Whole 30 With A South Asian Flair
One thing I’ve learned from Indian culture is the importance of Indian food. It’s the center of everything. If you go to an event, you already know they’re going to feed you. Not just feed you, but stuff you full of delicious food.Maybe it’s one of the reasons I keep getting pregnant. I have the perfect excuse to let them load up my plate until their hearts are content.It’s given me a new love for food. I love making food for people in my life and seeing that look on their face when it’s turned out perfectly.Or when my husband say’s I make the best chicken wings in the world (sorry Aunt Ca)!It’s become a passion to find and create new tasty recipes. My husband even joins in the fun and has a few new signature dishes our whole family begs for.
Our family loves food.
My four year old has even developed his own little passion for it. He tells us every day that he’s going to become a chef and needs to help us cook for practice.This year I promised him he could start helping me cook more. I want to encourage his passion for cooking and I love the quality time it gives us.However, there is a little problem. This year I also promised myself I would help my family to become healthier together. I promised we would make better food choices and find ways to make delicious healthy food.
My husband is convinced there is no such thing as delicious healthy food!
This is exactly why I was excited when my aunt told me about a 60 Day Challenge our gym was about to have.It’s a challenge to lose weight and get healthy together with a team. In the beginning, you detox your body of all the toxins and unhealthy foods by doing a Whole 30 diet. Then you start to add back in certain foods to see what your body can handle and can’t. It helps you find the perfect foods and diet to continue with after the program. It’s not meant to be a quick fix but a lifestyle change.So… How can this work for a family who loves food? How can we all fulfill our passion for making delicious food all while beginning a new healthy lifestyle?
Sounds like another challenge doesn’t it!?
The good thing is my husband and I like a good challenge. Our program starts February 10th and we have the next two months to show ourselves and all of you that healthy food can be good!What about the kids? You may be thinking the hardest ones to get on board would be the kids, but they love healthy food. They would eat salads and Brussel sprouts all day long if they could.The hard one to convince was my hubby! All you need to do is glance at our plates to see the difference. I pile my plate up with veggies and he gets two or three pieces. Just enough to show the kids he ate it. My plate, on the other hand, is all veggies and a bit of protein.He heard about the program and was skeptical until I said they chose a winner at the end who made the biggest transformation and they could win $1000.Done deal.My husband may be scared of healthy food, but he loves competitions. It’s the best motivator he could find to jump start our healthy lifestyle.Now comes the hard part. I have to show my family how good healthy food really can be!I hope you guys will have fun following us along on our family’s journey. We will give you updates each week to let you see how we do.
Here’s a look at what the first two weeks will look like for us.
Our kids will only be doing part of the Whole 30 with us. My plan for them is to get rid of the junk food, but they’ll still eat bread, beans, and some dairy. I mainly want them to try and fill up on meat and veggies rather than all the fillers.For the first two weeks, Joel and I will eliminate dairy, grains (hubby is still crying over no rice), alcohol, legumes, added sugar, processed food, and any other junk food.Our diets will stick to this schedule as much as we can —> protein shake, snack, salad, snack, high protein meal.We will also be working out 5-6 days a week and then having a day to give our bodies a break. Our gym has some fun classes so we will most likely do those each day. I work better with classes rather than on my own because it’s easier to keep up with other people than figure it out on my own.So far, I’ve been doing yoga and a cycle class. Joel even did yoga with me! He kept giving me “the look” for the first 20 minutes thinking I tricked him into a girl’s class. Then he started sweating and realizing how intense yoga is!Only a few more days until we start and I’m excited to see how it all goes! Keep an eye out for yummy recipes and updates!