Whole30 just about done, my thoughts

[SarahvS]

Here's a copy of a recent blog post I wrote about our first Whole30 experience. We finished it (success!) but it didn't go quite as we hoped. 

 

 

"Today is day 30 which means starting tomorrow I'll do 10 days of reintroductions of foods I've been avoiding to see if my body reacts negatively/neutrally to help me going forward with my food choices. 

 

I wanted to do this 30 day program for a few reasons:

1) to commit to something and actually finish it

2) to take a more active role in my wellbeing

 

Before this I definitely craved sugary things to help with my energy (even just fruit juice) and while I didn't eat a lot of sweets, I do love pasta and cheese.  In fact, most of my cravings over the last 30 days have all been cheese. I think once I wanted some chocolate but really, I just want a plate of cheese please. And I don't mean American cheese crap. I want a bite of parmesan, a bite? Who am I kidding? I'll take a brick please and a fork, thank you very much. (the smell of parmesan soothes my soul, what can I say, I blame the Italian blood in me)

I'll admit overall, I'm disappointed with how my body has reacted/how I've been feeling. A lot of the success stories revolve around have tons of energy, sleeping well, and feeling great and I think I've felt that two days of thirty. It doesn't help that we've been sick the last few days but overall, I didn't experience much of the "tiger blood" energy that a lot of people describe. I haven't slept better, I've been waking up tired and irritable just like before.  Our digestive systems have been totally out of whack. One thing I know I need to do better as I move forward is just to eat more. I realized around day 20 that I may not be getting quite enough food. So I'll continue to plan Whole30 meals and keep lots of veggies for snacks in the house.  In fact, fruit has become quite sweet enough for me.

 

So it's not all bad.  I do feel like I've "slain the sugar dragon" as they say. I don't feel motivated to eat lots of carbs like before nor do I really want sweet things.

 

One of the best benefits is that it's forced me to meal plan and cook a lot more than I've done in our whole marriage. While we were living in China, because eating out is soo cheap and ingredients I recognized are expensive, we ate out a lot. I mean a lot. And I've gotten lazy cooking for just the two of us. However, that's definitely changed the last month. I've discovered awesome new ingredients and combinations that I'll definitely keep using.

 

One of the hardest things is feeling the stress of not finding anywhere to really eat out. While I will continue to follow a lot of the Whole30 concepts, I'm looking forward to feeling like I can grab a salad with a little cheese and chicken with mayo on it in the future and be ok. Feeling like I don't have anything to eat is a terrible anxiety of mine and with the Whole30 it has forced me to be more prepared. I definitely didn't do this perfectly, but I look forward to continuing to grow in this area. I need to prepare more food for myself to have around the house for snacks. and not just carrots sticks because if I keep eating those I think I'm going to turn into a rabbit.

 

Overall, I'm glad we did this. It was definitely an interesting experiment and I'm proud to have maintained 30 days! (I know of one slip up that we only discovered days later because we were at a party and I didn't read the ingredients correctly but I let that one go). It was just hard to read the constant e-mails and see how wonderful I should be feeling when that's not how my body responded. and I'm not really convinced that doing this for a lot longer may help. What I'm going to try and do is see how I continue respond to various vegetables and see if I feel worse/better/indifferent as we start the reintroduction process. Maybe that's when I'll notice a difference.

 

Another interesting side note, I love all the coconut milk but my body can't handle coconut oil for some reason. That's probably not very scientific but I found that my body would react with bloating/tired symptoms after using coconut oil but not the same with coconut milk. Very weird. But once I stayed away from coconut oil, I've been ok.

 

Also, OLIVES! They became my number one favorite snack. Whole30 said eating olives right from the can is ok, so there I went! I have really enjoyed exploring lots of different olives and will continue to always have some on hand.

 

So yes, there have definitely been some benefits and I do feel like I've lost a little weight. But I also want to encourage people who maybe aren't feeling awesome and have had weeks of diarrhea (like we struggled with), that maybe your body will just respond differently to this system and to still be encouraged that you're doing a good thing for yourself. You're focusing on your health, and working for good, which for a person like me who forgets to pay attention to what her body needs, is a pretty big step in itself." 

 

Keep up the good work taking care of yourself, you deserve it! 

Best, 

Sarah 

[ellie4]

Congratulations on completing your Whole 30!

 

I just finished, and I just wanted to say that I have not felt the "tiger blood" either. I planned from the start to go for more than 30 days, so I'm hoping I'll feel that one of these days...

 

Also, I feel your pain with the coconut, though it's the opposite for me. Coconut oil is no problem, but coconut milk is not tolerated at all.