Whew! I feel like a lot has happened since my last update on our Whole30 journey. As of Tuesday, November 8, we completed our 30 days! Hip hip hooray! I have to admit that those 30 days went a lot faster than I thought they would. The hardest part was the fact that my birthday fell on the tail end of this and I couldn’t have whatever I wanted to eat and I couldn’t have any cake. The cake part was probably more heartbreaking for Logan than me, but I still kinda missed it anyway. Oh well, the day has come and gone, and I’m healthier and happier. 🙂
We are in the reintroduction phase right now, where we are putting things back into our diet slowly and paying attention to how our body reacts. So, for the next 12 days we will be eating pretty much the same way we have been, but just adding a few new foods here and there. Since, we are done with the hard part, I thought I’d share with you a few things I learned while doing Whole30. (If you are new here and have absolutely no clue what I’m talking about, you can read about it here.) So here it goes.
I learned to read labels and know what is in my food.
Over the past two years, I had started being a little more diligent in reading labels and paying attention to the ingredients in food. I tried to incorporate a “5 ingredients or less” rule for anything packaged or processed I bought. The reality is, I didn’t stick to that rule very tightly. Whole 30 has taught me that sugar hides in the ingredient list under different names. It’s even the same with gluten. It’s crazy! The one thing we could never find the entire 30 days was Whole30 approved lunch meat. Where I live, I don’t have the luxury of having a Whole Foods close by and our grocery stores just don’t carry things that are selective or special. So, we learned to do without lunch meat. I’ll be honest, after reading the ingredients it contained, I don’t really want it anymore.
From here forward you can believe I will be looking at packages and ingredients. I will continue trying to cook and consume whole unprocessed food. It really is better for you and I feel amazing since cutting out everything that is processed!
I can drink my coffee without sugar.
I know that you probably read that and laughed but I really struggled with my morning coffee. It was one of the few things that I “treated” myself to every day. I would use a dash of skim milk, and a tablespoon of raw sugar. For the past 30 days, I couldn’t do that. I had to use coconut almond milk and no sugar! I did it, but my coffee was no longer a treat. A positive thing came out of hating my coffee, I developed a new love for chai teas. Let’s just say the very first thing I reintroduced was sugar so I can love my coffee again. 🙂 The thing is, if I had to drink it without sugar again, I know I could survive.
Food affects your body A LOT!
I love how I am feeling right now and I never want that to change. However, I’m sure I will fall off the Whole30 wagon at some point and get back into some bad habits again. What I can promise you, though, is when that happens, I will do another 30 days. My body has changed in the past month. I’m still not much of a morning person but I have more energy throughout the day. I don’t feel foggy headed or crave sugar or junk food anymore. Also, I didn’t loose any weight through these 3o days, but I’m okay with that. Personally, how I feel means way more to me than a number on the scale.
The foods we choose to put into our body really does affect us. It can affect our quality of sleep and health (mental and physical). This makes me want to rid Logan of all his sugary and unhealthy snacks and replace it with healthier options. I believe some of his behavior problems come from the food he eats. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not letting him eat gobs of candy and sweets but sugar is hiding in A LOT of what he eats. I’ll be interested to see what a difference it will be for him too…
That statement “You are what you eat” really is true! That has never felt as real as it does now.
I am not a huge fan of sweet potatoes.
Let’s just say I think I’ve eaten my weight in potatoes of various sorts over the past 30 days. I’m pretty sure I’ve never had so many, ever, in my life! So, I’m perfectly happy not having potatoes for a while after this is all over. I’ve always liked sweet potato fries and the occasional baked sweet potato, so I figured I would enjoy eating them for the 30 days. Nope, not so much! I’ll probably be happy if I never see a sweet potato again! On the flip side of this, I did find a new love for veggies! I may not have broadened my list of acceptable vegetables but I do make sure and have them with just about every meal. That is a big win in my book!
I’m not crazy about cooking.
I sort of knew this before diving into Whole30 but I didn’t realize how much I really didn’t like cooking. I’ve logged a lot of hours in the kitchen over the past 30 days and if you look back over some of my other posts about our journey (here, here, and here) you will see that I complain about it… more than once. 🙂 (I’m a whiner, sorry, I really try to hide it but it does come out from time to time.) Slowly over the last 30 days I learned that even though I’m not crazy about cooking, I love knowing that I’m making a healthy meal for my family. I do it with a smile on my face. I may never actually love cooking but I do love doing things for Shadrach, Logan, and my parents, especially if I know that it is good for them and will keep them healthy.
A Winner!
There you have it, a few of the things I’ve learned during our Whole30 journey. As a celebration of Shadrach and I completing the 30 days we decided to give 1 person a $25 gift card to Amazon. The giveaway ended on Tuesday (11/8/16), our last day.
The winner is Laney S!
We will be sending you an email with the details on receiving your $25 Amazon Gift Card. Please make sure and check your spam folder or contact us if you do not receive a correspondence from us in the next 5 days.
We just want to thank everyone who encouraged and cheered us on through our Whole30 journey. It has been worth every craving and headache. Reading all of your encouraging comments helped give us the extra push we needed. So, thank you!!! 🙂
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Laura Ramnath
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