August 1st start date with my husband!

[Katy Reeves]

Hello everyone- I first heard of the Whole30 because I am part of another group called MuTu Mamas on Facebook, which is a group of women who have what is typically a postnatal condition (but can happen otherwise) called diastasis recti (basically during pregnancy the connective tissue between the abdominal muscles stretches too much and tears so you have a distended abdomen and look pregnant when you are not, you have trouble lifting or strengthening your core, and back pain is common). The program MuTu (short for mummy tummy) was created by a woman named Wendy Powell and it involves core exercises that are considered safe and effective in closing the gap of connective tissue (crunches and planks are bad for diastasis) as well as high intensity interval work outs, walking daily, and food changes very similar to Whole30- nothing processed, no sugar, etc. Some of the women in the Facebook support group mentioned Whole30 and I looked it up and was very inspired to do it! My husband, somewhat hesitantly at first, decided to do this with me- and the more he learns about it the more excited he is getting too. We have a 13 month old baby and we just want to teach her good eating habits and give her (hopefully) a very good relationship with whole and healthy foods- unlike what both of our upbringings included, we both have sugar addictions (I keep finding myself cheating on the MuTu plan), my husband can't stop drinking sodas, we also have gone through junk food, fast food, etc phases since all of these are our "comfort foods" that our parents made "special" or fed us regularly. I think this program will really be able to teach us about our relationships with food/drink, and give us that foundation of healthful nutrition that we are seeking to become part of our growing family. We also plan to begin trying for another baby in the fall (yipes so soon ) so I want to go into this pregnancy with much better food choices and an understanding of what affects my body in what ways to hopefully avoid the horrible problems and birth experience we had with our first (short version of the story is: I had pre-eclampsia worries during my entire last month and had to be monitored then induced- then after 38+ hours of intense induced labor, epidural, etc. we ended in a c-section and my recovery was really difficult). Also my husband has allergies and asthma, as well as bowel issues at times and he really wants to see which foods give him troubles by the elimination process. We are nervous but excited and very inspired by the Whole9 and Whole30 websites! So thanks for listening, and I wish us all well in this process! Best, Katy