Whole 30 - Done!!!

30 days.

30 days of:
No gluten
No sugar
No dairy
No grains
No legumes (beans, lentils, quinoa (it is a pseudo-grain)..

=No fun!

haha!Just kidding (kinda!)

Well, I survived the Whole 30 program (www.whole30.com). I have to say it was about 90% willpower. It actually was REALLY good that I did the raw and that other stuff beforehand, because it was actually a good transition because I got excited about having cooked foods again!!!! Luckily, I had good timing (and I had foresight to this) in that my social calender wasn't too too crazy AND it would end just in time for Easter and my birthday, he he.

Overall, it was good to do it. I felt I definitely got more of an awareness of what NOT to eat and felt I had a steady mood, felt relatively peaceful, felt my skin was good, and I guess I can say 'lighter.' I would say by week 1 through the rest of it, I felt the same. I didn't have some kind of amazing revelation that you sometimes read about. I honestly didn't even think I lost weight (not really my intention, my intention was just to be Clean and feel good) and at one point thought i was gaining weight because I was snacking a lot on dried fruit and nuts.

                                     

Homemade almont, cashew, hazelnut and walnut butter!

Alas, I ended up losing 5 lbs, of which now almost a week later I've felt I've gained it back. he he. Darn Easter and a continued bday week! hahah!

What did I eat? A LOT of greens!

I combined the above 3 with tuna (okay fine, that I admit was from a can.... soaked in only water!) and made a nice tuna salad with that!

                                                 

Although I have countless memories of my mom sitting talking on the phone and picking out the little kernels of the pomegranate, I was buying mine already all done and ready. I finally decided to bite the bullet after a friend told me the technique of cutting them in half, putting them upside down in water for 30 or so min, and then it was easy breezy to pick out the kernels! Look how much I got out of just 2 pomegranates! Ahh.. the simple pleasures of life :-) 

Totally random, but this W30 (as I like to abbreviate it) is ALL about meat and protein, including pork. Although I had to go to the "Non-Muslims" section of the grocery store to get pork (yes, they do still sell it here), meaning prosciutto, I then could make a recipe I found for asparagus porkitos, basically you wrap the prosciutto around the asparagus, bake it for 10-15 minutes after glazing it with some oil, and although a wee bit salty for my taste, it actually came out pretty nice! A nice little snack! Healthy/ Well, I'm ?? about that!

Not so exciting to others, but I as I am a non-cook, just slicing or cutting pumpkin and putting spices on it was good enough for me!!! I added that to my salads.

So the above 3 pics are.... yes, rotisserie chicken. I somehow got this MEGA craving for it one week and it ended up being awesome because it could become a quick and healthy lunch/dinner. I do NOT like the skin of chicken anyway, so I removed that and shredded the chicken with my hands. Then...

Quickly (literally 5-10 seconds), food processed mushrooms (I am still obsessed with my new gadget)...

Food processed some peppers....

Then sauteed all of them together!

Wa la! A delicious meal! 

This was a bit more time consuming: I tried to use this fry making piece of my famous food processor, but instead of potato, was making sweet potato fries. It came out okay but to add some flavor, spiced it up with Paprika seasoning... and basically overdid it a bit. It was HOT HOT HOT! :-) 

I got into roasting again and was quite proud of my roasting of veggies! hehe!

A salad example

More roasted veggies

 Another salad example pre mixing it up!

My famous chia pudding, quick and easy!!!

Sooo... as you see, mostly salads and roasted veggies and some protein in the mix. 

When I finished it was a bit anti-climactic because the friend I was doing it with CHEATED like day 25 (don't get me started) and finishing on my own wasn't as exciting.

The post-detox has been quite a ride. At first I slowly brought "new" foods into my diet.... lentil soup (delish!), um... some sweets, hehe. I still felt okay. THEN over the weekend had some gatherings and it ALL went downhill. One day I overdid it and pretty much re-introduced EVERYTHING all in one sitting. Boy, was my "iron stomach" NOT happy! The whole next day I not only was quesy and had diarrhea (sorry, TMI), but felt nautious the whole day. Blah. So def lesson learned. Although they say it's the WORST thing to yo-yo with eating, I'm doing just that. Now I've kinda been sloppy with eating (again, Easter goodies, bday week) and come May 1st will start Clean eating. I'm not necessarily going to go on a program, but just be conscious and eat healthy. I DO feel (unfortunately) diary and gluten are NOT good for me (helloooo bloating!), and as much as possible, will try and avoid it.

This W30 was a true test of willpower and I'm happy and proud I did it. I think once I year I will try and do that, just to cleanse my system.

Well, I think that may be enough for food blog entries. I 'in-shallah' (as they say here, 'god willing' literally, but more like 'hopefully' will have a new topic for my next entry!!

Happy Easter and April!!!