July 1-30 I did Whole30 which is basically a restrictive diet that is supposed to help you think differently about the foods you eat. You can’t have sugar added to things. At all. Or bread. Those were the two hardest for me. For the most part you can only eat fruits (in moderation), vegetables & non-overly-processed meats.
I should also point out that this is the first time I’ve ever done anything like this. If I eat a lot of bad stuff, I don’t go on a diet, I just try to exercise more. But I decided to try out Whole30 – mainly because the girls in my small group were all going to do it. 8 of us started I think but only 3 made it to the end (not that I’m competitive).
I started out thinking I would only do it for a couple weeks. Like I said, I’m not really into diets of any kind. I lasted all 30 days. After the first week or so, I felt more energetic and actually wanted to be more active. Then I kept going with it.
The hardest part for me all the prep work. You really had to cook everything from scratch – something I swore I’d never do once I left Albania. I’m a big snacker so to prepare all your snacks – well yeah that doesn’t really work out. So I started to know when I needed a snack because I was hungry or because I was bored. I’ve always been an emotional eater so this really pointed that out even more! I didn’t want to make a snack if I was eating just to eat.
Around day 20, I started thinking about quitting. But I had worked at a camp where I had to pass up FREE Chickfila and pizza. So after that, I had to finish – otherwise I would have passed up on my two favorite foods for nothing. So the last couple weeks it was sheer determination & stubbornness that saw me through to the end.
By the end of the 30 days, I was becoming quite bitter. On the website and blog you read about all these people who had all this change happen with their bodies – a lot of it was illnesses disappearing – migraines, stomach problems, etc. So I was frustrated that I didn’t really feel like there had been any change in me – unless you count using the bathroom 20 times a day which is just annoying. I felt like I had just wasted 30 days, a lot of money (because healthy food is super expensive when you are on a super tight budget) and free Chickfila and pizza (that was really hard for me to pass on – all 4 days!!!)
On the 31st day, I was so excited to eat whatever I wanted. I was looking forward to having a bagel with peanut butter on it, Turkish coffee & chips again. I literally could not wait. But the weirdest thing happened. Even though I was craving it – that stuff didn’t really taste as good as I remembered. It didn’t hit the spot like it used to. I couldn’t even eat as much of it as I used to.
Turns out Whole30 teaches your body to recognize what it actually needs and to point out to you when you’ve had enough junkfood. So it seems I learned more than I thought on Whole30. I can eat whatever I want now but what I want isn’t quite the same as it was before.