My Whole 30 Experiment

We did it!  30 days of

• NO SUGAR  (of any kind, natural, stevia, honey...nada, none, zero, zip)

• NO WHEAT

• NO GRAINS

• NO LEGUMES

• NO DAIRY

• NO ALCOHOL (the hardest part for me)

The Why:

Well for starters, we'd packed some on in 2014 and we needed to start losing some of it quick. Hearing about all the benefits some have found by trying The Whole30 and having a good friend say, "You can do anything for 30 days!" we thought we'd give it a shot.  

The Scoop: 

The truth of it for us is the shopping, cooking and cleaning were truly the hardest part of the past 30 days.  You should know that the kitchen and I are NOT friends.  It's almost too embarrassing to confess how poor of a relationship I have with my kitchen appliances.  They are likely in a state of shock after this month.  As a matter of fact, half way through the month I had to call and oven repairman because all but one of the buttons on my oven stopped working.  No joke!

The second hardest part for me was no adult beverages.  I am one of those type A, high anxiety, high manufactured stress kinda gals who likes to relax in the evenings every now and then with a drink. Sipping my hot tea on Friday and Saturday nights was more than a little difficult.

The Running: 
Sucked.  Sorry there is no other way to put it.  I seriously could not believe how much this way of eating completely tanked my running.  Killed it dead.  I was almost 3 weeks before I could get back to completing a decent run without needing to walk.  Even when I was finally able to finish a 7 mile long run, my already slower than slow pace was a full minute slower per mile! UGH! It did not help that I am training for a half marathon in April and was really need to up my mileage.  Hopefully I can recover the lost miles quickly.  

The Biggest Accomplishment: 
We did not eat out ONE single meal for 30 days! Seriously, this is HUGE for us.  I honestly don't think I can remember at time when we have gone more than a week without eating out let alone and entire month.  Certainly not in the last 20 years! It was not easy.  Just so you know you can eat out and still stay true to the Whole30 we just decided it was too much work to figure out and that we might as well just do it ourselves.  After all, we can do anything for 30 days, Right????

The Results: 
Yes, the weight is coming off.  How much? No clue.  After way too many years of paying too much attention to the scale, I no longer get on it.  I use how I look and my clothes as a judge.  Clothes are fitting much better...so there you go.  My skin does feel better, my nails seem to be growing faster, and while I don't feel like the energizer bunny I am not as bone dead tired at the end of the day as I had been.  I was hoping for a few more miracles and it's possible I need to keep it up for a little while longer to truly see more  improvement.

What Now: 
Not entirely sure yet.  My husband still has some more weight he wants to take off and I would be happy to do that too.  I think we will likely continue to eat this way for awhile longer and then play around with what we can add  back in moderation without going off the rails too much. We shall see!

Have you done a Whole30 yet?  What was your experience?