So, I survived my #30 day challenge! Was I perfect? Not so much. The challenge was to not have a sip of alcohol, any pasta, or really anything white.
But wasn't the goal. The goal was to was to break the dependancy of, and automated favouring towards, some of the junk in my life. It was to give me a chance to breathe and understand what my body wanted and when (by giving up my tendency to give in).
Did I succeed? Yes. I found new culinary delights, I stopped choosing sandwiches and pasta automatically, and I added soup/salad/and beans as a staple of my diet. I was able to really moderate what I was eating and have a lot of variety. I'm now more comfortable knowing when I'm hungry, just wanting something to eat, or upset - and what to do about it.
I was able to get a clear look at my body and noticed how happy we are when we're moving! So I started moving more. Another very interesting change was that I started taking the time to just think. It was like when I stopped clogging myself with junk, I could really listen to myself.
Let's recap.
Alcohol - I lasted about 10 days. It was too tempting to have some homemade lemoncello made from Sicilian oranges that my student carefully prepared for me. I managed to keep wine for the weekends, and had just a few glasses over appetizers with my friends. I counted 4 bottles of wine in the entirety of January, which was an improvement over the debauchery of December (Christmas/New Years).
Pasta - I managed to drastically reduce my pasta intake. I used to have it for dinner almost every night. During December I reduced my intake from 110g to 70g, and so breaking my pasta habit for dinner was the next thing I did. You should never have pasta for dinner. Only for lunch.
Soup - I am a fan of soup! I made at least 4 different kinds of soups and had soup for lunch, soup for dinner, soup, soup, soup. Soup.
Sugar - To be honest, I'm not addicted to sugar the way my Italian friends are. I can pass up Nutella and an occasional brioche. What I did discover though, was that the 2-3 cups of espresso I had a day contained a lot of sugar. Arguably, added sugar in espresso was the hardest habit to break. I slowly replaced the sugar with milk (the way I have my coffee in Canada), and then took the milk out altogether.
I also took out processed sugars: tomato sauce, processed cheese, sliced bread, crackers, flavoured yogurts, chocolate, frozen pizza, and ice cream.
What I couldn't pass up was a slice of my neighbours homemade chocolate cake.
Meals - The whole concept of the challenge was to challenge the way I think about food. Namely, to stop automatically turning to junk food if I had a hard day, or was in a rush. In this way I've accomplished my goal. I started eating smaller portions, and moving around more made digestion easier. I noticed that when I ate late and didn't move, the food wouldn't move and this would cause me to feel discomfort - which I mistakenly identified as hunger! A few times going to bed with a "hungry" feeling made me realize I wasn't hungry at all.
Snack - I snack a lot less now.
Week 1 -
During the first week of the challenge I became obsessed with vegetables, adding them to everything until I had at least 10 servings a day. I knew that I was doing something wrong when I called my mom, miserable because my stomach had expanded about 3 sizes!
"But mom, I haven't had any white carbs. Just broccoli, pepper, chickpeas… and olive oil. For lunch? I had spinach and beans. What's wrong with me!?"
Go ahead and google "Fruits and vegetables that give you gas." That's right, all of those. That was a fun few days.
My mom laughed at my tendency to go overboard and gently reminded me that Rome wasn't built in a day and so I don't need to eat every single vegetable I see.
Week 2 -
I went back to work from the Christmas holidays. This is where the real challenge happened. I have to admit that I fell back into buying focaccia just because it doesn't contain sugar.
Focaccia, the wonder carb is a slow-sugar releasing bread that makes you feel full for longer.
I also sipped some delicious vino.
Week 3 -
This week was amazing busy at work, and so my blog suffered. I missed taking some pictures and for that I'm sad, because I will never really know what I ate.
The good news is that I discovered that soup only takes about 20 minutes to make. Now, when it's dark outside, and cold, and wet, I no longer crave warm pasta but warm soup instead.
Week 4 -
With the challenge ending just as quickly as it started, I finally had a chance to reflect on some of the changes that I had been able to make. I noticed that my portions were a lot smaller, and that (whole wheat/semolina) pasta went from almost every night, to a few times a week at lunch (in a salad or soup).
I noticed that my snacks and mindless eating went down (once I knew that it would be posted on the internet). When I was peckish, I was able to nibble on plain yogurt, walnuts, and pieces of raw pepper instead.
I also lost about 7 lbs and got back into pre-Christmas weight.
I would recommend this challenge to someone who is looking for a way to force themselves into a different state of mind. Start preparing a week before, in order to know what you will eat if you need a snack or a quick meal. Catch yourself when you start to mindlessly eat and make a plan for how to cope with your challenge.
And if you're tempted with some homemade lemoncello a week in… drink it! Don't be a martyr. Just get directly back on the horse (go for a walk, hike, bike) and keep going!
But where does that even come from? Why do we feel like we need to have so much, be so much, do so much? 