My Whole30 Experience

It seems everyone around me has jumped on the Whole30 bandwagon. I fought with the idea of it for several months. Why? Because I'm stubborn. I've been unhappy with my body and how I was fueling it ever since I gained about 50-60 pounds during my pregnancy. I worked really hard after I had J and lost about 45 pounds in 9 months then I hit a plateau and became complacent. I developed some pretty bad emotional eating habits during that time. I was working out 4 times a week for an hour, but tended to convince myself that I 'deserved' that cookie or that bowl of ice cream because I burned X number of calories that day. A lot of it was because we were going through some stressful things, things that made me feel a variety of emotions and instead of finding comfort in the Lord, I looked for it in the food I was eating. I knew I needed to change, but I fought the idea of this Whole30 thing for several reasons:

• I didn't like how restrictive it was. I wanted to keep eating what I had trained my body to crave - total crap.
• I was scared I would fail. I just knew this was going to be hard because I felt I had no discipline with my food.
• Everyone else was doing it. I wanted my reason to be because I was ready and this is what I wanted, not because a group of my friends were doing it and I felt I need to join them in it too. This needed to be for me.

 This sounds so cliche, but I had one of those days where I just hit bottom. I sobbed over how I looked, how I felt, and how I had failed. I talked to Richard about it and he encouraged me to do Whole30 just to see how it goes. My one requirement was that he do it with me. I needed the moral support and honestly, needed him to be eating what I was eating so I wouldn't be envious of what he got to eat, which I could see would push me to cheat and then have to start over. Thankfully, he was very willing to do this along side me.

What is Whole30?
My very brief explanation is that Whole30 is meant to restart your eating habits. On Whole30 you cut out grains, legumes, dairy, and sugar. So basically you just eat lots of meat, veggies, and fruit. After 30 days of none of these things the idea is to gradually reintroduce each group back into your diet. From what I've read, a lot of people do Whole30 to find and restrict certain foods they may be allergic to/have bad reactions to. A lot of people also go on to eat mostly Paleo afterwards.

My Reasons for Doing Whole30

• Break my bad eating habits/remove cravings.
• Gain control, discipline, and confidence in fueling my body properly.
• Help with our infertility journey (I've read a lot that Whole30 has helped people with their infertility issues - eating healthier can definitely help with that).
• Lose weight/inches - total perk to me as I didn't want this to be the main reason for doing Whole30
• To walk away with a better understanding of myself and my eating habits so I can continue to deal with those emotional issues even after the 30 days is over.

Meals
Thought I'd share some of my favorite meals from our 30 day journey. I'm rather picky when it comes to vegetables and pretty much all other foods (thanks, mom), so there's not a whole lot of variety. I did try some new things that I never really cooked up before and I enjoyed experimenting with seasonings and new ways to cook.
 Samples -
Breakfast:
- scrambled eggs and a banana with cinnamon
- banana with almond butter and a mandarin orange (workout mornings)
- Paleo pancake (one egg mixed with mashed up banana)
- scrambled eggs with chopped up kale and some fruit (strawberries, banana, mandarin orange)

Lunch:
- tilapia filet with garlic seasoning and veggies (broccoli or green beans)
- leftover chicken and veggies (Richard took most of the leftovers to work, so this only happened a few times for me)
- apple slices with almond butter and 2 hard boiled eggs (my easy go-to lunch - must have had it almost everyday towards the end of the 30 days) Surprisingly filling.

Dinner:
- bunless burger with fried egg, lettuce, and tomato (I only had tomato once or twice - not a fan) and sweet potatoes
- tilapia and veggies
- thin boneless pork chops and fresh green beans sauted
- chicken thighs and veggies (this is one of my favorites)
- chicken breasts and veggies (only did this a few times - I'm no good at cooking juicy chicken breasts, they always turn out dry)
- shrimp, kale, and sweet potato skillet (another good one)
-lettuce wrap tacos
- pork roast with veggies or baked sweet potato

Here are some pictures of some of the dinners I made:

shrimp, kale, sweet potato skillet

lettuce wrap tacos with ground chicken breast and avocado

pork roast and cabbage

bunless burger and sweet potatoes

tilapia and salad with avocado dressing

My Experience
I won't give a week by week rundown of my experience, but just know that the first few weeks were a little rough as my body detoxed off all the sugar and processed food I had been eating prior. I was tired, irritable, and having tummy issues. It was kind of funny, the first two days on Whole30 I had two gatherings that surrounded food so I felt like that was my initiation. I made sure I ate before I went hoping that would make things less tempting. It was definitely still tempting, but I was able to say no! After the first two weeks, I began to realize that I totally have the willpower to control what goes in my body - I was becoming much more aware of WHY I wanted it. Some days it was out of boredom, some days it was because I wanted to eat my feelings, and others it was because it was just what I always did. For example, when packing J's snacks. I would usually snag a pretzel or golfish or teddy graham. You know how many back and forth moments I've had with broken pieces of pretzel in the past 30 days?! Seriously, if you could have seen the battle. I laugh about it now, but my goodness. Now, I definitely still want those things, but understand and desire to only treat myself every once and awhile rather than everyday.

My Results
I took before and after pictures, weighed myself, and measured myself throughout the Whole30. They say not to because they don't want to get you sidetracked, but I couldn't help it! I think it actually helped me stay more focused knowing that changes were happening. So here it is, I've lost 20 pounds, dropped about 1 size, and about 12 inches total (hips, waist, chest)!

What's Next?
Richard and I have agreed that we like having just veggies and meat for dinner (cut out the pasta, bread, and other grains), so our plan is to keep our dinners very similar to what they are now. We are spending the rest of this week gradually reintroducing certain foods, starting with certain grains - white rice, oatmeal, and corn. In a few days we'll try dairy. I think we'll gradually add in sugars as we go - I'm going to need some honey in my oatmeal tomorrow morning! We plan to eat like we have been most of the week with a few days (probably the weekends) where we'll cheat a little more. I am definitely going to have some coffee with milk and sugar and some ice cream in the very near future!

My Advice:

• Plan and prep! Use a meal planner for each meal during the week, fill it in with what you will eat, and only eat that. The form I use has the shopping list form just under it so when you grocery shop, you know exactly what to get and only get that! Also, meal prep is huge! Sunday afternoons I would bake chicken breasts and steam veggies for Richard's lunches for the week, pack them up, and stick them in the fridge. Nights that we had chicken thighs I'd make more than necessary so there would be plenty of leftovers. Since I stay home with J, it's easier for me to throw something together for myself so I had no problem giving Richard all the leftovers.
• Budget! The first week we went over our weekly grocery budget - things are more expensive when you're trying to eat healthy. Whole30 suggests you eat all organic, grass-fed stuff, but I quickly learned we can't afford to eat that way all the time, so I made some changes to our plan. Some shopping trips I found grass-fed beef on sale, so I bought it. Same with the all natural, no added hormones and stuff. However, when I just couldn't afford the fancy meat I chose to get the leanest I could find, which is totally ok for Whole30. I chose to focus on what was feasible for us and this is what worked.
• Give yourself grace! I was pretty determined when we started this that I wasn't going to cheat or let myself give in to temptation. I'm here to say that it's totally possible to NOT mess up!! I did not cave once, but I know that given certain circumstances it's really hard to avoid processed food, or some dairy, or even some bread. So with that I say, give yourself grace. If you find yourself in a situation where you have no options (or even if you do and you still mess up), reevaluate and start fresh the next day. One mess up isn't failure. Failure is messing up and then never trying again to better it.
• Don't stress! One thing we decided on before we started Whole30 was to not eat out for the 30 days because we knew it would be really hard to find something at a restaurant that was Whole30 compliant. We know there are places that exist that work for it, but we didn't want the stress of adding yet another thing to plan for when we were already planning every single meal, budget, and such. We knew this decision would help our stress levels stay low, that's what worked for us. If you see potential stresses ahead of time, try to be prepared for them. Don't focus so much on what you CAN'T have - I know it's hard because I found myself saying "I can't have that" A LOT in the last 30 days. I would bring my own snacks to get togethers in order to avoid the sweets and snacks tables.
• Be amazed! Before I started Whole30 I had read "Made to Crave" by Lysa TerKeurst, so I was already prepping myself spiritually for this journey with food because, yes, food isn't just a physical-rely-on-your-own-discipline thing. I prayed a lot throughout this Whole30 journey. For little stuff like "not letting my detoxing irritably hurt anyone today" or "please help me through the emotional reason I'm wanting to eat ice cream right now." Take every little victory and treat it like a huge one! Be amazed at what your body can do and what you can do when you allow yourself to be disciplined and allow God to be a part of that discipline. Sure, I lost 20 lbs, but only went down 1 size in pants. I could totally sit here and allow myself to be disappointed in that or I could embrace it and accept it as growth (in a smaller direction) and be motivated to keep going.

This has been a really good experience for me. It was WAY more than wanting to lose a few more pounds. It was about starting over, starting fresh, and seeing the potential I have in how I can live my life in a pleasing way to God - with my food.

I used to be fat. Now I'm a little less fat ;)