Wow – I didn’t mean to go so long in between blog posts. . . it’s been a crazy few weeks in the Tracy household!
I’ve been having thyroid issues for a long while now, but it took my Dr. forever to agree to refer me to an endocrinologist . . . long story short, I finally got the referral and the treatment that I needed 🙂 I went in for Thyroid Radiation Therapy last week. . . the treatment itself was a piece of cake, but I was on “quarantine” for a full week after the treatment – and that sucked! They told me that I wasn’t allowed to do anything that would make me sweat for 7 full days. . . wow . . . for someone that works out 6 days a week, that was torture! Living in S. Texas, you can’t even step foot outside for more than 2 minutes w/o breaking into a sweat!! In addition to this, I couldn’t go grocery shopping, or be around the general public. My hubby and I had to have separate bedrooms for the week, and couldn’t sit next to each other on the couch. So my Labor Day weekend was no fun at all! I had some minor side effects from the radiation like lack of energy, a face full of zits, and a mildly sore throat, but it’s over now, and I’m back into my normal “routine”, thank goodness!
I’ve continued to stay Whole30 compliant, and am still having fun finding and preparing all kinds of new recipes. One quick note regarding the Whole30 – Recently, Melissa and Dallas agreed that using 100% cocoa in moderation was “ok” as long as it was not used to feed a craving or to substitute for “candy” (See “
The Great Cocoa Debate” for more details). . . so I thought I’d give it a try. . . NEVER AGAIN!!! Here’s what happened:
I found some
Ghirardelli 100% Cacao Gourmet Baking Chocolate “nibs”. They came in a black zip-top bag and looked kind of like flattened out mini kisses. They were completely unsweetened with the only ingredients being 100% Unsweetened Chocolate. A 16g serving (approx 18 pieces) provided 80 Kcal, 8g fat, 5g Carb, 2g Fiber, 0g Sugar, & 2g Protein. I thought to myself . . “Hmmm. . well, I finished out 30 days of the whole 30 and am around day 45 now . . I think I’ve banished my sugar demons for good. . so I’m going to pick these up, pop them in the freezer, and maybe sprinkle a few nibs in my fruit salad in the morning every now and then.” HA!!! Boy was I wrong on SO MANY FRONTS!!!
- Apparently, I have NOT banished my sugar demons 100%.. . at least not in the presence of chocolate in any shape or form
- “Every now and then” turned into every single morning, and then multiple times a day . .
- “A few nibs” turned into a full serving. . . initially once a day, and then . . well . . you can guess where it went from there. . .
I started by mixing in 5 little frozen nibs (yes I counted) with some blueberries, strawberries, almonds, unsweetened coconut flakes, and a splash of coconut milk in the morning. This was REALLY YUMMY, and fully Whole30 compliant, and really nutritious as well. But when the chocolate hit my tongue, it awakened this monster inside me that I thought I had banished. . . and I craved more chocolate for at least 2 hours. I caved and had a few nibs after lunch . . and then recognized that I was doing just what I was NOT supposed to be doing – using these things as a crutch for my cravings which I thought I had done away with. The next day I found myself mixing some nibs in w/ a Tb of Natural Raw Almond Butter. . . Oh Crap . . It was oh so good. . . but OH SO BAD for me mentally.
Long story short, after three days of fighting with myself every time I walked by the freezer, I threw that bag away and took the trash bag not only outside, but all the way to the dumpster at the curb to prevent myself from digging it back out. . lol. . yes, I love my chocolate!
Moral of the story? For me personally, it is not a good idea to add Chocolate in any shape or form back into my diet. I’m not in the slightest “blaming” the Whole30 crew for their decision to allow it – I think that there are plenty of people out there who could use it in moderation as a supplement and spice to a healthy diet (similar to how I use cinmamon, cumin, tumeric, etc). I just happen to NOT be one of those people, and can recognize it 🙂 So no more chocolate, Cacao, Cocoa, or whatever for me. . .
On to more pleasant things in life – –
I’m planning to max out my lifts later this week once some of my soreness has gone away. . . taking a week off definitely took it’s toll on me! But I’m almost back to “normal” again 🙂 I’m really looking forward to re-assessing where I stand and continuing to move forward in my journey to become stronger and more athletic 🙂
**Additional Note Added Later**
One more thing that I thought I’d point out regarding my mental/physical reaction to the cacao. Over the last week, my face has broken out horribly – I’ve got about 4 monsters on my chin/forhead (you know, the kind that HURT and are deep as hell?!?!), as well as a bunch of little “under-the-skin” bumps. Initially, I contributed this really bad breakout to the radiation therapy that I had done. I assumed that I had swallowed a pill that effectively had POISON in it, and the breakouts were a result of this poison working it’s way out of my system. . .and that may very well be the case. However I think it’s also worth pointing out that the breakout also occured at the same time that I was trying to experimentally re-introduce 100% Cacao into my diet. I know that it’s supposedly an “old wives tale” that chocolate makes you break out, however in the past I always seemed to break out when I’d eat more chocolate than normal. . . . so it could be that this breakout is a result of the radiation therapy, or it could be my body’s reaction to the chocolate. . . or mabye a little bit of both. I’ll never really know for sure, but I thought it worth pointing out!
PS. I really DO hope you keep posting regularily, cause I subscribe now! 😉