Whole 30 Day 22

We are sooooooo close. Almost done. I can practically taste the ice cream now.

Like I said before, the premise of the Whole30 Challenge is 30 days of a Paleo-ish diet.

After 30 days the idea is to reintroduce each of these eliminated foods one by one so you can gauge the effect it has on your body because it's pretty common for people to have intolerances to these foods and not even know it, causing inflammation, digestive issues, weight retention and a bajillion other things. But, some people DON'T have these intolerances. So, this is an experiment on my body to find out what's right for me instead of my head spinning, trying every new fad diet.

My last update at Day 10 wasn't really very optimistic. I was beginning to get over my major sugar cravings but I was burning out. I eventually identified that I was getting burnt out on COOKING, not on the diet. It's hard to cook all your meals from scratch and work and go out of town every weekend. ESPECIALLY if your boyfriend isn't doing the diet with you. My recommendation would be to figure out some kind of bribery or brainwashing for you boyfriend before you start so that you two can do it together.

I still don't love cooking but I'm all kinds of die-hard about this diet now. Partly because I'm liking the energy and weight loss and all of that, but the bigger part is because on day 15, I ate some chicken that was covered in a cream sauce. I scraped most of it off but was like, whatever, I'm sure it'll be fine to have a TINY bit of dairy on day 15, mostly because I couldn't leave the office for lunch and this is what was catered. And OMG. Oh. My. God. You guys. My body was so pissed. I thought I had food poisoning but the other people at work that ate the same thing as me didn't have any issues. I have been terrified to eat anything off plan since. I threw an english muffin on day 16 like it was on fire. So, while ice cream sounds great in theory, there are definitely going to be some nerves during reintroduction of dairy. But dire fear of off-plan foods definitely makes sticking to this thing a lot easier.

While traveling, I've brought some on-plan snacks but I will just go out to eat where ever everyone else is eating and order chicken and veggies. So, I'm sure I've been eating cooking oils & other seasonings that may not be on-plan but nothing so off plan as cream sauce anymore.

I've also not been playing by the Whole30 rule that says no 'paleo-fying' foods. It says not to make a paleo version of your normal, off-plan foods because it doesn't help you break that habit of craving them. But it's really, REALLY boring to play by that rule. I understand WHY this is a rule, and I did a good job for the first half of the challenge but whateverrrrr I'm just going to eat my stupid panfakes and be so happy and satisfied in the morning and feel absolutely no guilt.

I have gone to all the parties and bars and weddings I normally do this month but I've ordered coffee or soda water with lime. And, I'll tell you what, I'm having a bit of a sober revelation! I feel great, I'm not bloated or dehydrated at the end of the weekend... there might be something to this! Am I growing up? *shudder*

Overall, I'm really, REALLY glad I'm doing this diet. Before I started, I made a list in my Notes app on my phone of nine things I hoped to get out of this experiment; symptoms I was having that I hoped changing my diet would cure. I wanted to wait until the end of the challenge to evaluate the success on that list, to be fair to the challenge, but I'm really excited about the success I've already seen on one of them. Before this challenge, I would get shaky, dizzy and nauseous if I didn't eat often enough. This happened usually once or twice a week. If I found myself out shopping or traveling and I wasn't able to eat every 2 to 3 hours, I'd feel like I was going to pass out. It sounds so dramatic but it's true. And I'd usually cure those symptoms with my go-to snack - a Snickers bar. Now, I guess I'm getting the actual nourishment I need because I haven't had that kind of thing happen to me for weeks. And I honest to God think I was having crack-addict-esque sugar withdraws! Crackhead withdraws mixed with inordinate amounts of espresso. No bueno.

I'm making decent progress on some of my other symptoms and I haven't seen marked progress on others, but overall, at day 22 I'm drinking the Kool-Aid. I get it, Paleofreaks. I feel good. And I say with almost a sense of stubborn pride that I STILL haven't worked out during this Whole30 Challenge and I STILL am seeing weight loss. I can only imagine the kind of results I could be getting if I was able to make it to the gym on my lunch break instead of working blogging through my break. On Day 10, I was skeptical and pissed at the world. On day 22, I'm saying, I really don't want to ever go back to day 10 or day 1 or day -10. 

I'm really proud of the foods I've learned to cook throughout this, too. Here are some of my favorites.

These chicken nuggets

This coconut bread

These orange-blueberry almond muffins

These panfakes (except I've taken to adding a little vanilla to the batter)

Some blogs/pinterest pages that I've used a lot:

The Group X Food Pinterest Page

The Ascent Blog (The reason I started this challenge)

Stir It Up Blog

Paleolicious Blog

And just generally searching 'Paleo' on Pinterest and cutting out all the sugar replacements. Most of them don't need them to be delicious anyway.

C'mon... just give it a try! All you have to lose is a few pounds. And it's not 'hard'. It's just eating your vegetables. You're an adult. You can do this.