Whole30 challenge

Two years ago I joined a Whole 30 challenge group with a couple of friends. Not as a "diet" but to cleanse my body from all the crap I had been eating. The idea behind Whole 30 is not weight loss (although most people do lose some weight), but to stop eating the things that are common irritants to the body for 30 days and then slowly readmit them into your diet to see how each item affects you personally.  Sounds easy, right?! I thought so too until I found out what exactly had to be left out of your diet for 30 days...

No added sugar
No processed foods
No alcohol
No grains
No legumes
No dairy

So basically you eat: Meat, eggs, vegetables, fruit and nuts. But it's only for 30 days!

It was hard. Really hard. The first day (of course) seems easy.. but it's only the first day. By day two or three most people go through the "hangover" stage. You literally feel hungover. Your body doesn't know what to do without all those foods you had been eating. Hangover then turns angry (hangry?)... and by day 6 or 7 you just want to SLEEP! Day 8 and 9 I thought I was doing something wrong because my clothes actually felt TIGHTER (apparently that's common at this stage).

The rest of that second week is usually the hardest. That's when you really start to crave junkfood. Even if you don't usually eat a lot of junk food. Something about knowing you can't have it makes you want it that much more!

By the third and fourth week you have more energy and you start to see changes in the mirror. You feel great! And just like that it's over. You have this immense feeling of accomplishment. And what's even better is that your body feels great.

So why am I bringing this up now, two years later? Because I'm doing it AGAIN!

I'm currently on day 4 and not nearly as hangry as I was the first time around. I think it's really because I didn't have as much to omit this time. I really don't drink milk. I cook with it occasionally and I do like cheese but not to the point that it bothers me to get rid of it. Same with grains and legumes... I eat them but not daily.  And I only drink occasionally.

The hard part for me is SUGAR!! I have such a sweet tooth. There are still Christmas cookies at my house... and I love icecream! Some people would just get all these things out of their house so the temptation isn't there but since Mike and Evan are NOT on board with this little challenge, that's nearly impossible! But so far I'm doing good! I have yet to slip up.. which you may be thinking: slip up? it's only day 4? Well it's easier than you'd think to screw this thing up. There's added sugar in pretty much everything.

The other part that's hard is getting the amount of calories your body needs. Most people don't have this problem. In general, we eat too many calories. So why would calorie intake be a problem? Well, fruits and vegetables have hardly any calories.. so you have to eat a lot of them to make up for all the bread and processed foods you aren't eating. For this reason, I use the MyFitnessPal app and put in all the foods I eat. The app will tell you if you're eating enough to maintain a healthy weight. It works really nice for a challenge like this. The app also allows you to put exercise in too.

Stay tuned to hear how the rest of my Whole 30 challenge goes this month. And for more whole 30 questions go to whole30.com