Day 31 - On to Reintroduction and Food Freedom!

[MeeshKB]

Wow. What a great 30 days.

Before I move on to logging my reintroduction, I wanted to take a minute to reflect on my results over the past 30 days.

I think the biggest gains for me came in the form of changes in my relationship with food. I didn't come into this with any specific "problems" to solve (medical issues or suspected sensitivities). I was really just excited about learning to have a healthy relationship with the food that I eat.

Of course I also wanted to lose weight - at the time I started W30 I was about 65lbs heavier than my ideal healthy weight. But I know that sustainable weight loss comes from long term behavioural changes, and that's the piece I have never been able to maintain in the past. I feel like the Whole30 has showed me a path that I can actually follow - quite happily - for the rest of my life.

So, the results...

Energy: I haven't yet experienced 'Tiger Blood', but to be fair I haven't been entirely holding up my end of the bargain where sleep is concerned. I am getting only 6-7 hours most nights, and I know that I function much better on 8. I need to work on that. I do feel that my energy is much more consistent, and I'm not having the afternoon slumps like I used to. I'm not hopping out of bed and bounding downstairs singing in the morning, but I haven't touched the snooze button in weeks.

Food changes: It has been remarkably easy to remove the prohibited foods from my diet for the last month. I have not really pined for anything. I haven't felt deprived - like, at all. It has been surprisingly easy to say no to things - I don't know why this is. And it's not like I've been thinking, "When this 30 days is over, I'm going to eat all the things!!". I am quite happy to carry on like this, only adding back in the few things that will help me expand my flavour world a little. (Hellooo, shaved parmesan!) That, I think, has been the toughest thing - feeling that I have limited options and maybe feeling a little bored. But as I expand my cooking repertoire, and maybe add back a little of this and that to jazz up my recipes I think that will lessen.

Food attitudes: I am so happy to say that I have kicked the snacking habit. I have been a grazer pretty much all of my life, and unless I was counting calories or points I would hoover up hundreds and thousands of calories mindlessly all day. When I was counting my intake, I was obsessed with food. What could I eat that would taste the best for the allotment I had? How could I sneak in a treat? Wishing I had made different choices before, so that I could eat more now. That is all gone.

I am now quite happy to eat 3 square meals a day and that's it. I've gotta tell you, it's a heck of a lot easier to pack a lunch now. No scouring the fridge and cupboards for enough snacks to sustain my all-day munching. Just one high quality, balanced meal and done.

I still put a lot of thought into my food, but now it's focused on sourcing good quality food, and preparing it. Once I do my meal prep, I can go on living my life without thinking of food all day long. Food Freedom, baby.

Weight loss: Okay, so this is last because I know it's not actually a goal of this program. And in the long run, the weight lost in this 30 days doesn't matter nearly as much as the building of habits and attitudes that will inform my life and my health going forward. BUT all that said, I was delighted to get on the scale this morning and see that I have lost 11.4 lbs since I started. So yeah - woohoo for that! I do see much less puffiness in my face, and I think I see some changes in my body as well, but I foolishly didn't take any measurements at the start, so don't have any empirical evidence to support that.

All in all, I'm delighted at the results that Whole30 has helped me achieve. So now it's time to reintroduce a few things and see how that goes. Onward and upward!

 

 

[MeeshKB]

Reintroduction Day 1: Dairy

Didn't plan well for breakfast and ended up just eating some leftover ground beef and potato ragout. No dairy.

For lunch, I had a big ol' salad with various greens, olives, peppers, shredded chicken and hard boiled eggs. I added to that about a tbsp of crumbled feta and about a tbsp of shaved Parmesan. Yummy! Topped it all with some olive oil and lemon juice, plus a little S&P.

While I was out getting my lunch I also grabbed a tall latte.

I really enjoyed the salad with the added cheese. That little bit adds so much flavour. 

I enjoyed the latte, but not quite as much as before. (I was having at least one latte most days before W30.)

I ate at around 1:30, and sipped on my latte until 3:00. At 5:00, I started to experience some serious gas and then a hurried trip to the washroom. I don't know if I can 100% correlate the intestinal symptoms with the milk, but it is highly suspect. I think for the time being I will go back to my W30 for a couple of days and then try again with just hard cheese. I'd really love to rule it out, since I enjoy it so much.

I'll probably leave milk out for now, and maybe try it again later to be sure.