It’s day 31 of my Whole30 experience, and the first thing I did this morning was run downstairs to put my favorite creamer in my coffee – yes, it’s sweetened.
You read all of these life-changing stories of those who have completed Whole30 and how incredible their experience was… this is not that.
My mom and I decided to do Whole30 on a whim. It was the end of June, life had become pretty monotonous due to stay at home orders, and we needed something to break up the day to day. I had been reading a blog post from someone who had completed Whole30 and had found healing through the challenge, so I suggested we give it a go.
July 5th is when we decided to start our Whole30 journey, right after we filled our bellies with 4th of July picnic foods.
I was looking for ways to calm down my bloating and not rely on sugar so much. My mom was wanting to clean up her food choices, and try something new. I will not lie to you, this was not an easy journey. Not one bit.
Week 1 of Whole30:
The first week, I thought, would be the hardest. We woke up each morning jokingly asking one another, “Are we really doing this?” for about the first 8 days. I had a really hard time not having something to sweeten up my coffee, but doing this alongside another person at least made me feel like I wasn’t suffering alone. My mom took this as an opportunity to try new things in the kitchen – most of which went really well! There were definitely repeats of dishes that became the stars of our 30 long days.
Week 2 of Whole30:
Week 2 wasn’t nearly as awful as Week 1, but it still wasn’t anything to write home about. Toward the end of the week, I realized that doing Whole30 while doing a 30 day social media detox, while also being essentially quarantined, was really dumb of me. We talked A LOT about quitting, but we powered through it. There is a funny calendar that my friend sent me, showing the phases of the Whole30 emotional rollercoaster based off of the week you are in – it’s funny, but I never felt “Tiger Blood.”
Week 3 of Whole30:
Never in my life did I think I would become bored with food, but Whole30 turned me into that person. Yes, I’m sure my mindset did not help. By Week 3, we had made sweet potato crusted quiche 3 times, I couldn’t look at white potatoes, and I never wanted to touch meat again. Backstory for you: before Whole30, I rarely consumed animal protein, or fruit for that matter. During this third week, I felt like I had turned into a chicken, even though we ate more seafood than poultry, and watermelon had become my new bff. I couldn’t wait to be finished.
Week 4 of Whole30:
I thought that the first week would be the most difficult, but the last was truly the hardest week of all. Food was no longer exciting. Neither my mom nor myself cared what was for breakfast, lunch, or dinner because to us, everything tasted the same. By now I was catching myself enjoying coffee without maple syrup or honey – that was wild. Each day, we talked about the food we’d eat when we were done with this thing – tacos won every time. Each night I’d dream of when I could have my americano with almond milk and a kiss of lavender simple syrup. To risk sounding dramatic, it felt like I was 8 and it was the week of Christmas.
Overall:
I’m going to be honest with you, I’d be fine never doing Whole30 again. I lost about 5 pounds, which I wasn’t looking to lose any weight, and I did cut my reliance on sugar a little bit. Outside of that, my bloating didn’t go away, my body was still relatively inflamed throughout the month, and my sleep patterns still lacked. My mom lost weight, but continued to feel lethargic throughout the 30 day period.
I feel it’s important to note that our experience is wildly different from most others that I have read, but we live our lives different than most do. To start, we typically eat a plant-based, gluten-free and soy-free diet. I personally don’t consume alcohol, and prefer to not each much fruit. So rather than do Whole30 because of our lifestyle, we did it out of curiosity. Instead of a shock to our system with whole foods, our systems were shocked with how much meat + fruit consumption was required. But we still did it!
What got us through it?
Dates. Nut Pods. Local coffee beans. Sweet potatoes. Salmon. Local eggs. My mom, because without her cooking, I would have given up by day 11. Even though I didn’t have the best time on Whole30, I’m still happy that I did it. I committed to something for 30 days – actually, I committed to a few somethings for 30 days.
I don’t see myself doing Whole30 again – the animal protein heavy lifestyle isn’t for me – but knowing that I had the willpower to stick to a challenge for an entire month has changed me. What other changes can I make? How else can I challenge myself? Maybe these are the realizations that Whole30 wanted you to get to the whole time. All I know is that I’ll now be pondering them with a little maple syrup in my coffee.