Monday, January 19, 2009

S & M 10 Day Blitz

Sacha and I have decided to embark upon a little eating challenge.  Today is day #1.  (You're invited to join but I didn't give you much notice... step away from the muffin now!)  


It's not a "Colon Cleanser 2000" type of thing, and it's not a 'diet' designed to make us lose weight (though it might well achieve that.)  It's just good clean livin' and a little healthy deprivation...

Details....

ALLOWED

- All Fruit
- All Vegetables
- All Fish
- Chicken/Turkey
- Skim milk
- Plain yogurt
- Eggs
- Whole Grains (i.e. kamut, spelt, quinoa, brown rice, oats, ancient grains bread.)
- Spices/herbs
- Multi-Vitamins
- Tea
- Nuts (healthy nuts as defined by Sacha)

BANNED

- Alcohol
- Coffee
- Sugar (ALL things with sugar)
- Refined flours (therefore almost all breads)
- Anything processed
- Pasta
- Cheese
- Peanut butter
- Butter (olive oil is OK)
- Red Meat
- Marshmallow Bananas ha ha... (MJ)
- Baked Goods duh! (SJ)

The sugar and the refined flour are tough.  They are in a lot of things.  The other major challenge is getting enough calories to be fueled for training - I need to eat like a horse.  

I'll let you know how it goes - maybe even with some statistics:  Weight, dollars saved on coffee/alcohol/eating out (and subsequently spent at Whole Foods).

Which brings me to another topic:

My love/hate relationship with Whole Foods.  We stocked up on some stuff to get us through the first few days of the Blitz this morning.  Here is the love/hate breakdown:

LOVE:  The food.

HATE:  The price.

That about sums it up.  I've heard it before, the "Whole Paycheck" joke.... etc.  Well, I try not to be cheap, but today I found myself face-to-face with a $15 bag of almonds from the bulk section.  They were 'slivered' (because I enjoy them that way) but I doubt the sliver-er gets paid $50/hour!

In case you are wondering what a $15 bag of slivered nuts looks like - sorry, I didn't have my camera but trust me it's not big.  Maybe a small cereal bowl full - not heaping full, just normal full.

Part of me would love to ban Whole Foods but it is WAY better than Safeway and the other usual places.  I also have a 'problem' with the salad bar that prevents me from banning the place.

Where else can you get a super-healthy meal in two or three minutes? (...and that includes parking time.)  I am at the library eating all $13.50 of it right now....  trying to chew my salad quietly.

The picture below is of slivered almonds.  Turns out they look exactly like miniature french fries... (hope that wasn't an early craving - it's only been half-a-day!)


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8 comments:

Unknown said...

You scared me with the "S&M" title for your post. I'm pretty sure I would be curled up in a corner somewhere after a few days of that diet. But good luck to you and your wife!

MJ said...

ha ha... that's funny. I actually thought about working an S&M joke in there but found it hard to hit the right "tone".

Missy said...

You lost me at no alcohol, no coffee! Yep, first two on the banned list. Best of luck.

Marcy said...

Wow, the sugar thing would KILL me. I don't even want to know how my body would react without it LOL Good luck my friend! Good luck ;-)

Ryan D said...

Interesting. I'd say its a pretty good list, but why did you say tea is OK, but coffee isn't? Both have caffeine (or not), and both contain antioxidants.

sugar and flour is actually easier to take out of your diet than you think. its a little hard at first, but when you stop eating it, you stop craving it. you will probably notice that you will increase your fat intake to get in your calories - not a bad thing - as long as they are the good ones!

I'd argue that the occasional glass (or more frequent) of wine really isn't that bad for you (antioxidants baby!), but thats just mee :)

let me know your thought process on some of these - I'd be interested to hear!

Ryan D said...

"step away from the muffin" - meant to add, my gf made me muffins with almond flour rather than regular flour. look for their own dedicated post soon! hehe

MJ said...

Hey Ryan,

I'd say we banned coffee simply to attempt to demonstrate that we are the "masters of our own domain". As a minor addiction for both of us, we decided to exercise our will and try to 'crush it' - even if only for 10 days.

The goal was to make this a mental challenge in discipline and willpower as well as a beneficial period of eating.

Looking forward to that muffin recipe....

Anonymous said...

Am I wrong in thinking that this whole thing might have been avoided had it not been for that fateful grocery order of cigarettes, pineapple and coke?

OK, the spray cheese didn't help much either.

I must say, the visible trauma caused by your exposure to my eating habits, gave me pause for thought. I have since made a conscious effort to improve.

Although, I AM eating Haagen dazs right now. hehehe..