We made it! We did it! We made it 30 days and I, for one, am very proud of us!
Honestly, going in, I thought a mixtures of things. Before we started I remember thinking "there's NO way we can do this. as a working mom (and dad), how can we do this?? we don't have enough time to make meals like this. it's too hard." I thought it sounded crazy. There were so many rules, I never thought we could adhere to them all. But that's where I was wrong. It's only hard if you think it will be hard. Like they say in the "It Starts with Food" book, fighting cancer is hard. Eating healthy and drinking coffee without creamer is not hard.
So, to answer the ever burning question, was it hard? Honestly? No. But honestly, we timed it the way we did so it wouldn't be as hard. Hard to say no to foods we couldn't eat. Hard to go places where other people would be preparing food and we didn't want to be rude and ask too many questions about how the food was prepared. We purposely picked the Monday after I had a work lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. We purposely picked the 30 days that would end right before a birthday party we were going to. We planned it for the greatest chance of success and we achieved that.
I made sure we were prepared. I did my research. I looked up meals that I knew we would like and that would be easy enough for us with little time on weeknights. Nothing was fancy. Everything was simple. And I think that was our key to success. I made a meal plan for week 1 and naively thought we would adhere to it for all 4 weeks. And then... on week 2, I was already bored with it. We tweaked it a little and moved on through week 2 and then week 3 hit and we kinda just winged it. We knew the meals we liked. We knew what staples we wanted to use again. And we knew what breakfasts and snacks worked best for us. And week 3 and 4 went by quickly.
We bought almost all our food at Costco and Ralph's (our local grocery store). We bought mostly fruits, vegetables, tuna, nuts, chicken, and olive oil at Costco and beef and eggs at the grocery store. We bought ghee and coconut oil at Trader Joe's (but could have easily bought it elsewhere). We only went to Whole Foods for a couple things : Justin's almond butter, Bubbie's relish, and some dijon mustard (other things we found to be too expensive). I had wanted to try to find some lunch meat and some bacon at Whole Foods but they were insanely expensive (like $10 for 8 slices of bacon and $7 for 5 slices of lunch meat). This is another reason why we kept things simple - fruits, veggies, sweet potatoes all were pretty cheap. There was plenty of other stuff we could have bought to make fancier meals, but we felt that the cost did not justify the benefit.
And now I'm left wondering... why does healthy food have to be so expensive???
Why can you buy a Big Mac for $1 or one avocado for $1?
Why can you buy 20 slices of sugar-full bacon for $4 and 8 slices of sugar free for $10?
Why does a box of pasta cost $1 and a spaghetti squash cost like $3?
And has anyone actual fully gone grocery shopping at Whole Foods? Holy break the bank Batman!
Ok enough of my rant, I'm going to share some pictures with you. I am VERY self conscious about being in a bikini on the internet. VERY. And I am also going to admit my weight, which I am also self conscious about. So, please be nice with your comments and remember what your mother told you, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.
Before shots are on the left and after shots are on the right.
Seth
I think you can definitely tell that Seth lost weight. When he has his clothes on, it is obvious that his stomach is smaller. But in these pictures too, I think you can see it. In the before pictures, his stomach hangs over his shorts a little, and in the after pictures, it doesn't. You can also see that his chin area is smaller as well. (Don't worry, we talked about all of this before I shared the pictures, so I'm not saying anything that we didn't already talk about.)
Me
I thought I looked the same, but they say you are your own worst critic. Seth says that he can definitely tell that I lost weight. He said you can tell in my stomach, like his, where it used to hang over my swim suit a little and now it doesn't as much and also in my back.
Also, random side note, please note that I did not "lose my tan" in the "after" photos (not that I had a tan to begin with lol). I think we had a different light on in the "after" photos.
In terms of actual pounds
Seth
Start : 189.5 lbs.
End : 179.5 lbs.
Total loss : 10 lbs.
Me
Start : 158.8 lbs.
End : 149.3 lbs.
Total loss : 9.5 lbs.
And keep in mind, we didn't exercise. This was purely from eating well. Now, I don't advocate not exercising, we probably should have done that as well, but in a statement of fact : during the whole30, we did not exercise or do anything different than we normally do.
[Biggest resources]
[Other random things to note]
I cut out coffee all together for the 30 days because I can't drink it black. Yes, I guess that would qualify as "drinking black coffee is hard" but cutting out black coffee for 30 days was not hard. I did drink tea, which I thought had caffeine as well, but apparently it had way less than I thought because I now feel weird when I have a cup of coffee. Like my heart is racing and my head feels funny. It's weird. I literally had to go buy decaf k-cups to use since I was craving the coffee but not wanting the crazy feeling I was having.
On top of the weight loss, I will say this - I did feel better. I felt that I had a lot more clarity when I was eating real foods vs processed and can tell the difference when I eat junk now.
We had a doctor appointment for Mason the other day and were running late and Mason was beyond hungry so we drove thru Carl's Jr. Seth and I got a burger and fries and I literally felt guilty as I was eating it. Like I was letting my body down. I honestly think the only fast food we might have now will be in n out (but only protein style, no cheese, no spread - but possibly adding fries back in).
I was a little surprised that I didn't feel gross when we added regular foods back in. Though we are trying to still follow the whole 30 plan/paleo, we have gone out for donuts, we did have cake at a birthday party, and we have gone out to dinner. And surprisingly, I didn't feel sick. I mean I definitely am making better choices, but I was kinda surprised after eating so clean for 30 days that my body didn't react more when I incorporated processed foods in again.
Also, the whole 30 website has a timeline of how they expect you to feel while on your journey. Honestly, I didn't really feel any of them. I didn't really feel more tired any time or like I had more energy anytime. I didn't get headaches. Maybe we just ate relatively well to begin with and so it wasn't that drastic of a change? I don't know.
Overall, would I recommend the whole 30 to you?
YES! I would! But make sure you do your research and make sure you have a plan. Set yourself up for success and not failure.
And just know...
you can do it!
Questions?
Anything I didn't cover?
Ask away in the comments!
