Whole30 August 2014

Back in March my mother and I successfully completed our first Whole30.  I learned to appreciate food and what they do to the body, a person's emotions and life in general.  This program made me start thinking about what I was putting into my body on a normal day: What do I eat? When do I eat it? and Why was I eating it?  When I was feeling 'hungry' I had to think - am I really hungry or am I just hungry because I'm bored/sad/etc.

One of the challenges during the first Whole30 was learning how to track everything that I ate, and not cheat on what I was writing down, as well as trying to stay off the scale...I didn't do so well on that step :(

Throughout my first Whole30 I learned to cook new foods, and conquered my fear of stove top cooking.  Lost 6 lbs and got down to my lowest, healthiest weight since High School...I wasn't sluggish, woke up with the sun and was able to run longer distances.  It was an amazing experience and I have been trying to eat as clean as possible since then...however there have been many struggles.  I have tried to re-start the Whole30 and couple times but, like it said on the website...I made it to about Day 10-15 and then gave up because something else was going on and I didn't stick to my goal...but this time is different because I will be blogging it and having more external support to ask how my Whole30 is going and keep me honest and accountable for following through in becoming healthy and making it a habit.

Whole30 Program Rules

Click above to see the Approved and Not Approved foods for Clean Eating, however the general list includes:

• Approved Foods - Food with the fewest amount of ingredients (and ones that a 5 year old can pronounce) are the best...READ THE LABELS!!!
• Meat
• Seafood
• Eggs
• Vegetables
• Fruit (limited as it has natural sugars in it)
• Good Fats
• Fruit (avacado, coconut), Oils, nuts and seeds
• Not Approved
• Sugar
• Alcohol
• Grains
• Legumes (Beans, Peas, chickpeas, lentils, soy and peanuts)
• Dairy
• Processed Foods and Beverages

August 2014 Whole30 Goals:

• Conquer new recipes
• Lose 5-10 lbs of fat (starting 156.2 - trying to remember that muscle weighs more than fat - refers to next goal and Step Seven)
• STAY OFF THE SCALE!!!
• Tone up
• Be able to run 8 miles (can do 6 now)
• Be happy about life in general

Please follow and help support me to stay strong and positive during this amazing food adventure.  I will be trying to post different recipes that I enjoyed.