Whole30 - Days Two and Three

In my post on Monday, I started to describe what the creators of the Whole30 program that Nia and I are on said would happen on day two.  They stated that on day two, you would start off feeling like nothing's wrong, but you'll suddenly feel sluggish, highly irritable and possibly sore.  I can't speak for Nia, but the creators never lied about what would possibly happen on Day Two

Yesterday started regularly for me.  I did my regular workout on our mini-ellliptical machine and nothing seemed off.  All of a sudden during the afternoon, it felt like my body rebelled against me.  I was sluggish, highly irritable and my stomach was playing tricks on me.  My body is going through its own detox process, so I'll probably feel like I'm walking through quicksand instead of floating on air for about a couple of days.  Nia and I watched the Married At First Sight reunion and after the first 15 minutes, it started to watch me.  

Today, I don't feel as sluggish or irritable and my stomach seems like it's back to normal (knock on wood).  I'll be loading up on my water intake so that that will help with the feeling of junk food and bread withdrawal.  

Whole30 - Day One

Hello,

I'm Sean, Nia's husband and the other half of Love & Mumbo Sauce.  Today we started a program called the Whole30.  I know some, if not a majority, of you read that last statement and the first thought that popped into your mind was, what is the Whole30?  Good thing you asked, because I'm about to explain it to you.

The Whole30 is a program that was created by Melissa and Dallas Hartwig, two sports nutritionists.  They've written a book about it entitled “The Whole30: The 30-Day Guide to Total Health and Food Freedom”.  They’ve also appeared on the Dr. Oz show to promote their program, and you know Dr. Oz wouldn’t bring anybody onto his show to promote something if it didn’t work. 

The Whole30 is a thirty-day program in which certain foods are eliminated in an effort to promote healthier eating habits and food choices.  You can essentially call it a thirty-day diet if you want to, however the Hartwigs are trying to make it more of a lifestyle change instead of a thirty-day diet, or as some people refer to diets, a thirty-day odyssey of denying myself the foods that I enjoy.  The Hartwigs promise that the positive benefits, i.e., weight loss, better concentration, more energy and clearer skin, far outweigh the fact that you can’t enjoy that greasy burger with fries or the slice of pizza (things that I know I’ll crave down the line). 

I mentioned weight loss being one of the benefits of the program.  You’d expect to lose weight on a dietary program where your food choices are restricted, but there’s a catch to it.  You can only weigh yourself on the first day of the program.  This is so that you won’t solely focus on how much or how little weight you’ve lost.  The program is about that.  It’s about healthy lifestyle changes and choices.  Nia and I weighed ourselves this morning and can’t weigh ourselves again until the end of the program (our starting weights are between us, God and the scale we stepped on). 

Today for breakfast, we had scrambled eggs with a salsa topping that was made using our new Vitamix blender with a guacamole garnish on the side.  I couldn’t use actual butter to put in the pan to cook the eggs, so I used ghee or clarified butter.  They came out pretty good.  The picture of our breakfast is below; the eggs don’t have the salsa topping on them in the picture.

So far, and I’m speaking for myself right now, I haven’t had any of the cravings for sugar, grease or bread that I normally would have (we can’t have bread either).  I know that I have a sweet tooth and if I could eat pizza and/or cheeseburgers everyday, I’d be good, but what’s good to you isn’t good for you.  I know in the book, it said around the second or third day is when the expected crash and burn will happen.  That’s from your body detoxing itself from all of the bad things that you’ve been putting into it.  So I guess I’ll be feeling cranky and sluggish starting tomorrow; let’s hope not. 

Welcome to Love & Mumbo Sauce

Welcome to our blog, Love & Mumbo Sauce. We are the Johnsons (Nia McLean-Johnson and Sean Johnson). Both native Washingtonians, the home of wings and mumbo sauce (currently living in Maryland), we are newlyweds that decided to bring our love of food and wellness to a blog. Since back when we were dating, we've always posted pictures of the meals that we made together on social media and figured why not actually create a blog that details our adventures in the kitchen as well as our health journey. This is it.

On, Love & Mumbo Sauce, we will discuss:

• the meals we prepare and how we prepare them
• food shopping/cool kitchen finds (gadgets and products)
• cookbooks/food/health writing that we like/love
• restaurants that we visit both locally and in our travels
• the ways we strive to incorporate exercise and movement in our daily routine
• our efforts to eat more healthily and mindfully 
• our respective & collective health journeys

At the present time, we are "flexitarians". Essentially, we try to eat lean meats and fresh fruits and vegetables more than processed foods. In all honesty, we do like processed food, sweets, dairy, fatty foods and everything that is supposedly bad for us. Occasionally, we may mention having/making things are aren't exactly healthy. However, we realize that to achieve the wellness we desire that they need to be limited. 

Neither of us are experts in any way. Sean is a engineer and I am a graduate student pursuing an MS (possibly a PhD) in pastoral counseling. I also have my MDiv, so there may be some musings on food and theology as well.  (Sean said that there will be no musings on food and technology. Just FYI. LOL). I am a self -proclaimed foodie and in my dreams, I am a whole foods chef and famed food writer/cookbook author. Sean (who once thought prosciutto was a type of cheese) just wants to make/eat amazing food and not gain weight in the process. He does have aspirations of becoming a personal trainer, which may be apparent in his contributions to the blog. 

Anyhoo, we hope that this blog will help keep us on track and inspire others to live and eat well. 

We Finally Got a Vitamix

We finally got a Vitamix!!! You have to understand, I have wanted a Vitamix forever. I have sat through countless in store demos, marveling at how the same machine used to make frosties and smoothies could also make velvety looking soup in no time flat. The exorbitant cost ($500 and up) has always been prohibitive, so the Vitamix has always been on my mental wish list and on my vision boards. I even put it on our wedding registry, though I seriously doubted that any of our friends or family members would spring for such an expensive appliance (understandably so). 

Yet, as we looked at all the appliances on a table in the back wall of our kitchen (Sean calls it "Appliance Row"), a blender (his prior to our marriage), food processor (purchased with wedding gift money), ice cream maker (gift from one of his work events), Keurig (wedding gift), and KitchenAid mixer (purchased with wedding gift money), and a Breville juice fountain (mine from before our marriage) - we thought about how little we use the majority of them. We reasoned that since a Vitamix is supposed to be multifunctional, buying one could allow us get rid of (donate to Goodwill) the juicer, food processor, blender and ice cream maker (all relatively new and in good working order) - thus helping us to clear some clutter and streamline our kitchen. 

We also came to see the Vitamix as a helpful tool to encourage us to eat better and to make more of our own food at home. So far we have only made a basic salsa that Sean thought was good, but I felt was too watery (I had the power up too high, so it came out more like salsa juice). I'm looking forward to making our own almond butters, pestos, and more. We'll keep you posted on how we actually like it. 

Finding "the right" Vitamix was actually more complicated than I expected. Prior to searching for one, I thought that there were only two categories of Vitamix: new and refurbished (used). Nope, their website (https://www.vitamix.com/Shop) had so many options that it made my head spin. I just wanted the ones I had seen at the demos. No muss, no fuss. Only, all of the iterations of Vitamix basically look the same to me. I reviewed the various specs and many of them seemed to do the same thing. I read blogs (this one from http://joyofblending.com/which-vitamix-to-buy/) The Joy of Blending was pretty helpful) and watched a number of Youtube videos (I like the ones fromVitamix with Kimberly Snyder as well as Blending with Henry, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKLjKBl2WzQ ). 

Ultimately, it came down to a matter of getting the most for our money. Costco has a package, http://www.costco.com/Vitamix-5200-Blender-Super-Package.product.11609068.html for $499, that included the Vitamix, a whole foods cookbook (actually a pretty comprehensive binder of recipes and insight on how to use the machine) a whole grains mini cookbook, a DVD (we have not watched it yet - currently binging on Season 3 of Orange Is the New Black) a dry blade container for grains (which would have cost upwards of an additional $120 if we had bought it separately) and tampers for both the wet blade and dry blade containers. It also has a 7 year warranty. In comparison to the other offers I found online, this seemed to be the best value. 

We are still getting used to Ruby (what I have chosen to name our Vitamix since she is red), and definitely look forward to sharing how we incorporate her in our cooking/healthy lifestyle journey.