21 Day Sugar Detox - Day 11 - Halfway There!

Day 11, the halfway point, only 10 days to go!  This is immediately what I thought of when I woke up this morning:

Yes, I'm a huge nerd.  If you haven't figured that out yet, let the above cat picture serve as proof.  At any rate, I can't believe I've lasted this long.  It's been tough at times, especially when I want a Starbucks Cheese Danish or a drink at the end of a long day. What's helped is positive self-talk.  Self-talk is basically just talking to yourself, checking in with YOU.

What I'm saying is, you've got to constantly remind yourself why you're making changes or you'll lose the motivation to follow through.  That's Lesson #10 by the way.

Also, yesterday and today I used my "1 fruit" allowance for my breakfast because I didn't have anything else for breakfast.  I had a green tipped banana today and 2 hours later I was already hungry.  I still had 2 hours to go until I could eat lunch if I didn't want to get sick like on Monday, so I decided to sip on some herbal tea - caffeine free, I checked! - which helped.  Plus I had to go grocery shopping for some stuff tonight before I went home, including food for breakfasts, so it was an even longer wait til I could eat.  But I did eat my leftover beef & broccoli and it was actually a little too much food, whoops!

I have $200 for groceries for the rest of the month, so I've got to make this work.  That means making some decisions about whether to get organic or pasture-fed and what I can live with eating conventional.  In an ideal world, I would definitely only eat:

• Organic dairy - conventional dairy is full of antibiotics and hormones, and the livestock it comes from is fed GMO feed;
• Organic, pastured meat - for the same reasons as organic dairy;
• No products containing corn, soy, or canola, because they are usually GMO;
• Organic produce when it matters (think the Clean Fifteen and the Dirty Dozen); and
•  no chemical additives or artificial sweeteners - if you can't pronounce it and/or it sounds like something that came from your high school chemistry class, you probably don't want to eat it either.

More about why these types of food matter in this post.  Unfortunately, this is just not possible with a realistic grocery budget for the average household. I also have some "specialty" items I need (e.g. coconut aminos) that I can't get at my usual store, but I have resolved not to spend a cent more than necessary at Whole Foods.  I made the decision to get the majority of my groceries tonight at Tom Thumb then make the stop at Whole Foods tomorrow.  We're getting our meat at Sam's this weekend.

I have to tell you, I got a LOT of food for about half the price of my massive Whole Foods haul at the beginning of this month.  I hardly bought anything organic because I have to look at my bottom line, which is that I can eat grass-fed, organic everything and have enough food for 5 days and then have to eat rice and pbjs for the rest of the month, completely undoing the good my detox has done, or I can do the best with what I've got and buy the not organic produce and not grass-fed meat.  I've said this before and I'll say it again - do the best with what you have.  Don't let people who might get judgy because you didn't buy organic this and grass-fed that make you feel bad.  You're doing great with any efforts you make!  Also, I got a good deal on asparagus, and I have a specific mug that fits a bundle of asparagus perfectly so I use it to help my asparagus keep longer:

I used to have this mug at my old job, but I'm in a much bigger company now, and I don't think some of the people with more delicate sensibilities would put up with my awesome mug.

I got some "weird" food things I was surprised to find at my regular store, including a kombucha knock off (same ingredients) and chia seeds.  Win!  I finally decided to buy some vanilla beans. DANG they are expensive.  I should have ordered off of Amazon.  This is what I got instead:

Each of those containers was $5.29 and each of them contains ONE vanilla bean.  The other option at the store cost a bit more.  The only good thing that came out of buying these is that it was buy 2 get 1 free, and so I got another spice I needed to restock for free.

Also before the work day was over, we all got an email saying that we would be celebrating January birthdays tomorrow with catered pies (one of my favorite of all desserts) and cake.  I am feeling a bit crestfallen because I'm afraid someone might point out that I'm not eating any birthday foods, and well I've been craving something pastry-ish LIKE PIE.

I want this.  All of it.  RULL BAD.

My resolve to not mess up is pretty strong, but I worry that anything I eat won't be satisfying because I'll just be thinking about eating tons of pie.  At least I know in advance so I can sort of mentally prepare.  Hopefully I can just stick to my work and avoid the kitchen.

One thing I forgot to mention yesterday is the portion sizes I've been eating.  Mostly I stick to one serving of food.  What I'm saying is, if I cook 4 chicken breasts, I don't chow down 2 of them, I just eat one, with some of whatever side I've concocted.  In the past, I'd eat that 2nd one.  I'd frequently make large meals and then eat more than my share instead of saving leftovers.  It wasn't good.  It was like I just couldn't be satisfied.  I think it might've had to do with the fact that I was trying to avoid fat at every turn, when fat actually increases satiety!  So I'm not saying go eat half a container of peanut butter or something, but fat isn't all evil.  Especially when it's not paired with 20 grams of sugar, because the sugar will win that battle my friend, and you'll just keep on eating.

Well onto my day right?  I got a little tired today, but otherwise it was another good day without heartburn, bloating, grossness.  My skin has been doing well although a bit dry which may have something to do with the weather.  Also, since I've started this detox, I've been thirsty a lot.  So I drink a LOT of water, which is fine since I like water.

Tonight I made my first recipe out of the 21 DSD companion cookbook.  The original book has 90 recipes in it, and some are repeated in the cookbook, but overall they are mostly new recipes.  I made "Salmon with Creamy Tzatziki Sauce & Dill Carrots."  This recipe didn't take too long to prepare and cook which was welcome since I got home late.  I did set off our VERY loud smoke detectors though (you broil the salmon which creates a lot of smoke).  I used thawed frozen salmon.  Like I said - you do the best with what you have!

I lined my baking sheet with foil because the last few things I've made on my baking sheets from the 21DSD book has really caused a lot of trouble in the cleaning department.  I am sick of scrubbing and soaking and scrubbing, so hello foil, my new best friend.  The carrot portion of this recipe - double it.  You will not have enough if you follow the recipe as written for leftovers, especially if you're feeding two people.  The tzatziki sauce, while watery, tasted really good.  Here's the final result:

See those carrots?  That's the whole recipe and I ate them all; no leftovers for tomorrow.  They were DELICIOUS.  I want more.  Lots more.  Good thing carrots are cheap.  The salmon was perfectly cooked.  I'd never broiled salmon (or any fish) before, but wow, it was perfect.  New skill learned!  Speaking of skills, I do have some criticisms of the books in that department, which I'll discuss at the end of my detox. 

So hopefully it's all downhill from here!  If you'd like a detailed list of all that I bought at the store or certain product suggestions, comment below.