Food has always been a mainstay in my life. Of course, we all have to eat to survive, but
for me, my adoration of food goes way beyond that. Food is and has always been ‘my happy place’
and cooking my downtime at the end of the day.
But, that love of food and everything associated with it can get you in
a bind calorie wise and on your waistline, IF you don’t make the right
choices. In an effort to eat healthier
and lose a few pounds that have gradually added on, my middle daughter Bethany suggested
a program called Whole30 which truly has changed the way I look at food and how
it affects me.
Whole 30 is based on the premise that in order to know how food
affects you and your body, you’ll limit grains, processed sugar, no alcohol, no
dairy, and legumes (beans of any kind)….and guess what…you can do this. We did and we lived to tell the tale!
Prepping as part of the Whole30 was
essential and having a buddy like my Bethany to motivate and keep me on track,
along with preparing meals was a win, win as well. She is blessed with uber organizational
skills and a little OCD…all traits that I must some extent, but not near her
level. I used to tell her she got all
this straight from my mom.
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My Bethany, middle daughter…aka motivator and
meal prepper on our Whole30 journey!
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A good week before we started making sure that for the Whole30
program to be successful for us that our kitchen was stocked with compliant
foods like fresh vegetables, canned foods, and oils that we would use to cook
with. I will admit going a little
overboard on ingredients, but as I’ve shared before I love a good grocery
store. It’s my weakness and don't ever
go to a grocery store hungry like I often do!
So, first thing first - we bought the Whole 30
book off Amazon. We read
and then went back and read it again.
Bethany researched tasty recipes for every meal that she could meal prep
for us that were compliant from breakfasts to meals to snacks. We shopped both online and at our local
Brookshire’s grocery store as well as at Natural Grocers in our nearby
town. We gradually prepped our kitchen
and we bought more individual sized Gladware containers to store our left-over
meals in or those we prepped in advance to eat the next few days. And last, we prepped our family for the Whole30 adventure we were about to go on
so they could be supportive and help us along on our journey.
One main thing they tell you is to NOT start the Whole30program during the holidays, however blogging like I do and being an educator,
if I am going to share something with my readers, I want to have lived it. So, a week before Thanksgiving and a week
before I turned 50 and went on a family trip for it, we started Whole30.
Not ideal, but usually nothing in my life makes perfect sense…so we went
with it. Amazingly, it all worked out! Thanksgiving was wonderful for everyone in
our family enjoyed both the Whole30
compliant dishes for Bethany and me and then they ate our traditional calorie-laden veggies, rice, and dressing for my husband and other two girls. No one suffered because of our diet, but they
did learn to enjoy healthier meals that were full of flavor and not so hard on
your waistline.
So, as I write this post about our Whole30 lifestyle change, we want to
make sure what we print give attribution to the inspiration we found from the creators
of the program itself, to the fellow bloggers and nutritionist who shared their
recipes online, and to our family for supporting us through this past 30 days.
Wednesday 11/13/17 was the final day on the diet as far as the
30 days go, but we aren’t done yet. This began our slow, but sure
reintroduction of foods, oils, and flours to see just how these things affect
our body and yes I will drink a glass of wine first and to top it all off we
will weigh ourselves for the first time in 30 days! This lifestyle change, however, isn’t about the
weight you lose, but how you feel. I can
honestly say, I’ve never felt better, have more energy and my clothes haven’t
been looser in over a year. I can tell
without the scale that I’ve lost weight by just my buttons not being as tight
on my waist and my shirts, dresses, and jackets not being as tight around my
back. I sleep better, don’t snore nearly
as much and my joints in my legs and hips are feeling better every day. I hope you all enjoy my brutal honesty here...the struggle is real with weight gain.
So, join us. We’re going to help you get started. Bring your
family along slowly as we did. My
husband really enjoyed almost every meal and at least outside of lunch at the
Golden Corral buffet, did eat healthier at nights.
Check our
site by clicking here at The Ranch Kitchen to see all the recipes we’ve shared
to date under our new tab under the recipe tab at the bottom titled Whole30.
We’ve included all our favorite and are adding more every day. Our plan
is to continue adding to these recipes even after we finished our Whole30 – 30 days to incorporate
healthier eating and compliant recipes in our lives. As always, you can also help us and add your own recipes by creating a login and becoming a ‘Friend of the The RanchKitchen’, and place your own recipes on the site. All recipes are also Gluten Free and diabetic
friendly, so it’s a win, win for people who have food allergies that may
adversely affect them.
For this first posting on the Whole30, see their list below of the
do’s and don’ts on their site by clicking here. Scan over the foods, spices, oils, and books
you’ll need to get started and join us!
It’s not a diet, it’s a lifestyle change! You got this.
There are tougher things in life than this. Every time you think, I can’t do this, think
of tougher things you’ve gone through or seen others suffer through. This is a
change to make you a healthier, happier and more aware of what goes in your
body. There is just one you and YOU are
the only ones who can truly change your life for the better.
Go for it…we will help you! Tomorrow we will have a list of compliant recipes and a meal plan full of delicious meals and snacks here on The Ranch Kitchen blog and recipe site for your first week. Follow us and you can even add your own recipes to our site as we hopefully go on this journey together!
Plan to start January 2nd so you can enjoy your black-eyed peas for a prosperous New Year! You've got this..we promise!
Let’s make 2018 the year we are
all healthier, happier and on the road to living longer lives because we made
it happen!
Alise and Bethany
The Ranch Kitchen
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