My Whole30 Experience

Back in the summer I read a few testimonials on the Whole30 program and thought "hmm, that sounds like an interesting thing to try..." I told my mom and sister that I was thinking about trying it and they both laughed out loud. Anyone who knows me knows that before I did this program I was all about sugar loaded coffees and cherry limeades from Sonic. Not to mention, I have an obsession with tacos/any and all Mexican food.... and CHEESE. I need my cheese. The stress of planning a wedding, trying to buy a house/get renovations started before the winter and learning a brand new job caused my eating habits to become far from ideal. I love food. Food is what I look forward to. Food is what makes me feel better. Food is a gift from God. Food can easily become a god if we're not careful and for me, it had.

After a stressful day I would reward myself. Whether this be with tacos and cheese, cheese and more cheese or a chocolate milkshake from Chick-fil-a (if it's from Chick-fil-a it can't be wrong, right?!?) or even just two Oreos. I had started making food my reward system. I've not always been like this. This actually started when my life went from not too terribly stressful to "holy mother of Mary and Joseph, I don't have time to sleep anymore" stressful. No, I was definitely not getting eight hours of sleep a night, but I did have food. That was enough to keep me happy, so I thought.

September 1st, I made up my mind. I was going to do it. I had one month to prepare. I know that sounds like a while, but trust me, you NEED a month to prepare yourself. I bought the book "It Starts With The Food" by Dallas and Melissa Hartwig (the Whole30 program creators) and read it during September. It was so unbelievably eyeopening. I had never heard or even thought about some of the things that were in the book. Food is the fuel of life and it is so important to respect that fact and know how to fuel your body in a good way. If you are looking into doing the Whole30 program you HAVE to read this book. By the time I finished it I was so excited to start the program. I already knew that this was going to change me.

In the last two weeks of September I started trying to go ahead and cut back on the food. If I could resist the fried foods and replace it with some greens or vegetables, I would. Preparing your mind is so important. The mind is a hard thing to tame. I knew that the hardest part of this would be what my mind would go through. Not my body.

The last weekend in September I went to Lowe's Foods with my grocery list in hand. I had five recipes to meal prep for the upcoming week. I downloaded an app that allowed me to scan bar codes in the grocery store and it would tell me if the food was approved or not. Ya'll. There is added sugar in EVERYTHING. 20 minutes into my shopping trip I was fed up and ready to sit down in the canned foods and cry. Everything had preservatives, sugar or something in it that I couldn't have. I spent two hours in there. The man in the produce walked by me as I was nearing hour two of wondering around and said "are you still here?" I laughed and said "yep. I'm still here!" I finally made it out. Barely alive and worse for the wear. Day 0 and I was already drained.

Fast forwarding a bit here, I went to the grocery store last weekend to do my last round of meal prep shopping and it was a breeze! It's something you have to learn to do. Once you get it, it's easy. One of the many reasons I'm so glad I did the program because now I can walk into a grocery store and immediately know what's healthy and what's not. I don't even need my app anymore!!!

Okay, back to the prep stage. I worked in the kitchen for about two and a half hours the Sunday night before I started. I cooked and cooked and dirtied up so many dishes. Clark wanted no part of Whole30, but he did help me with the vegetable cutting and dish washing. What a wonderful man I have. All of my meals were in the fridge and ready to go. This was going to be good. I could feel it. (I'm not going to lie to ya'll. As my last hurrah meal on Sunday night I ate Zaxby's and drank a Sonic cherry limeade while I meal prepped)

Day 1: Monday, the 1st of October dawned and I was ready to go. I packed up my lunch, ate two veggie loaded egg muffins for breakfast and ate the recommended handful of fruit with almond butter! It was all delicious! I ate my sweet potato chunks, broccoli and chicken for lunch and avocado mayo chicken salad for dinner. It was a good day!

Day 2 was like day 1. Everything was still fresh, shiny and new... no regrets yet.

Day 3 and 4 hit me like an eighteen wheeler. Sugar is an addiction. After 3 days without it when it has previously been a regular part of your diet, it's rough. I could feel my body screaming "WHAT is happening?!?!" I experienced a pounding headache, fatigue and so many cravings. No lie, I couldn't stop thinking about Dr. Pepper and Reese's cups. Regrets were many those two days. I felt a lot of doubting, but I am too stubborn to give up. I was NOT going to give up.

The first week was rough to say the least. There is a section of Whole30 that they refer to in the book as "KATT" (Kill All The Things.) This is only supposed to last a few days, but it stuck around for me. I was not fun to be around. I kept feeling like I had taken one of the main sources of joy from my life. I felt deprived and when I feel deprived, I get ugly. Poor Clark had to deal with the worst of it. It was like PMS times 10 constantly. He handled it like a champ. He needed the prayers more than I did. Make sure you have a good support system if you do the program. My mom and Clark were my rocks and voices of reason. I thanked the Lord for their support, daily. You will need two or three people to run to if you start to feel the doubts and temptations creeping in. Trust me, the accountability helps.

I was slowly, but surely debunking this thought processing that food was my joy... or unhealthy foods, rather. The first two weeks were HARD. Going to a Mexican restaurant and not eating one chip is HARD. Going to Texas Roadhouse and watching your fiance shovel in the buttery rolls is HARD. That's when you really learn just how much self control you possess. Finally, by the end of the second week I started seeing light at the end of the tunnel. I started feeling like I had more energy and like I wasn't so "bogged down." Those days at work when my brain wasn't functioning very well and I would forget things easily came less and less and I stopped having afternoon slumps and started feeling afternoon energy bursts! I will say that every week, but this past week I have gotten grumpy at 6 p.m. Never failed... by 6 I was tired of having to think through every meal and every bite of food that I took. After I had eaten dinner I would start to come out of the grumpy spell. Thankfully, in this fourth week I haven't experienced the 6 p.m. grumpies at all. I have actually been experiencing energy surges at 6 and have had the wherewithal to go and buy groceries and go home and cook a good dinner! Clark has even eaten a few of them!

I used the Whole30 Day by Day book and journaled the food I ate, what I felt, what went well and what didn't go so well. Everyday there were tips on how to survive the day and words of encouragement! This is a great thing to do during the program. There's even a little box you get to check at the end of each day! Great for you visual people!

Restaurants.... I have had so many people ask me how I've survived eating at restaurants. I have mixed feeling about restaurant eating on Whole30. It is doable, but you never really know if what you're getting is 100% compliant or not. If you're striving to do the perfect Whole30 (it's not possible, but go ahead and try) like I was, I would say going to any restaurants whatsoever is a no go. So, you have to lock yourself in your house with Whole30 compliant foods for a month. I'm joking... We all live busy lives and you will have to eat out while you're on the program (unless you're a hermit.) Rest assured, every restaurant has lettuce and tomatoes. You will not starve, but even if you specify to the waiter or waitress what you need over and over again the cook might still get it wrong. This is a risk you have to take. I took the risk and found some places that had stuff that I could eat and made dinnertime a lot less stressful. I did almost cry into my half eaten salad at one restaurant when I told the waiter I DID NOT want my grilled chicken cooked with any butter and after asking again after the fact it was confirmed that it was indeed cooked in butter. It didn't kill me though and I didn't feel any side effects from it. Eat out at your own risk. That is my two cents on the matter. Also, tell people you're allergic to dairy instead of saying that you can't have it. It makes the servers and cooks try a little bit harder because, ya know, they don't want a customer's throat to swell up and them die on the restaurant floor.

I would have to say that THE biggest reason I'm glad I completed 30 days of clean eating would be the self control I have regained over my mind and habits. I feel like I have the power to say no and follow through with it.

Looking back on where I started, here are the changes I have felt and things I have learned:

• Less migraines
• Lessened neck and shoulder inflammation
• Clearer and healthier skin and hair
• No more brain fog
• Higher daily energy
• Better sleep quality
• Gained self control 
• The power to say no to temptations
• Mastering the art of ordering healthy at a restaurant
• Being able to grocery shop for compliant foods without having a panic attack
• Knowing that I have the willpower to do hard things!!!!

Weight loss... I did lose weight. You cut out sugar from your diet cold turkey and you're going to lose some weight. It wasn't about the weight loss for me though. This wasn't a "wedding diet" or "pre holiday season diet." This wasn't a diet at all. It was a reset. A purging of the unnatural and something that has and will help me stay on track with a better and healthier lifestyle. I would like to do Whole30 (or at least a variation of it) one month out of every year. This is going to be a new goal for me.

Day 31 and it's on Halloween... the irony!!! I am doing my own version of reintroduction. I don't plan on eating a bunch of sugar today. I actually don't think I'll eat any at all. The thought of a soft drink makes me feel sick. That's thrilling for me because I used to looove me some Dr. Pepper or Diet Coke. I would like for soft drinks to only become a special occasion thing. Like once every two or three months thing. Soft drinks will kill you. I am convinced of this. Also, my taste buds have completely changed. As in, blueberries taste like M&Ms and bananas taste like cheesecake. My sugar cravings are almost completely gone. The thought of a Diet Coke makes me feel nauseated. I ate an Rxbar for the first time ever yesterday and I almost cried it was so good. These are HUGE wins for me.

I want to stick to eating at least one Whole30 compliant meal a day. I don't need sugar in my everyday coffee anymore. Unsweetened almond milk does the trick for me. I would like to cut down on my consumption of dairy. I know that dairy is one of my major triggers. Yes, that means less cheese.......... I am going to do a separate post on foods that I couldn't have lived without during Whole30 and where to find them! Now, complete transparency here.... I'm ready for Chick-fil-a. I have NEVER in my life gone this long without Chick-fil-a. Also, peanut butter, my spoon is headed for ya!!!!!!!!

~Kandace