tuna stuffed avocado halves, amazing!

We knew we needed to do something drastic, a sort of a detox for our bodies. Moving, living without most of our stuff, adjusting to school and adjusting to a new way of life is stressful and one tends to resort to what is easy and known.

Over shortbread and yummy balls, we decided that January would be the month to clean up our eating and re-build some healthy food habits. We were going to go wheat free and refined sugar free. We contemplated adding coffee to the list but one can only go so extreme.

Overall, it was a great experience and I’m not in any hurry to stock up on white sugar and add bread to our shopping list. We had apple sandwiches instead of regular pb and j for lunches; sweet and spicy nuts with dried fruit filled out snack times and packed lunches for Jared. Suppers were big bowls of soup or spinach quinoa ‘mac and cheese’, we had a lot of our usual favorites like stir fry and fish. We didn’t have nearly as many smoothies as I thought we might but yoghurt with blueberries and a drizzle of raw honey was a special treat.

Weekend breakfasts were creative: we made eggs benedict on a bed of rice and hardly missed the usual english muffin. We had frittatas with a side of bacon from our local butcher shop. Or rice topped with leftover shrimp and grated cheese.

There were some recipes that were a once try like twice baked sweet potatoes with roasted grapes and goat cheese. I loved the concept and will be tweaking it in the future. But there were others that we all loved like baked shrimp in a white wine and tomato sauce, garnished with feta cheese and green olives. It was served over brown rice and was very similar to a pasta dish, minus the pasta. I’ll be trying it again with an assortment of seafood.

And then there was the weekend morning where we decided to go out. It had been a very long and busy week, Jared and I communicated more over text then in person. I jest but it’s almost true. We knew a family respite by the ocean was in order and we decided to grab breakfast and coffee out. We had wheat and sugar since it is in everything. The world didn’t stop spinning. I happily munched on a bagel and enjoyed being out by the Atlantic with brilliant blue sky.

It wasn’t a cheat. It wasn’t a breaking of the rules. It was grace and real life.

The next morning being a Monday, we were back in the groove of oatmeal for breakfast and quinoa for supper. With lots of fruit and veges to round out mealtime and snacks. I’ve had my cravings for pancakes and cinnamon rolls but we’ve all felt so much better. Lighter, cleaner, and more aware of what our bodies need. It takes work and awareness to eat according to what our bodies need and not just what feels good.

But sometimes you do need to take a break from whatever is your regular and normal, get a bagel loaded with cream cheese and listen to the waves lap against the rocks and feel the sun warm your back.

It’s what makes a January memorable.

Have you ever gone wheat-free for a time? What are some of your favorite non-wheat breakfasts?