February Whole 30

Holy moly! It has been FOREVER since I have posted a blog. With working full time, going to school full time, planning a wedding, and raising a threenager, I can barely find time to shower! 

After my Facebook post about whole 30, I have realized a lot of people are interested in finding out more information and had some questions, so I thought I would share my experience with those interested. 

My background with fitness and food: 
First of all, I have always loved food. Pizza. Ice cream. Nachos. Candy. Chips. Dutch bros. You name it. In high school, I never watched what I ate because I was a three sport athlete and burning thousands and thousands of calories just from one practice. I graduated high school weighing about 140-143 lbs. Right after I graduated, I stopped exercising as frequently, and my eating habits got even more excessive. Plus throw in all the beer and alcohol I was consuming? Yikes! It makes me sick to think about as I type this. These terrible habits followed me through college. I would jump on the gym bandwagon on a weekly basis, and started exercising more, but never changed those nasty eating habits. I graduated college in 2012 weighing between 174-177 lbs! I am only 5'4, so that's a lot of weight for my small frame and height to be carrying around. Three months after graduating college, I found out I was pregnant with Ri. Throughout college and my pregnancy I KNEW I needed to make a change, because whatever I was doing, clearly was not working for me. I was the heaviest I had ever been and was SO unhappy, but just couldn't seem to make my health a commitment. On March 27th 2013, the day I had my precious little monkey, I stepped on the scale at the doctor's office and saw that it read 225 pounds! Yes, I was pregnant so gaining weight is a given. But 50 pounds? That was an all time low. 

Shortly after Rilyn was born, my relationship with my fiance ended and I decided to completely turn my life around in every aspect, with my daughter and health being my number one priority. My best friend, Shianne, encouraged me to try some workout classes with her and that helped spark my passion for working out. Over the next 3 years, I became extremely dedicated to working out, going to the gym 5-7 times per week. I also began researching healthy eating habits, and changed my eating around completely! I got down to 150 lbs! I loved how I felt and was really excited about all the positive changes I was noticing physically, mentally, and emotionally. Regardless of some huge changes to my diet and lifestyle, I still loved to indulge in pizza, ice cream, and treats more often than I should. Life got busier, I got more comfortable in my relationship with Ben, and I noticed myself starting to fall back into some nasty habits. I was failing to make my health a priority again and could definitely notice some changes happening to my body in a negative way. I was fluctuate between the 155-160 range again. Yes, I know that the scale is just a number. However, it was severely affecting my self talk and overall, I felt like a bag of poop.  I knew I needed to make a drastic change because I did NOT want to see myself fall into the same pattern I had seen in the past. Clearly whatever I was doing was NOT working. Even the months I would work my booty off in the gym, my eating habits were not great, and I was not seeing the results I wanted. 

Why Whole 30? 
Like I mentioned above, I knew I needed some drastic; something I had never done before, to get myself back on track. One of my really good friends completed her first round last summer and I was so interested and impressed! I asked her about it, even borrowed the Whole 30 book. However, mentally, I was not prepared. I told myself, "There's no way you can do this. It's too hard." This past January she talked about doing another round, and after stepping on the scale and looking in the mirror, feeling my clothes getting tighter each week, I decided this would be my drastic "thing" I needed to do! 

The thing about Whole 30, is that it IS really hard and you definitely need a support system to make it through. It is recommended to do with a friend, so I thought it was perfect timing. My friend, Brittany, had tons of great advice, helpful tips, and was a great motivator. I even encouraged my BFF Katelyn to get on board. It helped a ton to have people going through the process with you. :) 

Okay what the hell is whole 30? 
I am in NO MEANS an expert or even an intermediate level whole 30er. There are two great books that I need to get, by Melissa and Dallas Hartwig, that go really into depth about it. If you are interested, google "whole 30 books" and they will pop up! :)  Basically, it's designed to be a 30 day reset to your body, eliminating dairy, legumes, soy, processed anything, gluten, any form of processed sugar, and processed additives. You eat whole foods for 30 days. It sounds like you can't have anything, but you can actually eat a TON of food and there is no caloric restriction since you are eating real, whole foods. I ate a ton of fruit, vegetables, potatoes, meat, salads with compliant dressing, almond butter, almonds, lara bars. You will most likely lose weight if you follow the guidelines, but it's not JUST about losing weight. It's also designed to help you figure out your relationship with food and what food groups work with your body, and which ones don't. 

For me, I learned that I do not need dairy in my diet what-so-ever. It was killing my stomach on a daily basis and I feel sooooo much better without it. I also learned that for the past 6 years I thought I was a "coffee addict", turns out- I was a "sugar addict". Sugar addiction is actually a very real thing that most people don't realize. There are SO many foods that have some sort of sugar or processed sugar in them, like ketchup, dressings, barbeque sauce, bacon, sausage just to name a few. I learned that I can drink my coffee without a bunch of crap in it and survive on one or two cups a day, instead of 5 or 6. I also feel like I have much better self control around desserts and treats. Before, I would binge eat 8-10 cupcakes if we had them in the house. Now, I can eat one and feel satisfied and I want to KEEP it that way! 

I eliminated certain food groups prior to starting whole 30, which I think helped a little bit, but headaches and fatigue are not uncommon for the first few days on whole 30, as your body is detoxing from sugar! It's crazy to think that some of our bodies have been addicted to sugar for years, or even our whole lives! 

What is life like after whole 30? 
I am just speaking from personal experience, but I have still been eating whole 30 compliant meals and food 90% of the time. You are supposed to do a reintroduction phase where you reintroduce foods back into your diet one at a time and see if there any effects. For me, I know that I do not want dairy in my life, so I am not going to reintroduce it. I will slowly reintroduce whole grains here and there, and of course have an occasional treat (like the sushi I destroyed last night). 

But overall, I feel I have much more control over my relationship with food. Not to mention, my clothes fit loosely, my skin has cleared up, I don't feel bloated and gross all the time, AND I happened to lose 11 pounds! :) 

I plan on doing another round in May, and will try to be better about posting my meals to social media for those who are interested. If you're not, sorry! :) This is honestly something I definitely recommend to anyone and everyone who is interested in living a healthier lifestyle.