It is Week 6 of this project.  For details go here.

As I reflect on the last week a couple of things jump out.  First, I really think anyone can do this (you may have to purchase the foods instead of grow them).  If there is a human who has a serious love affair going with food, I am her.  I love food.  All food.  I can appreciate just about any culinary achievement.

I also think I’m just a normal girl.  I don’t think there’s anything special about me or what I am doing.

If you want to lose some weight, get healthy, clean up your diet, boost your immune system or just detox from all the preservatives & gunk in the standard American diet – I think I have a great way to do just that.

My plan is simple.  My diet is whole.  I eat great foods all the time.  You can do this too.

CRAVINGS

After 5+ weeks on only foods I have made myself, Yes, I want to go to my favorite Mexican restaurant.  It’s been weeks and I miss my burritos terribly.

As soon as this project ends I am going to head straight to my beloved, authentic, favorite eatery, but I don’t think I’m going to get the burrito…  I’m thinking fish tacos.  Yup, fish tacos is definately what I want.  The fish is blackened and grilled and served piping hot in warm, soft, flour tortillas.  Then they top it with fresh, cool veggies, fresh avocado and pico de gallo.  To finish it off they add some spicy, chipotle sauce.

It needs nothing added or taken away.  I will eat it just as it appears before me.  And it will be a symphony of flavors in my mouth.  Hot and cold.  Spicy and fresh.  Unbelievable.  I will not cook.  I will not do dishes.  I will eat and drink and be merry… with my fish tacos.

If you’ve always been scared of fish tacos because you think fish doesn’t belong in Mexico – you are wrong.  You need to try them. It’s a dream come true.

Because I am only shooting for 50 days this time, my tacos will be before me in exactly 11 days.

Knowing me, I will eat my tacos and go back to eating foods from around these parts the next day.  I feel great.  I have so much energy.  My clothes fit better.  I know I am healthier.

I want good health more than I want convenience, burritos or desserts.

WEIGHTLOSS

The weight is gone.  The Thanksgiving pounds are gone.  The Christmas pounds are gone.  My clothes are getting bigger and people are telling me that I am going to blow away.

No.  I am not going to blow away.  I am not even that thin….  I think it’s just because I’m kinda tall (I’m 5’7″).

My neighbor is 5’10” and my dad says she could get a job jumping in and out of Coke bottles.  She’s a healthy weight, she’s just really tall so she looks super skinny.  🙂

I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but for anyone who hasn’t been following…

Last summer when I first decided to eat only foods from my hands I lost over 10 pounds.

This was amazing, since I never intended to lose any weight.  I ate everything I wanted all day long (as long as it came from my hands) and continued to lose weight until the last month of the challenge.  I plummeted to my college weight (that number on the scale before hubs & bearing 4 offspring).  It was CRAZY.  I never planned to weigh that again in my life.

I would be lying if I didn’t tell you I was pretty jazzed up about it.  Super cool.  Especially since I did it eating homemade tacos, burgers, potatoes and pancakes (among other things).  I didn’t join Weight Watchers, Nutrisystem, Jenny Craig or go on the GAPS diet.  I never counted a calorie or a fat gram.  I consumed food from morning til night. I ate everything I wanted and lost 10 pounds.

Rock on, people.

I jumped off the restricted diet for the holidays & gained 4 pounds.  This is what sugar, store bought flour and eating out can do in a matter of weeks.  The first week in January I went back to eating only foods from my hands & the 4 pounds are gone.  It took 5 weeks, but they’re gone again.

And I’m thrilled.

FOOD DISAPPEARANCE

Trying to eat only foods that I raised, grew, canned, shot or milled myself, in the dead of winter, has a different look.  Most of my fruits and vegetables are coming out of cans or the freezer.  Thankfully, I made an “exception” this time around and included store bought apples and carrots.  I am a HUGE believer in eating living, raw foods and there is very little of that at my homestead in January.

Even with the supplement of carrots & apples, we are cruising through the canned goods at a record pace.

This drives me crazy.

I spend all that time and effort growing, harvesting, CANNING all of summer’s bounty.  I walk downs stairs sometimes just to stand and admire my (and God’s) handiwork.

Anyone else?

Few things bring me as much satisfaction as a full pantry.  I love it.

Every time I go grab 4 quarts of food for the table I feel like I’m committing some sort of sin.  Like, I should try to stretch out the goods.  I should use as little as possible.  I should ration the booty.

I know this is unreasonable and insane.  I am supposed to eat it.  I put all this food “up” so I could eat it.  It won’t last forever – I must eat it.

I’m getting over the sadness of watching my beautiful rations disappear by the quart and savoring every bite.

Boy, are we plowing through the food.  I only have about 10 sweet potatoes left.  This is amazing since I started with 3 bushels full and thought I’d end up feeding them to the chickens.  This girl has eaten her fill of sweet potatoes.

I only have 5 quarts of green beans left.  I have enough turnip greens, creamed spinach  (sorry, ate it last night) and onions to get me through another dinner or two.

What do I have and abundance of?  Corn, Peaches, Salsa and Tomatoes.  Lots of them.

Can someone live on corn, peaches, tomatoes and meat?  I guess so, but I’m not going to.

THIS COULD GO ON FOREVER

I have 11 days left in the 50 day winter challenge.

What makes this super easy and doable is the fresh eggs, dairy and wheat.  

This girl could live for just about eternity on these 3 foods.  I would miss fresh fruit and veggies terribly, but I could survive if I needed to.

EGGS

Thanks to the chickens I get fresh eggs daily.  A few years ago one of the read-alouds we used in our homeschool told an impressive story about eggs.  It was a story about a missionary who traveled to England.  He was so poor that all he could afford to eat was an egg a day.  Because free-range chickens lays such nutritionally potent eggs he was able to survive on his egg-a-day diet for months.  I certainly wouldn’t want to survive on one egg a day.  I think I’d die.  But, it was an interesting look at how healthy a single food can be.

DAIRY

I am milking 2 Jersey cows right now and this creates an abundant amount of dairy products.  Some dairy products are so simple to make yourself its amazing (like butter, sour cream and buttermilk).  Other dairy products are a royal pain in the butt, but still doable as long as you aren’t too picky (like mozzarella cheese – ugh).

BREAD

Since I’m allowing fresh milled wheat on the challenge I really don’t have to worry about ever running out of things to eat.  If I had to, I could live on fresh-milled bread products indefinitely.  Unlike the store bought goods that are “enriched” with 5 vitamins & minerals, the fresh milled super-grains are packed with nutrition.  Even if I don’t eat anything else, I am consuming a pretty impressively rich diet by just eating my bread.  If you are shaking your head and wonder why I think scones are healthy here’s more:    🙂

• Grind Your Own Flour – 4 Huge Reasons
• How to Grind Flour on the Cheap
• Electric Grain Mill – An Introduction
• How to Make Bread with Fresh Flour
• Bread Making Supply List – What You Need – Where to Buy – What it costs

It’s not hard to eat only foods from my own hands.  I have a few tools that make it easy to be successful, but lots of people could do it.

Tell me your story!  Have you changed the way you eat?  Have you tried to eat only whole foods?  Do you think you could do what I’m doing?

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XO,

Candi