We Survived Whole 30

A Story by Leigh

Okay, I said survived, but it wasn't all that dramatic. We did all 30 days with no cheating at all. Well, Mom said she had like 3 pieces of gum, so I win!

If you aren't familiar with the program, the basics are:

1. Things you can eat: meat, eggs, vegetables, fruit, nuts, some oils, and some dried fruit.
2. Things you may not eat: sugar, fake sugar, legumes, dairy, and grains.

Check out the Whole 30 website for more details.

So blah blah rules. I know what you really want to know. How was it? I'll tell you!

I actually did make notes for each day during the first week about how I was feeling and what was going on with my body. There were quite a few expletives though, so I won't share all that with you, but I'll give you a run down of the weeks.

Week 1: 

• Day one was weird. I felt weird. Kind of flighty I guess? Don't really know how to explain it. 
• Day two and three I was supremely cranky. Wanna know why? I MISSED MY COFFEE. Sorry for shouting, but truly, I missed it. I tried to have it with coconut milk and it was absolutely terrible, so I gave up after 4 days and went without any caffeine for 6 more days. 6 days people! That's like, and eternity! I was used to drinking 3-5 cups a day with creamer and sugar. Well, I decided I missed coffee too much and decided to give it a try black and I liked it! So now I drink my coffee black. I even tried it today with half & half and it was just meh. I'll be drinking it black from now on.
• Also, we tried some awesome recipes and found that we didn't miss carbs quite as much as we thought we would.

 

Week 2: 

• Alright, so during week 1 I had this terrible dry mouth. It was horrendous and it made my breath smell awful. I was drinking 5-6 bottles of water a day, so I wasn't sure what to do. I let it go on for too long, so I did a little research. Seems like many people have this experience too and some even had advice. Most of the advice was to add more starchy vegetables in. I did that, but I didn't want to completely overdo it on starch. The other advice was taking magnesium. I thought, alright I'll try it. And I decided if I was going to take magnesium, I might as well take a multivitamin. All of this seemed to help. I still have some days that aren't great, but for the most part, the dry moth seems to be under control.
• More awesome recipes! I made Chocolate Chili and riced some cauliflower to put in it because dad doesn't eat enough veggies. You couldn't even tell! And he loved it!
• I noticed that I was sleeping more. Well, I required more sleep to function. I was sleeping about 6-7 hours a night. Now I need 8-9. Yeah, you read that right. I can remember before I was so hardcore with coffee that I would need that much sleep. Mom said she noticed that she was sleeping much better too.

Week 3: 

• Now here comes the good part. I was able to tell that my clothes were a bit looser. I was feeling great. My moods were even. No more crankypants Leigh in the morning. I am happier. Foods taste better. Awesome week.

 

Week 4:

• Doing great, feeling great. Bought a magazine by Melissa Joulwan over at The Clothes Make the Girl that has some awesome ideas and recipes in it. You should definitely check out her blog if you haven't already.
• So at this point we are talking about adding stuff back in. Mom doesn't think that she has a complete control over her carb addiction, so we talked and decided to add back in only dairy and legumes. We still have a couple days after this week, but we were so excited that we wanted to prepare.

Week 5:

• There were only 2 days left and we were SO excited! We made it almost the WHOLE 30! And one of these days was my birthday! I turned 28 on Monday and felt great!
• You want to know what I was really excited about? Half & Half in my coffee.
• My pants are falling off. I feel awesome!

Day 31: 

• We weighed in today! I lost 8.3 and mom lost 9! Go us! We rock!
• I had half & half in my coffee. Guess what? I would prefer it black. I know, I was shocked too!
• I went out to lunch for my birthday with a friend and I had a chip in queso and wasn't impressed with that either! Maybe cheese is just not for me? I don't know, but it was nice going out and not feeling those cravings anymore!

So are you going to continue this?

Hell yeah we are! This is Day 1, Whole 30 #2. Well, we are allowing some dairy and some legumes. And I won't lie to you, we are celebrating my birthday at work on Friday, so I will be having sugar for the first time in 34 days. That should be interesting to say the least.

Closing Thoughts:

I really wasn't 100% sure that we could do it, but we did! This eating plan isn't for the faint of heart. It takes a lot of planning and commitment to the kitchen. I was already spending about an hour in the kitchen every night. After Whole 30, mom and I were both spending an hour in the kitchen every night. Melissa Joulwan has some great tips in her magazine about prepping for the week on Sunday, We are going to try some of those out this week.

The first week is the hardest, but if you put your mind to it, you can totally do this! You will rock it! Your mind will be clear! You will kill your cravings! You will feel awesome!

In my humble opinion, this plan is for everyone who is willing to put in the work. If you decide to take it on, let us know how it goes! We would love to hear from you.

Good luck!