First Whole30 Completed - sharing my experience and NSVs

[carrieinslo]

I thought I would share my experiences with my first W30. My Day 30 was on Tuesday (two days ago).  

 

A little about me: I just turned 45, I'm 5' 5" and I spent November and December eating and drinking my way through the holidays and through a little patch of depression I was dealing with. I stepped on the scale on Super Bowl Sunday morning weighing 150.5 pounds. I felt punched in the gut. That was, by far, the heaviest I've been in the last 5 years and it was shocking to me (I'm not a scale person so while I knew I was gaining weight because my jeans felt horrible, I didn't know how bad it was!) My sister had just completed her first W30 in January and, prior to that, I had never even heard of it. I did what you're not supposed to do, which is power read the "Whole30 book" on a Sunday and started that next day, Monday. Things had just gotten that bad and I was putting my foot down. I told my girlfriends, "This sh*t just got real." 

 

I love to cook and am religious about going to the Farmers' Market each Saturday, so the food prep was not new to me, but it was very time consuming. I had spent the month of January eating eggs and veggies each morning, and I had already cut out sugar, and I really don't eat much processed food, but I was eating cheese and dairy daily, and I love good artisanal bread occasionally. I also love chocolate and often had a craving for a little piece of dark chocolate after a meal. I also go out fairly frequently, and that meant 1-2 drinks plus whatever looked good on the menu. 

 

I didn't really have the major crash or "kill all things" experience, (maybe because I don't eat that much sugar?) but I did experience a lot of the other symptoms in the timeline. I definitely felt low grade Tiger Blood and felt like my pants were a little loser, but it wasn't day 19 or 20. Everything seems like it was very incremental...sleep was better, I was able to get up at 5:45 a.m. and I felt rested (and I didn't need the alarm clock!), and I had a number of people comment on how I look good (one said my color in my face was better, two commented that my face looked thinner, etc.) During this time I also got serious about starting to strength train, and recruited a friend to do a self-run Boot Camp 2x a week for an hour. In addition, I was already hiking/trail running 2-3 times a week.  

 

So, I stepped on the scale on Day 31 and here are my results: I lost 4.5 pounds and my body fat percentage went down 3%, so I really lost ~6 pounds of fat and gained ~1.5 pounds of muscle (of course, these numbers are directional, but in the past, my scale has been very accurate when I've done professional body composition tests and benchmarked it on my scale.)

 

In the past, I've felt really great at ~132-5 pounds, and so I have 11-15 pounds to go, but I do feel proud of myself that I was able to stick with the diet, while going on a business trip (so hard!) and still going out with friends. I'll admit, I was a little disappointed that I didn't lose more (my sister had lost 8 pounds, but we have different bodies and she eats very differently than I do) but as I gave myself a "NSV pep talk", I reminded myself that I felt great, people were noticing the changes, and I never felt hungry!!! And losing that much fat in a month was great! 

 

Another neat outcome: I've inspired two close friends to try this in a couple of weeks and I'm excited to cook with them and help them. While I'm still on the fence if I will do another strict W30, I'm committed to eating mainly W30 and seeing what works for me. Interestingly, the thing I THOUGHT I missed the most was half and half in my coffee, so on Day 31, I chose to reintroduce dairy, since I was craving it so much. It wasn't as good as I remembered, and about two hours after having my morning coffee, I developed small red bumps all over my back and shoulders. Very interesting! And I thought I didn't have any food sensitivities! I'm proceeding slowly as I reintroduce, I'm in this for the long haul. 

 

Anyway, that's my story. Thanks to everyone who posts on this forum. I've learned a lot from the questions and the answers. 

 

Have a great day!

Carrie 

[Marjanill]

Carrie--congrats on finishing! The 4.5 # were just frosting on the cake, perhaps, if you could still do this while traveling and socializing.