Hi Friends!
I am officially done with my first whole30! (insert raised hands emoji!!!). I wanted to go over my thoughts on the whole30, benefits, and if I would ever do one again. Lets get started shall we!
If you know nothing about the whole30 go -> HERE <- this gives you the rundown on what the whole30 is all about and the program rules. I found the website very helpful when I had questions about anything, and you really can find all the answers to anything you might be confused about in their forums. I’ll link some resources that I saved to my phone for quick access, below.
My thoughts
To quote Mellisa Hartwig, the founder of Whole30, “Fighting cancer is hard. Birthing a baby is hard. Losing a parent is hard. Drinking your coffee black. Is. Not. Hard. You’ve done harder things than this, and you have no excuse not to complete the program as written. It’s only thirty days, and it’s for the most important health cause on earth—the only physical body you will ever have in this lifetime.” This was my mindset throughout the whole 30 days. This isn’t hard. Sitting in the hospital after I had twins having to get multiple rounds of Magnesium Sulfate to make sure I didn’t have seizures while dealing with postpartum preeclampsia was hard. Not drinking wine, not eating goldfish, not having my beloved cheese WAS NOT HARD!! Now I will say around day 3 I went through the carb flu. My sweet mother in law takes my boys (yes all 3!) every Thursday and thank goodness my carb flu fell on a Thursday. She picked them up, and kept them all day while I laid on my couch and contemplated eating a cracker to make myself feel better–spoiler alert– I didn’t eat the cracker and pushed through. I drank tons of water and tried to eat more veggies to help up my carb intake. I definitely don’t think that this plan is for everyone, especially anyone with any disordered eating patterns, but I do think that this is a great way to invest in your health and once you reintroduce foods you can see if you react to anything. I plan on reintroducing very slowly. starting with dairy, and then non-gluten grains. At this time I don’t see myself reintroducing gluten. I have a wheat allergy (I can’t have any wheat for at least 4 hours before I exercise or I could go into anaphylaxis–its happened once before and I never want it to happen again) I also know that my eczema has gotten much better without wheat in my diet.
Benefits
No.more.bloating. Oh my goodness y’all its been so great to not feel bloated anymore. My bloating during my period (sorry dudes) was basically non-existent. Which brings me to another benefit… I started my period a day or two early and had NO warning signs I was about to start. No PMS, no bloating, no cramps. It was amazing. I can’t remember a time when I had a period that wasn’t painful. Thank you Whole30! Like I mentioned above my eczema was so much better. I did have a few random flare ups on my elbow crease and on my hands (usually only when handling raw meat) but for the most part my skin has never felt better.
There are a few things that I was hoping the whole30 would help but didn’t really do much to. First was my under eye circles. I think that mine are hereditary and I don’t feel that any food changes are going to really help the darkness fade. I was hoping that my seasonal allergies/oral allergy syndrome would hopefully not be as bad with the elimination of wheat and dairy, but I really didn’t see any improvement here. I still got an itchy throat if I ate certain uncooked veggies and stayed on my zyrtec because the pollen was so bad and I was pretty miserable.
Will I do it again?
The short answer…. YES! Yes a million times over. I think that this was a great eye opening experience for me. I realized early on how I reached for comfort foods any time was in a stressful situation (ex: any times my kids were fighting, crying at me about something, screaming their heads off for no reason…). I remember during my first week one of my twins and my two year old were fighting over a toy and screaming at each other, I found myself in my pantry with my hand about to open our jar of goldfish. When I realized what I was doing it was like I had woken up from a trance. I was basically self medicating myself with carbs/sugar/alcohol whenever things were bad or stressful. I think during the past month I have not only gained a little more patience, but I have learned better ways to deal with the stress of motherhood. For example when everyone was fighting during the witching hour (around 5:00 for us) I would normally reach for a glass of wine and just deal with it. Now, since I know the witching hour is coming we go to the park behind our house between 4:30-4:45. They play, get out their sillies, and I walk around the play structure. I’ve found that some light exercise before dinner helps us all calm down a little bit. The boys are actually hungry for dinner, and by the time bedtime rolls around they seem to be tired and ready for sleep. I will say this, I’m not giving up wine. I am giving up drinking during the week though unless its something really special and something I deem worthy of having a glass of wine for (My Food Freedom!) I’ve learned that I don’t need wine to relax and this has been one of the greater benefits I have experienced.
Resources
Below find a few resources I found helpful during the whole30:
I found this common additives very helpful. When I was at the grocery store looking at pickles I wasn’t sure what some of the additives were and if they were complaint or not. I had saved the sheet to my phone and could quickly scroll through to see if it was ok to eat or not.
Whole30 Forum this forum is a great resource for when you don’t know something! The Can I have… is really a good place to go if you have questions that might need answering. I remember at the beginning I was confused about red wine vinegar/white wine vinegar so I went to the forum and searched for red wine vinegar and multiple answers came up that it is ok to have during a whole 30!
So there you go! I’m so glad I embarked on this journey and actually completed it! I feel great and can’t wait to continue on with the lifestyle! I have a few more Whole30 posts coming up in the next couple of weeks so be on the lookout for those!
I want to hear from you..
Do you think you would ever do a whole30?
What are some of the things holding you back from doing one?
I’m happy to answer any questions you might have! Shoot me an email or message me on Instagram with any questions!
Now off to have a glass wine 🙂