Thursday, February 9, 2012

Three Things Thursday ...

Seven Days - On February 1st, I started a 10 Day Whole Food Challenge and I am happy to report that I made it a whole seven days before complete implosion. I was doing really well despite being constantly frustrated by the fact that most everything I wanted to eat or prepare for my family had either sugar or white flour in it. Other than GU during my Quad Brick, I didn't slip up at all.

But, then it happened. That's right. My birthday.

J got me food from California Pizza Kitchen for my birthday dinner and then of course, there was cake. There's always cake.

Southern Caramel Cake from Shyndigz

Trust me, it was so worth failing the challenge for.

Takeaways - Even though I didn't make it to the end of the challenge, I definitely learned a few things.
  • I can make pretty much anything from scratch. It allows me to know EXACTLY what my family is eating, lets me manipulate the ingredients to our needs and is rather cost effective. It's something I will continue to do.
  • We are done buying packaged snacks, other than pretzels, popcorn, dried fruits and nuts. I can make granola bars. I can make cookies and muffins. I can even make potato, tortilla and pita chips (not that we ever eat them). The people in my house are just going to have to fall in line with that one.
  • The kids will eventually get on board. They liked quite a bit of what I made during the challenge. But, they also hated quite a bit of it. That's just kids being kids. If they are hungry enough, they will eat what I put in front of them.
  • This is my new favorite recipe - Three-Ingredient Chocolate Bars.
  • Sugar is everywhere. It can be avoided but it's hard. And what about things like GU that I use when I workout? I know what works for my stomach and I'm not about to switch that up.
  • Tea with honey is not the same as coffee with cream and sugar. Not even close.
Sparkle Explosion - This arrived at my house yesterday.


The green skirt is part of my costume for the Disney Princess Half. The Power Bands are just to add a little sparkle in my life. Oh, and to make my kids wicked jealous. Seriously, I had a near mutiny on my hands when I told them that they were mine.

16 comments:

Jason said...

Yes honey and cream are not in the same zip code. Not even close.

I have to check out the chocolate bars.....and I love making food from scratch. I am going to build a garden on the back of my garage for herbs and maybe some small other produce items. It tastes so much better.

Running Ricig said...

We never buy snacks for that reason. I can make everything we'd want to eat and, even though they're snacks, they are still better for me if I make them.

Jesser said...

It is nice to hear someone echoing back a similar philosophy with kids and food. I get the feeling some of my friends think I'm mean when I won't make alternative meals for my kids. Everyone has to try a no-thank-you bite of all foods, EVERY TIME. They can eat as much or as little of the meal as they like - the next meal isn't ever far away. Snacks are usually fruit + string cheese or a hardboiled egg, or sometimes veg + hummus. They do get a break from this at their sitters though where she feeds them an array of processed foods - it's a trade-off I knowingly make for an otherwise incredible sitter. Of course there's sometimes room for treats - like BIRTHDAY CAKE - and they trade off weeks requesting a dinner of their choice (within certain parameters). It works for us for now. It will be interesting to see how it changes when they start taking lunches to school next year.

Marlene said...

Ohhh that cake definitely looks like it was worth it. Mmmmm!

Jennifer Spadafora said...

California Pizza Kitchen is one of my favs! And that cake looked divine!

giraffy said...

I quit drinking coffee two weeks before my first half, as a pseudo-experiment, and it was terrible. Lesson: I would kick someone trying to take coffee away from me again.

We have SO many sparkles in our house. SO. MANY.

Karen said...

I think you can forgive yourself for falling off the challenge on your birthday! ESPECIALLY for caramel cake.

Love all your sparkly acessories, I just ordered the green sparkle skirt for the Shamrock marathon. Can't wait to see your costume for the princess :)

fancy nancy said...

Oh I can totally imagine the meltdown that would ensue if I got all that sparkle in the mail all for me! My daughter always steals my sparkle!! That cake looks very worth the cheat...yum!

Lynette said...

Bravo! You went 7 days longer than I could have. I am not as adept in the kitchen as you are. I probably will never be. But, I do read labels and try as much as possible to get the best selections. LOVE the sparkle!

Unknown said...

I think whole foods are awesome, but a do allow the use of processed sugars in my refueling while training. Like you said - it is what my body knows and right now I don't want to take the time to find something else that will work. :) Great job making it 7 days.

Hayley said...

Wondering... do you have a favorite homemade granola bar recipe? I've tried a few different ones that are alright, but I haven't fallen in love with any of them enough to do a lot of repeats.

Valerie Parker said...

Can you share some of your whole food recipes please???

Nicole said...

That cake looks worth it! Can't wait to see the costume completed! I love Monster's Inc and I love Mike!!

coreyanne_A said...

I love Chocolate Covered Katie! I tried the chocolate chip cookie dough made out of chickpeas last week - and even the kids liked it (and it was with Stevia!!) Absolutely crazy. It was hard to eat much of it because it was so rich! And about the GU - have you heard of Chocolate #9? It's just agave and cocoa powder apparently. I ordered some and have yet to try it because I'm waiting for it to get here - all the reviews sound pretty positive, though!!

ajh said...

Totally with you on the tea is not coffee. No way no how.

Anonymous said...

I ordered that same green sparkle skirt for my costume for Princess....waiting patiently to receive it! Post your costume, hopefully I will see you there!