As much as it pains me to use that phrase, I think the time is right to just do it: stick the the PB way of eating for 30 days. I’m going to start this coming Monday. I’ve been slowly making changes in my eating for the past three weeks and I think I’m ready to try for 100%. I knew I would try the 30 days, but wasn’t sure when I would start. I still think this is going to cost more in groceries, but I’m going to try to make it work.
What has nudged me into being ready is that the last few days I’ve let go of some of the principles I’ve been working on adopting — just becoming less focused. Yesterday was the worst. I wasn’t really prepared for dinner and we needed to eat earlier than usual. I wound up picking up some tortillas so we could have wraps. I ate one, and I felt fine physically, but for the rest of the night I couldn’t stop thinking about snacking – the first time since I’d started consciously shifting my diet that this has happened. I wound up eating another tortilla, some olives, about half a jar of spicy pepper rings, two glasses of wine and some chocolate. It was ridiculous, and I felt totally out of control. At one point I was standing in front of the fridge and actually said out loud, “Stop!”. And this morning on the scale, I was up, instead of the same or down. It’s probably just all the salt I ate, but still… not a good feeling.
I’ve also slacked on the veggie loading a bit and this will be a good way to be more mindful of that. Especially with summer and all its delicious produce on the way!
I have to say, though, it has been interesting so far… I was expecting low-carb flu and headaches, but so far, so good… it seems like as long as I eat enough protein at a meal, I’m less likely to get hungry between meals. Some of my clothes feel looser, so that’s a bonus, too.
Anyway, tomorrow night my husband and I have date night and have a gift certificate to a nice restaurant. I actually can’t remember the last time we’ve done this, so I’m looking forward to it. I see this as a treat and not a cheat, so I’m not making any deals with myself about what I’ll eat or won’t eat. We’ll just see.
Another reason I feel like I’m ready to commit is that I have noticed an improvement in my skin and I love that. Around the time that I started changing my diet, I started using a new moisturizer during the day and just straight jojoba oil on my face at night, so it’s hard to say for certain whether it’s the gluten/grains/sugar or the different skincare regime, but I’m thinking the diet it can’t hurt.
This 30 days will be tough. My husband isn’t on board with PB and he misses his carbs, so in the interests of having a happy partner there will still be starches on the menu, I’ll just be avoiding them.
So, my plan is to do daily posts of what I ate to keep myself accountable and have a record of what my diet is like. Hopefully that will allow me to find patterns of success (replicate good days!) or challenges that can be solved (maybe figure out why I was so hungry on a particular day). I guess I’ll post my official weigh-in and measurements, too.
Only one question: can I still eat chocolate and drink red wine on the 30-day challenge?
Primal in the 'Peg 
Yay for starting 30 days! Some scattered comments based on your post:
I don’t think it should cost more. Think of all the things you aren’t buying/eating. If you decide to stick with it, you might want to consider purging your pantry (that’s what they call it anyway) and you will see just how much stuff you won’t be buying in the future. We eat fairly simply (as in, I don’t make elaborate meals with lots of ingredients every day). Some days I like to do that, but not all the time. Just eating real food! I think you’ll eventually find that it’s not any more expensive. Of course, you have to work out what works best for you & your family.
Re: chocolate & red wine. I did while on my 30 days, but only 70% or higher cacao content chocolate. Much less sugar. Also it’s not like I ate/drank that every day or anything…but I did have it. It’s your call. Allowing yourself that might feel “better” since you are cutting out other sugars. I think that an improvement with your skin very well could be the fact that you’ve already cut back on sugar.
When I am tempted to get slack with it, I try hard to think about health in general and not the scale so much. I know that I for one used to highly underestimate the effect that what we eat has on us. It completely has HUGE effects. Negatively, food can harm (well, “food” that is), and positively it can heal. It is both amazing and scary. There are first-hand accounts of people eliminating arthritis & high blood pressure, reducing autism symptoms, and even reversing major health conditions like diabetes & ALS by cutting grains & sugar…and conversely the average age for stroke, diabetes, heart disease and dementia is rapidly approaching 30 years old. My friend Carrie interned this past semester in a brain rehab clinic for her speech path. degree, and the supervisor she had has been working with stroke victims for 20 years. She said the average age for stroke used to be 50-60, 20 years ago, and now it’s 30. 30!!!! Freaky! She (and I) is convinced it’s due to diet/lifestyle. Besides it’s what’s going on inside that counts. A person can look skinny/fit and be so sick inside!!
I think you being ok with your husband still having his carbs is the right move for now. He’s not doing the 30 days…he can eat them! But you don’t have to. Doing a whole-household switch is/certainly would be a big deal, and obviously you don’t want to be fighting over this right now.
In my experience, I’ve had to learn the hard way that “hunger”/urge to snack isn’t always (and OFTEN is not!) real hunger. It is so often NOT even a physical issue but a boredom/restlessness/emotional issue. So while it’s not terrible to snack if it’s a primal snack, it’s often still quite unnecessary eating (for me I mean)…but quite honestly PB eating is a great tool. The closer I stick to it (and really be sure to eat enough at mealtimes etc), the more I am totally satisfied between meals and have no hunger/urges to snack. But the more that I eat carbs/sugar, the more insatiable I am. So, it just feels better on so many levels to stick with PB.
I’m sure that you will feel/notice it once you cut out those things more strictly for 30 days. You might feel the low-carb flu, but remember, you do have to eat fat. This is important because you’ll be creating the bio. process of switching from sugar-burning for energy to fat-burning for energy. If you don’t eat enough fat (and protein of course) you WILL feel hungry and might get low-carb flu worse than otherwise.
Do everything you can to stick with it for these 30 days. It will be really neat to see what changes there are. I know you can totally do it!
Ok! Off to bed 🙂