Day 1

I know it's a boring-blog cliche to write about what you're eating, but I thought in this case you might be interested to see how I made it through the day. (And by the way, one day down…YAY!)

Breakfast was Paleo pancakes* made of bananas, almond butter, an egg, and cinnamon, cooked in a little coconut oil and topped with sliced strawberries. They were quite tasty, but they essentially blew my entire fruit allowance for the day before 8 a.m., which was kind of a bummer. I was surprised at how filling these were. The recipe included two bananas and about a quarter-cup of almond butter, so it may have been intended to be two servings. (Not that anyone in my family would have shared them with me. I believe my husband used the word "bananatrocity.") At any rate, it was the first time a Paleo meal has made me feel truly full, so I'll remember that in the future. Bananas good.

Lunch was a big salad with veggies, bacon, a hard-boiled egg, and my homemade ranch dressing. I noticed that the dressing actually got the lettuce a bit soggy. I didn't really mind, but it got me to thinking. Do you suppose grocery store dressings have some weird ingredient that prevents that? Ew.

"Meal," which we eat around 4 p.m. right after school, was steak and the stuffed mushrooms I made yesterday. So good.

And dinner was just a bowl of the chili I made this morning.

Overall, today was amazingly easy. "Practicing" for a week before diving in seems to have been a really good idea.

* The 30-day challenge expressly forbids Paleo pancakes, saying it's important not to "try to shove your old, unhealthy diet into a shiny new Whole30 mold." I'm choosing to ignore this one tiny rule, because pancakes aren't something I crave or eat on a regular basis anyway, especially for breakfast. If I was whipping up a batch of Paleo Cheerios, we might have a problem.