Whole30 {Week One - Recap}

I heard of Whole30 through a friend and a few bloggers I follow. I looked in to it a bit and thought initially that it would be really difficult to complete. During the 30-day elimination program, you are to cut out all grains, alcohol, legumes, dairy and sugar. Then, during the reintroduction phase, you slowly add these items back in to your diet to see how your body is affected. My vices are pasta, chocolate and alcohol so I wasn't convinced I could last 30 days. However, I was pretty intrigued.

I've attempted to give up pasta before and lasted a measly three days. I gave up because I was replacing pasta with other types of carbs - bread and tortillas. It wasn't worth it to me to switch carb for carb and so I simply gave up. I told myself then that it was all about portion sizes. Well, I often fail at that too so it was becoming more and more obvious that I needed to consider a serious change in order to rewire my brain. 

With that, I decided that I would begin my own Whole30 journey on October 2!

My expectations going in were that it was going to be a struggle for a couple of weeks while I cooled my gets on my addictions and my body removed all the toxins and crap. In reality, it hasn't been nearly that bad and I'm actually doing just fine. I've felt good for the entire first week and stuck to our meal plan  with no cravings for my vices whatsoever. Crazy isn't it? I'm truly surprised and encouraged. I've toyed with the idea of making this a Whole60 or even longer because I thought I needed more time to rewire my brain. It may not be as difficult as I thought!

Gspice is doing this with me and he is doing okay but still working on figuring out all the requirements. He's legit asked me if he could have croutons or cheese. No, Gsipce, we cannot. Really though, I'm very proud of him for doing this with me. He doesn't struggle with food the same way I do but Gary does drink a lot of pop (SUGAR) so that's a habit I'd love to see him break.

Action Items

Here are the items on my action plan to make the most of this Whole30. I hope that by the end of the 30 days, I will have developed a whole slew of good habits. We are well on our way!

*Meal plan, Grocery shop, Meal prep

This is probably the most vital part of the program, at least for me. If I don't do all of these steps, it leads to an inevitable failure.  This also helps me make sure we aren't consuming anything we aren't able to have on Whole30. The only struggle is that Gary and I like different things for breakfast and lunch so it does mean for extra planning/prepping. I try to prep his breakfast and he needs to prep his lunch. As for how we plan, I don't mind repetition at all as long as I like what I'm eating. The first week looked like this for me:

Breakfast

-Two scrambled eggs with spicy sausage and lazy salsa

Lunch
Romaine salad with carrots, green olives and shredded chicken with a homemade spicy latin vinaigrette

Dinner
-Burger (no bun of course) with roasted broccoli
 -Hidden veggie meatballs with a compliant marinara sauce and homemade fries (I did NOT like the meatballs I made but the fries were delicious! Gspice thought they were fantastic and thankfully the boys liked them too)
 -Beef tenderloin with herbed clarified butter, compliant shrimp scampi (hello, no white wine!) and sauteed asparagus

*Drink more water

I've made it a goal to drink at least 75-80oz of water every day. I have a number of water bottles but I never seem to drink enough water. However, I started using the bottle I got for Gspice and it was a game changer, at least at home. This particular bottle has a straw. So, I decided that I needed a new water bottle at work that had a straw. And with that change, I've been successfully drinking more than 80oz of water every day since October 2! Of course, it means I also need to go to the bathroom a lot but hey, more steps.

*Have better sleeping habits

I haven't been prioritizing sleep the way I should lately and I was reaping the benefits of that. I wasn't able to think clearly or process things the best because my sleep was seriously lacking. Sleep is crucial for so many functions, including losing weight so hello! Let's get on this one, Vanessa! Luckily, it seems that I get tired a little earlier now so I naturally want to fall asleep between 9:30-10:30. I've been getting a solid 7-7.5 hours every night which is up from my usual 5-6 hours. 

*Work out more regularly
I've started doing a few of the 21 Day Fix workouts again and I'm trying to do at least 3 days a week. I would like to start working out during my break periods at work so I plan to buy some weights to have in my office so I can do my 12-minute arm workout and my 12-minute leg workout at my desk! That, along with my walk to work every day is a great way to get my workouts in!

Weight Loss

Ideally, all of these other goals will help me achieve some weight loss. So far so good in this department! I'll report at the end of 30 days how much I lose. 

Temptations

There have been a few temptations over the last week that I have successfully avoided. I'm pretty happy about that because some of these sounded so good!

*a free cookie from Marty's for getting my flu shot at Luther (I will save my coupon until November!)

*a free walking taco during the Progressive Walking Supper (we let the boys have one of course and skipped the dessert course)

*a free meal at the Touch a Truck event including a hot dog and chips (again, the boys got to have it)