Whole 30 for real

The whole30 is truly a life style change. I cannot say enough inspirational things about how positive this affected our lives and how incredibly we feel, both physically and mentally. 

What is the whole30?

To get the most accurate description it would be best for you to go to whole30.com and read all about it, but I will give you a summary:

For 30 days you cut out sugar and processed foods. COMPLETELY. There is absolutely no cheating, not even a lick. Is it hard? Yes. Is it impossible? Hell no. It's 30 days, toughen up and do it. 

So what DO you eat?

 A lot! Honestly, it was the most educational experience with food I have ever had. I learned so much and a big take away was simply: Read your labels. If it had any form of sugar, or anything I couldn't pronounce that is an easy no.
You can eat fruits, vegetables, most meat (unfortunately bacon is hard to find where it's compliant, some form of sugar or other chemical comes on it), almonds, cashews, olives, a variety of hot sauces, etc.

 Here is a sampling of what we ate while on the whole30:

Meatballs and zucchini (my lunch one day, also the meatballs were a favorite of ours!)

Spinach salad with strawberries, grapes, almonds and a vinagrette dressing that is compliant (Tessamae's)

Life saver! You can find them at Safeway and they have a variety of flavors, perfect for marinades, dip, or as a dressing

Sweet potatoes, egg, applegate beef dog

 We also had a delicious beef stew that included egg plant in it...yep, Brian ate it!! And liked it! Some nights we would do steak, asparagus, and sweet potatoes or salad of some sort. Chicken was a favorite, ground turkey or ground beef seasoned well and put into butter lettuce for a lettuce wrap.
Not only did we enjoy what we were eating, but we never ever went hungry. We were always full.
It has started to change our relationship with food and drastically decreased our portion sizes. Brian's blood pressure has gone down along with the pounds.

Our energy level shot up and we slept so much better. And my once snoring husband? No. More. Snoring. When I say he snored, I mean he snored. Very loud. Very very loud. I will stop because I'm sure he doesn't want me going on, but trust me when I say it got so loud I would have to go sleep in the other room. And now? 0. No snoring!!! Life changing people, life changing.

We don't have the aches and pains we use to have or any stomach pains.
All the benefits that have come from this are life changing and truly such a blessing for us. We became closer as a couple and found ourselves working as a team so well.
Our girls ate the same dinner we did, but for breakfast and lunch I would fix them something else (that was very hard to do, I LOVE cereal).

Was it hard?
HELL YES. The second week was the rough. The first few days you go through a sort of withdrawal as your body adjusts to the lack of sugar. I got a pretty bad headache as did Brian. But once that passed the first week was the honeymoon phase. We were all excited about being healthy and cooking all our meals, the new food was tasting good and all was well.
The second week hit and so did the cravings. It sucked not being able to have creamer in my coffee, or have a muffin. But we continued on. Weekends proved to be challenging and we had 4 to get through, Superbowl being one of those. Yeah, go us.

Week 3 might have been the most difficult. We were DONE. Yes, we felt great and yes we had energy. But dear goodness we wanted more flexibility. We were starting to feel trapped, I just wanted a damn cracker! Or cereal! Or let's be real, WINE!! Ugh, not fun.

It got so unfun that we both slipped into a wee bit of depression and nearly called it off on Day 20:

Yep, I took a picture to capture just how blue I was feeling

And then we both started working out even more and the fog seemed to lift. We found our second wind and realized we were so close to the end and wouldn't it feel good to complete it?! I mean, we've come this far, no sense in giving up now!
Then the home stretch happened and we were like, "Oh we got this." Day 25 we started thinking about day 31...what happens the day after?? And we got kind of nervous. We have been doing so well that we were scared to reintroduce foods we once loved...but aren't that great for us. How much should we introduce?
Fortunately the whole 30 website walked us through a little bit.
What is nice is that I have really been purposeful in the foods I eat and the choices I make. I have been putting a small amount of a healthy creamer in my coffee, that is worth it to me. Starbucks, I love Starbucks. In a weeks time I've gone twice, so nothing crazy. And I order a soy latte, don't want to reintroduce too much dairy as that is definitely a reason I get puffy and bloated feeling. I don't miss pasta, cheese or bread so I haven't introduced those. Overall we have just been weighing what is important to us to eat and what isn't. We are still both working out, I am currently training for Hood to Coast! Last weekend I did my longest run ever, 5.63 miles! For someone who is not a runner I am pretty proud. I also learned that I need to keep my toenails even shorter than I currently do:

I didn't even feel it during my run, the adrenaline was going I guess :)

I hope that we can inspire other people to join the whole 30 movement! It's not a cult, it's not a diet, it's not bad for you...it's a teaching tool to help you change your relationship with food and eat things that are good for you and make you feel good. Bread is not poison, it's not an enemy...but for me it doesn't make me feel great so I won't eat a ton of it.

Final weight loss in 30 days:
Brian: 32 pounds
Lindsey: 6 pounds

Inches: Lots! Wish we would've measured! We did take before and after pics but they are pretty revealing haha! Here's a little sneak peek:

I was feeling really discouraged the day before we finished, but when I saw the before and after pictures I was ecstatic and totally motivated! 

Look at his face and neck!!!!! Incredible!

I can't say enough how proud I am of Brian. He completely changed his eating habits and did it with a smile on his face. This is a man who loves his spaghetteos and mac n cheese...he loves brownies for breakfast and two large glasses of milk with it. He despises fruit (except apples and bananas) and hates trying anything new. 

Ya'll, he DID IT. He ate mass amounts of veggies...eggplant, kale, broccoli, carrots, the list goes on! And although he still doesn't like fruit, he does like the smoothies I make him every morning and they have a healthy dose of berries and other yummy fruit. Technically smoothies are frowned upon by whole 30, but if it's the only way to get fruit in someone, I say it's compliant :)

Brian-You are an inspiration to everyone and I am so proud of you, love you!

If you have any questions please feel free to ask!

Our first taste of non whole 30 compliant food?? 

A small handful of Honey Nut Cheerios and a glass of red wine.... YUM!!!

And one last hoorah for my hubby and myself... WE ARE WHOLE 30!!!!!!