First, I have to apologize that my posting has been so sporadic for the past 2 weeks! I got a bit busy with this: http://bit.ly/y8eOVh
And this: http://bit.ly/zNQ07f
Followed by this: http://bit.ly/xIgP5V
Well, and then this: http://bit.ly/w0O1Jq
Then I was mentioned here: http://bit.ly/yzi5NO
And by the end of this past week I was like this: Click Here!
So, after chilling out yesterday and getting a good night’s sleep, I’m ready to carry on with the regularly scheduled programming!
I took lots of pictures of meals that I will share with you; but, many are repeats of the past meals so they are not that exciting. What is exciting is that The Whole 30 no longer feels like this strange science experiment I’m doing; it just feels like part of my life. I would venture to guess that making these changes feel like part of your life is part of the goal of doing The Whole 30 (Dallas and Melissa are so smart, and so sneaky). They snuck right into my brain and convinced it that it doesn’t NEED anything! It just WANTS everything.
I would have told you that by age 41 I knew the difference between needs and wants (and in most areas I do); but, when it comes to food and drink, I think we are all a bit confused. We are confused because we take something that is a true biological need (food and drink) and layer all sorts of wants over top of it (Paleo chocolate cake, NorCal Margaritas, Organic creamer, a bit of sugar in the coffee, a glass of wine (or three) with dinner, lots of good cheese on the big healthy salad). And we feel really justified in our reasoning behind consuming these items (I had a stressful day and I need a glass of wine to relax, I just need a little gluten free grain free chocolate raw vegan snack after dinner, I need creamer and sugar in my 4 cups of coffee a day – hey at least it’s Organic). For the most part, there is nothing inherently wrong with any of these items. The problem comes from our brains being conditioned to think that we NEED these things.
The biggest benefit I have seen from my own Whole 30 is that because I stuck to it without cheats, I de-programmed my brain so that it now knows the difference between needs and wants with respect to food and drink. Will I go back to eating some quality dairy? Maybe…but I will know that I just like the taste of cream in my one morning cup of coffee. Will I have a piece of homemade Paleo chocolate cake here and there? Maybe…but not every day. Will I have a glass of wine or margarita once in a while? Yup…but not every night. Why, you might ask? Because I feel so darn good right now! Seriously. I want to feel this good all the time. I want to keep waking up early ready to conquer my day. I want to get up on Saturday morning and write instead of feeling terrible from eating and drinking Paleo-fied treats from the night before. I want to keep working out hard and making gains in athletic ability. Why? Because I like being the only mom who can climb to the top of the rope at the rock climbing gym. I like being the only mom I know who rock climbs! I like being able to go back and forth twice on the monkey bars on the playground. I’m doing a 25 mile bike race this summer with my 13 year old (and I want to be able to keep up with her!) I like being happy, and for me happiness comes from feeling great and performing well in all areas of my life.
People ask me, “Was it (Whole 30) hard?” I repeat words similar to those that Melissa uses to answer that question: “Beating cancer is hard. Quitting heroin is hard. Surviving a divorce is hard. Losing a child is hard. Watching a loved one go off to war is hard. Recovering from a traumatic injury is hard. Drinking my coffee black Is. Not. Hard.”
Thanks to all of the folks who did Whole 30 right alongside me and posted about it on the Facebook page, thanks to Dallas and Melissa who provided one on one support and in the process became friends, thanks to my husband and kids who put up with Mom’s crazy eating habits for 30 days. It’s amazing how changing your habits for 30 days can change your life.
Well done Ann, I am intrigued.
On another note, have you tried Pinterest yet? You photos here sure did make me think you could have an awesome Pinterest website helping people with this!
Hi Mike,
Thanks! My husband is dancing around shouting “victory!” since he has been after me to get on Pinterest for a month and I keep saying I’m too busy to get sidetracked with another fun thing on the Internet! I know that Pinterest is growing quickly. I guess I’m off to check it out now!
Feel free to ask any questions about Paleo/Whole 30 that you may have after reading through the posts.
Take care,
Ann