Some Considerations

I have some challenges that make Whole30 a bit of a bear. The speck of a town that I live in has no grocery stores. The nearest store to me that sells food doesn't have a produce section - it has just about all the cheap shelf-stable junk food you could ever want, it has some pastas, rices, beans, and that sort of thing. Pretty much all of the fruit and veggies they sell come in cans. The nearest store that sells actual fruit and produce is twenty-minute drive through a long, winding country road occasionally agonizingly tedious by being stuck behind a tractor almost the whole way. The produce in those stores aren't likely to be high-quality, organic, or clean; but they will be as expensive as if they were because that's the price you pay for convenience - if not for these stores, there would hardly be any fresh produce in the region at all.

My schedule is random and not something I have any control over whatsoever. Occasionally, I'm lucky to have an evening shift, followed by a morning shift - there's no way I'm getting in a solid eight hours of sleep on those nights. I also never know what one week will look like from the next so meal preparation won't be easy. Particularly because my cooking skills are rusty and I'm at a beginner level. So I'd be learning the basics as I go and have to work my way up to more complex cooking skills. Work doesn't provide an easy setting to eat - just a less than clean microwave, a half-hour window with which to eat, and not a lot of sound choices. That and a lot of people won't get it - "But you're not fat!" It's not about my weight - it's about learning how to be conscientious about what I eat and having power over my food choices.

I do have a few boons that make Whole30 a bit easier. I come from a family with a tradition of gardening and have access to real home-grown tomatoes, peppers, onions, squash, and cucumbers. We also have a few blackberry bushes that just don't quit (which I don't like to eat because they get stuck in my teeth.) We generally tend to a protein with lots of delicious roasted veggies. Farmers in this area are known to sell what they grow - like watermelon; though odds are they are not organic, were fertilized, and pest control chemicals were used.

I don't really drink that much pop, and since I have long known I have lactose issues, I don't generally eat any form of dairy. I'm doing better about tea - I used to drink a whole gallon a day and have been drinking just a half-gallon for some time now. Today, I've even drank a few herbal teas without sugar whatsoever and I didn't keel over. Who knew you could actually drink tea without sugar?

I've also made myself some guacamole, egg drop soup, and hard-boiled eggs today - my supportive relatives are all for doing what they can to make it easier on my - some by sacrificing themselves and eating the sugar-laden food I choose not to eat, some by being knowledgeable having dealt with gluten sensitivity and believing in me. I even have a dog willing to do quality control on all the meaty goodness.

 It's not going to be easy - but few good things are.