THIS SHIT TOO EASY
I gotta be honest, when preparing to start Whole30, I was expecting November to be the slowest moving month of my life, but a week in, time is flying by, and I’m really enjoying it!
This diet has made grocery shopping what it’s supposed to be. I’m the person that speed walks past the fresh food section of the grocery store because my ADHD (self-diagnosed) brain gets overwhelmed at trying to figure out what to do with it. It’s so much easier just to get snacks, frozen food, or if I do get protein from the fish or poultry department, I go for a bagged salad so I don’t have to figure something out.
The problem was that I had all those alternatives as a choice! It made eating healthy and planning meals so much more difficult. Truly, when I realized how many restrictions there are on this diet, I got super excited!
No but I did for real, a plethora of choices has never done me any good.
Just the shopping trip itself on day one of Whole30 made me feel healthier…pride wise.. I felt so cool with a cart full of healthy shit. Yeaaaah, look at me peasants. Buying your junk food. Just like I had a couple days prior. But not anymore, now I was a changed woman with not one, but TWO bags of broccoli florets to flaunt.
I spent 20 minutes in the produce department. (I’ll be making separate posts with shopping lists and recipes).
I’m relearning that avoiding the inner isles isn’t any more difficult or time consuming than cooking fresh whole foods for yourself.
Also, for someone with a gluten allergy, I’ve virtually avoided 70% of the things that are off limits for years, so it may be a bigger adjustment to others, but if I can do it, anybody can.
STARTING POINT
For starters, some stats.
As far as eczema, most of it is gone due to an extreme steroid, however, currently I do still have slight flares on both of my elbows. Yucky.
Otherwise my skin is pretty immaculate, aside from some slight texture and occasional redness around my nose, it’s pretty good, so worst case scenario, it becomes perfect.
I first weighed myself on day three instead of day zero.
Weight on day three was 163. HOWEVER, I weighed myself on day five and I had dropped down to 160 already! I haven’t been under 163 in months. HUGE FOR THE PROGRAM!!
… I’m still huge but I’m sticking to this program.
So now that I’m seven days in, I can admit, it’s so much easier than I initially anticipated.
The meals are satiating and incredibly nutrient dense.
Physically, I don’t feel much different yet, but I plan on getting back into the gym soon, and I’m interested in how the new diet may affect my stamina.
DIRTY, DIRTY SPENDING HABITS
The BIGGEST difference so far is my shopping habits. I shopped on the first day of the diet (which totaled $130 btw), and did not go food shopping again until today! That’s an entire week I didn’t go to the grocery or convenience store and spent money.
I don’t know if that seems like a big deal to anyone else, but in my adulthood I’ve developed the need to spend money on food constantly. Mainly because I never plan out and buy full meals, so I’m left going to the store to get extra ingredients every other day, if not every day.
On top of that, I had a horrible habit of getting little “treats” throughout the week. Running to the store for a sweet, a bag of chips, or a beverage (or all 3), as well as Starbucks runs every other day. IT ADDS UP. Thousands spent a year all to make my addicted little brain happy.
All those things are now completely off limits. It’s not even an option to pop over to the store for something “fun”. The calories in and money out has been cut down extremely.
Restaurants and cafes are also off the table because I’d rather just not risk consuming something I shouldn’t, and since it’s only 30 days, I can make the sacrifice.
One week down, three to go!
