat shark and papaya every day. But I'm sure I can eat it, or a variation on this theme, at least once a week. And the commitment is only four weeks.

I won't be dining out in restaurants for the time being. But I might have some fun learning how to cook simply. And, maybe not so fun, but no doubt instructive: listening to my cravings. (Cheese! I'll be back!!! I promise!!!!!)