Whole 30: Done!

I did it!  ... and I'm a little disappointed.  Let me tell you where I'm coming from.

First of all, I lost 11.3 pounds, which: WAHOOOO! That, my friends, is super exciting.  I have noticed I have generally more stable moods and energy levels, which I attribute to the lack of sugar, and I am, in general, less hungry between meals. 

That's it.

I noticed no other changes.  I had gastrointestinal distress, the same as I always have, pretty much the entire time until I started taking a probiotic toward the end of the program. I did not sleep better - if anything, I slept worse most of the month.  My "seasonal allergies" seemed to go away... but then they came back, so I'm not sure they're food-related at all.  I never saw a huge burst of energy, I don't greet the day with wide eyes and a smile like some sort of cracked out Disney princess, I still crave Doritos, pizza, and chocolate... all in all, not much of a difference.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy I lost the weight. I'd been trying to lose that weight for FOREVER.  I had tried Weight Watchers, heavy duty working out, all sorts of things, so I am glad to see it gone. My pants fit better, my muffin top is gone, that is awesome and I'm glad I did it.

Hooray! I can check out my undies without unzipping my pants at last!

I'm also aware that the fine folks over at Whole9Life say that for some people it takes more than 30 days to see "the magic," which could definitely be true, but that feels a little scam-my to me.  You know? Like, "Oh, our plan didn't work for you? That's because you didn't do it long enough. Just do ten more days... oh, that didn't work? Try ten more days..."  How long am I supposed to keep doing the plan without seeing the results I'm looking for before I give up and say the plan didn't work for me?  As Whole9Life themselves say in this post: "why would you put yourself through a program as challenging as the Whole30, only to reap a tiny portion of the rewards?" (That quote is in a different context in their post, but still applies here.) I've read their post about the reasons why it didn't work, and the conclusion I come to is that my expectations were too high. Before doing the Whole 30, I had heard or read some success stories, and thought, "That could be me!"  I also wonder if maybe I was eating better than some people pre-Whole30.  Despite my sugar addiction, I generally eat homemade, non- or minimally-processed foods, not a lot of junk food, not a lot of fast food... maybe that's why I didn't see a huge difference.  I'm not sure.

What I do know is I learned a lot of new ways to cook last month, used a lot of new ingredients I'd never used before, ate WAY more vegetables than I used to, and that D's blood sugar was way more under control than it used to be on our SAD diet.  I also know we spent more than twice our budget on groceries in January, which is not sustainable.  I added up our receipts today and we spent $670 in January on groceries. Um, what?  For two people? That can't happen again.  

Yesterday, we started reintroducing gluten grain, and so far I haven't noticed any negative effects.  I know, I know, some of them could be internal inflammation and I may not notice the effect for years, if ever.  We'll see how it goes with reintroducing the other foods later in the week.  I do know D and I intend to continue eating largely Paleo simply for the fact that his blood sugar is so much more consistent this way, and that's huge for someone with type 1 diabetes - his insulin use is way lower and it's a much healthier way for him to be.  But if anyone thinks I'm not having wine and chocolates on Valentine's Day, they're crazy.

Hello, old friends... um, what will D eat and drink?

How did your Whole 30 go?? Leave it in the comments...