At the precipice...

[WholyMoley77]

So, I'm an engineer who solves problems for a living and for some reason I can not seem to solve the problem that my physical self is not to spec.    5'7", 200 lbs, 38" waist.  My goal is to drop 40 lbs and get to a 34" waist.  My timeline is adjustable.  

I have been really unsatisfied with my current physical self and feel that it has a negative impact on social, romantic and personal life.

I feel that the cause of this is my food supply and exercise level.

My food supply is bad because I don't make good choices; I don't make good food choices for many reasons.  I eat out of emotional response, I am poorly trained on how to eat and I like to eat something that I can just grab quickly.  

I have completed a few home workout programs (Insanity, P90X) before but I never really commit to the diet portion.  I saw great results with Insanity and mediocre results with P90X.  

I believe I would like to get through the whole 30 without a concentrated exercise program; just my usual weekly hikes.  

Once completed with Whole 30, then I can kick off the working out in a big way.  

 

If you have any thoughts or ideas, feel free to share.  

 

Thank you

 

Josh

 

[Semolina]

W30 is good stuff. I've found the difficult part isn't eating W30 food (there is lots of choice and it is truly delicious: and I've found emotional eating to be almost entirely controlled by eating differently which was a big bonus I wasn't expecting) or avoiding bad food (that gets easier -- have you read ISWF? I would, because it gives you great answers to those little voices in your head which pop up every now and then telling you that a glass of wine / pint of beer /  piece of cake won't hurt); but being organised enough to have enough food in your fridge all the time so it is just as easy to eat a W30 compliant meal as to eat a sausage roll / Cornish pastie.

 

This is my third go-round: every time I lose weight and feel great. I keep coming back to it because once I "off-road" I go WAY OFF piste and need to pull it back again (third time lucky?). What I have learnt and am implementing this time is that I have identified the time of day I am most likely to be able to prepare food even if I don't feel like it (for me, in the morning - but my working hours are weird) and MAKE MYSELF make some food every day so that at every meal time I have a variety of things to call on. Melissa from Well Fed (a great book worth buying) does a huge cook-up at the weekend so she's got stuff in the fridge to last the  week. It's the discipline of always making sure you have easy healthy choices for when you are fed up and can't be bothered. (And working out what packed lunches you are going to have; how to ensure you've got W30 compliant emergency snacks etc etc).

 

So yesterday I roasted carrots at the same time as a chicken; today I have roasted onions, tomatoes, and butternut squash (separately) and made some baba ganoush. I also riced some cauliflower so I can have "rice" with my chicken curry tonight -- using chicken from the roast and a curry sauce I made a HUGE batch of weeks ago (from a Jamie Oliver book) and froze in smaller portions. In other words, it *is* an effort to make sure you always have food to hand, and you will need to work out when you are going to make that effort -- and I suggest not planning on it being when you get in from work, tired, fed up and hungry.

 

Once you've got that bit cracked, it's a breeze. Really. (Well, OK, the first time the cravings can hit you really hard: for me, wanting to weigh myself (unexpected) and diet coke.)

 

Good luck!

[Tom Denham]

I came to the Whole30 frustrated because I worked out a lot and remained "chubby." And I thought I ate good. I was always more likely to choose a vegetable plate when eating out, did fast food only occasionally, and thought I was making good choices at home. But when I adopted the Whole30-style of eating, I started losing weight. That was exciting because I had not lost weight for 2 years. I never lost more than 2 pounds per month, but I kept losing for 15 months until I wasn't chubby anymore. My workouts became more aggressive as I lost weight and I am pretty sure I was losing fat each month, but gaining muscle. But like Semolina observes above, it takes preparation to make this work. Most of my meals can be prepared quickly, but you have to have food in the house and the willingness to cut, chop, wilt, and roast to get your meals that work for your body.