30 days ago I committed to the Whole30 program and made the crazy decision to give up all grains, dairy, alcohol, sugar/sweeteners, legumes and fun.
It was a time of resetting my views about food, and focusing solely on fueling my body with nutritionally-rich things. No junk, no filler.
It has been a looong 30 days, for sure, but I am so glad I did it!
The first week was horrendous. By the second day, I felt physically ill from coming off of sugar, and I was just exhausted. Beyond normal fatigue…I felt like a wad of gum on the bottom of someone’s shoe, being dragged through the day. Gah. So bad.
I felt like a wad of gum on the bottom of someone’s shoe, being dragged through the day.
Then around day 10, I started to feel more like myself again. My biggest challenges were getting bored with my food choices. When you are limited to only meat, veggies, fruits, nuts and seeds, things can get really dull really fast. If I have to look at another scrambled egg, or another banana with almond butter, I think I might gag. When I wanted variety, I had to really plan for it and make the time. Which is HARD. Because life gets in the way!
It was hardest to stick to the plan in social situations. Out for a friend’s birthday dinner, down to the coffee shop with a friend, over to a family’s home for dinner…it was hard to watch everyone else eat normally while I sipped on some unsweetened tea and resentfully gnawed my steak in the corner.
I lost about 6 pounds, which is a nice bonus. I didn’t focus on weight loss as the goal, though. I didn’t count calories or try to restrict my amounts of food. When I was hungry, I ate. So I guess the weight I lost was comprised of all those sugary lattes and bagels I usually incorporated into my diet.
All in all, I am glad I did it and proud of myself for sticking with such a challenging regime.
My next step is taking what I have learned and finding a middle ground in my nutritional journey. I am such an all-or-nothing kind of girl, so I know there will be some bumps along the way, but wish me luck!
(I did have my first latte in a month this morning and it was pure, unadulterated bliss.)
Yay, you! That is so awesome. I’m also an all-or-nothing kind of person and if I “cheat” in the morning, the whole day is a wash for me and I just binge on all sorts of bad-for-me things. Happy medium? What’s that?