Gunz n Butter's Whole 30

[gunz]

Wow.  In three hours, I will have completed a Whole30.  I really didn't think I'd get through it when I started.  I have considered doing this before, and every time, I chickened out before I even started.  I'd tell myself "Oh, just journal your food" "Oh, just cut back on carbs" or some other diet rules.  This time around, I can honestly say I wasn't trying to lose weight - I really just wanted a way to kickstart a habit of preparing my own food.  For the past thirty days, I've cooked every breakfast and every dinner (and put together most lunches from a salad bar) for myself, from scratch.  The only packaged food that has crossed my lips is some coconut milk, ghee, olive oil.  Nothing that had multiple ingredients.  I've learned to cook pork and beef in ways I never have before.  I've gained confidence in the kitchen.  I may not have done a perfect Whole 30 (I did snack occasionally on fruits and nuts, and probably relied a little too heavily on starchy carbs - hello sweet potatoes!)  but I followed the plan 100%.  

 

I sit here now feeling a little too full from dinner - a feeling that really hasn't happened to me in weeks - I kind of forgot how it's uncomfortable to eat too much.  And the funny thing is, it wasn't really a big meal based on my prior habits.  

 

Buttars didn't technically finish the Whole 30, as he had some mishaps while travelling - but he's convinced of this lifestyle, and is currently on Day 8 - he just re-started again as soon as he came back.  So we're going to be sticking to a vastly Whole30 lifestyle - but I'm gonna loosen up a little bit.  We did agree on some household rules, however - no grains or sugar will be kept in the house.  If these things appear in our lives outside the home, we'll evaluate, but as a general rule, we will not cook with these things.  And the most amazing part??  We LOVE eating at home.  It's actually better than eating at restaurants.  I was afraid we'd get bored, but it's actually delightful.  Not every night is necessarily a beautifully plated dinner, but even when it's re-heated leftovers, we sit at the kitchen table and talk to each other.  

 

I have realized that my sleep was never as good as I thought it was - because I've been having amazingly restful nights - and I've awoken without an alarm clock for weeks now.  I'm fairly convinced that it was alcohol that had been affecting my sleep prior, and I didn't even know it was happening.  I will be very careful about re-introducing alcohol into my diet, and definitely never more than once a week, nor when I need to get up in the morning for work or fun activity.

 

Neither of us has had indigestion in a month!  There was some gastro difficulties here and there, but I think I've narrowed those down to times when I snacked on nuts.  Lesson learned.  Should I do another Whole30 in the future, I know that my additional rule book will include no between meal snacking ... although I'm fairly convinced that I do need 4 meals a day (which is why I always wind up snacking upon arriving home from work.)  My usual schedule is 7:30 Am workout, 9:00 breakfast, 12:30 lunch, 5:00 snack, 8:00 dinner ... so I think that snack is actually warranted (although I know the official Whole 30 says three meals only.)  If I just replaced the 5:00 nuts/fruit with a bit of protein and veggie, I think I'd have this down pat.

 

I mentioned this before - but learning to go without food was a side effect of this.  If I didn't have Whole30 - appropriate food with me (like on a long hike) I would just wait to get home to eat.  It seems simple enough to most people, I'm sure, but my regular self would have panicked at first hint of hunger, and I'd wind up eating something sub-optimal.  I reminded myself that being a little hungry is not an emergency, and that waiting for better food is not just possible, but better.

 

I'm almost embarrassed to admit this part, but it was a big side benefit for us.  We still would fall into a bad habit of smoking off and on.  When we went into the Whole 30, there's also the clause "and obviously, no tobacco."  I had never once considered cutting out smoking whenever I would embark on a diet in the past - if anything, i would tell myself, don't worry about the smoking, you'll deal with that after you lose the weight.  But this time - with all the focus on  what we're eating, and planning meals, and avoiding alcohol.  We almost didn't even notice that we weren't smoking.  And now we're both 30+ days nicotine free - and we never had a single nicotine withdrawal symptom! Suffice it to say, this is a huge benefit ... don't judge!

 

Pardon the rambling nature of this post, I'm really just writing it as a letter to myself in the future.  Should I feel tempted to move away from this style of eating, and risking my health again, I want my own voice to remind me how great I feel right now.  And buttars too - I just told him what I'm working on and he flexed, and was like yeah - I feel great.  I'm not quitting.

 

and now: to bed.  When I wake up, buttars will join me for the first time to my favorite workout class.  Then we will eat our new standard Whole Life breakfast.  Day 31 = Day 1 of the rest of my life.

[mangio_bene]

Thanks for sharing that great sum up of your 30 days.

[GFChris]

Terrific summary!  Be sure to post it, along with any additional results, in the Success Stories section.