whole 30: week 1

gregg and i started the whole30 eating plan last week. we are finishing up day 7 today. i have several friends who have done it recently which got me looking into it.

i have felt like i needed a reset with food lately. this december i ate more sugar than i think i ever have. i was feeling sluggish and icky. i was also really missing having actual meals instead of just eating whatever i could find at meal time. i knew my diet was way to carb driven and seriously lacked in veggies and protein, so whole30 seemed like a good step.

You can visit the whole30 website for information and a better description, but basically the diet consists of eating meat, veggies, eggs, nuts and some fruit. it eliminates grains, sugar (even things like honey and agave), legumes (so no peanuts) and dairy. if you know me at all, you know this is a HUGE jump from my typical diet. huge.

at the end of week 1 i wanted to jot down some thoughts...

• i am surprised by how little i am actually wanting things like ice cream and chocolate. i was definitely expecting those cravings to the be hardest part.
• days 2-4 i felt pretty miserable. headaches all day, nausea and exhaustion. it reminded me a lot of how i felt at the beginning of all my pregnancies. none of my food options were appealing to me and i was pretty grumpy about it.
• coffee has been tricky. i've tried the recommended methods but obviously none of those are going to be as sweet as i'm use to drinking. on day 6, i finally decided to use just use a small amount of whole milk in my coffee. this is definitely not true to whole30 but after several days of skipping coffee all together, i decided that if i was going to actually complete this, i was going to make this exception. 
• i am learning that i depend on food to be the highlight of my day way too often. if i'm having a rough morning with the kids, i start planning what treat i will have during their "nap" time later..or after they've gone to bed. i make another cup of coffee just because i am bored and need something to do. if i know i'm going to have the chance to leave the house alone (or be home alone) i start thinking about what i can have for coffee/treat. food shouldn't be the highlight of my day or my crutch to get through a tough day. this eating plan is helping to slowly strip that away...which is probably why i've been so grumpy about it ;)
• what i'm craving most is a diet soda. this was surprising to me because diet soda isn't something i typically have everyday. but it's all i've been wanting since monday.
• breakfast is really hard for me. i don't do savory foods well in the morning. i just don't. i never have. i typically eat a piece of toast with nut butter or oatmeal and fruit for breakfast. the thought of eating eggs or meat in the morning makes me feel sick. after several miserable mornings of trying to shove down eggs at 7am, i finally decided to just wait until later in the morning to eat my breakfast. it's a little easier to eat at 10am than 7am. i think this will change over time. i hope anyway!

at this point, i truly do not know if i will finish out the 30 days. right now, my goal is to make it another 7 days. 23 more days just seems too long for me right now but if i'm feeling good next week at this time i will keep going. i'm starting to notice that eating veggies and meat doesn't seem as unappealing as it did 7 days ago. which is progress!