Lessons from Whole30...

Last month Cindy and I did perhaps the craziest thing we have ever done… we decided to live “Whole30” for the entire month of November. If you aren’t familiar with Whole30 then you can read about it here… for those of you not into research… continue along.

Whole30 means that you eat “whole” foods for 30 days. It’s not a diet, but a true change in how you approach food. The premise is to rid your body of things that it has become addicted to in order to really gain an appreciation for food as fuel. You give up sugar, grain, dairy, legumes and corn. (Yeah, corn…you can basically eat all vegetables except corn.)

The reason you give up these items is due to the effect that they could be having on you. This focuses on whole foods – no added sugar or unnecessary stuff we just don’t need – because that is what our body was meant to have. There’s a whole list ofdo’s and don’ts that you can read about.

Cindy is the learner in this relationship – she read an entire book, lots of articles and other stuff before making this jump. I asked Cindy for the crib notes and joined her on the endeavor on October 30. #sponteneityismylovelanguage

It started out rough…not going to lie. We weren’t prepared and Ryan quit by day 3. But I held strong and lots of my “I canNOTs” turned into “I totally got this!” Here are some reflections on my 30 days of Whole30…

1. Eggs are life. Seriously, I think in 30 days I probably ate 60 eggs. Every day for breakfast and on top of most dinners. Eggs are glorious and easy and tasty.
   
2. Coffee – I am a devout CREAM, SUGAR, coffee girl. Meaning I take a little coffee with my cream and sugar. This was the one that I was the most nervous about. By day 5, I was drinking coffee black. BLACK. And you know what… I LOVE IT. And I totally have street cred now. AND I can drink coffee whenever…not just when my fancy cream and sugar are available.
   
3. Kids hold you accountable – by day 7 my kids were all, “Ummm…Mom, is that Whole30?” To which I would reply…”yes. Thankyouverymuch”.
4. Breakfast becomes leftovers + eggs. Seriously – I would warm up dinner from the night before and throw some eggs on top and breakfast of champions.
5. Cooking becomes so much fun! I love to cook but I had gotten out of practice of being creative – this made me get creative and I loved it. And my kdis loved it!
   
6. You become a label reader. Yep – I read labels now and always find myself asking “Why in the world would they put sugar in sausage?!” Seriously? WHY??
7. You save money. I hardly ate out because I couldn’t control what was inside the food.
8. Not even salads are safe – true story… Chic Fil A puts SUGAR in their salads. See #6.
9. HEB has stepped up their produce game – I loved walking around looking for fun new things to try and HEB now has pre packaged butternut squash and fresh green beans ready to eat. Just cook and serve. And top with a fried egg.
10.  You will really want a tortilla. Or bread. Or cereal. Like all the time.
11. You will be proud of what you avoid – like all the free cake at your work event.
12. You will miss cheese.
13. You should do this with someone. Cindy and I would text each other our victories, our dinners (5 grapes, an avocado, some chicken and tomatoes), our frustrations (the cheese) and it was nice to have a champion.
14. Your clothes will begin to fit again. Part of the Whole30 is to NOT weigh yourself because this isn’t a diet or a fad, it really is intended for you to face food differently. I will say that Cindy and I both weighed ourselves half-way and were blown away at the results.
15. I never got any headaches which is a miracle. I get headaches regularly and I have read that when you take foods away your body will go through crazy withdrawals and revolt. In the form of headaches. BUT, my headaches went away…
16. You can make this work for you. I’m not going to lie, as much of a label reader as I became, I couldn’t eliminate everything 100%. I tried as best as I could – I bought gluten free sausage but it still had 1g of sugar in it. I ate organic, grass fed butter but I didn’t make ghee, etc… I did the best I could given my lifestyle and you know what?? That is ok, sister!
    
17. You will miss cheese.
18. And tortillas.
19. And ice cream.
20. Eating out will happen and you have to stay strong. I went to a Mexican restaurant two days in a row and did not eat ONE chip. Not one chip. I have never felt like such a bad ass.
    
21. Except when I became addicted to black coffee.
22. You can survive and eat well and not feel like you are doing without. We made it through THANKSGIVING DINNER without cheating y’all. ::pats self on back::
    
23. You start to LOVE living like this. Seriously, it becomes easy and second nature and no longer “inconvenient” to fill yourself with real food. Even on your kid's field trip.
24. You become a master chef. Seriously, I can make sweet potato hash like nobody’s business.
25. Your kids become your cheerleaders – Emmy started counting down the days for me.
26. You stop counting down the days… by Day 20, I was convinced that I would live like this forever… with maybe some cheese here and there.
    
    
    
27. You feel better.
28. You have more energy.
29. You still miss cheese.
30. But you can do it!

I am so proud of us and y’all… there must be something to it because by the end, I had shed 16.4 pounds. That’s half-a-POUND each day. I was shocked. SHOCKED. I didn’t work out the entire month. I ate bacon at least twice a week. And I lost SIXTEEN pounds. 

And this isn’t about weight, but I have worked out religiously before and never moved the scale that quickly. Perhaps our bodies really don’t need all that sugar and dairy and grain and corn.

So, let me know if you want to try it. I will coach you and cheer you on and write down all sorts of fail proof recipes that I made up and LOVE.

Just know this.

You will miss cheese.