We're doing what? Holy crap!

As Jason said in his post, we're going to be doing this Whole30 detox diet for the next month on the advice of his physician. Partly I'm hoping to lose a little weight by cutting out a lot of carbs and partly I'm excited about investigating possible food sensitivities (gluten, dairy) that I've always wondered about but never examined.

If you're interested in this diet, just google whole30. Essentially we have to eliminate dairy products, gluten, sugar, additives and alcohol from our diet for 30 days. 30 days allows the body to heal from any inflammation caused by food sensitivities and also (hopefully) will prompt us to establish some new, improved eating habits.

I'm having huge anxiety about this, partly because some of my eating is habitual. My breakfasts in particular are going to be completely upended on this plan. At least I like eggs. People who don't like eggs have a real challenge with morning protein. But I will REALLY miss my toast and tortillas (my usual egg accompaniments) and my smoothies. Maybe I can figure out how to make a smoothie with almond milk...

I'm also having anxiety because alcohol is my relaxer and work has been extremely stressful recently. I will have to plan carefully and make sure I have other options for letting go of a bad day instead of just popping open a beer.

And I'm not big on meal-planning and grocery shopping, and this diet will require a lot of both. When your mainstays are taken away (in my case, pasta and potatoes!), it's a lot more work to figure out how you're going to feed yourself. But hopefully after 30 days of this I'll have better skills in this area.

My last area of concern has to do with the expense of eating things like 100% grassfed, organic beef, wild-caught, sustainably-fished fish and free range eggs. With Jason in school and us living only on my income, I'm not sure we can afford these niceties. We're off to the organic market in town - Sprouts - today to see what's available and how much it's going to hurt our pocketbook, but I'm guessing we'll have to bend those rules.

Anyway, we need to get started soon, because I'm NOT going to be on this diet come Thanksgiving. Period! Wish us luck!