Thirty Days Through

I shared with you a couple weeks ago how Jarrod and I took a challenge. Its called Whole30, based on the Paleo way of eating. AKA: no sugar, no grains, no alcohol, no dairy, no legumes for 30 days. And we did it. (and lived to tell about it.)

I have no regrets whatsoever about this challenge. I learned a lot about how I eat. We both have realized we have changes to make. And we’re both changed and here’s why:

-We have gobs of energy. Even on nights we go to bed late, we wake up alert, peppy, and feeling good.

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-That “head fog” feeling has been gone for about 28 days. You know that feeling where you’re just groggy and feel gross? Ya, we don’t have that anymore. Its amazing.

-We both lost weight. As of this moment of me typing this post I have not actually weighed myself, but I don’t really even need to.  I went to a music festival last Saturday and wore my pre-baby jeans. My clothes fit better. And I barely even exercised this month…I’m serious. I started doing this #50milesinJuly challenge and decided I was out of my damn mind so I stopped pressuring myself. I ran maybe six times all month. That’s it.  And I still lost (what I think is) quite a bit of weight…or at least inches.

-I feel like I’m loving myself very well. This is a hard way to eat. You really have to think about what you’re doing. You have to plan. You have to be prepared. Like when we went out of town on Saturday, we packed lunch because we knew our only choices on the road would be bad ones. We ate Italian sausage with sautéed veggies without the bun at the festival.  Its super challenging but it feels so good.

and

-I haven’t had a stomach ache or that icky “too full” feeling for a month and that is a good feeling.

So am I glad we did this? Yes, of course. Am I going to keep it up. Yes and no.

1. I love cheese. And I miss it.

2. I realize just how MUCH I grab for snacks…even when I’m not even hungry. That’s a big habit that I’m hoping to hold at bay.

3. I also realize just how much planning goes into making this diet work and there’s no way around that planning. That’s another habit that’s sticking around.

4. There needs to be room for a little fun foods in life. Birthday parties call for a slice of cake…and movies, popcorn. Some of those things are going to continue happening, but just much farther between each other.

I mentioned planning…you have to do it. Its just too hard otherwise to throw something together. But one thing I found to really be versatile and make a lot of meals work was homemade mayo. If you make it, you can make egg or tuna salad and eat it over greens. Several of you asked about a recipe last time I posted on this. So here’s the recipe: (taken from: It Starts With Food)

1 egg
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1/4 cup plus 1 cup light-tasting olive oil (NOT extra virgin)
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp salt

Place the egg and the lemon juice in a blender or food processor, cover, and allow to come to room temperature, 30 minutes. Add 1/4 cup oil, mustard, and salt, blend on medium speed until the ingredients are combined.  With the motor running, drizzle in the remaining 1 cup oil in a very thin stream; this should take about 2-3 minutes. Store covered in the fridge.

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With the mayo you can also make ranch dressing, tartar sauce, and my personal favorite: avocado dressing! I ate that stuff on everything!

Just blend together:
1/2 avocado
1 Tbsp lime juice
1/4 cup olive oil mayo
1 small garlic clove
1/2 Tbsp pickled jalapeno rings
1 Tbsp fresh cilantro leaves
2 Tbsp water
salt and pepper

So that’s our story…that’s how it went. 30 days of super clean eating with no cheats or slips. While I’m not making myself a Paleo t-shirt right now, I’m sold on this way of eating.  I got some negative feedback about eating this way when I posted on it last time, but my answer to that is this: do your research. Believe it or not, you really don’t need to drink milk to get calcium.  You don’t really need to eat whole grains to get good carbs.  Just do your research before you dog it. Everything that we cut out of our diet is not overly healthy and some of it is just downright nasty for your body. i.e.: sugar.

A few of you have taken the challenge and I wish you luck! Your 30 days goes surprisingly fast after you hit about day 14. You can do it! And you’ll be so happy you did.

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**UPDATE: We decided not to weigh in until August 1…the first official day of NOT doing Whole30. Jarrod lost 19 pounds and my total weight loss was 14 pounds! We’re pleased as punch about that. Definitely going to keep this up.