Now that we're nearly a month out already, I'm happy to announce that Gspice and I completed the Whole30!
We officially completed Whole30 on October 31. The month went by pretty fast which is no different than the rest of 2017. Seriously, I.can.not.believe.it's.nearly.the.end.of.November!
I want to start off by saying that I am so ridiculously proud of us. We often commit to things but don't always follow through. However, I feel like we both followed the program fairly well and tested our will power for 30 straight days. If you can believe it, I went without pasta for over 30 days and Gspice gave up pop!
The last two weeks of the Whole30 program were not as great at weeks 1 & 2 but we probably followed the "rules" about about 70-80% of the time. I say that number because I did follow breakfast/lunch fairly well and slacked a little bit on dinner and I also ate some chocolate just about every day that week. That is what being lazy did to me. I also had a couple drinks and a slice of pizza. And a few handfuls of peanut butter M&Ms. You can see where this is going!
With that said, I'm still really happy with the fact that we set our sights on a pretty big goal and I feel that we accomplished what we set out to do. Pasta was the biggest thing for me by far and I stayed away for a whole month. Seriously, that blows my mind.
Looking back on the experience, I can definitely say that Whole30 has taught me a lot about my eating habits. I don't necessarily crave anything but I do tend to emotionally eat which is a hard habit for me to break. Throughout the 30 days, though, I feel that I did a pretty good job of not doing that. Overall, I felt more energized, slept more soundly at night and had better mental clarity. One takeaway from this is that I do really like to go to bed early and I'm totally better off for it!
What I Missed the Most:
Dairy - though it was relatively easy to cut this out for 30 days, it was surprisingly difficult for us to keep this out of our diet 100%. Gary definitely struggled with this more than I, but to go from eating cheese, milk and other forms of dairy on a daily basis to nothing at all was a stretch. A sprinkle of cheese on my eggs or a taco salad would have been nice but we made do.
What Surprisingly Didn't Phase Me:
Everything! - I expected to go through some sort of detox whether that be from sugar, no pasta or alcohol. However, I felt good from the very beginning. I did have a couple random days with a headache but they were in weeks 2 & 3. I do think Gary went through some detox but I was very surprised and grateful that I did not.
Vices - I am still so very shocked that we lasted the whole program without consuming our vices. Mine is most definitely pasta and Gspice's is pop. I literally had no issue whatsoever giving up pasta which tells me that I don't have an addition problem. Thus, my bad habits should be easy to break, right?
What Helped Me the Most:
Preparation - I would not have been successful doing Whole30 without planning the meals in advance, creating the grocery list, going grocery shopping and meal prepping. I never did these steps all in the same day because that would be impossible for me to keep up with. I typically planned on Thursdays/Fridays, went shopping on Saturdays, and prepped on Sundays. Do what works for you and break it down any which way you like, but DO NOT ATTEMPT to do any sort of elimination diet or even just trying to eat better without preparation. It will do wonders and I promise you that!
Tomatoes & the Co-op - I know this is a little silly, but I feel like I was pretty lucky that there were still some good tomatoes left in October. If I got a little hungry in the afternoons, I went for sliced tomatoes with a little salt and pepper. You aren't supposed to snack but this was smart snacking if you ask me. I also would eat an Applegate pepperoni or two because meat was one of the only things I craved all month and it helped to tide me over until dinner. Thankfully, I was able to purchase some of the specialty items like Applegate products, at Oneota Co-op. It was so nice to know I could get Whole30 approved items there that aren't carried by Fareway or Walmart.
Before & After:
I wish I could tell you how many inches I lost or even took photos of the progress, but I didn't go that far with this program. I did hope to lose some weight but I also wanted to focus on changing habits. Now that I'm almost a month out, I can say that though I still struggle with some of the same habits, I do think I'm doing some things differently than before. I drink more water, I'm doing my best to get to bed earlier, I'm not eating pasta for every meal, etc. I'd call that a success :)
I did track, however, the amount of weight I lost. I believe that most of the weight came off in weeks 1 & 2 but a few more pounds did come off in weeks 3 & 4. I'm not surprised by that at all because of my commitment level during those weeks. With that said, I lost a total of 14 pounds!!!
Wrapping It Up:
I was very encourage by doing the Whole30. I surprised myself with my perseverance and will definitely try this again very soon. I didn't do a lot of exercise during this round besides walking to work so the next time I do Whole30, I will definitely make this a part of my routine.
