Whole30 wrapup

There have been a million ways that have gone through my head as to how to begin this post. But I’ll start here: Minimalism is fashionable, trendy and hip right now, especially in regard to stuff. And I’ve written plenty about relationships to stuff. But really, the primary thing that matters in minimalism is you. And if you’re not taking care of yourself, the stuff really doesn’t matter. So this is why I started the Whole30 diet on January 2nd....which means today is DAY THIRTY!!

Before I dive into the diet and my review, a bit of my backstory. To be absolutely honest (and there will be real talk here), I had an addiction to food. Food was my friend. Food never laughed at me, never let me down, and was always there for me. When I was younger, I kept moving, riding my bike, playing sports, but that problem was lurking below the surface. Cookies, ice cream, seconds on meals, all of that was there. But, in my physical activity, I was burning plenty of it off. And of course, then came.....the dreaded HUSKY size jeans. And then when I started high school, I went from 175 my freshman year to 225 my senior year.....and it wasn’t from hitting the weights. It was hitting the TWENTY piece chicken nuggets and super sized fries from McDonalds when I was in musicals my junior and senior years of high school. It was giving up completely on exercise and becoming sedentary. College was worse. A cafeteria where you could eat as much as you want? YES PLEASE! It was a fat boy’s dream. I had Mountain Dew for breakfast, lunch and dinner (literally) desserts and other food galore. I went from 225 to 275 when I graduated. But all of that paled in comparison to what happened between graduating college and living on my own. The highest I saw on the scale was 330. But I’m sure it was higher. I’d eat 2 frozen pizzas, chase it with a container of ice cream and be happy. I’d eat a dozen donuts for breakfast. And so on. I’m embarrassed to see this all typed out in front of me. But that was who I was. Once I got married, we started to make healthier choices and because we were having trouble getting pregnant, we both started the South Beach Diet. Which led to 2 beautiful daughters. What has happened over the past 14 years is that I’ve lost 15 pounds, gained 10, lost 10, gained 15, lost 20, gained 10. Back and forth.

In the fall, I really started focusing in on exercise, specifically walking. I was feeling great, eating pretty healthy (minus the bags of tortilla chips here and there in an evening) and was making progress. Then December hit. While I didn’t hit the sweets too hard, I stopped exercising. And by the end of December, I felt horrible. I needed to do something different. I turned 40 in September, and my dad passed away last March. I had to start getting really serious about my health so that I can be there, God willing, for my girls and grandchildren. I had friends that had done Whole30 and I started looking into it.

How to describe Whole30? Crazy, insane, stringent, amazing, life-changing and beneficial. The simplest way to describe it is that you can eat meat, fruit, veggies, and spices. You don’t get to eat beans, peanuts, grains, dairy, or alcohol. And it’s all about looking at the labels of food. No added sugar, no added anything. Have you read labels? Do you know how much junk is added to our food? For example, I love bacon. And it’s allowable, without sugar....And most bacon has BROWN sugar added to it!! I broke down and tried turkey bacon, and in the end, I just got ground turkey, seasoned it with homemade taco seasoning, and added that to my eggs for breakfast. AMAZING!!

Now to the details. On January 1st, I stepped on the scale and weighed 280.6 pounds. This morning, 31 days later, I weighed 260.2 pounds. TWENTY POINT SIX POUNDS LOST! I can’t believe it. And yes, my clothes fit better. Clothes that I couldn’t fit into, or were tight, now fit comfortably. I have to wear a belt daily. I’ve had people tell me regularly that I’m looking really good and that I’m losing weight....although I did shave my beard in early January and no said anything about that! :-) But over and above the scale, here’s the biggest and best takeaways. I feel amazing. I am more focused. I am less tired. I have accomplished a lot over this month. I feel creative. My relationship with food has been readically changed.  And this is the exact opposite of how I felt at the end of December, just 1 month ago. And that’s been with minimal exercise. However, over the past 3 days (including today), I’ve started the couch to 5K app and have seen my time per mile go from between 17-18 minutes, to 15 minutes, 14:58 and 14:40 over the first 3 days.

Do I recommend Whole30 to everyone? Nope. It’s your choice. It’s very restrictive. I had people telling me, “Day 4 is going to be the hardest. You’re going to have a crash”. I didn’t. It went a whole lot easier that I thought it would. I thought giving up dairy would be hard. I grew up in Wisconsin. I love cheese. But I didn’t miss it. Probably the one thing I’ve missed over the 30 days is beer. But even that, I survived without.

So now what? Do I go back to what I ate before? Of course not. I’ll slowly be adding in certain things. One beer is first tomorrow. I’ll have a smoothie on Monday with Greek yogurt. Down the road, I’ll probably add in more things, but I’ll definitely be looking at the label.  I don’t want to go back to the way I felt before. I want to keep this feeling. Ultimately, I’d like to be between 200-225 pounds, so I still have more weight to lose. But as the weather warms up and I continue to walk/run the dog and do more yard work outside, I don’t see that being a problem.  So go check out Whole30 and see if it’s for you!