Whole31 finished August 13, 2015

[LindaKelley]

I first ran across Whole30 on Instagram. Someone had posted some pictures of food. I decided on August 13 that I wanted to eat healthier and, of course, drop some weight.

 

I’ve been binge eating chips/salsa for years. I can demolish a sack of chips and a pint of salsa in two sittings easily. Once I read that some candy was fat-free, I believed them and ate it to my heart’s content, learning later that it still metabolizes as fat. Bottom line, I love sugar.

 

I’m 65-years-old and on blood-pressure meds and am  >this close< to being prescribed a statin at my next doc’s visit. I had been taking a lot of pain meds for various and sundry aches and pains for a very long time. After talking to some friends, began to think I might have fibro and was not interested in the least in taking another med to make me feel better but not, necessarily, to get healthy. (I’m a recovering alcoholic and pill popper—20 years clean and sober this October 19.)

 

I started Whole30 on Friday, August 14. I jumped in with both feet while waiting for Amazon to deliver the Whole30 book and checking out It Starts with Food from the library. Then on August 23 I went on a 9-day road trip to Montana and Yellowstone with my sister. Surprisingly, eating on the road was pretty easy, esp. in Missoula and Bozeman where the restaurants we ate at were great at knowing ingredients and stocking compliant food. I love Montana!

 

With little knowledge of the program, ate corn on the cob for dinner on Day 1 so I’m doing a Whole31. On the first day, I ate nothing after dinner which is usually the time of day I scour the kitchen for anything to overeat—popsicles, ice cream, chocolate chips right out of the bag, chips/salsa—almost immediately after finishing the evening meal.

 

Long story short, I finished my Whole31 yesterday feeling great. Dumping sugar from my diet wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought it would be. There were missteps along the way i.e. 1) drinking one cup of tea with soy lecithin (who knew?), 2) eating two small sunflower seeds in a salad, 3) eating two small pieces of fried tortilla in a chicken/avocado salad (I mean really small), 4) bingeing on grapes the first two weeks of Whole30, and 5) eating that corn on the cob on Day 1, hence the Whole 31.

 

Despite those slips, I forged ahead because my m.o. has always been, “I screwed up so screw it.”

 

I feel great. I’m down 14# and 5”! I’m going to continue on for a Whole60. My gut issues have cleared, I’m relatively pain-free, my energy level is higher than ever, and I don’t miss the food not allowed on Whole30. This includes the chocolate ganache birthday cake I cut and served to 11 people last night without once licking the knife or my fingers. =)

 

[QuilterInVA]

Congratulations. Your story is an inspiration for me and others to stick with it.