Week 4 - Whole 30 Challenge and RESULTS

I'M DONE!!!!!!!!!

This was the last week of Whole 30 and got a little interesting over the weekend because we went out of town and there was just a little bit too much good food so I ....CHEATED.  Yep...I did, but oh well. I tried to keep the cheating to a minimum...

Day 22 (Tuesday):

B'fast: sausage and sautéed kale
Lunch: chicken salad (canned chicken) and grapes
Dinner: Chic-fil-a grilled nuggets

Day 23 (Wednesday):
B'fast: fried egg
Lunch: fruit smoothie and cliff bar
Dinner: chipotle steak salad

Day 24 (Thursday):
B'fast: egg, spinach, turkey bacon
Lunch: chicken salad, smoothie, celery and almond butter
Dinner: Roast with sautéed kale and mushrooms

Day 25 (Friday):
B'fast: bacon, zucchini fritter, banana
Lunch: Zaxby's salad
Dinner: Grilled shrimp and salad
Dessert: Cookie...just wait until you see the pics of these things...it was worth every.single.bite.

Day 26-27 (Saturday and Sunday)

Yeeeeeah... the pics are worth a thousand words. and as I said before...I enjoyed every single bite.

I did my best to pick the best of the options.  A lot of the options this weekend were very healthy, just not on the STRICT diet of Whole 30.  Which is another reason I'm so glad it's over b/c it is SO strict!

And honestly I'm all about a challenge but when you're with other people on a weekend getaway...I'm not gonna make the whole weekend about the food I "can't" eat...we just enjoyed each other and I did my best with a few treats.

Monday-Wednesday (Day 28-30):

I continued with things like what you see above....

I was honestly, very DONE with the whole process.  This has been an incredibly time consuming project of taking pics, meal planning, grocery shopping, blog posting...

I'm not complaining and I'm not bitter...it had just been a really long 30 days for me.  I have mentioned before...but both the boys were sick pretty much the entire time.  They would alternate, one would get sick and then the other.  Which means they would alternate on who wasn't sleeping at night.  So I was a little sleep deprived on top of a lot of extra work.

Once I got through week two, it did get much easier to meal plan and cook.  I was able to just rotate through things I knew I could eat.  We hardly ever went out to eat b/c it was just too challenging for me to figure out how to stay on the meal plan.  So we made it work and I was really happy with my results.  Now to figure out where to go from here.  I promise to update with the progress.

Finally..the results are:
I lost 7.5 #. 4.5 inches in my waist and 3inces in my hips.  Then I improved my time from the baseline workout by 3:25.

The biggest success from the whole month..I'm back in my pre-baby clothes.  That was honestly my ultimate goal and I made it.  I still have some fine-tuning to make, but I know I can do it and feel great!

Whole 30

Many of you follow me on instagram and have seen all my yummy food pics I've been posting.  There are many questions around what I'm doing exactly. 

Let's start at the very beginning. 

I started doing Crossfit about 3 months ago.  (we just got new t-shirts and I was the model that day)

More on Crossfit later.  But to sum it up, I'm loving it!  The month of October, there is a gym-wide Whole 30 Challenge.  We had to do a baseline workout, measurement, weight and in 30 days redo it all and see who has the most changes.

This is Holli (and myself), my workout buddy.  We go to almost every single class together and push each other every single day (friendly competition I promise).  We had to get a pic in front of the "NO SUGAR" sign b/c that's what we are the most sad about for this next 30 days.

 

So Whole 30...the quick rundown:

• very similar to Paleo, but more strict
• Do's: meat, seafood, eggs, vegetables, fruit, seeds, nuts, oils and fat
• Don'ts: SUGAR, dairy, grain, bread, flour, wheat, legumes, alcohol, white potatoes, corn, there is more to this list, but that's the big stuff
• Purpose: to cleanse your body from foods that are having a negative impact on it. Sometimes you might not even realize.  Theory is that some aches, pains, digestive problems and inconsistent energy levels can be linked closely to your diet.

Everyone asks if our whole family is doing the challenge.  No, it's just me.  For dinner I do make things that we can all eat.  I might substitute a lettuce wrap for a tortilla, but we all eat the same basic thing.  I've had to get a little creative, but I've done tons of planning so it wouldn't be so hard.

My input on things:

I've actually never done anything like this in my life.  Those of you who know me, know I'm a sucker for a challenge.  Since our newest addition 8 months ago, I still have a little baby fluff leftover that I'm working on going bye bye.   I'm close but not quite where I want to be.  And this isn't technically a weight loss plan (at least to my understanding), it's just a focus on being/eating very clean and healthy and in the process, weight loss results usually happen.

Here is a little rant...I'm convinced food is quite the addiction for most Americans.  You want something, you go to a drive-thru and get it.  We are drawn to quick results, quick meals, quick everything...but in that process, have sacrificed much.  In conversations with people, they say things like.."good luck, I couldn't do that" or "I could never give up....blank"  The further in I get with this, the more aware I'm becoming to our dependence on food and honestly, self-control, or lack of. 

Now I'm the first to say, sometimes you just gotta have that piece of pizza or that piece of chocolate cake.  There is nothing wrong with that...where the problem comes in is, most people I know are overcommitted in one way or the other.  Because of that, there is no time to include eating healthy and exercising.  Fast food is a normal way of life,  which leads to being overweight which leads to taking diet pills...blah blah blah. 

 And honestly...I'm not gonna lie...being healthy...it's work.  You aren't always going to make the right decision about what goes in your mouth, but EAT REAL FOOD PEOPLE!  Don't take a pill to get into smaller pants!  Find a way to balance your diet and lifestyle.  If you continue to follow me through this journey, you will see, I'm not eating boiled eggs and lettuce everyday.  I've worked hard to find yummy alternatives to things I'm cutting out so I can feel satisfied and good at the end of the day.

I'm just gonna be honest...this challenge has been quite the effort.  I've been preparing for a few weeks.  Only because I wanted to make sure I do this to the best of my ability.  With that challenge, comes lots of meal planning, blog reading, and searching out recipes that will work for me and our whole family.  I'm almost through the first week and things are going good so far.  I'll be making a post each week to share my plan and progress.  Hoping this will encourage and challenge someone, or lots of someones, to make some healthy changes for yourself and your family.