My Whole30 Experience

Where to even start? After three kids and years of marriage I hardly recognized myself anymore. I was surrounded by blessings, but I couldn’t fully enjoy them. I mostly just ignored those feelings, because I wasn’t brave enough to do what it took to change.  Sometimes when you are overwhelmed and you want something so bad, the exact opposite happens– you shut down, you do nothing.

I’m pretty active on Instagram (come find me there!) and I started following accounts where people where sharing their journey and people I had been following started their own. These were busy moms just like me and I found so much inspiration in the struggles and journey they were sharing.

I first started my weight loss through a “diet plan” and while it worked–the weight came off– I couldn’t sustain it. I didn’t feel like I was learning healthy habits, I obsessed over food, I didn’t think it was promoting the healthiest choices and it cost a lot of money. I don’t regret it, because it got me started. From there I moved on to weight watchers. The weight came off slow and seemed to plateau. I added in exercise, but still was hardly moving anywhere. I found myself hungry a lot. I was obsessive with the scale, food and counting points and I hated it.

After seeing my millionth amazing Whole30 results via social media I decided to dive in. Everything you need can be found on the Whole30 website so I didn’t plan on buying the book. A few days in I decided I needed the book, It Starts With Food, and I’m glad I bought it.

People’s response to Whole30 can be funny. But what about dairy? You need dairy for you bones! Well first it is 30 days, not forever. Second, that same person came over and saw me eating a Culver’s double cheeseburger, cheese curds and a lemonade and didn’t flinch. Trust me, 30 days without dairy is the least of my problems. I knew I wanted to do Whole30, because I loved the idea of eating real food and listening to my body. I wanted to change my relationship with food. I was tired of obsessing over what I would eat next, fighting my cravings and my emotional eating tendencies.

Whole30 is a very strict program, but I found it was easier to just not be able to have something then to have a little. It didn’t take long for me to start seeing results. The weight came off, I had tons of energy, I stopped thinking about food. Food became fuel! Not something based on cravings or boredom or joy or sadness. My stomach would growl and I would look at the clock and realize I was hungry. I would eat, walk away feeling satisfied and stay that way until my next meal.

Fruits, veggies, healthy meats, olives, eggs, potatoes, nuts, coconut oil, olive oil are all part of Whole30. As a family we all ate better. We ate out less, because finding compliant food out is really hard. Everyone ate more fruits and vegetables. We eliminated sugar in things like spaghetti sauce. Spaghetti meant zoodles for me (zucchini noodles) and Mexican meant a naked burrito with compliant ingredients. Overall, we ate the same dinners, just a few modifications here and there.

I lost 12 pounds and completely transformed my body it 30 days. I am now down a total of 58 pounds and still have more to go. I didn’t exercise once. Not something I’m proud of, but just goes to show you that it starts with food. I had been exercising, but the start of the school year and life threw me off track–as usual. Today I started round two of the Whole30. I decided to go another round because I felt so great on it and I loved my results. This time I will be exercising. I started running and will be doing a fun Halloween 5k at the end of October. I’m also going to follow the other Whole30 rule that I couldn’t manage to follow last time– no weighing myself! This has become a journey that goes past weight loss for me. It is a lifestyle change. It is about feeling good, listening to my body and making new habits.

What I ate on Whole30