Day 15 – Halfway!!

I am halfway done my first Whole30 today.

I feel great. My energy is up, my focus and concentration is better, I am developing good habits, and I am genuinely enjoying it all.

I am starting to wonder when my skin will clear up though. It was starting to and the bam! Breakout! The messed up part is I never got acne until I was about 24. Now I get it when I eat poorly, and hormonally, like that time of the month, which is starting now. It takes more than 2 weeks to fix your hormones though, which is why this is the Whole30, not the Whole15.

Between being away overnight and then having company, I did not get a chance to make pre-made breakfasts for the week. I chopped some lettuce, tomatoes, shallots, and chicken breast from the last of the three chickens, for Sean’s salad, then I ate a banana as I threw leftovers from the salmon dish and some leftover yams in my lunch bag, then went to work. I stopped in that little café in our lobby for a black coffee and boiled eggs and headed up to the office. The morning went by fast and before I knew it, it was lunch time. I actually stepped away from my desk o eat lunch in our lunchroom. I heated my leftovers and enjoyed the salmon dish, round 2. All in all, the day was uneventful, and my meals weren’t all that exciting.

Even dinner wasn’t amazing, or worth bogging about. We finished off the last of the three roast chickens, which a seasoned with an Herbs de Provence blend from Whole Foods (it has no additives). I made a sided of brussel sprouts for me, and a side of broccoli for Sean since he hates brussel sprouts. We ate dinner and I caught up on my blog. This might have been the most uneventful day since starting W30.

There is a part on the timeline called “Days 12-15: Boundless energy! Now give me a damn Twinkie” that talks about cravings being the most intense around the middle and let me tell you, I have that going on. I ate almonds and could almost taste the Hershey chocolate that I wished they were coated in. I wanted marshmallows yesterday and something like a Mars bar today. I have craved toast, Kraft Smooth Peanut Butter, Justin’s Nut Butters, and cake! I can’t remember all my cravings but I remember thinking they are random or funny – and so realistic, like I can smell it, or almost taste it. Can I please just have one bowl of gluten-free puffin cereal?

A highlight today was being asked if I have lost weight - but not because of anything to do with my weight, because I could confidently say “I have no idea… but thank you!” and genuinely not care. I realize that the Whole30 is genuinely not about losing weight, numbers, scales, inches, unrealistic beauty standards, or anything superficial. This is about getting healthy and being healthy and about how I feel. And I feel damn good!

I have known for a long time that if I was ever going to be successful in losing weight, I would need to adopt an outlook about being healthy, not skinny. But no matter how much I preached it, wrote it, said it, or thought I believed it, I didn’t. I fantasized about being able to slip into item of clothing and have it drape off me and look good like on a model. And when I “came to terms” with the likelihood that I may never be that thin, I ate whatever I wanted and pretended to be proud of my curvy body. But this was just a disguise to acknowledge that my waistline was increasing while at the same time, hide my contempt for it. This Whole30 and ISWF has changed all of that mentality. I just want to nourish my body, because I love my body – it’s the only one I have. How it looks will be reflective of how I feel and if I keep eating this way, I can only feel better and better.

I can’t believe we are halfway to the “end”. I feel like there is still so much to learn. I still have over half the book to read, but at the same time, I already have learned a lot and I am really enjoying the program. I have already decided there will be more Whole30’s in my future. Once I have read the whole book and understand fully the whys and whats, it can only get better.