Just got on board the Paleo-paddy-wagon, even if my partner isn't :)

[Mary Beth]

Hello Whole9 Community and fellow newbies to the Whole30!

My name is Mary Beth and this is my first time doing a Whole30. Until two weeks ago, I knew absolutely nothing about the paleo diet, never heard of Melissa or Dallas, and never visited the Whole9 website.

After stumbling upon their website, I spent several hours and days reading through all of the content, articles, blogs, success stories, and more, and couldn't get enough! I ordererd their book, It Starts With Food, and read it in two days. I was convinced.

I was going to wait to start my Whole30 until March 18th (since being an Irish Catholic girl means St. Patty's Day is practically a holy day of obligation, filled with beer, whiskey, and irish soda bread!) but then I read the line in the book that said, "Start now. Today. This minute. If you give yourself excuses to delay, you may never begin." So that was it. I set my alarm 30 minutes earlier than I normally do and went to sleep last night with the intent of waking up today and beginning the journey.

A little background on me - I am 26 years old, work full time as a financial analyst, and consider myself to be healthy and active. I am a runner and completed my first two half marathons last year with a goal of running my first full marathon this year. I am studying to take and pass the CPA exam. I am a busy person, but not too busy to change my eating habits and get into an even more active and healthy lifestyle. I considered myself a healthy eater (until I read their book) and have never been able to get myself to the 'lean & toned' physique that I desire, always losing and gaining the same 10 lbs (tummy pooch) over the last few years. I will not lie - weight loss was my primary motivatation. But after reading all of the healthy benefits that come from eating a clean diet, this Whole30 challenge means so much more to me, and I am ready to take it on!

My boyfriend and I live together and we both really enjoy cooking. He is supportive in my endeavor with the Whole30 but unfortunately is not really on-board with me (translation: he will eat whatever I cook but will continue to eat hummus, wheat thins, wraps, and drink wine). He is not very sensitive about what this lifestyle change means to me and I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that he is tall, lean, muscular, works out every day, has less than 5% bodyfat (he lovingly reminds me) and has the metabolism of a 14 year old boy. Basically, he thinks he is super healthy and in shape and doesn't want to be told otherwise. That's when I realized that I might need the support of other like-minded people who could be less judgemental, more open-minded, and just a good sounding board and helpful throughout this process.

Thanks

(P.S. - So far Day 1 is off to a good start! Cooked a delicious egg, onion, asparagus, avocado frittata for meal 1 and had a lemon pepper chicken breast over greens with a side of kiwi for meal 2...no sugar dragon cravings yet!)

[Contessa]

Well done, Mary Beth! Glad you didn't hold off on kicking off your Whole 30. We look forward to reading about your journey. I hope you get great things from it!

[Manda]

Good for you, Mary Beth!! I'm a mom to 3 kids and wife to one hubby, all of whom are not on board with this. I feel your pain. Today is day 29, though, and I've survived thus far--all with them eating pasta, cereal, chocolate, and ice cream in front of me.

Can't wait to hear how well you do!

[Fenderbender]

Try telling your boyfriend this:

I look at this as a 401-K plan

Starts off with a bit of " sacrifice" now.... After I while you don't notice the " sacrifice" and you feel great about your " investment". Then when you get older...... I think you get the metaphor

[Carlaccini]

Hey Mary Beth!

Welcome. Good place to come to support when you don't necessarily have it at home. I was in the same boat when I started my first whole 30 back in August 2012. In fact my bf called me outright crazy. (Well he didn't suffer from migraines or have 70+ lbs to lose....)Things have drastically changed since then. He is completely sold on the whole 30 idea, as he has seen all the benefits through me, but not quite convinced that he could do one on his own. I think he can but he is just scared of failure. We no longer keep bread in the house (his choice) we keep the occasional milk carton or cheese (his choice). And if he wants rice or pasta we just have to make a main dish that works well with rice / spaghetti squash/cauli rice.

[Mary Beth]

Thank you everyone for the comments and replies!

@Manda - you're one day away from completion, how awesome!! Good for you, and good for resisting the "bad stuff" even when it was in front of you 24/7. How do you feel? Have you experienced some major changes?

@FenderBender - I love the analogy to a 401K..right up his alley since he is a financial planner...maybe I should use that on him! I think from the comments/reactions that I have been getting from him, I'm going to play the silent role and just do the program independently. Then, after the 30 days, hopefully there are noticeable results that will do the speaking for me (this is my plan, anyways)

@Carla - Thank you for sharing your story! It's definitely a bit intimidating to feel like I don't have a support system at home with this program, since my bf basically thinks that I am talking out of my a** when I repeat stuff from the book, and I haven't told my family what I am doing. I am hoping that the results speak for themselves and that family and friends will notice a difference and bring it up, rather than me telling everyone what I'm trying to accomplish. Seeing that your bf came around and got on board gives me hope, becasue mine is a very health-conscious guy, but I think after reading the book that our opinions of "health" differ. He's in good shape, looks good, and does well in the gym, so to him, that's healthy! I think all of those things are parts of it, but I want him to realize the nutritional aspect (which is the biggest part!!!). This will be tough - we are very social and go out with our friends a lot and drink quite frequently - most weekend nights, and we drink a glass or two of wine on most weeknights. We both love snacking on cheese, crackers, pita & hummus, yogurt - and prior to reading the book, I thought many of those things were healthy. Not anymore! Have you stayed on the paleo lifestyle since last summer? How's it going?

[Avalanche]

Hey Mary Beth,

I'm in the same boat w/my husband, except that he eats tons and tons of junk. He's also happy to eat whatever healthy thing I've made for dinner and will go eat at foodie restaurants, so it's not like he doesn't know about good food - he just doesn't care. He's also quite fit and active, and has never had to worry about his weight. And his last physical showed that his bloodwork came back just fine, so he has little incentive. Of coure I think he doesn't realize how much better he'd feel if he gave W30 a shot - but he'd never agree to it, so I'm letting it go. We've never been 100% on the same page food-wise, so I'm used to it. I was worried that still having junk in the house would tempt me, but so far it hasn't been a problem. Last night he had chips with dinner (I made grass-fed burgers) and I didn't get a single urge to have one - which is HUGE, since chips are one of my biggest trigger foods.

It sounds like you are on the right track already, I'm sure you will do great!

[28jessicab]

I agree- I am on Day 12 and there is no food I want badly enough to undo the work I have put in so far. My husband is supportive, but he and our children are eating "normally" so we do have all types of food in the house. I just keep telling myself that i can have it when my 30 days are up, bit right now, I don't think there is much I'll want. I already notice my pants are looser, my moods are much more even, i have more energy and my asthma hasn't bothered me as much. Good luck and keep us posted!

[Carlaccini]

I here you Mary Beth. It is intimidating. But he honestly got me so riled up in the fact that he thought I couldn't do it - that I just had to prove him wrong. That's what drove me initially. Later on it was I had put so much work into repairing myself that I didn't want to stop.

My bf too is pretty fit and athletic. I am trying to convince him to do a whole 30 as he is presently on statin drugs for his high cholesterol (genetic trait that runs in his family) I would love to see him get off those meds. He is considering to do a whole 30 with me but he's not sure he can do it.

I have leading by quiet example sometimes speaks volumes. As long as you can convince him to share the same dinner together that is all the support you really need. The crackers, cheese, and wine don't really much matter. This is your decision. Not his. I had to realize that at some point too. I cannot force him to believe the same things that I do. I would like him too, but the only way I can do that is convince him in a non verbal way.

To answer your question, yes I do stay mostly paleo between my whole 30's. Sometimes I indulge a bit too much in the paleo treats (I do try to keep them to a minimum - but some weekend mornings I just feel like having pancakes with real maple syrup) I have a few items on my list that are not paleo "worth it" items as my reaction to them are minimal. But the key is not to have any more than just one of them more than once a week.

[Mary Beth]

Well, I made it through my first four days (and first weekend) on the Whole30! I have to say - not so bad! I think the key for me is to have interesting meals. I spent all day Sunday doing grocery shopping, food prep, cooking, and storing to get my meals for the week all situated. Along with reading ISWF, I read Well Fed by Melissa Joulwan and her Paleo cookbook is a perfect supplement to ISWF. I had to pick up a few new kitchen tools (including a blender/food processor) but I had a ton of fun making several of her recipes yesterday. My homemade olive oil mayo, dreamy avocado dressing, and sunshine sauce came out PERFECTLY!! I canned all of them in mason jars and are happily sitting on the top shelf of the fridge, just waiting to be drizzled on some delicious dino-chow

For dinner I cooked up the pad thai recipe in her cookbook and made a batch of the "rice pilaf" (cauliflower mashed with onion, raisins, and some other things to spice it up) and I must say - the meal was fantastic. The pad thai was also a huge hit with the bf, who ate everything I cooked last night. Before dinner he helped me cut open the spaghetti squash which has to first be cooked in the oven, and he asked me "so what is this thing?" to which I replied - "spaghetti squash". He made a frowny face and told me how he hates all squash. Then towards the end of dinner, when his plate was nearly empty, I asked what he thought and he said the food was delicious, but thought I wasn't allowed to eat noodles, to which I looked at him with a sly grin and said "Oh sweetie, those aren't noodles, you're eating the spaghetti squash!" He couldn't believe it. Yep - pretty amazing.

One thing I will say, is that my wallet was feeling pretty depressed after yesterday's trips to Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. I knew the first big shopping trip would be a biggie, as I had to stock up on a bunch of new spices, tons of veggies, all of the coconut stuff, and all of the grass-fed organic protein, but dang! I hope every trip doesn't cost that much! I will say that I love ALL of the coconut items - the coconut oil, the coconut milk, the raw flakes - love 'em all. I will have no problem cooking with coconut oil for the rest of my life, I think it tastes delicious!

Final note - this is the first Monday in like, forever, that I remember waking up to my alarm and not feeling exhausted/cranky/tired/hung-over/and generally annoyed that it's a Monday morning. I guess the whole not-drinking-eating-good-whole-foods DOES have some benefits (but I already knew it would). How is everyone else feeling and doing?

[Casanandez]

My husband isn't buying into it either. Of-course he sees a modified diet as a way to loose weight, and he is always trying to GAIN weight. My worry is that ill cave and eat some of his junk food (there are oreos in the cabinet that call out to me sometimes...lol)It's nice to have the support on this forum. I'm just starting today, but can already tell how supportive the group here is! Good luck!!

[Mary Beth]

Good luck!! And yes, I've only been on the forum for a few days, but it is so nice to chat with other people doing the program and get/give support. Don't worry about the hubby, I'm partially ignoring my bf for now as well. This is something to get YOU healthy, so focus on that!

[Manda]

Mary Beth--just getting on here again. You asked what results I've seen. Well, by numbers--I lost a little over 8 lbs and almost 2.5 inches off my waist. I feel like I'm sleeping a bit better and waking more easily in the mornings. I don't have a ton of health issues (high blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol...to worry about, so I haven't seen drastic reductions in taking meds or anything, like so many of the folks here have.

I do LOVE the feeling of being full but never feeling bloated.

AND--*fanfare music*--my husband just started a whole 30 with me! Now HE has some health issues, and I'm so excited to see how he feels at the end of 30 days!!!! I have to get up and make him breakfast at 5am every morning, but I'm willing to if it helps him stay on track.

Sounds like YOU are doing great! Can't wait to see how your journey unfolds!

[Mary Beth]

That is great to hear, Manda!! Your results, AND your husband giving it a shot! Please keep us updated on how his first Whole30 goes!

I'm a lot like you, I really don't have any health problems (just want to shed the extra 10 lbs that I carry around so I can be a lean, mean, health machine!) But besides weight loss, I am really hoping to reap the other benefits that M & D talk about in their book - higher energy levels, better sleeping, feeling more balanced, etc. I also have terrible seasonal allergies to pollen, ragweed, and grass, and if I don't take a zyrtec or allegra every day I am sneezy, watery eyed, and have a runny nose. This usually kickes up around April and lasts through the end of Fall. I would be ECSTATIC if that changes due to my change in diet.

This whole primal lifestyle and paleo diet has really kept me happy and excited for the past week. Today is day 7 for me and I'm still feeling great! Had an awesome workout last night, got up before my alarm clock this morning, and was in the office earlier than I've ever been before!

Also, I love feeling satisfied and full without the bloat, as you mentioned. Every meal leaves me feeling this way, and I love it!!

Manda, have you read Well Fed by Melissa Joulwan? There's a recipe for spinach, egg, beef, onion "cupcakes" (I think those are the ingredients) that looks really simple and delicious. Maybe if your husband likes the taste, you can cook up a batch on Sunday and stick them in the fridge for him to grab and go as his morning meal...in case you like to sleep in a little later than 5am What a great wife he has!!

[Manda]

I do have "Well Fed", and have been trying a bunch of the recipes. I may have to get it out & make those egg muffins--at least when he works overtime on the weekends and has to go in early!!