The Beginning of Forever: Whole30 Day12- Things I'm Learning

The other night I was congratulating Chase on making it through day 7, one whole week! His response was, "Can we just not talk about it.?"

Ok, I get it.

All I can say is that he loves me something fierce and he's also not a quitter. Overall I think we are managing pretty well. We've survived the moody days, and utter exhaustion from last weekend, which was actually rather intense. I am hopeful that our best days are yet to come. Even though it has taken time for our bodies to adjust, I have already seen improvements in our energy levels this week and in my digestive system. I haven't taken medicine in 13 days and my body seems to be adjusting better than expected! This may not sound like a -shout it from the roof tops- sorta thing, but if you know my history, it's definitely more like a -scream it from the mountains- celebration.

I'm thankful.

A few things I'm learning and admitting after (nearly) two weeks:

-Olive oil is a weekly purchase.

Do we appear oily? I think we've gone through more olive oil in the past two weeks, than our entire married life to date. One reason being that I'm making our own dressings and sauces. I guess we were getting some of that from the store bought dressings before, but I'm still amazed at how quickly the bottles are disappearing! It feels really good to have found my space back in the kitchen though. Even after this thing is all over, I hope to still try and make most of our dinners from scratch, with whole30 foods; which will inevitably mean, bring on the EVOO!

-Larabars are indeed like candy.

Oh my goodness.

I waited until day 5 of the whole30 to have my first larabar, and I'm sad I waited that long. I really do love them, especially with my black coffee. My favorite flavor so far is apple pie. I am a cinnamon and apple girl all the way, so the apple pie larabar was an easy first try, and it didn't disappoint. You could be reading this and think I'm crazy for likening larabars to candy, but after going without any sugar (besides fruit) for almost two weeks, they really are the closest thing to candy I can find! Seeing that I'm so fond of these bars, and they aren't the cheapest thing to buy, I may attempt to make my own this weekend. A couple of friends shared their success in making homemade bars last night, and it was just the thing I needed to give it a try.

Disclaimer: If I start to smell like pureed dates, forgive me, but at least you'll know my tummy is happy and pockets full. I'll share too!

-Fruit infused water is delicious.

Why oh why have I neglected to drink my water like this for so long?!? Sure I will put a lemon or lime in my water every once in a great while, but why not strawberries, blueberries, oranges, watermelon, mint, cucumber, basil, raspberries and more? I'm loving my water and so are my taste buds. I do realize that I may be extra excited to have fruit infused water, because plain water is my one and only other drink of choice at the moment; but I think this will be one of those ongoing life changes for me post whole30. As you can see I'm starting small with the lifestyle changes, but a change is a change no matter how small, right?

-Shh..We are having ice-cream.

Ok, so let me explain. I know in the whole30 book it talks about not trying to recreate processed foods with whole30 compliant ingredients, but we cheated and it feels good! Chase finished up his last class for the summer last week and I really wanted to celebrate him and his accomplishment, especially since he pushed through the exam while we were on day 6. (detox drowsiness) So I went off the beaten path and made ice-cream. If you are on the whole30 right now and don't find this helpful for your journey, please skip through this next part, because I am about to tell you how to make this celebratory ice-cream. :)

Ingredients: frozen bananas, cashew butter, and coconut milk.

Throw them all in the blender and blend together until combined and the consistency of soft-serve. I added a little bit of cinnamon to mine, and Chase gave it a thumbs up, so it must be good right? Either that, or he loves me more than I realize!

I guess this is the part where I share a few photos from my kitchen this week for your own inspiration!

Enjoy.