Scene & Story - December 2017

I took this photograph on a particularly cold and snowy day in December. I had been to the gym early and stopped at the grocery store on the way home for a few necessities. I was over by the almond butter and bread when I saw the brightly lit case of fresh(ish) muffins next to the deli counter. I needed something for my 365 Photography project anyway, so why not. Even for "freshish" it was delicious.

Yesterday, when I started thinking about writing this post, I wanted to jump through the screen and devour that double chocolate muffin with those large chunks of granulated, crispy sugar on top. It is best that I don't even begin to describe the chai latte that is in the muted shades of green, blue, and rust hand thrown mug from my favorite potter in Leland, Michigan. Because if I start to think about HOW much I am missing my chai lattes, I will go upstairs and make one right now.

Why this suffering? My husband and I are doing the Whole 30 Lifestyle change in January. If you have never heard about Whole 30 you can check out information here. Basically it is an elimination diet, and a gut reset diet for 30 days. No dairy, no gluten, no alcohol, and no sugar. You don't realize how many things have sugar in them, until you start reading labels.

So, what can you eat? Eggs...lots and lots of eggs. Can I say at Day 6, I am tired of eggs. But you can also eat meat, almost all vegetables and all fruit.

The good thing is that there are so many recipes out there for Whole 30. I think this "diet" has been around for a few years now. Manufacturer's are catching on that this is a niche market, and creating products that are Whole 30 compliant. There is even No Sugar bacon out there now, thank heavens, but you have to get to the grocery store early to get it, because every other Whole 30 participant wants the bacon too.

So, why are we torturing ourselves like this? First, after the holidays and all the sugar, we needed a reset. But also to figure out what might be causing some intestinal issues my husband has been having for the past couple of years, we are pretty sure it boils down to food triggers. Once the 30 days are over, we will slowly reintroduce foods, and note how our bodies react to them. When the food triggers have been figured out, we can then eliminate them all together, or chose when we want to pay the price and have something.

Like I said we are only six days in, and haven't reached the rewarding days yet. We have been through the craving days, the crabby days, the mental fog days, but we are nearing the end of them, so we keep going, taking it one sugarless day at a time, one egg at a time.

Interested in recipes? Check out my Pinterest board of saved recipes here.

End Notes

Adding a new section to share some things that I am working on...

1. To torture myself further, I signed up for a food photography class last week, this is the class. After all, it is January and it is winter, I have to find something to photograph inside, and if I can make eggs look good, maybe I will like them more.
2. Xanthe Berkeley's Make Films class starts this week, so excited. I have already started working on my next film - A Day in the Life of Findley. If you missed my first film, you can view it here.
3. We painted our bedroom over the holidays, it only took us a year since we started talking about it. So proud of ourselves though, we got all my photographs hung on the wall the next day, this never happens. 
4. The kitchen project will be starting soon. Went and picked out countertops, backsplash and flooring last week. 

The End

This is the last Scene & Story Link-Up. Lee and I want to thank every one who joined us in 2017, sharing your stories and your favorite photographs. I feel like we learned a lot about you all through your stories, and hopefully you learned a little about us too. My wish is that you keep taking photographs and thinking about the stories surrounding them, continuing to share them somewhere. 

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