JenX Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 Today is Day 30 of my second Whole 30. Yay! I'm attaching my success story from the first round below as so many of these things are still in effect, or back in effect this time around. The sense of food freedom, not having to count macros, not having hunger make me hangry or shaky, having an elevated mood and steady energy throughout the day - all that and more. -So, why do another Whole 30?-- I was still having some digestive issues at the end of my first W30, and I noticed they were getting worse as I was riding my own bike. I wanted to resolve that by more closely tracking what I was eating and what caused problems. I had also broken a bone in my foot back on June 7th. I'm a runner (not a good one, but still..). Running is what keeps me sane, and being forced to be completely sedentary for 3 weeks caused me to start sliding into depression. Depression for me comes through in my food and overuse of alcohol. I had started slipping back into old patterns and recognized what was going on and knew I needed to get back to eating healthy ASAP to assist that bone's healing potential and drag me out of the funk I was in. Luckily the Official July Whole 30 started when it did - I jumped back on the wagon (well, hopped, on one foot). I was only riding my own bike for a month and in that time I had not reintroduced everything - I stayed away from legumes, and gluten grains, but had allowed alcohol and dairy to come back in too often. In that month, the less-healthy food choices caused my weight to creep back up, evening snacking was back, snacking in the day was back. My pants were tight again - and the fact I couldn't exercise was not helping my cause at all. Boredom also causes me to snack. My goals this time were to concentrate on healing, rest, and recuperation, and to work on my mood. Once I made up my mind to do it, I found this second round of Whole 30 to be much easier than the first. I embraced my meals - i stuck to the template, I made a point of trying some new recipes. Within the first 4 days my depression started to lift. I had one day of a minor withdrawal headache on Day 2 but have otherwise felt great. I instituted a rating scale for my bm's which I kept track of in my log so I can now go back and look for patterns. Like when I ate nuts, the next morning I had issues. Or the day before I had waaaay too much cauliflower and broccoli and I paid for it. On day 6 the doctor cleared me to do some light activity in my cam walking boot - 15 minutes on an elliptical has never felt so good. The x-ray showed the bone was knitting nicely. To be sure to help it along I added a calcium supplement (Cal + Magnesium + Vit D) and made sure I got dark leafy greens with a vit.C source in every day. Up to this point, I had been basically maintaining my body composition - and happy enough with that considering my limitations - but I still felt doughy and bloated. I had to remind myself more than once that this is a 30 day program and I was only on week 2. Also that my body was prioritizing healing over shedding fat and that was what it needed to do. It even delayed my cycle by 10 days (which didn't help the bloat any, I have to say). Day 14 the doctor took off the boot. I spent a week slowly building strength and carefully walking around. It felt weird to have use of my foot and ankle after 6 weeks of immobilization. Then at the start of week 3 the magic happened. All the bloat went away. Since that point I see definite slimming going on. The foot keeps improving. I've been able to slowly increase the amount of walking I can do and have embraced the elliptical at the gym. My pants are no longer tight and my mood is even more improved (now that I can have a small taste of my beloved endorphins again) as is my energy. Tiger blood indeed! So, here I am at Day 30. I won't be allowed to run for another 4 weeks, but instead of that causing me distress, I'm okay. My GI issues still come and go occasionally, but I can usually figure out why. Those issues are still 150% better than they were. I have decided to do a full re-introduction this time around (last time was more of a slow roll, that turned into a fast roll downhill) and have planned out a very detailed schedule. I want to know specifically which foods bother me. Plus it will force me to stay compliant between each re-introduction which mentally I need right now. I know I do better with rules, and that's why Whole 30 is such a blessing for me - no gray areas. I structured my schedule the same way. No gray areas. Once Reintroduction is done I'll be eating Paleo for the most part, and mostly to template because I really do feel better eating this way. And if I go off the rails again in some way in the future I know I can always come get back on Whole 30 #3. And now that it's day 31 and I could to my measurements and weigh-in.... I'm down 7.5 lbs and about 5" total! The great majority of this without exercise. That's huge for me. I usually feel like i have to workout like a crazy person to lose any weight at all. Nope, i just need to feed my body what it needs. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted 03 June 2015 - 10:21 AM I finished my Whole 30 almost a week ago. I didn't do before weight or measurements (on purpose), but my clothes all fit again so I know I lost a minimum of 8 lbs. My energy is unbelievable. I sleep like the dead and wake up refreshed. My skin is glowing. I have had so many NSV I can't list them all here. The biggest one is it's like I was let in on a secret that very few people knew. I've been a yo-yo dieter since I was put on my first calorie restriction by my pediatrician when I was 12. They put me on 1600 calories. When that didn't work they lowered me to 1400. I did WW, I did 6 Week Body Makeover, I did (gasp) diet pills, I made up my own diet based on the food pyramid, I went vegetarian, vegan, back to vegetarian. I tried a ketosis diet - everything! With each I struggled, I was miserable but I lost weight eventually. Then I went back and gained it all + more. Before I turned 40 I decided I needed to make drastic changes. I embraced exercise whole-heartedly and cut out a majority of the junk and did lose weight in a much healthier fashion. I lost 60 lbs total that year. I became a runner. I went to exercise classes, spin classes, eventually graduated to half marathons and triathlons. I was / am very fit But no matter what, I still yo-yo'd bouncing up and down 10-20 lbs often 2x a year. I tracked all my metrics (macros (especially dreaded FAT), calories in, calories out) ad nauseum. I'd get bored, distracted, disgusted, start craving like mad and start eating poorly - gain weight - get fed up eventually and get back to tracking and up my training and start the cycle over yet again. Now... along comes Whole30. I don't have to track?! I don't have to measure?! I get to eat FAT?!?! REALLY?! THAT MUCH?! I get to be fully satiated at every meal? I don't understand how this can work for me. I mean, I've been dieting off and on for literally 75% of my life at this point. 35 years of diets! But I bit the bullet. I committed. I ate my template meals, I didn't snack unless I was well and truly hungry. I listened to my body. And you know what? I AM FREE! I am free from cravings. I am free from obsessing about everything I put into my mouth. I am free forever from having to track my meals, calories, metrics, macros. What a feeling! As I said, I'm not having cravings - haven't had any since my first week and those were minor compared to ones I've had in the past. I don't want for anything beyond my Whole30 template meals - I'm even having a hard time doing re-introductions because nothing that I used to eat sounds good. Even cheese, glorious cheese doesn't sound good to me (and cheese is what turned me from a vegan back into a vegetarian way back when - lol!). I have come up with a very small list of things I think I may want to have in the future so am doing a slow-roll-out based on that list. I am happy. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thoughts are reality. Change your reality. 1st W30 4/27/15 2nd W30 7/1/15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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