The Whole30

August 29, 2016

The Whole30

What I wouldn't give for a plate of pasta, smothered in rich, creamy sauce or maybe a bowl of chocolate peanut butter ice cream topped off with hot fudge and whipped cream. Or better yet, a taco stuffed with all a taco should be on a tortilla shell along with a side of tortilla chips. Heck, at this point even a bowl of cereal sounds like a treat or even some ketchup on my hamburger. Popcorn. Just stop it. My mouth is watering. But no can do. I am on day 16 of 30 and at this point in the game, I am committed.

No dairy.
No grain.
No sugar.
No alcohol.
No beans.
No soy, peanuts. rice, corn.

Just put a No before almost anything that doesn't start with a 'V' (veggies), 'M' (meats), or a 'F' (fruit, what were you thinking?) and there you have it.

Welcome to the Whole30.

At this point I know what you are thinking- Why for the love of all that is good would you willingly endure 30 days of this nonsense? What's the goal?

For us (yes, my husband willingly is going along with this too) the answer was two fold.

#1. A huge part of this program is food reintroduction at the end in an attempt to help you narrow down which types of food make you feel certain ways. That appeals to me.

#2 Plain and Simply, we needed a restart.

Life has been a little wild for us this past year and we have eaten our way through it. First the move (better load up on our favorite treats before we go!), then arriving in a new place (so many new choices, why not try them all?!) A season we call summer was also tucked into all of that (an endless opportunity for ice cream, brats, and fresh strawberry pies) and that's not even taking vacation eating into account.

So when I came across the book "It starts with Food" by Melissa and Dallas Hartwig my interest was instantly piqued. By the end of the book we had set a start date set.

So here we are, just over half way through and I will be honest, it has been much harder than I anticipated. The past few years we have slowly revamped the way we eat drastically reducing our daily sugar intake and trying to error on the side of whole, minimally processed foods in our day to day routine. In some ways I thought.... "Well, the whole30 isn't THAT different from the way we normally eat so it shouldn't be a shock to the system or anything."

Surprise, Surprise. It actually has been.

They warn you- you may feel like garbage the first week or two. Yes, yes and yes. Headaches, overly exhausted, upset stomach, crabby-irrational-crazy. (or maybe that last part was just me?) In fact, on Day 6 my husband and I had a little heart to heart on if this was really feasible to do for 30 days. We ALMOST quit! (and yes, I cried the whole way through that conversation- insert the "irrational"part here please)

Needless to stay we decided to stick with it but reexamined our goals of why we were attempting it in the first place. As a result, we did break some of their "food rules." We decided to recreate "junk" food using only whole 30 approved ingredients (which is a big no-no according to the rule book). And by "junk food" I mean sugar free vegan crepes and muffins. We have no intention of cutting out that "need" for something sweet at the end of a meal when this is all said and done so it wasn't making a whole lot of sense for us.

Life has been much more sunny since the introduction of the vegan "treats", just so you know.

Tomorrow is suppose to be the big turning point day (according to the book) so we shall soon see. If today was any indicator of that, I think we are headed in the right direction. At this point I am glad we decided to do it and decided to stick with it. If nothing else it's pretty eye opening and somewhat empowering. Kind of a "If I can survive 30 days without a trace of sugar...or dairy...or grains...or alcohol, I can conquer anything!"

OK, so not exactly but you get my point.

So there you have it. An update for all my friends out there who have been asking and wondering how the Whole30 is really going. In 15 days, day one of reintroducing foods back in begins and the first thing you get back is a glass of wine. No joke. But who's counting?