weight/inches

Real quick, I didn't do this Whole30 for weight loss. I knew it was going to be an outcome, an added bonus, but I solely did this to better my health. I have some people who are so concerned about the number on the scale that they miss the ENTIRE point of the program. Even if you didn't lose a single pound, the way your body feels should ALWAYS be above that. 

Done with my little disclaimer. Here are the numbers:

Weight Lost: 14.4 pounds

Inches Lost: 9 inches

HOLY FREAKIN YEAH. 

i did it! whole30 day 31

OMG GYES! I DID IT. Not only did I complete this challenge, I CRUSHED IT. 

Before I get into the details on what I lost (weight/inches - see next post) let me tell you a little about my last day and the few leading to it...... (written Friday - Day 29)

*****OKAY SO. My Whole30 is almost up and some of you have asked, “ What is your next step?” “What is your meal plan going to look like?” “Are you exercising?” “ Are you going to keep going on the Whole30?”

So here is the answer (for those of you who wanted to know!):

1.       Next steps… well let’s get back to this one since my response will be longer.

2.       Meal Plan in the future – I am planning on sticking to clean & whole foods – those foods closest to how they were found in nature. After this Whole30, I have learned so much about what is in the foods I eat daily and it is shocking! My next steps will be to keep checking my portions, watching the SNEAKY foods I might snack on in the day, and just not getting obsessed with what I am to eat. Life is too short to focus on food so heavily – hoping to balance. 

3.       Am I exercising? No… and yes? – this is a tough one because at the present I maybe hit the gym 1 time a week (on average). For the month of January, I avoided it. I knew there was going to be a ton of people there all starting new so I just took a break and concentrated on the food/mental/emotional aspects of the Whole30. I will be exercising on the next phase, to help in strengthening my body, getting it stronger for my overall health.

4. Am I going to keep going? YES and NO. The Whole30 brought me amazing basic and foundational skills when it comes to food that I can't ever go back to how I was originally eating. I feel too good to do that. However, I am human and LOVE good food. So my plan is to stick with it 75-80% of the time. Having my foundations of food be Whole30 compliant and then letting myself have some extras. Rice, Bread, oatmeal, beans, etc. I am going to stay away from excess sugars FOR SURE seeing as those had effected me more than I know. Also going to LIMIT dairy as well. I believed that when I started the Whole30 my body was rejecting dairy, it was crying out saying "NO MEGAN WE DON'T LIKE THAT" and then rejecting me for days (i.e. stomach aches and pains and all that).

SO here is the Whole 30 post for Day 30! I totally felt as alive as that cat. Everything was fitting better, my skin is HELLA clear, and my overall confidence has skyrocketed. 

My evening was spent with friends and here is my 12 pack I brought to contribute (since we were drinking...)

My bestie was with me (doing the Whole30 as well) and thank God there was fresh caught Steelhead trout for dinner. My cup runneth over - I have the best of friends. 

Day 29 can be summed up in this one photo:

From the angle I am sitting at in the lunchroom at work, its like the ARROW is pointing at the CUPCAKES. The world hated me at that moment. And I gave it a glare and moved on to my carrots and chicken. YOU WONT WIN!

My Day 31 is going to be spent eating a piece of toast, meal prepping later, and reading about REINTRODUCTION. A lot of people jump right back into the swing of things but I don't think that will be good for me. Omitting all of the junk for so long, I need to go slow. 

So I will leave you with this photo. Check the next simple post for details on weight and inches! PEACE OUT!

Whole 30 - Days 22 - 28!

HOLY DRIED FRUIT! I am literally almost done. Like.... yeah. Ok, this journey for the past week has been interesting. I have slept AMAZING, had a bunch of energy (in spurts) and have felt GREAT. However the past day of two I have had a tummy ache. 

I think maybe I didn't watch the labels as close as I should and MAYBE let something sneak in. Since I have no clue what it could be, I am going to keep trekking. It could also be that I LOVE FRUIT. Like a bunch. What happened is that I haven't been feeding my body candy or sweets that it was used to... So I turned to fruit to fill the sweet treat. Well, because of this the past couple days/last week I have been upping my fruit intake without even knowing. Something I am going to change in the next phase.

So my food hasn't changed much. Here are a couple meals from the past week:

Salad - with W30 approved dressing, turkey and ham slices. Added apples, pomegranates, mushrooms, cucumbers and lettuce (which you can't see). This was SO filling - I didn't even finish the whole bowl. 

Mucho Burrido bowl. So I checked the menu before I left for the restaurant with my work crew. I got lettuce, the chicken shredded (GF, DF, etc), pico de gallo, medium salsa, & guacamole (GF/DF etc.)  The chicken was SUPER spicy so I wasn't able to finish the whole thing. But it was TASTY! Water as usual accompanied my dish!

I made my own HOMEMADE marinara! I usually make my own but add the secret ingredient: SUGAR! Yikes.... so this version was a little more organic. Less sweet - more tart. I added in ground beef and black olives. I tried the "zoodles" that everyone is talking about... I used a cucumber, which was probably my first mistake. Gross. So sauce for dinner! Hah!

A couple nights this week I have settled for eggs and bacon. 

This steak, mashed potatoes and green beans/mushrooms in ghee were paired with a cute puppy for snuggling. Juno LOVES to watch me cook. 

And I also decided to chop my hair off and go red. Oh and got some kickass lipstick!

I have.... seriously 2 days left. I will be posting my next steps YADA YADA this weekend. 

HOME STRETCH!

Whole 30 - Days 18 - 21!

OMG. GUYS. I AM ALMOST DONE. OMG.

It hit me today, as I was eating my dried fruit and almonds... omg.... I only have like 9 days left! HOLY MOLEY! I can't believe it. I have NEVER in my lifetime done something this drastic and stuck to it. PROUD MOMENT HERE.

Sorry... It is just so exciting!! Pants are fitting better, skin is clearing, I am sleeping every night like a rock and I started working out again. WOOO. You are probably wondering, "What are you going to do once you are done??" Well that is an extremely good question. I will be writing a post next week letting everyone know what my plan is... because I am still trying to sort that out myself! All I know is this has been the BEST health experience (since I started running) that I have ever accomplished. I can't believe it worked!

I have no tummy issues - NONE. I haven't been upset or irritated by any foods. Whatever was bothering me (assuming it was dairy) has been eliminated from my diet and my body is thanking me! 

I apologize for not posting daily... but here is what is distracting me:

This little girl turned 4 months last week! Our little corgi Juno has stolen our hearts! So much playing, not enough time to blog! But I found some time this evening to get this all down.

Here is some of the things that has happened this week:

1. WASTE. If you ever do the Whole30 yourself, this will happen at least once. You will start out thinking I NEED EVERYTHING... but really no. You don't. I threw out so much spoiled food/recipes I didn't end up liking. It is trial and error. I planned better for the next week and soon only needed a few items every week.

 

2. MEAL PLANNING. Now I made this BOMB soup last week and well, I made it again. It healed me from my brush with food poising, and now it is comforting me for all lunches at work. So easy to make. And literally in the morning before work, I grab a container, spoon and apple and GO! LOVE IT. Planning meals and prepping a few ahead of time saves my butt during the week. 

3. REPEAT MEALS. So Rick and I LOVED this meal from last week, we repeated it again! Whole30 has a ton of recipes to try but we seemed to keep it pretty basic. I tried to get fancy and make things I have never heard of (cauliflower rice) but they never turned out how I thought. So we stuck to easy items; meats, veggies and some starch if needed. YUM. Seasons were just salt/pepper and lemon juice! Oh boy did it fill my hungry tummy. Those mashed potatoes are simply potato flakes (I used the Bob's Red Mill), ghee and chicken broth!

4. LASTLY. I have found that I am eating WAY less than before. Today I came home from work, hungry of course. So I had some salted plantain chips with salsa and a hard boiled egg. I then went to the gym, LATIN DANCED, and came home. Not hungry. It is 8PM. No "official" dinner for me. WEIRD! I used to eat a snack, then a full dinner, THEN dessert. Man.... things are changing! This below was my lunch. Usually I have like 2-3 more items (snacks) but this filled me and kept me satisfied until 5PM!

So MORAL of this story is. I am doing great. 9 days to go. I will be posting soon - letting you know the pros/cons, review, next steps and what was the HARDEST and EASIEST parts of the Whole30.

YAY YAY YAY. 

A note

My best friend Michelle and I were talking on an impromptu trip to Seattle, this Whole30 experience for both of us and really gave us a reality check. We have been so blinded about what we were actually consuming that we totally had derailed and were feeling the effects. We are learning that food can be delicious even if it is simple. Not only delicious, but filling and life giving. This Whole30 is a new foundation for the rest of our year. A place where we went back to basics, learned what whole foods are and what to kick out. We are still detoxing and we know it. We have been learning about late night cravings and that we will survive without dessert. We have sat in bakeries/coffee shops & restaurants, just smelling the foods and staring at the wines and wanting to cry. We have passed on the bread, passed on the butter, passed on the fast food. And it has been hard.

I know for me personally, I didn't know I was addicted to food until I started this program. I had no idea how much of my life was dedicated to my next meal. I thought about it all the time... ALL THE TIME. With this program, it has been a painful re-wiring of my brain along with my stomach. Telling myself I will survive without the maple bar on the Friday morning at work. I will survive without chips and cheese dip on football Sunday. 

What we have realized that to make a change, the only thing to do was to be drastic. We are eating. a lot. Like.... whoa... And yes, there are things some might think we shouldn't be having, but we are going by the book. Only following this one philosophy. We aren't counting calories, we aren't worrying about how many almonds/cashews we are having in one sitting. We are changing. 

We will be honest, this has been a painful road. But we are, as Taylor Swift says "out of the woods." We are still moving, still smiling, bodies are saying THANK YOU. THANK YOU. 

Sometimes when others see someone make a drastic change, it is hard to compute. Hard to understand. They want to reach out and say "you don't have to do that, just do this." But it was the last straw. It was the ONLY choice in our eyes. It has been a journey - as we walked the aisles of Trader Joes, sipping sugarless tea or a unsweetened/un-milked americano. And we have come so far. It is the first step to new health, new idea on food, new beginning for the next part of our journey to better health. 

just a note as I go back downstairs to prep my grocery list. :)

Whole 30 - Days 14 - 17

Helloooooooooo! Finally I have a chance to sit at my computer and blog about the last couple days. Here are a few things that have happened:

1. I have passed the HALFWAY mark. YES YES YES. *pat on the back*

2. Cravings are passing - still there but not as tempting. Even though I make a big deal of my slight cravings, making them seem worse for kicks- & giggles... I am doing just fine.

3. My face is clear - like really cleared up. 

4. I have been sleeping deeper and waking well rested. I haven't felt well rested in months. 

5. I was able to fit in my non-stretch skinny jeans... you heard me..... hell yes!

Here are some of the DELICIOUS meals I have consumed - not counting your calories has been a beautiful thing. Thanks Whole30. 

Steak, potato with ghee & salt/pepper, and green beans. Simple. hearty. filling. 

I treated myself as a YAY you made it halfway! to a cut/color at Gene Juarez. I had so many gift cards to there - combined them and ended up only having to pay $10 extra! Plus - got some lovely products. GAWD, I love getting my hair done. 

Taco Salad - with homemade pico de gallo, ground beef with seasons, lettuce, olives and guacamole (compliant brand!).

Repeat on soup... this one is a winner. Making it again this next week!! 

Sunday football breakfast - complaint bacon, two eggs scrambled, leftover baked potato and black tea. 

Today (Sunday) I have been cleaning the whole house with husband, getting the kitchen organized and will begin my grocery list this afternoon. I have tomorrow off (yay for working at a school district!) so I will do some of my prep tomorrow. Thinking a late grocery shopping trip tonight to get in and out. 

I have noticed that prepping each week, actually writing down what you will have during the week and then going through your fridge and pantry to see if you have everything.... is such a better way to attack this Whole30. Organized and structured is the only way to get through it. I haven't noticed my grocery bill lowering but with some tweaking, I think I can actually spend LESS than I used to. 

So here goes the last stretch of days! Getting easier and more streamline as I go! I totally understand why they make it 30 days and not just a week. :)

Whole 30 - DAYS 9 - 13

Okay, so life hit me HARD this week. Short story is, food poisoning. Yeah. Fun. No. And not just that, just me trying to be un-busy. To find quiet times. To do nothing. It was great. So to update you all:

1. No I didn't quit

2. Yes, I am still in this 100%

3. No, I haven't measured or weighed myself, but have been super tempted. (It is against the rules to weigh yourself during the process. You are to focus on feeling and healing rather than the scale. I like that.)

4. I am almost half-way there!

5. I am making myself a nail appointment for a CONGRATS you made it 10 days. YAY.

So instead of writing 5 BORING posts on food and feeling (which are all the same), I have combined them for you. Here are some of the meals I have been enjoying, to say the least, these last few days. 

PLUS, I got this cute planner to keep all my meals, workouts and everything organized! Next week I start using it - checking off when things are done. Time to get in a ROUTINE! Right now I just need heal my food poisoned gut and get back into LIFE. 

DAY 13 DONE. ALMOST HALFWAY THERE.