The Secret to Satiety...

  Finally!  One month and four days into this... yesterday was the first day I felt full and not cranky with the hungries!  Woo Hoo!  

  Now, I'm all about plant strong and have actually not had a terrible time.  Hubby asked me yesterday, right after lunch - which consisted of a hummus wrap with lots of veggies - cabbage, peppers, snap peas - if I was hungry.  Trying to understand where he was coming from (something I don't recommend trying to do - pretty much anyone with a Y-chromosome is extremely confusing to me), I asked him "Why do you ask?"  He said - "You didn't eat much."   Granted, I couldn't finish all of the veggies, but it was because I was so full.  But his perception of what I'm doing is that I'm denying myself.  At the beginning, I might have agreed with the notion, but really, at this point, I've stopped looking at it in terms of the things I "can't have", because honestly, it's easier list the few things I can't have than to name all of the things I can eat!

  Because of the Standard American Diet (S.A.D.), it is quite a foreign concept to many to cut out the "backbone" of a typical diet.  Out with the animal products - no animal flesh, and yes, that includes the elimination of poultry and fish/seafood products, no dairy, no eggs. (Sorry, strict vegans, I still like honey with my morning tea.) And for me, personally, I've found that grains (including wheat and other gluten-containing grains) really are terrible to my system.  So I don't eat more than a couple servings of grain (not wheat) per week.  That's the stuff I can't eat.  I've had a few samples over the past month of a few animal foods - and my body reacted poorly.  So I know that, for me, this is the right decision.

  Over the last two days, the one thing that I've changed is adding just a couple of foods with a little bit of "heft" to them.  Smoothies are easy, quick, filling... but I'm getting bored with them.  Salads are my go-to, but, again... I'm getting bored.  I've had beans in different forms and enjoyed them, but even if you put beans in a salad... it's still a salad.  I picked up some hummus yesterday (I'd made hummus in the past month, but I put peppers in it and didn't love my creation, so I had mentally put hummus on the back burner) and between the hummus and my new love - coconut manna - I now think I can do this for the long haul.  A little bit of fat in the diet makes a world of difference in feeling full - instead of feeling cranky and hungry. All. The. Time.  
  I meant to take a couple pictures of meals today to show the variety of foods that I am able to eat.  I'm not missing anything!  I love that I'm not "limited" to traditional foods for breakfast/lunch/dinner times.  Admittedly, I have to get a bit creative if I don't want an easy (and boring) salad or smoothie - but having things outside of the "normal" breakfast foods for example, is kind of liberating.  This morning, I had a taste for mushrooms - not your traditional breakfast fare - so I roasted a portobello mushroom cap, cut up half of an avocado, some tomato and a little bit of hummus.  So Yummy.  I was so full from that that I didn't even need lunch, but had an early dinner of a hummus, avocado, tomato and onion wrap (hated the garbanzo flatbread with a burning passion... but I digress...) and some raspberries with coconut manna.  I am so full and un-cranky right now... I am a happy girl!  

  The upcoming week does see Mama doing some serious meal planning for our glamping trip.  Feeling mildly anxious about it still, but I'm sure it will be fine.  Now I know, at least, that taking a spoon and a jar of coconut manna and some hummus with me will at least make me not cranky!  :)  I think I'll be able to do better than that, and the anxiety is lessening because of a little bit of confidence in what I'm doing.  

  Looking back, I don't think I realized what I was getting into when I started this journey.  I still can't fathom not having a steak or chops on the grill  because that has been my food world for my whole life.  But I'm in this now.  I'm enjoying the variety, enjoying feeling better.   It's crazy to me that I didn't know how icky I was feeling most of the time.  I didn't realize it until the offending foods were eliminated and not there to make me sick any longer.

  A month in to my Journey to Well - Looking forward with anticipation - Thankful for where I'm going as well as where I've been.