10.09.2010

Unprocessed: October...week one!

So I made it!  I've survived my first full week of an unprocessed diet.  It hasn't been excruciatingly hard, but it certainly hasn't been the easiest either.  For one, I'm spending twice as much time as I normally would in the grocery store because I'm scrutinizing the labels...and I've been floored by my findings.  For example, it's almost impossible (unless you go to a bakery) to get unaltered bread.  Don't believe me?  Try it.  Next time you're grocery shopping and are perusing the bread aisle, look at the ingredients on the back of the package and see if you can pronounce everything that's labeled. It's insane. Half of the things listed I can't even begin to pronounce and I find myself practically shouting, "what are you?!" at the seemingly innocent, brightly packaged loaf of "bread" staring back at me.

Since I started this, I've also been greeted with a lot of questions, mainly all somewhat along the lines of, "How do you feel?  Do you feel any different"?  The answer that I keep giving is "yes, but I don't know if it's in my head."  And that's the truth.  I have noticed that I have a LOT more energy (and I'm high energy to begin with.  Will I be literally bouncing off the walls come week four?).  In fact, I've had so much energy that my standard 2 cups of morning coffee has been reduced to one.  Simply because I'd have one cup, shrug my shoulders and think to myself that I'm good to go.  Now I'm not about to go singing from the rooftops, fervently insisting that I'm a changed woman.  I do feel generally "healthier" but I'm still trying to articulate what that means and how that feeling may change over the course of the next three weeks.

So that's the good part.  I've determined that I generally feel "healthier" but the tough part has been "de-programing" my mind when it comes to food.  While I consider myself to be a relatively healthy eater, I don't consider myself a dieter and I'm not used to things being "off-limits".  I tend to go by the philosophy of "everything in balance" and "as long as my jeans fit, I'm good".  Though I haven't felt that I've missed out on too much, there have been some challenges, mainly pertaining to eating out.  This week I met some friends for a mid-week lunch and one of my friends ordered seasoned waffle fries.  I thought I was going to jump across, knocking everything over in it's path to get to them.  (Don't worry, I didn't..I was able to stay cool.) I also didn't realize how much I love pretzels.  They're usually my "go-to" snack and boy, do I miss them.  Which brings me to a question for you....does anyone know of any good, all natural, unprocessed pretzels?  C'mon dude, help a girl out!


So that's that.  One week down and three to go!

5 comments:

Gardenatrix said...

Good for you, and thanks for being honest about where it's a struggle.

I would think that natural foods coops would have unprocessed pretzels. If not, I know that Rodale's Natural Foods Cookbook has a recipe for the big, fat kind made with rye flour. Good luck!

Andrew @ Eating Rules said...

Why not make your own? I'd think you could make a large batch and they'd keep pretty well.

I'm going to be posting a recipe for "Clean Eating Grissini" (courtesy of The Gracious Pantry) within the next couple of days -- if you sprinkle some good salt on them, they'd be pretzel sticks, right? Stay tuned...

And keep up the great work! (Very glad to hear about the energy/coffee...That's awesome!)

Jen said...

Congrats on the first week! I agree that bread products have tons of crazy ingredients in them... Good luck with the rest of the month.

The Small Boston Kitchen said...

Thanks all for the suggestions and support!

And Andrew...I've already starting searching for pretzel stick recipes, I think it's gonna happen! Look forward to your post as well, we can compare notes..

Fun and Fearless in Beantown said...

I think it is fabulous that you went to IFBC and took this challenge! You have such a positive attitude about it and I think that is what is making this goes so well for you!

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