whole 30

So I'm not normally an in-your-face, gotta-try-this-product/diet/thing kind of gal...BUT you've gotta try this.

Starting May 1st, I embarked on the whole 30 challenge looking to lose some weight, get some encouragement and basically I just wanted to see if I could do it. I've struggled with my weight and lack of motivation to do anything about it for like...6 years. I've put together some pros and cons of my experience.

Pros:

1. I lost 14 pounds in 30 days and was never hungry. BOOM. And I only ran a total of 5 miles and attended ONE spin class at the gym. So I did all of this with very minimal excercise

2. The concept of the whole thing is so stupidly simple, it's easy to figure out what's okay and what's not okay to eat. Could a caveman have access to this? Yes? Eat it. 

3. Saving money! Yes, healthy produce is expensive but when you take out all of that money I saved when I passed up eating out with some people and just waited to eat until I got home, I saved money. I was able to cook for 30 days for Casey and I at least 80% of our meals on a 300$ grocery budget. That included all of our toiletries and cleaning products I needed to buy for the month as well. 

4. Quick results. 8 of my pounds lost were during the first week and half and I definitely felt the difference. You're not supposed to weigh yourself while you're on whole 30, but well, I broke that rule.

Cons:

1. Awkward social gatherings. Having to deny food and make a thousand modifications when ordering at restaurants was a new challenge for me. I felt rude and high maintenance at times.

2. Not being able to eat sugar or sweetener. It was far more than not getting that sweet tooth fulfilled. EVERYTHING has sugar or some type of sweetener in it now-a-days. I had to make my own sausage, spaghetti sauce, etc. Not having access to those products as easily made it a challenge.

3. Having to cook all of the time. And even worse than that, having to do dishes all of the time! Thankfully, Hubs was super supportive with that and helped with that a bunch.

4. Planning out what I was going to eat. I'm a pretty big planner when it comes to our menus anyways, but there were many times where we had crazy busy work days and would have to wake up at the crack of dawn to cook breakfast, lunch and dinner and then be out the door before 8. When stopping and picking up fast food isn't an option anymore, it makes life difficult. 

Here are some of the products I kept stocked and it saved my life:

Now that I've done whole 30 and gone so long with things like grain, dairy, soy, legumes, sugar, etc, I feel empowered and in control of what goes in my mouth, instead of my cravings being the one in control. The more times I passed up on that roll at dinner or the hazelnut syrup in my coffee, the easier it was to go without those things and the more I realized that I don't need that stuff to enjoy food. And boy, do I enjoy food. Now that I'm off the challenge, I'm still eating  mostly whole 30 food but am giving myself a few exceptions like honey and a cheat meal a week. On our camping trip last weekend, I went a little nuts and discovered a lot of the things I'd looked forward to enjoying just weren't as enjoyable anymore. Eating good food that's good for my body feels so much better. And y'all, this is coming from a girl who ate a half a dozen krispy kreme donuts in my car secretly the day before this challenge started.

I'll definitely be posting a lot of my favorite new recipes on here for you all to try. Stay tuned!

For a more extensive list of the dos and don'ts, visit whole30.com