Be Gentle With You

So, halfway through Whole 30 and I feel fine. I’m not tired of the food. I’m not tempted or discouraged. What I’m sick of is dishes!

And I saw this today! It made me laugh, but I still cooked and messed up some dishes.

Tonight, I made cooked apples sweetened with date paste. It was fantastic, and totally worth the dirty dishes it made.

I know I’m supposed to sit down to a big breakfast every morning. I’ve always known that, but I have never felt hungry for breakfast early in the morning. I just want a big mug of tea when I get up – then about 10 or so, I want to eat something. 47 and I hardly ever stopped for a real breakfast; we grabbed a bag of Cheezits or something cracker-y on the way out the door and ate it in the car or at our desk at the office. 48 and I have done very well with this for the last two weeks, always sitting down for eggs, potatoes, bacon, fruit. But this morning, we couldn’t do it. I hadn’t felt well last night or early this morning, and I just had to stay away from food this morning…so, I had a giant mug of tea, and I l
oved it.

So, lunch was important. And I was very glad I had some quiche left and had made some pico de gallo last night. It was so incredibly delicious – maybe also because I was quite hungry by the time I ate it!
The quiche was just egg, onion, cilantro, and some spicy sausage I chopped tiny because I can’t take much spice in each bite. Gotta make more of that quiche because that meal was maybe my favorite so far.

This might seem like a weird picture, but I’m so, so happy about it! Part of the reason I started Whole 30 is because of this (what I consider) early onset of arthritis in my hands. When I started, I couldn’t comfortably make a fist. But, now I can do more than make a fist; I can make a “sign language E” (I moved my thumb for the sake of the picture). It just wasn’t possible two weeks ago. I can still feel pain if I press on the joint, but the internal inflammation must be drastically reduced for my fingers to move this way. What with sleeping so solidly always for more than 6 hours and reduced inflammation in my hands, I’m in it for the long haul!

And finally, I ordered some RX Bars to have around when we need a snack on the go that treats us well and tastes good. I really like the Coconut Chocolate one because it has chunks of chocolate in it – and THAT’s something I miss on Whole 30. The reason it is Whole 30 approved is because those chocolate chunks are unsweetened! I didn’t realize that until I tried just a nibble of the chocolate chunk in the bar – and it was just 100 percent cacao. But, it is embedded in a date bar, so the sweetness of the date bar makes all the sweetness your mouth needs with those unsweetened chocolate bits. Seriously, it’s genius. It tastes like a date/coconut bar with sweetened chocolate chips in it. They are pricey ($2 each), but we don’t eat them very often – just when we need something on the run that is very satisfying.

Here’s what I learned about myself today ~ or maybe I learned it about Whole 30: I still get to make the rules about me. 48 and I get to trust ourselves with decisions about me. The Whole 30 rules say you have to have a significant breakfast, and today I could have forced that and been miserable. The Whole 30 rules say don’t make date paste just to make desserts, but this evening I got to hand my daughter a bowl of cooked apples after they had made the kitchen smell great, and she loved every bite. All it was was two kinds of fruit and a sprinkle of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves boiled until the apples were soft. So, if that felt decadent for my faithful daughter, then I’m glad I made it. Because I’m still the mom, and I get to make decisions for us. Whole 30 is a tool for my health.