The Homestead

So, what have the rest of us been doing while Davan is off on her adventure?  Well, a lot of the usual.  Anthony, Ranger and I went to a large off leash dog area for a hike after dropping Davan off at the airport.  There have been bike rides by various people.  I've gone to my martial arts classes regularly.  I'm walking the dog a lot.  The big thing I'm doing, though, is doing a 10 foods for 10 day challenge.  I'd been going to do it for two weeks, but there was this Groundhog's Day party on one end and Valentine's Day on the other, so there it is.  Now that I'm four days into it, I'm thinking 10 days is plenty long.

I got the idea from this book, which I have not really read.  I came across a review about this book somewhere.  I'm pretty sure it was a blog.  However, I no longer remember where.  I tried to find it.  Our library doesn't have it.  Powell's doesn't have it.  I found out what I could online, including her list of 7 foods.  You see, she does a different theme each month, looking to cut out excess.  One month, it's food.  She decides to eat 7 foods for a month.

Here's her list, if you're curious:

chicken
eggs
whole wheat bread
spinach
avacados
sweet potatoes
apples

I became enthralled with doing something like this.  I did, eventually, find the book at Barnes and Noble, but I only read the first chapter.  Okay, more like skimmed, even.  Still, I really wanted to see if I could do something like this.  I met some resistance from Davan, though, who wouldn't have stopped me, but was definitely not on board and not real excited about me doing it, either.  With her off in Switzerland, I decided to give it a go.

I decided on 10.  I'm wild like that.  Here's my list:

quinoa
chickpeas
tofu
kale
broccoli
apples
clementines
onions
avacado
potatoes

Oh, and I do allow seasonings and cooking spray.  I believe Jen did salt, pepper and cooking spray, but I could be wrong on that.

I started on Sunday.  It's certainly a challenge.  I dropped weight that first day, but have been holding steady from there.  I feel hungry often, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.  It's nice to be hungry for meals.  I have food cravings and, for the most part, these aren't healthy foods I'm craving.  It's more like pizza and cookies.  I do really want bread - whole wheat would be great! - so it's not all junk food I crave. 

Mostly, though, I think my body is just rebelling from the lack of sugar.  I'm an addict when it comes to sugar and I know it.  I've stayed away from sugar before, but I did eat other types of sweeteners.  Even not having the sugar helped.  I've done six weeks of eating only fruits, veggies, beans, whole grains and raw nuts.  I felt similar then as now.

From the start of the year, I've been logging food and exercise over at My Fitness Pal.  I'm not really a huge believer in calorie counting.  I feel that a better system is to eat whole foods until satiated, but I haven't been doing a great job of doing that lately, so I talked Anthony, my mom and my Aunt Caren all into making a community for ourselves on My Fitness Pal.  It's making me more aware of what I'm eating.  I usually make somewhat better choices because it's so hard to get myself to log the foods that I wish I hadn't eaten.  It has gotten me to move more, when I might otherwise sit on the couch, as well, to even out the calorie balance.

Anyway, I tell you this because I've continued to log through these days of 10 foods and, I have to say, I'm getting more nutrition from my food than I was prior to starting the challenge.  I'm getting 100% of both calcium and iron, which I usually supplement.  I always do well on the others that My Fitness Pal tracks - which would be Vitamin A and C. 

Here I am at the end of day 4.  Right now I feel full, but a little headachy, which, I have to be honest, I've been experiencing these last two days off and on.  I'm attributing it to detoxing.  I'm holding firm.  I will be glad when I'm done.