Week One of Whole30 is complete!  Overall, I feel fantastic.  My joints don’t feel stiff, I sleep through the night, and I am overall in a calmer, happier mood.  I am attributing most of this to the elimination of mochas and wine from my life.

Highs

I made beef broth.  From scratch.  I went to the meat counter and bought bones and everything!  The broth turned out great, it “gelled” nicely, and half of it is now in a delicious chili.  I want to try chicken broth next weekend.

Lows

Making mayonnaise has proven to be a nightmare.  I have yet to be successful at it.  I just can’t get the dang egg and oil to emulsify!  I’ve tried the Whole30 instructions, Jamie Oliver’s instructions (I got very close with his instructions), and The Gentlemen Next Door.  I’ve tried hand held beaters, a whisk, and a blender.  It is just not happening.

Throwing away my beef bones, then reading that I could have kept them and used them a few more times.

*@#!%#$%^&*(/@!?!?!!!!! (Rant of the Week)

Why does EVERYTHING have sugar in it?  Lunch meat.  Lunch meat!!! Why is there sugar in lunch meat?!?!

Reflections

Cooking from scratch is not as difficult as it seems (unless its mayonnaise!).  The ingredients are simple, there are plenty of resources on the internet to help, and it just takes a little practice.  I have not done an in depth cost analysis on this (though maybe I should) but I am going to guess that buying whole ingredients is probably the same price, if not cheaper than buying pre-packaged foods.

The true difference (beyond the health issue) in buying whole foods and making things from scratch is in the time.  Cooking from scratch takes a dedicated amount of time.  I imagine that some of these things will get easier as I have had practice and get better, but I think they will always take more time than just simply turning on the oven, opening some packages,  and tossing things in.  (And I couldn’t even manage to do that on most days!).

I am at a place in my life now where I have the time to dedicate to this.  I might prefer to spend that time watching Netflix on certain occasions, but I do have the time to cook regularly.  I spent pretty much all day Sunday (Day 2) cooking.  I made salsa, pan seared chicken, sausage, sweet potato fries, and attempted mayo three times.  The next Sunday (Day 9) I made beef stock and tomato sauce.  I enjoyed spending my days that way, and the food I had in my fridge made the subsequent days significantly easier.  However, there have been times in my life when I genuinely did not have the time to do this.  There are other ways that I could have eaten more healthily at the time (basically, raw cold foods like veggies and pre-made hummus), but cooking the way I am now would have been near impossible to fit into a schedule where I was working 2-3 jobs.  As I was making my third attempt at homemade mayonnaise, I reflected on working America.  I imagined a married couple each working 2-3 minimum wage jobs to support their family.  Who cooks in their family?  Unhealthy foods are so much easier, and frequently cheaper to get.  Has cooking become a luxury?  Is health a luxury?

I live in Northern California.  That means, I live in an area with lots of health food grocery stores, fresh and varied fruit and veggies, and lots of people who don’t blink an eye when you explain that you are doing Whole30 (or have some other “weird” dietary restrictions).  They aren’t fazed by weird questions.  Not feeling judged makes this a lot easier.