Whole30

Many have seen the term “Whole 30” pop up recently, it has been all over social media and many people are giving this thing a try. I didn’t give it any thought until after a friend of mine did it. I will be honest, the food he was preparing is what caught my attention it all looked incredible. You can check it out here at http://instagram.com/NorthVan_Foodie

What is Whole 30? Well to summarize it very simply you can have fish, meat, eggs, fruits, veggies, and nuts. What you cannot have is dairy, soy/tofu, beans/legumes, grains, alcohol, and no processed foods. Going to the Whole 30 website was very overwhelming at first. You see lots of information, lots of branding but really you just want to get to what you can eat. There is a section with downloadable information. This section has everything from how to shop, a foods you can eat list, to portion sizes. This was the section of the site that helped me out the most. Pinterest is also a huge aid when it comes to planning meals because there are so many ideas on there for recipes, just be careful as some recipes do have cheats in them.

I am on day 14 of my 30 days doing this and its been interesting so far. The first four days were absolutely dreadful for me. I felt like I was living in a fog the whole time, and then on day 2 I got this brutal headache that would not go away for 3 days. I was told that fog and headache was from going through withdrawal from dairy, gluten, and sugar. Did you know it can take up to a month to get all the stuff out of your system anyways? Since day 5 though I have not had a single headache, not even a migraine! For me this is huge because I used to always suffer with these on a regular basis it seemed. Chiro care had helped lessen them, and now I am 10 days without one (here’s hoping I didn’t just jinx myself).

It has been very tough to do as I know I am someone who loves gluten/carbs/breads, which is also why I started this journey because I know I needed to cut these out of my system and see if I truly am allergic to these and if I need to permanently take them out of my meals. I have also had some side comments from people that I wont even bother repeating, but thanks for the support and encouragement.

I have already noticed a huge difference in how my clothing fits as well. I went to put on a dress I love to wear to church for Mother’s Day and it no longer fits, I had to get a safety pin to tighten the dress so I could wear it (yes I still wanted to wear it, we are that family who sometimes matches outfits. I also don’t have many dresses right now). I also got a comment from Jason the other day that was hugely encouraging when he said “Wow, you just feel much smaller.” I am also sleeping better than I have in, dare I say, years. I am actually sleeping through the night and not waking up multiple times.  So between those moments I feel like things are going well.  I will update you all at the end of the month on how the rest of my  Whole 30 experience went.