My whole 30 experience

So let's just get this over with real quick. Whole 30 was so so so hard for us. We started with more medical purposes than body image/food relationship goals. We did this diet in hopes that cutting out the majority of dietary factors would decrease the frequency or duration/strength of the migraine. I decided to do it with Jt to be supportive and because I love a good self mastery challenge. I got the book and got to reading. If people think this diet is just about weight loss or something they definitely haven't read the book. This is about changing your relationship with foods and your body's response to those foods. I feel like I just want to do more bullet points to talk about our experiences.

• we are both pretty picky eaters- that made this especially hard, we don't love a variety of vegetables or meats (aka I don't eat or cook seafood. at all.) The foods we ate regularly were celery, carrots, romaine, onions, red/green/yellow peppers, sugar snap peas, some spinach, avocado, tomato, we tried kale and swiss chard, sweet potatoes, Lots and LOTS of eggs, almonds, cashews, chicken, flank steak, cap steak, ground beef, bacon, raspberries, apples, bananas,strawberries, lemons, limes, almond butter, ghee, coconut oil, avocado oil, EVOO, Garlic, balsamic vinegar, spices, mustard.
• I cooked/prepared in depth 90 meals. It was tiring and exhausting but also rewarding and I became more confident and just making up my own things. It takes tons of planning ahead or else you end up eating nothing or having like plain lettuce or fruit. I woke up almost every morning and cooked eggs for Jt and then prepared a lunch for him. It was nice to eat a hot breakfast every morning, but tiring so I sort of stopped doing it about a week after the month ended.
• The first two weeks were miserable. Jt probably felt worse and we both were going to the bathroom A LOT (TMI) and that never really improved for me. It significantly affected my ability to exercise and do my runs to prepare for my ragnar. I had been consistently running between 4-6 miles a day but once we started this I would hit a wall around mile 2.5. It was not great. after some research I added even more sweet potatoes to my diet and that helped a bit but I never really felt energetic.
• We did measurements at the beginning and noticed 1/2 inch here or there but nothing noticeable. I lost about 5 lbs and jt lost probably 10.
• My skin did change a little and seemed slightly more glowy?
• we never cheated. though I did eat a cashew with some non approved seasoning that I must have accidentally put into my bulk bag so maybe mine got ruined but Jt's didn't. 
• I was hesitant to add back in foods and I think that I became more sensitive to sugar after doing it.
• I tried making my own mayo and ketchup and was disappointed with every recipe I tried.
• It definitely reset my hormone system like the book talks about with my bedtime routine. I was falling asleep around 10 rather than 12:30 like normal and waking up ready for the day at 5 am! Which is SO unlike me and was by far my favorite outcome from whole 30. I also found my runs went sliiiightly better if I did them first thing in the morning rather than the evening.
• I missed ketchup and ranch so much... but after we finished and I tried them again... turns out I don't love them as much as I remembered. I would much rather eat my veggies without ranch which is still surprising to me.
• The foods that I missed so much and love love loved... weren't as delicious to me when I tried them again. 
• That feeling you get after you finish dinner and you just want to eat a treat... I figured out that for me that meant I had gotten my dinner proportions wrong and did not eat enough fat with my meal. A quick snack of carrots with almond butter would satisfy it right away. 

Final thoughts- I don't know if I would do this again. I sort of felt it gave me an unhealthy fixation with my foods and I really didn't enjoy eating. I don't love eating meat so this was hard for me. It felt like a chore and took so much work that sometimes I would rather starve than prepare something compliant. It was outrageously expensive. Like we probably spent double our grocery budget plus a little. I felt heathy before the diet and it didn't even really help me feel better and for a couple of weeks I actually felt worse.

I most definitely wouldn't eat like this all of the time. I like how the book has you incorporate foods back in but there are some major issues I have with their stance on grains. I like that now when I eat foods and I can't associate them with real whole foods it turns me off a little towards them, If I eat something and think "this reminds me of science" I probably don't need to be eating it. I personally don't think the diet matches up well with my religious views on eating. I believe individuals can legit struggle with certain food groups but definitely not all humans everywhere. I believe food can and does play a huge role in every aspect of our body.

 I loved being able to wake up super early- hands down my favorite thing from whole 30. I think this diet is a great way to figure out if foods are causing any of your ailments. I think its good to try to really just feel in control of your eating. I love eating more whole foods now and love to check ingredients and try to buy things that have ingredients I think are necessary and I am familiar with. Overall it was a positive experience but I didn't have the rave reviews everyone talked about and that's ok. My body looks the same and the scale didn't change a lot but thats ok because that wasn't my goal, I probably needed to do it for longer to achieve those results. I am glad we can now rule out food as cause for JT's migraines, that in itself is a relief. We eat a lot more vegetables now which I love. Our kids are also willing to try new foods and vegetables now. It's not my fave thing to share but I want to remember these pictures. I guess you can decide for yourself if there is a difference.

Before

After