Because beginning a Whole 30 challenge in my house isn’t as easy as just going to the pantry, I have to have a Day 0 to prepare. My oldest and I raided the produce section at the local market tonight and I’ve been in the kitchen since cleaning and prepping vegetable, making my favorite Whole 30 approved snack, and packing a lunch for Day 1. For me, it’s all about being prepared. That’s 99.9% of my problem with eating properly–I’m rarely prepared.

So prepared am I for Day 1 that I’ll even be putting dinner in the slow cooker at 2 a.m. Crazy? Perhaps, but once you take a gander at the gloriousness that is Kalua Pig, I think you’ll agree that it will be a welcome interruption of the REM cycle. 

My kale chips are legendary [in my own mind] and I’m surprised there are any left once I’m done cycling through all the batches.

This first batch was especially photogenic. 

I read on a Pinterest post that if you preheat the oven to 425 degrees, put the baking sheet in and immediately turn your oven off, you won’t burn your kale chips if you leave them in for 10-15 minutes.

I left mine in for 12 minutes and they came out perfectly.

Still lovely in color, no singed edges, and amazingly crisp. 

Again, I’m surprised this container is full of these chips at this moment. Between my oldest daughter and my own inability to stop with just one, I usually don’t have enough kale chips for snacking when I need them.

These will come in handy during the “Oh my Lord! Where is the salty crunchy in my life?!” during the early days. Not sure how it will be for the sweet cravings this time. It’s funny because I rarely have those–I mostly just develop and undying desire for a humungous plate of spaghetti around Day 16 and I cave.

One other little gizmo I’ve added to my arsenal this time is a bento box type system. I’ve been intrigued by that idea for awhile. I don’t think I’ll be churning out teeny pieces of food art to fill the thing anytime soon, but I do think it will help me prepare decent lunches for myself. 

For tomorrow, one of my boxes contains a deconstructed salad of sorts–romaine, celery, radishes, tomatoes, carrots.

The second box is stuffed full with a sliced red pepper. Big slices of pepper, that is, because they will be used as a delivery vehicle for my tuna. Will be yummy. I can’t eat enough red pepper.

I haven’t had radishes since I was a teenager–we used to have them fresh from the garden. The ones at the market looked so pretty tonight, I put them in the cart.

I know where the farmer’s markets are and I will be staking them out this coming week. Someday, I will have a respectable garden [those tomatoes are actually from a raised bed in my backyard]. For now, I will help others with respectable gardens make good use of their bounties.

Tomorrow will be a challenge. My youngest has two-a-day soccer practice and I still have to work. I will need to hit the hay earlier than I have been lately if I am going to survive this month of back-to-school nonsense. 

Well, here’s to Day 0. So far, so good. 

I can’t believe I’m actually posting this because this creates a whole new layer of must finish all 30 days…even if only one other person besides me is reading this! 

Oh, well. I have about 60 pounds to drop and this will be a nice little kickstart. If I feel better, I’m a ton more likely to exercise, etc. I guess this is it! Let’s go!