Melanie Kemp Posted June 6, 2017 Share Posted June 6, 2017 Hello, everyone! I'm Melanie. I just celebrated my 40th birthday a couple of days ago, I'm a writer, and I'm the mother of 2 boys, ages 8 & 4, the older of whom is autistic. My husband of almost 10 years and I will be doing this together, though I can virtually guarantee you'll never hear from him. One of my best friends is also considering joining the challenge, and I hope I'll be able to expand my support group here. I'm here to make big changes and address a myriad of issues. I've had an unhealthy relationship with food punctuated by emotional eating, body image issues, and unhealthy food associations for as long as I can remember. I've also struggled with weight half my life. I developed Hashimoto's thyroiditis at the age of 16 and had the final piece of my thyroid gland removed in 2008 at the age of 30. I've suffered with allergies since I was around 6 years old, asthma since I was 30, and chronic joint pain since I was 19. Over the past two and a half years, I've been treated for depression, have developed anxiety, have begun exhibiting symptoms of bipolar disorder, and have become increasingly unable to cope without food. I am bloated more often than not, acid reflux is now a daily issue when it was once a rarity, my blood pressure is now too high, I am in chronic pain every single day, I have completely lost interest in intimacy, I no longer feel like myself, and my doctors can't provide any advice beyond what I've already tried a hundred times. So I'm here (with the blessing of my primary care physician, who thinks it's an excellent idea) hoping this will be an important part of my transformation. I have a long list of very specific goals that I won't go into here, but I will share a few. I want to know that I'm taking control of my health. I want to have more energy and not feel like I'm completely spent by 10am because I want to be the mother and wife I know I am. I want my wedding ring to fit again. I want to find a way to be healthy without burning myself out micromanaging my diet. I want to sleep well again. In short, I want to reclaim my life. For the remainder of this week and next, I'll be reading the rest of "The Whole 30," cleaning out my pantry & fridge, designating space for non-compliant foods we must keep on hand for my autistic child, planning meals for our first week, drafting my back-up plans, and planning non-food rewards for meeting goals (like just sticking with it!). The entire family will be traveling, as well, since my husband has a business trip while our sons and I will be visiting my hometown. Our challenge begins June 19, the day after my husband gets home and will end 10 days before our 10th wedding anniversary -- giving us a bit of time to reintroduce anything we deem essential to the celebration of that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginsky Posted June 7, 2017 Share Posted June 7, 2017 Sounds like you have a good plan for preparing and finishing. That's great that your husband is doing it with you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melanie Kemp Posted June 7, 2017 Author Share Posted June 7, 2017 5 minutes ago, Ginsky said: That's great that your husband is doing it with you. Well, to be fair, he doesn't have much choice. I do all the cooking! I suppose he could, technically, stray from the program while he's at work or traveling (he does have one short trip without me during our challenge period) or even after I go to bed (always hours earlier than him) -- particularly since I don't think the reset is something he finds as important as I do. But I do hope he decides to commit fully because I think it'll benefit him as much as it will me. Even so, I know one of my struggles is a tendency to want to micromanage things beyond my control and stress out -- to the point of taking it personally -- if someone I love rejects my plan. Therefore, I've decided to let it go. He's an adult. If he wants to fully commit and reap the full benefits, wonderful. If he doesn't, he'll still benefit from the improvement in the portion of his diet I control by way of being our resident Domestic Goddess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melanie Kemp Posted June 7, 2017 Author Share Posted June 7, 2017 Side note: I just noticed a photo from my birthday of me with a cupcake imported as my profile pic. Better change that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fmr_sailor Posted June 7, 2017 Share Posted June 7, 2017 I will be starting June 21st, so pretty close to your start date! I have made multiple attempts at the Whole30, with the first attempt having begun July 1st 2015. I have never made it past day 14, but many of the issues that I believe hindered me from completing are out of my way now. Or at least have been properly acknowledged and are being actively dealt with. Hope it goes well for you!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginsky Posted June 7, 2017 Share Posted June 7, 2017 14 hours ago, Melanie Kemp said: Well, to be fair, he doesn't have much choice. I do all the cooking! I suppose he could, technically, stray from the program while he's at work or traveling (he does have one short trip without me during our challenge period) or even after I go to bed (always hours earlier than him) -- particularly since I don't think the reset is something he finds as important as I do. But I do hope he decides to commit fully because I think it'll benefit him as much as it will me. Even so, I know one of my struggles is a tendency to want to micromanage things beyond my control and stress out -- to the point of taking it personally -- if someone I love rejects my plan. Therefore, I've decided to let it go. He's an adult. If he wants to fully commit and reap the full benefits, wonderful. If he doesn't, he'll still benefit from the improvement in the portion of his diet I control by way of being our resident Domestic Goddess. If he doesn't go all in from the start with you, there is hope. Read Michelle Tam's bio (nom nom paleo) where she explains her husband went paleo and she scoffed at first. Then she noticed the results... You're doing a wonderful thing for yourself and setting a beautiful example your family. @fmr_sailor, I refused to do a Whole30 for a solid 6 months before I finally did one. I had so many rational well thought out excuses, until the time came that I was ready and then it worked. I'm glad you are feeling ready now and have learned and progressed so much from your previous trials. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melanie Kemp Posted June 7, 2017 Author Share Posted June 7, 2017 44 minutes ago, fmr_sailor said: I will be starting June 21st, so pretty close to your start date! I have made multiple attempts at the Whole30, with the first attempt having begun July 1st 2015. I have never made it past day 14, but many of the issues that I believe hindered me from completing are out of my way now. Or at least have been properly acknowledged and are being actively dealt with. Hope it goes well for you!! Good luck to you, as well! We can be forum buddies, too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melanie Kemp Posted June 7, 2017 Author Share Posted June 7, 2017 33 minutes ago, Ginsky said: If he doesn't go all in from the start with you, there is hope. Read Michelle Tam's bio (nom nom paleo) where she explains her husband went paleo and she scoffed at first. Then she noticed the results... You're doing a wonderful thing for yourself and setting a beautiful example your family. Aw, thank you, Gin. I honestly feel like I haven't been a good example -- especially for the past couple of years. I do hope I'm changing that. And, yes, that bio is fantastic. I'd completely forgotten that she was the cynical spouse at first. By the way, my husband and I were talking this morning, and he did say he's going to fully commit -- even when he goes to an old friend's wedding scheduled on our Days 13 & 14. Hopefully, he really will be out of the slump because I know that's going to be a tough one! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginsky Posted June 7, 2017 Share Posted June 7, 2017 That's great! As far as the wedding or any other social events, it helps to eat a full healthy meal before going, drink seltzer or water with lime/lemon so people assume you're drinking and don't try to get you to drink, and bring compliant snacks for emergencies. I'm a big fan of biltong droewers sausage/sticks for on the go and emergencies. The past is the past, doing this Whole30 and getting prepared is a great example moving forward. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melanie Kemp Posted June 7, 2017 Author Share Posted June 7, 2017 I'll definitely give him those tips. I won't be there because we can't pull our oldest out of therapy for a few days so soon after he's missing a few days for us to visit my dad. By the way, how did you tag Erica when you replied to her above? I feel like I'm probably missing something obvious, but I couldn't figure out how to do it responding to you, and it seems like a good forum trick to know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginsky Posted June 7, 2017 Share Posted June 7, 2017 6 minutes ago, Melanie Kemp said: I'll definitely give him those tips. I won't be there because we can't pull our oldest out of therapy for a few days so soon after he's missing a few days for us to visit my dad. By the way, how did you tag Erica when you replied to her above? I feel like I'm probably missing something obvious, but I couldn't figure out how to do it responding to you, and it seems like a good forum trick to know. Tagging someone is easy. Just type the "at symbol" immediately before typing their board handle with no space after the symbol. Some choices will pop up below your typing so you just need to click the correct option once you see it. I don't think I've ever finished typing the person's full handle since options start popping up as you are typing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melanie Kemp Posted June 7, 2017 Author Share Posted June 7, 2017 58 minutes ago, Ginsky said: Tagging someone is easy. Just type the "at symbol" immediately before typing their board handle with no space after the symbol. Some choices will pop up below your typing so you just need to click the correct option once you see it. I don't think I've ever finished typing the person's full handle since options start popping up as you are typing. Yup! I was missing something obvious! Good grief! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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