Our first #RealFood30 meal: homemade granola, recipe will be coming up in a future post!
First of all, apologies for not getting this post up sooner. We started our 30-day challenge on March 14, but we’ve been in the no-cell-reception, no-wifi-zone bouldering area outside of Roy, New Mexico (which was AMAZING–more on this sweet spot in a later post). I, of course, should have planned ahead and gotten this post up before we were in the middle-of-nowhere, but…well…still working on that whole planning-ahead thing. Promise.
Last week I wrote about why we want to do the challenge, now here are our rules, so y’all can keep us honest.
The Absolutes:
- No gluten: no wheat, barley, or rye.
- No dairy: no cheese, no butter, no whey, no milk chocolate!
- No bread products, not even GF ones: no chips, no crackers, no tortillas, no baked goods. This is mostly because both Spenser and I love bread products and rely too heavily on them. When I buy a loaf of gluten-free bread, I end up eating it in 1-2 days flat. That’s pretty ridiculous.
- No soy: which includes soy byproducts such as soy lecithin, which means chocolate is going to be hard to find, but not impossible! Wondering what the heck soy lecithin is? Read more about the emulsifier that is found everywhere nowadays here.
- No energy drinks: no 5-hour energy, no Red Bull, and so on. Yes to coffee & tea.
- No soda
- No fake sugar, not even what you find in usual gum. Watch this when you get a chance. It’s not proof, but it’s information you should be aware of.
- No corn syrup.
- No sweets, no candy. Dark chocolate that is free of soy lecithin is allowed.
The Conditional:
- Organic fruits & veggies: will try to buy organic leafy greens such as kale, but we are realistic about the areas we frequent. Organic is sometimes just not an option. Neither of us believe that you need to eat everything organic, especially not items such as avocados and bananas that have their own protective layer. Ever heard of the Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen? Check out the list here. What you should and shouldn’t buy organic might surprise you.
- GMO: stay away as much as possible for two reasons: one, the jury is still out on the effects genetically modified foods have our on bodies; two, we don’t want to support corporations like Monsanto if we don’t have to. If you’re into infographics, here’s one on GMOs.
- Meat: consumption will be greatly reduced. We are sticking to only grass-fed beef, nitrate-free bacon, and no chicken unless we know where it came from, Portlandia-style (I’m mostly kidding about this, but you should still see video below if you don’t know what I’m referring to). There’s a few reasons for this- firstly, we want our focus to be eating fruits and vegetables for health reasons; secondly, most beef and poultry is fed wheat because it is cheap. This may (or may not) affect my Celiac Disease, but there’s only one way to find out; thirdly, meat is expensive and we spend too much money on it.
- Fish: only herbivorous fish because of Mercury bioaccumulation. Fish that is raised appropriately based on the kind, ex: farmed tilapia is OK, farmed salmon is NOT. Seafoodwatch.org is the go-to resource to find out what sea creatures you should and shouldn’t eat.
- Eating out: we will never eat out, just the two of us (yikes!). If we are going to go out with friends or for business, we will stick to salads (unless of course we can find something else on the menu that fits all of the above criteria). Unless it’s a place where we can find out every ingredient in the dressing, we will bring our own. This one is probably going to be the toughest to stick to, but we’re gonna do it!
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Don’t worry, we’re still going to have fun. Alcohol is allowed, but will be greatly limited. Spenser has half a bottle of whiskey that he’s sticking to, and I’ve never been much of a drinker. No beer for the boy.
Did I also mention we both have an innate fear of commitment? Ahem, we’ve been living on the road for over 2 years, if that wasn’t already a hint. So, we’re committing. It feels good, it feels right. It feels like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders, the nagging guilt of eating what I know, deep down, I shouldn’t, has been slowly eating away at my soul. I’m being dramatic, but if I could prove I had a soul, it would be very upset with how I’ve been treating it. Also, we’re not much for planning- again, probably pretty obvious by how we live our lives. This will be a challenge of the truest sort. It’s time to start planning every meal!
We don’t want to unrealistic, but we are done using on-the-road excuse to feed our addiction. Most of us have food addictions and they’re difficult to come to terms with. We want to break the cycle- we want to be in control of our cravings, instead of letting our cravings control us.
After 30 days, on April 13, we will decide what we want to start reincorporating. Hopefully we’ll have enough will power to do it properly- only adding one thing at a time to the diet to figure out what the make-us-feel-like-crap culprits are.
Alright, that’s all for now, folks!
What do you think? Are we crazy? Have you ever tried something like this before?
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