Major Life Change Week 1

Before I get to the life change bit I thought I should acknowledge that Tucker turned 20 last month!! I guess that does sort of qualify as a major life change. Hard to believe my little, bitty first born is so grown up now! He is a hard worker (puts in 30 hours a week at Dunn Lumber and is taking 10 credits at the community college--one math and one chemistry class). He reads graphic novels but listens to somewhat sappy music at times. He still has a nice twinkle in his eye and an infectious grin and a fulltime girlfriend (sigh). He asked for two pies for his birthday instead of cake. He wanted a butterscotch pie that he could eat all by himself and not share with anyone and a peanut butter pie that everyone else would eat. In the end he did share just a little bit if the butterscotch--but not much.

The other night Spencer asked Tucker to help him with his Spanish homework. They looked so sweet together I had to take a picture. They do manage to have a little more fun together now that they are older than they did when they were younger!

So to my life change. Last Monday I started on the Abascal Diet (though I do not call it a diet myself cuz that is not why I am doing it). It is an anti-inflammitory diet designed to help stop inflammation in your system. The first three weeks you cut out all dairy, wheat corn products & sweeteners (though you can eat corn). The other part is that whatever meals or snacks you consume should always be 1/3 meat/protien and 2/3 fruits and veggies (though breakfast can be 1/2 & 1/2) I had been sort of doing the 1/3-2/3 bit for a few weeks before this, but I had not fully cut out all the other stuff. So Monday I dove into it for real.

This is a meal I made for myself last week. I had made some mashed potatoes earlier in the week that were 1/2 potato and 1/2 cauliflower (which they say taste just like regular mashed potatoes and it is actually true). I took the leftover mashed potatoes stirred in an egg and heated it up in the fry pan with a little olive oil. Then I topped the whole thing with avocados (which you can eat freely). I probably looks pretty disgusting, but it was actually quite delicious.

I also made these muffins which I eat for breakfast every morning. They are made with almond flour, eggs, squash, banana, baking soda & olive oil with blueberries thrown in. I heat them up a little in the microwave and mash them up with a little applesauce. It is amazingly delicious.

I made myself a salad pretty much every day with this yummy balsamic vinigerette dressing that I made from scratch. One of my favorite things to do is bake up a bunch of veggies in tinfoil in the oven (like I made when we were in McCall this summer). I use the leftovers in an omelette the next day for breakfast. It's been kind of fun and I have been eating food I have never eaten before--like quinoa.

I definitely have not been hungry or felt deprived. You can eat as much as you want of things as long as you keep the ratio at 1/3 to 2/3. After the first three weeks you reintroduce the stuff you cut out one thing at a time and note your reactions. I learned about this from my co-worker Dana, who went on it because of her arthritis, she determined she had reactions to wheat products and coincidentally also lost 38 pounds. Another co-worker tried it and determined she had recations to dairy products and certain oils in processed food. I decided to do it to see if I could find any foods I might have reactions to in the hopes of maybe clearing of my esophogus problems.

This is just week 1 and it has been pretty easy. The only thing not on the list this week I might have eaten was some frozen yogurt sorbet with Spencer the other night. It said it was dairy and fat free, but it did not say sugar free. Otherwise I have been pretty true. I figure I can make it the next two weeks pretty easily and then we'll see what happens then. Will post again at the end of next week.