Nutritional Challenge – WHY?

Starting today, for the rest of the month – NO GLUTEN, SUGAR or DAIRY!  My snacking has gotten out of control the last few weeks, the worst part is that I’m not even hungry! I’m just eating because I need a mental break and do something else.

I’m going to document my progress here and my IG account to keep me accountable. Otherwise, what’s to stop me from sneaking a little ice cream or wine?!?! Someone will need to call me out on my bullshit.  This time around, I’ve also dragged my husband – Zach – into this little nutritional challenge with me.  His biggest challenge will be only having black coffee (ghee allowed <eye roll>), I prep all of his meals for him so he doesn’t have many excuses or choices for that matter.

This nutritional challenge starts TODAY, the day after Labor Day weekend…yes, that was on purpose – there was a lot of indulging as I’m treating this as an elimination test – there may be foods that I’m not going to have again, for a very long time <ugly cry>.  I’ve suspected that there are some foods that are triggering issues and I need to figure it out!  There are 2 “cheat days” allowed and that’s more because they are out of our control…2 weddings this month.  We don’t know how the food is prepared (and I’m not going to ask them a million questions) and trying to get Zach not to have beer while socializing isn’t going to happen.

MY WHYS

I wouldn’t be able to do this without having a reason for doing it.  There are goals that I’m hoping to address with this nutritional challenge.  I also realize that a lot of these are going to take more than a month to resolve, but I need to think short term and baby steps here!

• HANGRY and so irritable – this is more prevalent on the weekends when we are mostly relying on leftovers from the week and are constantly running around
• Chronic stress and insulin resistance – thanks <strong sarcasm> to constantly getting shit done, multi-tasking while eating and snacking…there’s a chance that I’m becoming insulin resistance, which I most definitely DO NOT WANT.
• My lovely face rash – this is mostly likely an outward response to an allergy.  It could be food, environmental, who knows?! But if I focus on my digestion and repairing my gut maybe it’ll improve.  Unfortunately, this won’t be fixed in 3 weeks and could take a few months. But if I figure out if I have any food sensitivities this month I’ll consider it a win and one step further to fixing it.
• Muscle fatigue – yes I CrossFit, yes I run, yes I consider myself athletic.  But I still have issues with muscle fatigue, specifically my shoulders.  This is most likely related to an essential fatty acid deficiency, but considering I eat ALOT of FAT my body is probably not utilizing it.  WE ARE NOT WHAT WE EAT, BUT WHAT WE DIGEST.

MENU FOR THIS WEEK

Thankfully, it is a short week. So minimal planning required, ha.  Here’s the menu through Friday.