If you want to eat healthier, it usually means cooking more. It’s the “high maintenance” aspect of any kind of program, whether it be paleo, Whole 30, Weight Watchers, AIP or whatever. Unless you are willing to pay top dollar to have quality food made for you (there are now many food delivery services that cater to special diets) or be willing to eat the same boring foods all the time (Trader Joe’s turkey burgers, anyone?), you have to cook.
I went to the library and checked out a book by the author of one of my favorite paleo cooking sites, Nomnom Paleo and a second book that looked interesting.
For the first day of the sugar detox, I had
- Breakfast: 3 eggs + half an avocado; black coffee
- Snack: 1 oz almonds
- Lunch: leftover spicy pork asparagus stir fry over broccoli rice
- Snack: 1 oz almonds
- Dinner: Instant Pot beef chili over cauliflower rice
- 2 cans Le Croix
Man, that’s a lot of protein! Other than that very obvious observation, I will note that the large, protein-intensive breakfast kept me full for a long time. Both the spicy pork stir fry and the beef chili were quite good and very easy to make.
Tomorrow, I will try and eat more veggies. I’m used to relying on fruit as both a snack and a source of fiber. I think I have to ramp up my green veggie game.
I can’t even get past the black coffee.
I think it’s hard to just turn on a dime. You need a mental onramp to these kinds of things. Remember, I’ve had a couple of weeks to think about it and commit to it.
One thing that makes this diet easier is to find ways to make home-cooked meals interesting (especially when your family goes out for Pho without you- I couldn’t think of any way to ensure no sugar added). I find that having plenty of sliced onions, chopped garlic, hot peppers, any fresh herb (I happen to have a never-ending supply of fresh oregano in my backyard) and ginger in the refrigerator ready to fry up and add to any protein. For this diet, I have a large container of baby spinach and spring mix on hand as well. That being said, I am glad that there is only three days of the strict part of the diet…
great ideas!