In January 2013 I completed my first Whole30. By the end of the first week I noticed the bumps started to clear. My skin felt soft, even. I had never felt it this way. Once the 30 days was up I floundered and we had a lot going on that kept me from focusing on it again. Until today.
A month ago my husband bought me (as requested) The Skintervention Guide. I went through it and some of it I knew already but it had lots more that I didn't know. It answered some of my questions (so THAT'S why the oil cleansing method didn't work for me the last two times I tried) and I was able to come up with a plan. I took notes and printed it out and have it on the wall next to my sink.
About a week and a half ago I quit using Proactiv and started the OCM program. I've started to get larger pimples, and they hurt. I kept pushing off the food portion knowing in the back of my head I needed to get on it in order for this to work. Today I'm on it. I've been using my inhaler almost every 4-6 hours for the last 3 weeks. My asthma had vanished on my Whole30, too, after it randomly came back in November after a multi-year hiatus. I am looking forward to relief. Now that I have more on my plate need the clear mind I had in January. I was focused and energetic.
Today is Day 1.
I won't always take pictures of my meals (I might from time to time though) but it is important for me to be accountable somewhere and hell, maybe this will help someone! I'm not sure how to tread with posting how I am following the Skintervention guide. Because of that I won't post my entire plan but I'll post bits and pieces. I have also been following this series and I'm working on making a month of freezer meals for my family in order to follow it with success. That won't be until mid-April as we've got a wedding to attend which I can at least be mostly paleo compliant at.
For breakfast I am a fan of reheating leftover vegetables to have with a freshly cooked protein. I usually scramble a couple of eggs in the fat of my choice (butter/ghee, olive oil, or coconut oil) or brown some sausage patties. I do like the Japanese style of serving salmon for breakfast where you cut it into portions, salt it, wrap it up and put it in the fridge then sear it stovetop in the morning.
For lunch I am enjoying a simple salad of mixed greens, hearts of palm, avocado, tomatoes, red onion, pine nuts with lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper as the dressing. With it I will include either leftover protein (great if I've made a whole chicken in the oven or crock pot) or canned sardines, tuna, or salmon.
Utilizing leftovers and/or keeping it simple on breakfast and lunch make dinner easier for me to make by either combining leftovers to make something (like a batch of grilled chicken thighs into a stir fry, or Well Fed's pad thai, or our own favorite Arroz con Pollo). I like to buy a whole chicken and two pounds of ground beef from my farmer and purchase chicken thighs from the store. Purchasing pre-cut chicken parts any other way is too cost-prohibitive and I don't have the knife skills or time at the moment to do it myself. Some of our favorite whole chicken recipes include Grilled Spatchcocked Chicken, this method for stretching a chicken to make stock and 2-3 meals (the creamy chicken skillet recipe there is *awesome*), and a whole roasted chicken. Sometimes I will cut the legs/thighs off a whole chicken, separate them, season with salt/pepper/garlic powder and bake in the oven at 375 for 30 minutes or so, then use the breast cubed for a curry or kebabs or pan-fried. Then I can throw the carcass into a pot for stock easily. The ground beef makes for great chili (my husband makes his own but I love this one when I'm going beanless as it has more texture to it), tacos with your own seasoning (I haven't tried using lettuce as a shell yet but I'm going to), meatballs (though I typically like ground lamb for my meatballs these days), or a bolognese sauce over spaghetti squash or zucchini noodles.
I also throw a few non-paleo meals in there for the rest of my family members because, hey, we're transitioning. I have tried the shove it town their throats version and it. does. not. work. They're down with most paleofied baked goods I make and that is the majority of our transition now. The kids love their beans and rice so for now they get to keep it. It's still way better than they used to eat. I can sneak in a sofrito of tomatoes, onions, garlic, bell pepper and sometimes some carrot, celery and/or spinach/swiss chard for rice or lentils. I make "smoothie popsicles" for my son with coconut milk or coconut kefir, coconut water if I have it, bananas, wild blueberries (we love the giant 4 lb bags you can get at Costco), chia seeds, pepitas, spinach and cocoa powder (from Wilderness Family Naturals). Sometimes we use raw dairy or organic whole milk yogurt instead. I am working on applesauce muffins and trying to see what else I can make that will satisfy their palates until the transition is through and they are brave enough to try new things with a palate that isn't saturated with refined sugar and too much sodium.
A sample of what my kids ate today:
Daughter, 6 years old: Orange dark chocolate chip scone, toast (Udi's GF bread) with Kerrygold butter and fruit-sweetened jelly, frozen peas, grilled cheese sandwich with Udi's bread
Son, 3 years old: Two servings of yogurt (plain!), half of an apple, half of a banana, a few bites of an orange dark chocolate chip scone, the remaining bits of our Chex Rice cereal
Dinner tonight will feature baked chicken legs/thighs with fried potatoes in lard (ketchup for the husband/kids, with agave, which is refined but is better than sugar IMO) and leftover veggies for me.
I should take a moment to say that I am no wordsmith and I have never considered myself a writer. My posts can be erratic at times and jump quickly from subject to subject mid-paragraph with no transition. I don't remember the rules of English composition. This is a nice outlet, though, and I am hoping that the information I put out here will help someone the way so many other blogs have helped me. I will have to put a disclaimer up somewhere. ;)
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