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Remember that post I wrote a few weeks ago about the crazy things I talk my husband into? That was just after I had convinced him we needed to do Whole 30. I had been thinking about it for a while and finally decided to explain it all to him; getting him to agree we should do it. As we finish round 1 the program, I’m so glad he said, “Yes!”
Whole 30
After eating clean for the past 30 days, we’ve definitely noticed changes in both our body and mind. Of course, along the way we didn’t realize how much of that was simply from making better eating choices.
But, more than that, we learned new things from how our body processes food to how to read food labels. It’s been eye-opening for sure. But, more than that, it’s been an incredible kick start for our bodies as we actively work towards better health.
With that, let’s talk about a few things we learned after 1 round of Whole 30:
- Eating clean, organic foods cost more. It’s probably why so many eat processed foods. They’re cheaper and more convenient.
- Speaking of convenient, we found that although it took longer to prep and cook our meals, we actually really enjoyed the process.
- Oh, that too! A food processor is extremely handy when chopping veggies for every meal. In fact, we got three different extensions for our KitchenAid Mixer to help make prep easier and more efficient: in addition to the processor, we also bought the Slicer/Shredder and Spiralizer.
- So many foods have added sugars! Wow! Learning to read labels and understanding all the ways sugar is added to foods, even bacon, is a great lesson to invest your time in.
- Coffee with NutPods creamer AND organic, unsweetened coconut milk whipped all together with a hand blender is actually kinda good. The one thing I missed was my caramel coffee. This concoction helped once we discovered it.
- Spiralizing food is fun! Zoodles are now one of my favorite dishes. We tried them with an Avocado Lime Pesto sauce as well as cooked with spicy peppered steak strips. Yum!
- We were forced to try new dishes, like the Zoodles, and found that we actually really liked them!
- When it comes to your meals, switch it up so you don’t get burned out! If you get bored with the foods you’re eating, you have a higher chance of not sticking to the Whole 30 program.
- Grabbing a bag of freeze dried fruit is so much better than having a bag of chips. You don’t feel guilty after and your body does feel sluggish.
- The energy! We began waking up early immediately after starting the program and finally figured out it was because our bodies were getting the proper nutrients it needed. This is huge for an insomniac such as myself. We like to sleep in after working long after the kids have gone to bed.
- It is possible to switch up foods on your kids’ menus without them knowing or complaining. We made a switch to almond milk, plus began purchasing gluten free products for the kids – and they ate them!
- We discovered that it’s not as hard as you initially think it’s going to be. You simply need to stay focused and keep working towards your goal; whatever that may be for you.
- Personally, I found that by cutting out processed sugars, my hypoglycemia was kept under control.
As you can see, the Whole 30 program was quite the learning process for us. And this is honestly not even an exhaustive list. Perhaps most importantly though, we learned to listen to our bodies. It’s remarkable to see what certain foods can do to our bodies. How they can wreak havoc on our digestive system and completely drain us off all energy. The best part though? It truly worked for us!
Colby lost 19.5 lbs and is at his lowest weight in over 2 years. His total inch lost was 12 5/8 inches.
I lost 9.4 lbs (we all know guys lose it so much easier), but, more importantly, I lost 18 inches total across my body!
Y’all! I went down 2 pant sizes and am so stinking excited! We have decided to stop the program for now, but will continue to stay as close to it as possible. We have some travel coming up each week for the next month, including a week long family vacation, so know it will be harder to stick to the program during all of that. But, we do plan on doing another round once we are back home for a while. We definitely want to stick to the lessons we learned since it obviously works well for us.
We’ll see how it goes. Plus, with the new found energy we’ve been working out, jogging, and will be running a 5K in two weeks! Nothing but good things have come out of our experience with Whole 30.
Have you done Whole 30?
What were your thoughts? What did you learn?