Today marks day 15 on the Whole 30! I’m officially halfway through and I feel all kinds of normal and fine and good. I think having the cold really distracted me from feeling weird or having sugar withdrawals, I feel really normal! Here are some noticings, though:
- I had a couple of sore spots on my tongue for a few months- like sensitivity to acidic or spicy foods- that I’ve been wondering about and they’ve magically healed up.
- Drinking coffee with just a splash of almond milk is no big deal anymore. I have decided to maintain this habit moving forward. There’s no reason I need a giant, sweet, sugary, 300 calorie drink to start my morning every day.
- I’ve totally adjusted to my anxiety medication and don’t have to eat a meal with my pill anymore. In the morning, I have my coffee, a banana and I’m juuuuust fine. Thus, my overeating and anxiety around this issue is all but gone. This fear and resulting anxiety are the primary cause of my recent weight gain. Their absence should make my healthful future with a healthy diet attainable again.
- Being a vegan doesn’t seem like a compromise or difficult anymore. There’s plenty of good stuff out there. The only non-vegan food I’m eating right now is an egg in my breakfast bake and the odd bit of ghee, but I’m certain I could find a replacemen for both.
- Cashew cream is surprisingly versatile and replaces a lot of the dairy textures that I desire and seek. It’s not going to fool anyone, but it stands nicely on its own as another option that is more than acceptable to me.
- TMI: My colon has to be thrilled with my fiber intake. My poop is like a pile of sawdust. I’m eating so much fiber, no sugar and no gluten so things stay loose and I imagine things are really nice in my large colon, now. I don’t have uncomfortable bowels or anything, but it’s nice to be like ok, this is normal, I’m not alone…
- My energy is great. I’m not tired or anything.
- Eating this healthy isn’t more expensive than eating all the other stuff. Packaged and refined foods give fresh eating a real run for the money, literally.
- I miss chocolate more than anything else. I’m glad I get to eat it again shortly. It’s nice to realize that when this is over, it just means I can add things back in. I can include chocolate in the future.
- I had my first cheat. Wanna know what it was? I put regular instead of raw cashews on my fried cauliflower rice and decided to eat them instead of picking them off. Big cheat. Whatta rebel.
- I eat the same thing all the time. I had originally planned on photographing and posting every meal, but when you eat fried cauliflower rice every day and sweet potato and apple breakfast bake every day…. Yeah. It gets tedious to find new ways to make it look good to Instagram so I scrapped that plan. I still post to it, but not like I thought I would.
- I’m losing weight! I can do this!
One of my greatest sound bites and takeaways from this experiment is this advice: hunger is satisfied by any food. Cravings are satisfied by specific foods and have little to nothing to do with actual hunger. I have a lot of cravings and I’m getting more and more successful at identifying which is which. I’m amazed to realize that I’m not hungry that much, but food calls to me often. This should be helpful, moving forward.
I joined an accountability group on Facebook this week. A friend of mine, last year, who most people would think didn’t need to lose weight, joined and lost a few pounds and gained a new sense of health. She looked pretty great before, but after? She glowed. I wanted some of that. I figured there are worse ways to spend thirty smacks, so I threw my hat in the ring. Turns out that the person who loses the most wins the pot, too. I don’t have designs on winning, but every week I will weigh in with a photo and share it to the group. There are people who weigh from as low as 119 all the way up to 425. There are men and women and we are all there for the same thing: support and accountability. So far, it’s been a really positive experience and I’m pretty happy with it. Since my weigh in on 3/1, my scale has already changed! 🙂 So far, since 1/1/18, I have lost ten pounds. I’m not going to complain about that. Instead, I’ll just keep busting my booty and moving forward!
Tomorrow I have a race, Hot Chocolate Run, that I haven’t trained for. First the injury then bronchitis and I can safely say I haven’t run farther than six miles in six months. Tomorrow’s race is nine miles. I’ll probably be walking like a duck for the first half of next week. This race forced me to really think about nutrition on run and whether or not it is a cheat from Whole 30. I decided to take unsweetened applesauce on the run and I’m going to drink that cup of hot cocoa at the end with glee. I’ll bypass the fondu, but I cried thinking about that hot cocoa this morning. I am so excited! Seriously! I’m planning to run nine miles tomorrow so I can justify a cup of hot cocoa. LOL! I know, according to the Whole 30’s rules and bylaws that I’m really supposed to start over completely, but I’m planning to let it slide and just keep trucking. I think this is only my first Whole 30 and there will be more that come along after it until I get to where I want to be with my body. I’m even considering going *gasp* vegan!
Unsweetened applesauce has been my race fuel for the past year and has done wonders for every distance (even my marathon). I need the sweet potato/apple bake breakfast recipe. Keep on, keeping on! We’ve got this!