Not a Whole30 - Musings, Consistency and Verbosity

[Mich]

Hello Everyone,

Well I finished my Whole30 about a week ago and basically went off the rails pretty much straight away and in a big way over the whole week. I was going to jump back in and do another Whole30 to get back on track but have decided that the best approach is to do a Whole 7 or maybe Whole14. The reason is that I find it easy to have a goal (30 days) and stick to it but find it hard to do things on a more consistent basis over a longer period of time. Particularly when it comes to eating.

So my main goal is to do 7 or 14 days to get my system and mind to a bit of a better place and then to just to try and be consistent. There areas that I know that I will deviate from Whole 30 eating after that initial period and that is when it comes to bread (mainly at brekky's on the weekend), bacon (I love it but there is no sugar free bacon in Australia) and the occasional alcoholic drink when I am out with friends. I don't crave sugar and really have no interest in Dairy (even in my coffee). I will do another whole30 down the track and will follow the reintroduction guidelines then.

I've got more to say about why I went off the rails in such a big way but will save those stories for another time (as you can see I am very verbose (love that word) and struggle to keep my posts short and sharp. I'll probably add a bit more in about me personally as talking/writing about it will help me to understand where I am and where I want to be AND to stay on track.

My goals for the Whole7/14 are:

Nutrition

• Practice some easy, low prep meals from the ISWF and Well Fed. I have time at the moment to do cookups but that won't always be the case so I need some tricks up my sleeve.
  
• Trial salad dressings and dressings for veges – I eat salads at lunch a lot and they need a bit of vamping up.
  
• Drink more water. I have felt increasingly dehydrated which has been exasperated by starting back at hot yoga. Definitely need to beef the water intake up.
  

Sleep

• Stop watching tv in bed. Read instead.
  

Stress Management

• Take a 10 minute break from work every hour.
  
• Get out of the office and make the most of the glorious spring weather we are having.
  

Exercise

• Go for a walk or cycle 3-4 times a week before work
  
• Do 3-4 classes of yoga a week.
  

Personal Growth

• Finish reading ISWF (especially the pages on reintroduction)
  

Temperance

• Investigate some community based volunteer work and then book myself in (something I have been thinking of doing for ages).
  

Have a good night / day folks. Today is Sunday and not a work day but as one of my stress management goals is to spend more time outside enjoying the spring weather I thought I would post a pic from Kangaroo Point cliffs where I spend some time hanging out today in my beautiful city.

[homerfrizzell]

Good plan especially vis a vis TV - TV in bed is evil.

[Derval]

Nice goals!

[Renee Kosowan]

This looks like a well thought out and excellent plan. We are always here for long stories too

[Mich]

Cake, chocolate, chips - I want to want them but I don't want them.

So the thing is (and I know i wont be alone with this) friends get excited about eating sweet sugary things and I want to share in that, I miss it a bit. The wicked pleasure of it all. But I don't actually want to eat those foods, I know they throw my body and emotions into turmoil, and as I am finding out right now after eating a chocolate ice-cream at the movies the sugar doesn't agree with me. So I'll stick to eating my way (most of the time anyway) and hopefully my feelings about missing out will fade over time.

It does amaze me how a table full of food at a recent work morning tea just looked completely unappealing to me. It was all brown food, not a colour in sight - light brown, dark brown, yellowy brown. Everything store bought. The only colour on the table were the strawberries which I took along (I actually wasn't going to put them out but was a little turned off by the sight of all the 'brown' food that I decided to put them out. There was a time not long ago where I would have got stuck into it all and come back for more multiple times throughout the day. Somewhere along the way of doing the whole 30 my feeling about this food changed and for the most part its appeal has gone. It is amazing and very good.

I'm on my way to meeting my goals:

• finished reading ISWF - kinda wished I read it before I finished the whole30, would have had a better idea of what to do when it ended. But you live and learn.
  
• Have gone for a walk every couple of days. Still to work into a routine with yoga.
  
• Have some new salad dressings ready to go for my salads next week.
  

Not bad so far. Will keep working on them.

Have a good night everyone.