October

Nature's first green is gold

Her hardest hue to hold,

Her early leaf's a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

- Robert Frost

"And the world cannot be discovered by a journey of miles, no matter how long, but only by a spiritual journey, a journey of one inch, very arduous and humbling and joyful, by which we arrive at the ground at our own feet, and learn to be at home." - Wendell Berry

It's been rather an odd October, and not only because we've had a couple of actual snow-falls already. This month has just been really full. I feel I'm running this way and that. My evenings are often busy, and when I'm not leaving the house, I'm cooking up a storm for the days and hours ahead.

So here's my honesty check-in for Whole30: 

It's day 26, and I'm on plan*. I've been eating well. I'm not sick of eggs yet. I've discovered and developed a bunch of new recipes and food-ideas. I'm excited about close-to-paleo eating for long-term. I'm learning to cook all sorts of things in my tiny kitchen; I'm meal-planning and prepping, and packing great lunches for work. 

But I still have really low energy. I've stopped doing yoga everyday, what with my rushing here and there, and my tiredness. I know that's not optimal, but there it is. I've just come down with a terrible cold, which is keeping me up at night, (not to mention making my spine and ears hurt, and my voice go out). And you know what? I could really go for some honey right now, on this throat. 

Since I'm so near day 30, I'll just wait. But I am looking forward to getting back to a little more food-freedom. Not so that I can go eat ice-cream, or even lots of gluten-free bread. I'm looking forward to cassava tortillas, a hot toddy, and paleo pumpkin pie. Also, some sort of chewy, paleo cinnamon cookie... It's weird things one craves.

I'll let you know if this changes, but I think for me, Whole30 is not a life-changing experience. My relationship with food was already rich and varied. This was a nice challenge, and I hope it did in fact reset a few things in my system, but my health is a long road, and this was just one curve. There's a long way to go. 

And miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep...

See you in November!

*Except I had that one cough-drop. And by the way today is looking, I may need more to get through the weekend. Sorry world.