My First Whole 30

[CarmenS]

Day 30 + 1.

My Whole 30 is at a close. So far I have had:

Breakfast: 2 eggs scrambled in coconut oil, 2 sausages, strawberries, green tea.

Snack: 10 macademias + my first ever snack-size "cherry pie" Larabar (it was pretty intense--how do people eat the full-size ones?)

Lunch in a few minutes will be taco salad leftovers from dinner: grass-fed ground beef spiced up with some homemade "taco seasoning" on a bed of lettuce topped with Whole 30-approved salsa, tomatoes, black olives, and avocado.

Which means today is pretty much like yesterday and the 29 days before that, with the exception of the Larabar (which was good, but mighty sweet).

Hopefully tonight I will post about what I learned, lost, and found. Right now I am recovering from a very intense yoga class, have to eat lunch, and have a ton of writing to catch up on for one of my jobs. Just wanted to log in to say that, so far, life "after" my Whole 30 looks an awful lot like life "during" my Whole 30. I plan to keep it that way.

[CarmenS]

Stats for my Whole 30.

I didn't do a lot of measuring before I started this, though I did weigh myself and take a waist measurement. Oh, and I took some photos that are for personal viewing only.

During my Whole 30 I lost 10.2 pounds and 1.5 inches from my waist.

What I gained seems so much more significant:

• Gained the use of my left arm. Prior to the Whole 30 I had been in physical therapy (since January) working on a rotator cuff injury to no avail. A few days into the Whole 30, my arm just stopped hurting. While I have to rebuild strength, the pain is more than 90% gone.
  
• Gained a new respect for my own ability to follow through a tough challenge--and it's given me the incentive to hire a personal trainer and get serious about getting in shape. I meet with her this Friday.
  
• Gained a new understanding of and respect for food as fuel for my body. I have spent the past 30 days really examining my relationship to food--and it has been pretty twisted in the past. I have a new outlook, one I want to keep. Food isn't entertainment and it isn't good or bad. It's just fuel for my body. Not that I don't enjoy it--I do! But I have a different way of looking at it now, and I intend to keep this new perspective.
  

I think I'm going to hold off a few days before I post to whatever forum it is that touts one's success. I still feel a little bit like I'm not quite "done" with my Whole 30. As a matter of fact, today I still ate just like I was still on it (except I let myself have that mini-Larabar).

I was going to have some vegan ice cream, but it just didn't fit into my plans. The "old me" wouldn't have passed it up, but by the time we finished our excellent dinner (grass-fed/pastured pork chops, farmers' market asparagus, sweet potato fries, big-ass salad with avocado, cherry tomatoes, and vinegrette), I just didn't feel the need to eat another bite.

There's always tomorrow...

[Derval]

Another great post, I think I heart Carmen!

"Gained a new respect for my own ability to follow through a tough challenge" - me too we have every right to be proud of ourselves!

Re the trainer I joined up to www.eplifefit.com last week and am *loving* it so far, you should check it out.

[CarmenS]

Met with my personal trainer today. She's great! It appears I have some work to do. I have an incredibly high percentage of body fat (good gods!), but I do have amazingly fine posture (thank you, yoga classes). And it seems there might be some answers to my chronic hip pain--I have some ankle pronation, and it seems my left calf is more developed than my right, so something is going on there. We're going to work on some things and hopefully my hip will get sorted out along the way.

Haven't decided to deviate from the Whole 30 yet. I was thinking that someone mentioned getting gluten-free pizza on a visit in a couple of weeks. I think I am going to skip that. It isn't that good and I don't really want it, so I think I'll suggest something else. If they all insist on pizza, I'll order a salad instead. I'm just not going to be peer-pressured into eating something I don't want to eat.

I don't even know what day this is. Just Day 30 + something. And still going strong.

[CarmenS]

I ate sugar...and lived to tell the tale!

On Sunday we celebrated an early Mother's Day with my mom and my daughter who is going to be a mom in September. We also celebrated my forthcoming 50th birthday, and what is a birthday celebration without a cake? I offered to make the cake so I could control the ingredients.

I made a St. John's cake, a very simple cake made with ground almonds, eggs, sugar, lemon zest, and ground cinnamon. It makes one small, 9-inch cake. I ate 1/16th of this cake (which means I ate about 3 tsp. of sugar) with sliced strawberries. It was after a very nice, Whole 30 compliant meal. I felt no sugar rush, didn't feel sick, didn't have any problems at all.

This doesn't mean I'm going to push it. I'm not going to start eating sugar every day or having a little "treat" with every meal. But it was nice to be able to share a somewhat healthy dessert with my family (who raved over it--my dad even accused me of buying it at a fancy bakery because he saw the parchment paper and didn't realize you could use that at home!).

I'm continuing to eat Whole 30 style. Haven't really changed anything else. No sugar in my tea, no chocolate after dinner. And no grains, legumes, or dairy. Ever again. I just love how I feel too much to mess this up.

[Renee Lee]

That's great, Carmen! It sounds delicious.

Side note, you could actually make this even "less bad" by replacing the sugar with dextrose. I'm all about minimizing fructose, so opting for dextrose in baked goods over sucrose (table sugar) would further minimize the negative impacts.

But yay!

[Derval]

Sounds delicous Carmen, sounds like you had a lovely celebration.