We Finished Whole 30!
This post has taken me a long time to write (because #life). I almost didn't write it, but then I realized how many of my friends and family members were interested in learning more about Whole 30.
How did it make you feel?
Would you do it again?
Was there anything you regretted about it?
How did you do this with young kids?
WHY, for Pete's sake, WHY would you do such a thing?
Fair questions, all of them. So I wanted to write a post about it to cover all these questions and more! If you have additional questions, feel free to leave them in the comment section and I'll answer openly and honestly as quickly as I can!
Let's get right down to it...
How did it make you feel?
Honestly? AMAZING. More honestly? The first day was harrrrrrddddd. We started on a Friday and usually we enjoy pizza and movie night (with wine for the grown ups) on Friday evenings. Opting out of that felt painful. The routine we had built around our TGIF nights made them easy. I didn't have to make a bunch of decisions, I just had to make or order pizza, pour myself a glass of wine, sit back and enjoy a movie with my family. By the time 5pm rolled around and I had to make a Whole 30 compliant dinner, I was willing to quit right then and there.
Surprisingly, my husband waltzed through the door after work and declared that he was "all in" on this Whole 30 thing. Dang. All my carefully rehearsed lines explaining why I wasn't going through with it suddenly slipped through my fingers. Fine. FINE.
After that day, everything got a little easier. I started to sleep really well and I felt less bloated. It wasn't even that I felt like I lost weight (I don't know how much I lost because, per the rules, I didn't weigh myself). There was a feeling of lightness that I don't often feel eating my usual diet. I'm a mostly healthy eater, but I love cheese and bread and wine and chocolate. Who doesn't, right?
I also began to notice my productivity sky rocketing. I had more, sustainable energy throughout the day and I was knocking things off my checklist like crazy! So, better sleep, more energy, less bloat...yeah, I had never felt better. It was sometimes hard to say no to certain things in social situations, but not impossible.
Would you do it again?
YES. In fact, I'm already mentally preparing to do another Whole 30 in January. Anyone else wanna do it with me?
Was there anything you regretted about it?
The only thing I regret, or wish I had done differently, is planned ahead more for when we had a really busy day. We discovered pretty quickly that rotisserie chicken was our friend (as long as we checked the ingredients first), but a lot of the time those were emergency situations.
How did you do this with young kids?
Short answer: we didn't. They didn't do Whole 30 because that seems impossible for a 3 and 5 year old to comprehend.
Long answer: we still made one meal for everyone, but the boys also got some foods we couldn't eat, like toast, crackers, cereal for breakfast...the usual suspects. The cool thing about doing it that way was that they saw us eating a certain way and saying no to a lot of foods. That was confusing for them at first (lots of questions from the 5 year old especially) but it gave us the chance to explain what we were doing a why to encourage positive body image and healthful eating. Those things cannot happen to soon. So while they didn't have to let go of most of their favorite foods, they were exposed to more whole foods more often than usual.
WHY, for Pete's sake, WHY would you do such a thing?
This was the most frequent question I got during and after Whole 30. At first, I didn't really know what to say. Why was I doing this? I'm not skinny but I'm pretty happy with my body. I was a relatively healthy eater. So, why? Why was I doing Whole 30?
After a few days, I realized that I wanted to do Whole 30 because I could feel my bad choices starting to pile up. I wasn't sleeping well. My anxiety was through the roof. And I would crash hard every afternoon around 2pm. I think somewhere in the back of my mind I knew that I needed to do something like this. Our bodies have amazing and weird ways of telling us we need to do better. We just have to realize that those things are and how we can fix the problem(s).
Yes, I wanted to stop on more than one occasion. Yes, I got REALLY tired of having eggs for breakfast. And I LOVE eggs, so this is a pretty big deal. But in the end, I was kind to my body and it rewarded me by shrinking a pant size, having more energy and patience, and allowing me to sleep through the night.
All I'm trying to say is this: if you're on the fence about trying Whole 30, just go for it. I did it with my husband, which helped immensely, but if you don't have a partner please find another person or group to provide support for you. Preferably, find someone who will cook with you. Trust me on this one.
Stay tuned because I have more to share on our experience with Whole 30 (like how to survive while traveling to a small town in Iowa). I'd love to answer your questions, so please leave them in the comments! I'll tell it you ya straight! :)
