I am a little over a week past the end of my 30 days. I have read a dozen or more testimonies about how wonderful the Whole 30 is and how it changed people’s lives. I didn’t think I would be one of “those people” but I am about to explain how I became one of “those people.” Let’s start at the beginning.
For months I have been surrounded by people who have changed their eating habits drastically by eating paleo diets. I thought they were ridiculous and just on some fad diet that would be done as fast as the atkins or the south beach diet. I firmly believed that eating a good balanced diet and keeping things in moderation was the key to being healthy. The first time I heard about Whole 30 was when another blogger wrote about her experience. It sounded to good to be true but I couldn’t help but be fascinated that her blood work had improved after 30 days.
I had a suspicion that my body wasn’t running as well as it could. For 7 years I have been dealing anxiety. Then my energy levels seemed to drop and aches I had never had before were present every day. Plus, we haven’t had any luck getting pregnant. I started looking more at the Whole 30 as something I could try. Something that would only take 30 days and if I didn’t feel better I lost nothing. To say I was skeptical would be an understatement. I wasn’t sure my husband would go for it. I underestimated him and thought he would have the same thoughts I did about it being a fad diet. I was so wrong. He was ready and on board from the moment I mentioned it. So we set off together on this journey to see if diet could really change things so drastically.
Turns out diet change really can make you feel dramatically different. We added exercise at the same time so it wasn’t all diet changes that helped. Exercise was something neither of us could manage to find the motivation/energy to do before. The combination has made us feel so amazing we are going to work on continuing this change. When we started the Whole 30 I expected that if it worked I would feel better. I never expected my husband would find an interest in cooking. Previously I made most of the dinners. He has now taken an interest and has started creating some of the meals. He makes a great poached egg and loves to julienne vegetables. Cooking is now closer to 50/50. I think he brings up the higher percentage on cleaning though. The only downside to eating real food is it makes a lot more dishes!
My favorite side effects are my clear skin, my knee no longer aches for no reason and I haven’t even thought about my anxiety medicine. I probably should have started with my anxiety medicine because my favorite part about this is the positive change in my mood and how calm I feel. Only time will tell if had any effect on helping us get pregnant. Fingers crossed. Pretty good results for what was really an easy change once we got going. It was a no brainer after we started getting the early benefits. It helps that I really liked to cook from the beginning but I strongly believe any one can do this. To drive home the fact that we were going to stick with this change we experimented with some foods that we hadn’t had in the past 30 days. We didn’t feel horrible but it was obvious that those foods didn’t sit well with us. We wouldn’t notice the effects of those foods if we kept eating them every day. In the back of my mind I would remember how great I felt after the Whole 30 though. We may fall back to old eating habits and if we do we will start a new Whole 30. We are committed to sticking with it and trying to avoid that by avoiding foods that aren’t on the Whole 30 shopping list.
If you are interested in trying this for yourself check out the website and the book It Starts with Food. I didn’t read the book It Starts with Food until we finished the entire 30 days. When I finished the book I was even more impressed with the program and believe even more that this is a great lifestyle change for us. The book explains the science behind the program and it made complete sense. It didn’t hurt that right before I read It Starts with Food I read Michael Pollian’s In Defense of Food. Both books shed a lot of light on how food is marketed, what really is food and how to make sure you are eating real food. Eating real food is more complicated than I thought. I can’t do it justice so if you are interested you really should check out those books.
I am working on getting some of the recipes I am using on the blog and creating some of my own. If you have done a Whole 30 I am always looking for new recipes. If you are thinking about doing a Whole 30 and have questions let me know.