Wahls Protocol Diet (on a budget)

[tortoise]

I'm working on being consistent in my food. Variety is a future goal, but first I need to break my habits of eating inflammatory / junk food!

Right now I'm eating

• frozen organic blueberries with cream (and erythritol) - expensive now since we had blueberry crop failure, but this will be budget-friendly next year
• creamed spinach (5 cups spinach + 1/2 cup cream per serving, measured before cooking), with tostada

I tried eating a few different things for a third meal but haven't found much that makes me feel better than not eating anything at all.

My next steps are

• fry up my own tostadas out of corn tortillas, using non-inflammatory oil, such as coconut oil or lard
• add daily serving of bone broth

 

[flowerbug]

it is interesting how bodies can change. i mostly stopped eating tomatoes for a few years but this past year have started to have them again and gladly it's going ok. i had the same thing happen with peanut butter about 20yrs ago and stopped eating it for a few years too. it's a staple for me now and i sure would miss it if i had to give it up again.

 

[tortoise]

Progress

• I fried up corn tortillas into tortilla chips this morning. I'm very pleased with the results and losing the concern/guilt over consuming inflammatory vegetable oils with my creamed spinach dip
• Bone broth cooking every day. I boil for 8 hours (after the first 24 hours) and then scoop out the broth to freeze and add water and repeat the next day. Building a freezer stash of the good stuff
• I tried added chopped broccoli sprouts into my spinach dip and it's fine / tolerable. Very happy since growing/preparing broccoli sprouts for sulforaphane content is easy enough, but making it palatable is harder. However, I'm only getting 1/4 - 1/2 of the recommended daily dose this way.

Next steps

• make mayonnaise with olive and avocado oil (again with avoiding the inflammatory vegetable oils). I will use this for making coleslaw dressing. I felt good when I was eating a cup of broccoli slaw per day. I have the slaw, but need to make dressing for it.
• Try to grow spinach indoors. $30/week on organic spinach is killing my budget. $3.99 per 5 oz, 8 per week I'm spending as much money on spinach now as my TOTAL grocery budget 3 years ago. Microgreens would be fine, and adding sprouts would help too. I don't even know if I have any garden seed left. DS12 did NOT actually clean out my greenhouse when told to, and DH took the roof panels off for winter because they aren't strong enough to tolerate snow. Results: 6" of rainwater in the tub full of seed. Hundreds of dollars worth of Baker Creek seed.... gone.
• Buy arugula seed for sprouting since sprouting arugula and broccoli together increases the sulforaphane content.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Ouch - the seed loss had to hurt... Hope you find a way to grow that spinach inside!

 

[flowerbug]

Ouch - the seed loss had to hurt... Hope you find a way to grow that spinach inside!

for sure that would be a big loss.

as far as budget and veggies, can you get old reject veggies from the stores that they're throwing away? a lot of times they might throw away things that people can use if they're not too picky (brocoli stems, etc. are good eating when peeled and the scraps make good compost or other animal food).

 

[FarmerJamie]

for sure that would be a big loss.

as far as budget and veggies, can you get old reject veggies from the stores that they're throwing away? a lot of times they might throw away things that people can use if they're not too picky (brocoli stems, etc. are good eating when peeled and the scraps make good compost or other animal food).

Years ago, yes. Unless the store is a small locally owned place, the chains won't touch the potential liability with a ten foot pole. Years ago, I worked in a produce department

 

[flowerbug]

Years ago, yes. Unless the store is a small locally owned place, the chains won't touch the potential liability with a ten foot pole. Years ago, I worked in a produce department

that'd be too bad and a shame to have things go to waste, but the larger places might already have an arrangement with someone to haul it away.

 

[tortoise]

our local grocery store has started selling almost-past-date produce! That's my first stop! Since organic produce, pre-cut produce, broccoli, cauliflower, etc are not popular, I have gotten some excellent prices there! What I really need to do is write down the sell by date on the unpopular produce and then go shopping on that day.

 

[tortoise]

Progress

• I sorted through the box of soaked seed. I didn't have the heart to do it before, but it's about time to order garden seed so I couldn't put it off much longer. There were a few packets that seemed okay, or less than half sprouted. I dumped them onto trays to see if I can get some microgreens out of them. I am SURE I have a bag of leafy green seeds somewhere, but couldn't find them this morning.
• Still cooking/freezing bone broth.
• Made a grocery shopping list, but waiting until the snow stops
• DH used broccoli slaw for veggies in stir fry! Brilliant and easy! Definitely worth repeating.

Next steps

• Order seed. At least need to get arugula, spinach, chard seed. I'm going to look into bulk seed by the pound this year. Packets get expensive!
• Grocery shopping! I am out of spinach again!
• Cook creamed spinach
• Rinse and chop broccoli sprouts

Current diet:

• 1-1/2 cup blueberries + 1/2 cup other berries + cream + erythritol
• 1/2 pound spinach (measured raw) + 1/2 cup cream (before reducing) + salt + home-fried corn tortilla chips
• 1 cup bone broth
• 1 cup broccoli slaw, either as coleslaw or stir fry
• If still hungry, also carrots + homemade hummus

 

[frustratedearthmother]

No wonder you're losing weight!! Wish I had your will power.