Started Dec 20 - Saying hi on Day 13

[Miranda9]

I figured I'd introduce myself here! I'm on Day 13 of my Whole 30, which my husband and I are doing together. I'm a stay at home mom to two girls ages four years and four months. My older daughter has high-functioning autism (Asperger's) which means she's brilliant and quite challenging to raise. Between that and the four month old, you can imagine that stress levels run high in our home. I've got a real sweet tooth and had fallen into the trap of snacking on sugar whenever my kids stressed me out. Which is several times a day! My poor diet had left me run down and achey.

 

Now that I'm on Day 13, my aches have gone away, which is awesome. I don't feel a big energy boost, but that might have something to do with being up all night with an infant. I'm pretty much past the physical cravings, and am squarely in the zone of noticing all my psychological attachments to particular foods. I miss sharing dessert with my husband after our kids go to bed. I miss cheese sticks as an easy snack. I miss soothing the stress by eating something chocolatey.

 

So far, some great things I've learned that I'll keep beyond Whole30:

-My family loves shrimp! Yay! Bring on the quick dinner.

-I love zucchini "noodles." Easy healthy bowl of food! I could eat those all the time.

-My omelets do not suffer from lack of cheese. Surprised how little I miss it.

 

The downsides bugging me so far:

-Dairy will be coming *right* back after this Whole30. Love me some dairy, and it causes me no stomach upset. Also I haven't seen any changes in my breastfed infant since eliminating it. I've been drinking my coffee black with no complaints, but I prefer a homemade cappuccino with foamy milk. I also miss a cheese stick for a quick snack.

-I'm sick of cooking. Period. I love to bake, so Whole30 leaves me doing none of my favorite kitchen activity and all of the "boring" one.

 

The Whole30 Timeline (or calendar?) has helped me. I checked it on Day 11, and when I read that I was most likely to quit then, it helped me through. Last night I dreamed that I cheated on Whole30 with a Pop Tart. It wasn't a mouth-watering fantasy; even in the dream I was disappointed in myself.

 

I started this to feel better. Right now my biggest motivation is to lose weight. This surprises me, because I'm not usually focused on that. But hey, I've got baby weight to lose, so it would be nice if it were gone. Staying off the scale 'cause that's the rules. My other motivation is: I did NOT skip all the Christmas treats in order to quit half way.

 

So, on I go....