Day 26 and at my lowest weight since high school...

[Bayern]

I still have four days to go, but can't get over the amazing results I've seen from my whole 30.

A friend had posted that she was doing a whole 30 and I didn't know what that meant so I googled it. I thought she was crazy and remember thinking I could NEVER go a month on basically just meat and vegetables. I judged it as an extreme starvation diet which would of course lead to weight loss, but was totally unsustainable. But a few weeks later, after returning from a week at the cottage which included way to much wine, bread, cheese and dessert I was feeling puffy and grumpy and drastic. So I googled the whole 30 again and started to read more about it and some of the success stories and decided maybe this was truly something worth giving a shot. I was tired of feeling like crap....tired, lethargic, moody, and addicted to sugar.

I started the next day. The whole 30 timeline pretty much perfectly describes my experience. I had a rough first week, but found it really wasn't hard at all. I made scrambled eggs with veggies for breakfast, brought a salad with protein to work for lunch and then cooked something delicious for dinner. My husband, who didn't participate, but agreed to eat whatever I made for dinner, loved all the meat and veg. Sure I had to be a bit more organized, and get up and make breakfast and pack a lunch, but it quickly became a habit. I didn't go extreme with trying to replicate non-paleo recipes or buy complicated ingredients, I just made simple meals with whole ingredients, and found it was actually less effort to cook dinner than before my w30.

I also wasn't crazy strict...I chose to pick my battles. We celebrated our one year anniversary during my w30 and I made a conscious decision before hand to have one glass of dry red wine with dinner to celebrate. I still ordered a steak with grilled veggies and didn't have any bread or dessert, but decided that was worth it to me and something I would allow and not worry about. It was powerful to realize that what I put in my mouth is a choice, but also that doing the w30 is a choice. I decided to not get hung up about trace amounts of non-compliant ingredients. If we went out to eat I just ordered a salad with oil and vinegar, or meat and veg and didn't worry that there could be sugar in the vinegar or that the veggies that were possibly cooked in butter. To me this was still a big improvement over fettuccine alfredo and not going to ruin all my hard work.

Overall I am feeling great! I've been sleeping better, have increased energy, my skin is clearer and my mood is more even. I think more than anything doing whole 30 has finally made me realize what a huge role nutrition plays in our health and how bad all the junk we eat really is for our bodies. I have also learned that I do have self control. That I don't need sweets or bread or alcohol to enjoy life. A co worker brought in cake last week to the office and it wasn't even difficult to turn down a slice. That is such a great feeling for someone who would have never turned down a piece of cake a month ago!

I know this isn't allowed, but since I don't have a scale at home, I took the opportunity to weigh myself today when I was at my inlaws....I have lost 14 pounds!! I was shocked. I knew I had lost weight because my clothes were feeling really big and my face and fingers had really leaned out, but I haven't seen this number on the scale since I was in high school. I went shopping the other day and I have lost at least one dress size, and even needed a size 6 in a couple of items (was a 10/12 before)! I have lost and gained the same 5-10 pounds over the past few years, but this feels different. This weight literally just fell off. I haven't felt deprived or hungry at all and have actually worked out less than usual.

I'm really excited about the reintro phase because I feel like I probably had some sort of a sensitivity or intolerance I wasn't aware of that was causing me to retain water/holding me back from losing weight. I'm also nervous...I feel amazing and don't want to go back to my old ways, but I also don't want to be "that person" with special dietary needs. Right now my plan is to stick pretty close to whole 30 when eating at home and do my best when out and about, but not stress if I I get invited to someone's house and they make pasta. But I guess that will depend on how my reintro goes.

[Bet]

That is great! I'm nowhere near my HS weight, but I have lost at least 15 (this is my 2nd W30). The other day, my pants were literally falling down they were so loose.

 

I also feel great. I did a reintro after my first W30 and found most stuff (like half and half) I didn't really need any more. But somethings, like wine, I do still enjoy.

[Bayern]

Wow way to go Bet!!

I am on my first day of reintro today and excited to see what kind of things I just don't need anymore....cream in my coffee was one thing I did miss so it will be interesting to see if I even still like it.

It's empowering that after w30 I feel like even if I so like it I have gained so much self control that I can choose whether or not to include it in my diet.