Serendipity, and Other Bonuses

[Seafarer]

Day 30 Evaluation

 

Goal #1: I will complete all 30 days of my Whole 30 with no slips or cheats.

Rating: 5

Experience:

Week 1 – Sleepy/tired, with cravings. But I am motivated. LOVE the little hands gripping the day marker in the e-mails! Don't know why, but those hands really make me smile and look forward to the day. Week 2 – Away from home visiting friends with whom the traditional activities include late nights, copious amounts of wine, mega bowls of junk food, huge greasy breakfasts, and junk for lunch. I took a cooler & tons of veggies from my garden and kept myself so stuffed I couldn't even look at the junk. And thanks to a tip from Melissa Joulwan, I had my own very lovely drink with olives & lime slices. Interesting how the need to join in the fun goes away, when you quietly join in on your own terms. A potentially dangerous weekend became a whole lot of serendipity.

Week 4 – Wicked cravings and back to being sleepy! Big groan. Is this because I can see the end & I am already plotting my own demise? Gawd, I hope not! After re-reading my e-mails I happily realize it's because I forgot to stay hydrated. I don't need willpower; I need water!  J  Lesson learned.

 

Goal #2: Energy. I want to be the Eveready Bunny, and keep going all day.

Rating: 5

Experience: Okay, so I'm not the Eveready Bunny, but let's face it, he's annoying (& lacks direction). At first I rated this goal a 4, but then I changed it to a 5, because when I looked at my typical day pre-Whole 30, compared to my typical day during Whole 30... it's no freakin' wonder I'm still tired (but no longer exhausted). I am now (usually) physically active all day. Happily, I am recently retired and have an extensive garden, a kayak, and a lake. If I'm not working, I'm playing, but all of it is active. So, no Bunny Bursts, but I can certainly stay with it for the day, and that's something! No coffee for the last 30 days either!

 

Goal #3: 8 solid hours of restful sleep.

Rating: 4

Experience: By Day 30, the sleep aids are a thing of the past, and I am generally staying asleep for 6 or 7 hours. Following the tips & tricks from Whole 30, I have removed all “glowing things†from my bedroom so it is completely dark, and I can now usually fall back to sleep for that missing hour or two, but I'm still looking for my solid 8. I'll get there. Practice, practice, practice. And good food & exercise during the day.

 

Unexpected and delightful:

- Smoothies don't cut it for breakfast. My energy is much better served with eggs & vegs for breakfast. Or steak. Or leftovers. However, smoothies turned into ice cream for dessert? Fantastic.

- Fresh vegs are wicked appetizers. No dip. Just the veg. I know, right? Who knew?

- Whoever first took a julienne peeler to a zucchini and made noodles should be canonized!

- Whoever first tried roasting vegetables, and shared that with the world, deserves to retire with wealth. Especially broccoli. I love broccoli.

- Dark bedrooms matter. Little tiny glow-points actually matter.

- I like learning stuff in my downtime! No TV for the month. Busy reading Whole 30 & links.

- Because I have the energy to be outdoors all day, my dog is outdoors all day too. I don't need to make a point of keeping her exercised, she just follows me about all day. Tired dogs are great dogs! (But she tries to eat the beans, which are now too precious to share. J)

- No big desire to stop Whole 30'ing. At this moment, I can't think of anything that would be worth driving to the store to get.

- I actually enjoy finding ways to make this work. I also actually enjoy quietly participating in social occasions, but on my terms. Go figure.

- I used to think in terms of Good Me vs Bad Me. Now I think in terms of Blah-Blah Sugar Dragon vs Powerful Me Dragon. It's quite illuminating. Me. With Power.

 

Grateful for:

- Daily e-mails from Whole 30, and being fortunate enough to have the time to explore them thoroughly.

- Huge garden. I ate so darned much of the stuff, I am now quite sure I will be buying vegs before the winter is out. I can live with that!

- I didn't go to the grocery store the whole month. Really! I have meat & fish in the freezer, eggs at the farm up the road, I make my own almond milk, and I have plenty of vegs in the garden, but there's always something you need, right? Milk, bread, condiments, wine, dessert, junk.... something! But nope. Don't need any of that stuff.  Cheap month.

- Mellow moods! This is an awesome thing when the grandkids come to visit. They squabble & are TV-addicted. I have the patience to distract them with new activities. We created a lot of wonderful memories this month.

- The suggestion that my scale can live elsewhere. I did not set a weight goal, but of course we all have one somewhere in the back of our head, right? In my pre-Whole 30 days, a loss would give me permission to “celebrateâ€, and a gain would give me permission to “give upâ€. Powerful Dragon Me doesn't need to invite either of those crazies back into my life.

- My gawd this is reasonable, innit? I kept waiting for a sales pitch for “extras†and “you needs†but nope...  what is promised is what you get. Full stop. There's a place in heaven....

 

Next up:

- Continue Whole 30'ing until I decide to not. Follow the re-introduction schedule carefully when the time comes. Pay attention.

- Expand my culinary skills. I know I'll soon get bored with the same old/same old, so I need to explore new ways of preparing my food.

- Spend more time in my kayak.

- Teach my dog to vacuum, ‘cause I plan to be too busy to do it!

 

Feelin' good! J

[Colleen Roy]

Let me know how teaching the dog to vacuum goes because I swear that's the only reason I need to vacuum. My lab sheds like a champ and its all over my house despite frequent vacuuming! Loved reading your write up. So positive! Good luck as you continue your healthy journey!

[JayneNZ]

What a fantastic post - a really good read!! I'm so grateful that you wrote it as you sound like you're not a 20-something. Don't suppose it really matters much in the scheme of things, but as I'm 53 (tomorrow) I really like reading Whole30 experiences from the more mature perspective lol

 

I am on my Day 30 today and although I don't feel energetic at all, I know that I can't blame the program. I know that I haven't been eating enough, and it has only just twigged with me that maybe not eating enough could have something to do with that! (I swear I'm not normally that thick!), the problem is I just haven't been hungry hahaha

 

So thankyou again for sharing and CONGRATULATIONS for reaching Day 30 and best of luck for your future new way of eating. By the way you sound like you have the most perfect life - where do you live??

[Seafarer]

Teaching the dog to vacuum.... not good! She seems to have a phobia towards housework. They say pets emulate their humans.... I am sure that can't be true!

 

Mature perspective... yup! At age 61 I am looking forward to 40 years of blissful retirement. Not sure what my plans are for after that! 

 

Location.... Nova Scotia, Canada, in what some might term "further back than cottage country". New Zealand, so I have heard, is pretty idyllic too, right?

 

Update.... re-introductions are going well. I can tolerate most everything, as long as I don't make it more than an occasional exception, so I am pretty lucky. This allows me to eat at my Mom's without the inevitable (insert chalk board voice here) "What do you mean you aren't eating potatoes/bread/pie?! Are you  d I e t I n g ????" Geeesh! The one exception seems to be wine. Wine, for me, is definitely a sleep disruptor, even just one leeeeetle glass! Pout. And... oh well.

 

Lovin' this forum....