My last day of Whole30 (Sort of)

Today is day 30 of our Whole30 challenge. Wow. Our last day of this intense eating program. I have to be honest, I didn’t really think that we could do it, but  we did! The night before we started, I was flat out terrified. Seriously. I couldn’t even imagine giving up ALL sugar, dairy, gluten, soy, legumes and alcohol for thirty whole days. A month seemed like an eternity to me. In full transparency, if it weren’t for my husband and two dear friends being willing to do this with me and offering unwavering support, I’m still not certain that I could have done it. As I reflect on the past month, I am immensely proud of what we’ve done. For thirty days, we ate nothing but whole foods and I’ve honestly never felt better. My husband and I didn’t cheat once. We attended charity luncheons, galas and hosted our families for dinner. We had date outings and went to birthday parties and we didn’t give in to temptation at any of them. There aren’t words to describe the confidence that instills in me for eating healthily going forward. Whole30 truly does change your relationship with food. It resets your body and allows it to heal from the food toxins we put into it daily, it teaches you to view food as the fuel that it is, it teaches your body to crave healthy, whole foods and it breaks your deep association of dieting with weight loss (since you’re not supposed to weigh during the 30 days.)

Completing these 30 days is one of the most life-changing things that I have done in terms of food and health. It was amazing! We learned a ton, I gained confidence in my ability to do hard things, to cook from scratch and to value sheer determination. Oh, and we lost some weight – yay for being 10lbs lighter! Best of all, I feel better. I have tons more energy, no bloating and have clearer skin, fewer aches and pains and haven’t had a single migraine since the detox period (which is saying a lot for a lifetime migrainer!)
I highly, highly recommend that you give this a try. It is a lot of planning, a lot of learning (especially reading labels and learning to make foods you’ve never made before,) a lot of cooking and a lot of cleaning dishes. But, it is worth every moment of time and sweat-equity investment. During the 30 days, when I started to think that it was “hard” to watch my children eat something I couldn’t eat or I started to really want something off the compliant list, I remembered my favorite quote from the Whole30 website.  “It is not hard. Don’t you dare tell us this is hard. Beating cancer is hard. Birthing a baby is hard. Losing a parent is hard. Drinking your coffee black. Is. Not. Hard. You’ve done harder things than this, and you have no excuse not to complete the program as written. It’s only thirty days, and it’s for the most important health cause on earth – the only physical body you will ever have in this lifetime.” Wow. So true. (And since I’ve birthed three babies, I figured maybe I could do this, after all.)

Hubs and I loved the changes we experienced through the Whole30 so much that we’ve decided to make it a Whole60. My guess is that we’ll really stick with it for 90 days, but for some reason, I can only commit to the insanity for 30 days at a time. After that, we plan to eat this way for the majority of the time (maybe during the weeks?) but allow some cheating for special occasions (or on the weekends?) If you think you might want to do a Whole30, I would encourage you to do it. Don’t just try. Commit to doing it. I love the “tough love” statements on their website. Before you start, check out my info on my first week on the program, favorite cooking sites and recipes and tips and tricks on completing a Whole30. Need some additional encouragement? I would be more than happy to give you some – just comment below and we’ll chat!