my whole30 story pt. 2

my dad left this taped to my bathroom door the morning after I finished, isn't he the sweetest?! 

Well, hello there! It's been a very strange week for me since I last published a blog post. Honestly, I've been feeling super out-of-sorts and have had a major case of the grumps. I could reasonably infer that based on the wacky weather we've been having (sunny and 75 only to pour down rain in a thunderstorm an hour later) combined with the utter lack of human interaction and drudgery of plowing through 16 credits of online schoolwork is what's bringing me down. 

unfortunately, the answer is me, Shawn

While I do think that's the case, I also think that this past week of the post-Whole30 life has been unforeseeably difficult for me; in fact, yesterday was the first good day I've had in terms of my own satisfaction with my nutrition. Right after my Whole30 ended, my family celebrated Passover (a Jewish holiday involving lots of yummy and non-whole30 approved food) and the last few days the food has been lying around and I've finally hopped on the quarantine snacking trend. It wasn't pretty. But! Yesterday (and today) have been days of fairly clean eating and I'm feeling so much more myself. So what better way to celebrate than to post about it on the internet!?

Maybe not but I actually did want to finish up my Whole30 story and share a few of the things I learned about myself and a little bit of wisdom for anyone else thinking about starting their Whole30! (I actually think #Whole30athome started on Sunday if you want to hop on the bandwagon. It's a bit early for me but maybe in a few months I'll take another whack at it!) So without further adieu let's get to it!

What I learned about myself:

Whether I'm eating sugar or not, I crave it at night.
This one is sort of a weird one because I can't tell if it's supposed to be categorized as a positive or a negative. But there's enough negativity going on right now so I'm gonna file it under positive! Even though I haven't had the best time in the snacking department these past few days, knowing that I'm going to crave sugar at night has definitely helped me exercise a bit more restraint during the day. This past week I baked cookies, (I've linked them here and they are unreal) and before Whole30, I probably would've snagged one or two after eating a healthy lunch and then told myself I wouldn't eat any other junk food for the day, only to cave after dinner and then berate myself for giving in. However, since I now know my craving for sugar is going to be way stronger at night, I've been able to say no to sugary snacks during the day because I know I have a treat waiting for me after dinner and that it'll taste so much better knowing I didn't go crazy earlier.

I'm not that hungry right when I wake up.
When I was a kid, I used to get hungry as soon as I opened my eyes in the morning and race downstairs for an enormous bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios. Now obviously there are other issues going on there (all that sugar and those carbs right when I woke up = no bueno for me), but I think the biggest issue is that I carried that mentality into adulthood. For some reason, I assumed that I would always wake up starving. While yes, some days I do head straight downstairs to whip up an omelet, around day 16 or so I hardly ever woke up feeling hungry. Even now that I've reintroduced more carbs and unrefined sugars into my diet I still don't wake up hungry for a big breakfast. But now when I do, I've learned about a billion different ways to cook a healthy yet delicious egg-based breakfast! No more honey-nuts for me!

I use food as a coping mechanism for stress
(although I probs already knew that and just didn't want to admit it...)
While I definitely considered quitting my Whole30 given everything that happened in the midst of it, I'm so glad I didn't. Having my senior year of college cut short and being sent home two months before graduation was fairly stressful but it also gave me a chance to notice how many times I thought about reaching for the nearest bag of chips to cope with that stress. Now that I know I could get through the beginnings of a pandemic and still eat clean, I've realized that I don't need food to get through stressful moments! I know I've done it before so I can do it again.

Advice for future Whole30-ers:

Find a buddy!
Even though my little ended up dipping out early, it was unbelievably helpful to have a buddy when I first got started. She and I would text each other every night to recap what we ate and just knowing that someone was going through the shitty parts with me (unsupportive friends, craving chocolate, sugar withdrawal headaches, etc.) made it so much easier! I cannot recommend this enough, having her there to cheer me on and to complain with is a huge reason why I was able to cross the finish line.

Be prepared to cook, a lot.
It's advised that you don't do a whole lot of snacking on Whole30, instead, you're supposed to eat larger, more wholesome and filling meals until you're full. While I think that's great, that also means no quick cereal/granola for breakfast, no protein bars for snacks, and no minute rice on the side of your salmon dinner. This part of the program was a huge adjustment and while I was still at school and in classes it meant a lot of meal prepping needed to happen. It was by no means undoable, but also wasn't something I had totally anticipated. Just be prepared to have a frying pan at the ready to prep for almost every meal.

Start when you're ready, but don't use that as an excuse.
This one is tricky because it's all about finding balance. I think it's so important to actually be ready to take on the stress and time commitment of a complete nutritional reset, otherwise, you'll bow out at the first obstacle. While it's totally achievable, doing a Whole30 is a serious commitment and should only be done when you know you're ready to take it on. However, there will always be birthdays and nights out and celebrations (well maybe not right now but you get the point), so try to avoid letting the thought "well this just isn't the right time" get in your way! Sometimes it really isn't the right time for you but sometimes you're just using that as an excuse (I know I have); only you can know the difference.

I guess that rounds out my Whole30 experience! Overall, I loved my Whole30 experience and definitely plan on doing another one later this year. Maybe we can all do it together?! Anyway, thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed your stay!

xx, Lindz