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| Amazing guide with recipe book included!! Find it here! |
I know I need to eat healthy and exercise regularly, but that just didn't seem enough for me. I wasn't about to start two-a-days at the gym, because lets face it I don't really have the time or drive to do that. Instead of abruptly changing my workout routines, I decided to start from within my body and in turn it would hopefully effect the outside, as well.
After an abundance of research I decided to do the Whole30 challenge, lifestyle, diet...whatever you would like to call it. The main point of the Whole30 is to take out certain food groups that could be having a negative impact on my health & fitness. I definitely have some sort of digestive issues, but I've never been able to pin point what is effecting it. I've temporarily gave up gluten and dairy, but never consistently for a long period of time. Whole30 has you take out sugar, grains, dairy and legumes of your diet for 30 WHOLE days.
The purpose of Whole30 is to eat whole, real foods. This includes meat, seafood, eggs, vegetables, fruit, oils, nuts and seeds. It is VERY important to read every label on your food because then you are aware of everything going into your body.
My favorite part of this journey is that Whole30 doesn't want you to look at the scale for the entire 30 days. I rarely weigh myself, usually only at the doctors office, so I reluctantly weighed myself before my start date and I was eager to see if that number fluctuated at the end of this.
Week 1: It was definitely eye opening during the first week. I didn't think I consumed a lot of "extra" sugar before this, but I was wrong. I had terrible withdrawal headaches from having extra sugar to not. I was also tired a lot of the time.
Week 2: I was still trying to live a normal life and go out with friends and family, but it is definitely a challenge to go out to dinner on Whole30. Most of the time I picked the restaurant or asked for the name ahead of time so I could check out the menu. It can seem like you're being a pain when ordering, because my entire order needed to be customized, but trust me it's worth it!
Week 3: This week was probably the toughest mentally, mostly because you're past the half way mark and just want it to end. I started to get more creative with my meals by this time and relied on the cook book, provided in the Whole30 book. It's good to mix things up in the kitchen because your taste buds can get sick of ground turkey and chicken every night. I highly recommend googling recipes and using suggested Whole30 recipes found online!
Week 4: Finally, the last week! At this point I really started to see a difference in my appearance and the way I felt :) My clothes were starting to feel a little looser and my skin was glowing! On top of that I was falling asleep quicker and waking up without feeling groggy.
This experience has totally changed the way I look at food! I did weigh myself at the end and have successfully lost 10 lbs! I've never tried to lose weight before so this was a huge accomplishment for me! It wasn't only about my weight though, I am now so aware of what I put into my body. I know how good I feel eating whole foods. I am also a little scared reintroducing certain foods into my diet, but I will try it at my own pace. The one thing I have tried again since my Whole30 ended is wine :) Luckily my two glasses didn't disrupt my digestive system as much as I thought, which relieved me a lot, haha.
All in all I think the Whole30 is great for anyone! It's not easy, but it is eye opening! I now know how it feels to go out to eat and not feel horrible the rest of the night. I am continuing to eat Whole30 as much as possible, while reintroducing foods at my own pace.
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