HOW COOKING CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE BY RSA SHORTS

Ken and I are coming to the end of the first week of the Whole 30 program. We are on day 6 today and I have some thoughts.

You can read more about the program here; the aspect of it that most appealed to me was that it makes you have to think hard about your psychology towards food. It's interesting, in the summer I find myself naturally wanting things that are healthier for me - probably because my body is happier and more in sync due to the sunshine it's getting. But during the winter, I often eat or drink to ease the grumpiness that results from being cold and sunshine-less, which means my intake of things like baked goods, chocolate, wine, etc. becomes less about enjoying those things for their pleasure and more about finding an escape from my bad mood. I think this becomes worrisome when it becomes a habit, like when I have a really stressful day and my knee jerk reaction is to want to put an entire pie through my mouth because I'm craving the comfort of the sugar....and then I all of a sudden start wanting something sweet automatically when I get home. Or when I feel antsy and tired at the office, instead of going on a walk like I usually might do in the summer, I grab a piece of chocolate and then that becomes a habit. It's always a red flag when I'm eating things mindlessly. I love food and I want to be mindful of what I eat, paying attention to both its nutrients and pleasures. 

Cutting out the prohibited foods hasn't been all too hard; it is not too different from how I usually eat and sometimes I feel like I'm eating more than I usually do by having to eat a protein, vegetable and fat at every meal. And it has definitely made me wiser to how much I tend to want to fix my cranky moods with a sugar rush here or a glass of wine there. (Yesterday I fantasized about a warm chocolate chip cookie for far too long...)

The hard part though is the meal planning and prepping. It's proving to be more costly and even though I'm technically making only one more meal (lunch) each day than the usual two of breakfast and dinner, the additional planning, prepping and strategizing around these requirements sometimes feels like a lot. Then again, this is just our first week so it may be that it gets easier as we go. 

Since I am thinking a lot about food these days, that video above really resonated with me. I am constantly cooking at home, but this past week has made me think even more intentionally about it. When we were grocery shopping for this week, it took much longer than usual because we were reading the ingredients on each of the labels, and it was crazy to keep discovering sugar in things that you wouldn't expect. Just by the act of cooking at home you are cutting out so much sugar and unnecessary salt from your food intake. I know that we are on this program now but it is more for the reset, and my normal food philosophy is actually more like: eat what you will in moderation, and try to cook at home as much as possible.  I'm excited to see how this reset helps us and I think most of all it will help me appreciate and enjoy all the variety of foods even more. 


(Video via Cup of Jo)