Whole 30 Update: Days 1-2

I don’t want this “Whole 30” thing to take over my blog for the next couple weeks, as I realize there may be varying levels of interest! I also know that talk of diets + restricting in any way could be triggering for some people.

But, I also think some people might be interested! And I’d like to have a little record of how I feel, what I think, what I’m eating, etc. to look back on. So, I’m going to try to just keep a little journal here! Some days may be just a footnote at the end of a regular post.

(Also, you guys know me by now. There’s a very real chance I fail at this. 😆😆 Just bein’ real! hahaha. But I’m going to try!!!)

Some disclaimers:

I did not read the Whole 30 book. I didn’t really “prepare” for this. This was sort of an impulsive decision, after listening to a podcast talking about the relationship between acne + poor gut health.

I also feel that although my diet isn’t “terrible”, it’s really not great, either. I know my fruit and veggie intake is NOWHERE near where it should be, I eat fast food too often, I tend to reach for “carby” things, like peanut butter sandwiches (not the super healthy kind of PB, on not-super-healthy bread), and I also eat a TON of cheese and other dairy products.

So, my goal with this is really not to exactly identify what specifically my body doesn’t like (at least not right now). I am mostly just curious how my body responds if I really nourish it for a while!!

I won’t be able to do a full re-introduction phase; heck, I probably won’t even be able to do the full 30 days. (We’re leaving on a trip in like, 25 days, I think?) I’m okay with that! I can always circle back on all this later. This is just meant to be a mini-experiment, for the time being. 🙂

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Day 1, Monday, 5/19:

What I ate:

B: 3 eggs + spinach, almonds, strawberries, raspberries

L: a can of tuna, an orange

D: ground beef, potatoes (NO BEANS), salsa verde over arugula; strawberries

Snacks: (kind of combined with lunch, really- a banana smushed up with almond butter, plus a side of some deli turkey)

Drinks: plain iced tea, hot black tea (plain) water, and a grapefruit La Croix!

*The first pic was our “thrown together dinner” on Sunday night; I made a random ground beef, rice and corn mix for the boys, and Ivan cooked the other half of the ground beef with potatoes and pinto beans in spicy salsa verde. I ate it normal on Sunday (pre- Whole 30) with the beans + corn tortillas, but we had leftovers…. so, on Monday I served myself a bowl and literally picked all the beans out. 😆 (No legumes on Whole 30!) I didn’t want to waste the delicious leftovers!

How I felt/ Observations:

Fine! First day of anything is always pretty easy, I think. There’s a novel/ excitement factor of trying something new. I had a brief temptation when serving my dinner of, eh, I’ll just eat the beans. (It was surprisingly… tedious…to pick them all out, lol!). But Asher was already taunting me, saying “you won’t be able to stick to this”, so of course I then had to double down. 😅

Day 2, Tuesday, May 20:

What I ate:

B: 2 eggs, 1 egg white, zucchini, raspberries

L: a plain turkey burger patty, 1 whole sweet potato (plain)

D: baked salmon with seasoning, air fryer potatoes (tossed in olive oil + salt only), steamed broccoli + carrots

S: The 3 egg/zucchini scramble made a lot (I used an entire zucchini!), so I couldn’t even finish it. Mid-morning I ate the rest as a snack. Also throughout the day: ate a plum, a handful of raw almonds, and after dinner cut up 4 strawberries sprinkled with walnuts for “dessert”.

How I felt/ Observations:

-No real challenge with sticking to it (yet); no temptations today.

-HOWEVER, around midday I suddenly got sooooo tired! Super lethargic and almost weak feeling. I realized my breakfast was really low carb (unintentionally), so I thought maybe I was feeling the effects of that. (My body was like, Hey, yo, where the carbs at?!! Ha.)

I made a sweet potato at that point and ate the whole thing, and ended up skipping my planned lunchtime gym workout and took a nap! Not sure if I was just tired or it was my body adjusting, but by afternoon I felt much better. I felt totally normal by evening and went to the gym at 7 pm for legs/abs and felt fine! Who knows.

-I am not sure the last time I ate sweet potato or veggies without putting butter on them. I also totally would have added cheese to the egg scramble, normally. But guess what? It all tasted really great plain, too! Even the veggies! I’ve been trying to just really focus on tasting the real food, if that makes sense, and so far, it’s been a bit eye-opening. Really tasting the raspberry. Slowly chewing the broccoli and taking in the flavor.

– I have been repeating the mantra “eat real food!” to myself. It’s a little weird to realize how many things I do eat that aren’t necessarily in their “pure” form on a daily basis, or are processed in some way.

–Air fryer potatoes with olive oil + salt are AMAZING and why don’t I make them like this more often?!

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Okay, not a short update, sorry, lol! I promise I will keep these more brief going forward; I presume there will not necessarily be so much to say everyday as it becomes more routine, maybe?

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful for a rainy day yesterday, because it was very cozy! (WAY too cold, but the rain was okay with me.)