30 Days of Whole Foods

...not the overpriced, treehugging, "I'm okay-you're-okay" retailer - the real McCoy. 30 days of nothing but lean protein, veggies, some fruits, nuts, and seeds. No dairy, no grains, no legumes, no sugar, nothing processed to within an inch of its former life - and no booze.

All of this in an effort to strip down for the Tough Mudder on May 7th, a grueling 10 mile run up, down, around, and through 22 obstacles on Mount Snow in picturesque Vermont. With a goal like that in mind and two months' worth of training 4 days a week at CrossFit Mass under my belt, I figured my lofty aspirations would take care of themselves. But there were two saboteurs for whom I hadn't accounted: my own crap eating autopilot and the SS Twins - Soy and Sugar.

I'd attempted Paleo for a few weeks before going whole hog, with cheats, and things had been progressing nicely - despite a regular intake of sugars and refined grains, I was sleeping better, had even more energy than usual, and was improving in physical activities. But since I was only 75 - 80% on, that pesky crap eating autopilot in my chick brain hadn't really been tackled - mostly because I didn't even realize it was there. It wasn't until sugar, cheese, wine, and other irritants were off the board that I started hearing its voice when I saw something forbidden: "Mmm. Looks good. You'll have that". Then, it wasn't until I caught myself midreach towards the 2 pound bag of Russell Stovers sitting next to my bed that I wondered what I was doing. How did I get here? This is not my beautiful diet intention. This is not my beautiful pork loin! My god, what have I done?

Okay, fortunately, I regained control before any damage was done. But it's interesting to find out what "mindless eating" really is - most of the time, I'm not even having a conversation with myself. Crap eater is deciding for me.

On to the SS Twins - I long ago realized that oligopolist type food manufacturers put high fructose corn syrup in EVERYTHING - that's why we should all shop the perimeters of our grocery stores, right? Got it. I really thought I could trust the likes of independent ol' Trader Joe not to dupe me into eating sugar at every turn, but I was wrong. It took me almost 10 minutes to go through the marinara sauces just to find one that didn't contain sugar or fricking soybean oil. Now, my mother would insist I deserved this trial, because why wasn't I just making my own from our family's recipe anyway, which doesn't include sugar... Solid point, but I'm a busy lady.

One important thing I've taken away over the last few days: nearly ALL packaged meat (deli, jerky, etc.) and fish (e.g. tuna approaching a ready-made meal) has some form of sugar in it. Additionally, soy additives in one manifestation or another are nearly epidemic. I feel a new sense of empathy for people suffering from food allergies.