Feeding the People {two weeks of whole family, Whole30 dinners}

I’ve been mentally wrestling with my weight, health, and physical fitness since recovering from emergency gall bladder surgery in the fall of 2015. No matter the root (the delivery of my third baby in five years, turning 40, taking comfort in too many baked goods) I felt myself tiptoeing over the line from soft to plain old overweight, but to be honest, I just plain lacked the discipline to do something about it.

And then I saw the pictures from Mathaus’ graduation and guys, I about cried.

For three weeks, I pondered the best course of action. Yes, I started out wallowing in the misery of, “How have I managed to ignore this for so long?” but life has taught me that whys rarely drive me forward. After some digging through resources I’d considered previously, I landed on giving my body a hard restart through a Whole30. On July 1, I dove in headfirst. No fanfare. No real prep work. Just a determination to change my own personal habits.

See, here’s what I’ve learned about myself. It’s all about habits. I have a way of doing things, and I rarely change course. I often joke that momentum, not any real skill, is what keeps me organized and efficient. I find ruts comfortable, not confining. And that’s what keeps me right where I am, perfectly content in my known quantity.

But the known quantity isn’t working for me anymore. I am overweight. With the combination of my family history and personal background, that’s dangerous thing. My paternal grandparents, my mother, the bulk of my maternal relatives, and many of my paternal relatives have all had Type 2 diabetes. I’ve been diagnosed with gestational diabetes twice. Of the six children to whom I’ve given birth, only one of them weighed less than 9 pounds— which is a red flag risk factor for the development of Type 2 in the mother. I know all of this… and still, here I am.

Because habits. You would think that the two courses of required diabetes education would have made a dent, right? Well, can I be honest? What I learned in those laborious, hands-on training afternoons told me how to adapt. Did I learn about target carb levels, bedtime snacks, and balancing my blood sugar levels against the meds I was taking on board? Yep. I was told about portion size, and given a list of carb counts. I relied on pre-packaged snacks that told me exactly what the numbers were, because it seemed safer than figuring out whether this was half a small apple or that was half a small apple. I modified my favorite recipes with splenda and coconut sugar because I was told they were better for me. I was a great patient. I stuck to the plan religiously.

And still, I was frustrated that my blood sugar didn’t stay within prescribed limits. I slashed my carb allowance, and upped the meds, and limited the carbs some more, and added a new med, and guess what? Only delivering the baby ended the roller coaster. The minute the baby was out, I rewarded myself with the sugary treats I’d been only sampling in tiny portions since my diagnosis. And then… I moved on.

This is why I decided to do a Whole30: I can’t keep moving on. I can’t stay in my rut. I need to change my habits, and I need to do things different.

If you don’t know about Whole30, here are a few quick ground rules (there are more, but these are the biggies for me):

No sweeteners. That means no sugar, no sugar substitutes, no honey, no nothing. Period.
No grains. That means even those gluten-free baking blends are out of the question. No oats. No corn.
No legumes. Oh, my precious black beans, lentils, peanuts, chickpeas… how I miss you.
No alcohol. Not a biggie for me, but there you go.
No dairy. Zero. zip. Nada.
No processed foods. If it comes from the inside aisles of the grocery store, it’s probably a no. According to the Whole30 website: “Eat foods with very few ingredients, all pronounceable ingredients, or better yet, no ingredients listed at all because they’re whole and unprocessed.”

Interestingly, this hasn’t been as difficult as I thought it would be. By day 4, I realized that black coffee would not kill me. Seriously— black coffee. Guys, I didn’t even consider black coffee when I had gestational diabetes. Instead, I went with a low-carb imitation creamer and stevia. Guess what? It was awful. The minute my babies were born, I tossed it for my usual whole milk and sugar. Now here I am two weeks in thinking, “I’m not going back. This is a change I can embrace.” You have no idea how huge that is for me.

Another biggie for me is baking. Guys, if you know me at all you know that I love cooking, and I love baking. Gestational diabetes meant trying to sweeten my usual recipes (and new ones I stumbled on as I trolled Pinterest) with the “healthiest” alternative sweeteners I could find. But here’s the problem: I still craved sugar all the time. My tastes didn’t change; the habit hadn’t been altered. Instead, I was just finding other ways to feed the craving. Also, my threshold for “sweet” was high, and let’s not get into the idea of “deserving a treat” and rewarding myself with food. Half way through the month, and I made a batch of Grain, Dairy, & Sugar Free Banana Muffins sweetened only with ripe bananas for a breakfast on the go and whoa… they were sweet enough!

I had always heard that if you cut out sugar, you’d become more sensitive to the nuance of natural sweetness. Shockingly… it’s true.

Two weeks on an admittedly restrictive diet designed to make you truly think about your food has done what medical training, the prescribed diabetes diet, and pharmaceuticals could not. I’m changing my habits. I’m educating myself on how foods interact, what they do to my body, and what those unpronounceable preservatives and flavor enhancers are actually doing to blood sugar levels. (Even mainstream medical outlets are finally waking up to this.) If you need a reset, I can’t recommend Whole30 enough. If you think it’s impossible, think again. Although our family has avoided high fructose corn syrup and processed foods for years, I’m learning new skills in the kitchen and noticing beneficial changes in my body. And I’ve even been able to adapt our family meals without any negative feedback!

Which brings me (finally) to the purpose of this post. (You knew I’d get there eventually, right?) Two weeks worth of Whole30 meals with the whole family in mind. I’m sharing this in the hopes of making others see how truly easy it is to eat whole and healthy!

Feeding the People