DO THE WORK 2020: January

Eating Healthy

What I Learned from Whole30

January 30^th, 2020 was the last date of my third Whole30 reset. You may be wondering what in the world Whole30 is. Here’s my quick description, but I recommend checking out the website for more information:

Whole30 is a RESET, not a DIET. It’s about taking 30 days to focus on eating whole foods and avoiding certain food categories that are known allergens and just plain junk. Whole30 says YES to meat, eggs, seafood, veggies, fruit, nuts, healthy fats, herbs and spices. Whole30 says NO to certain additives, sugar, alcohol, grains, gluten, legumes, dairy and weighing yourself on a scale for 30 days. The program’s goal is for you to notice non-scale victories, “NSVs.” At the end of month, you slowly reintroduce grains, gluten, legume and dairy and see how they affect you. Some people do Whole30 if they have health issues that they are curious to see if food affects their symptoms.

I chose to do Whole30 for two reasons:

REASON #1: I was feeling sluggish and dependent on sugar & jun to make it through the day.

REASON #2: I use food as an unhealthy coping mechanism.

How do I feel after 30 days of eating healthy, balanced meals?

GREAT!

I noticed how much better I felt when I intentionally chose balanced meals over my kids’ scraps and any junk food I can find in the pantry. It was nice to have energy throughout the day and not stuff myself with food just because I was feeling depressed or stressed. I also remembered how much I enjoy cooking and with a bit more meal prep, it’s not as challenging to make sure I have well-balanced meals in front of me every day. Oh, and my pants fit better at the end of the 30 days too. 

So now what?

Well this is the tough part, even more challenging that following the program for 30 days… how am I going to sustain healthy choices without rules?

A friend of mine recently shared with me some insight she gained from listening to a podcast by the Lazy Genius. The host suggested we shouldn’t have “food rules.” Go over and listen to the podcast to see what you think of her theory. After I listened to the podcast, I realized even if I don’t agree with everything the host suggested, I need to be more intentional with listening to my body. 

This weekend a stomach virus hit our family. After I recouped, I asked myself, “what food sounds good after being ill?” Toast, applesauce and pizza. Yes, pizza. And I’m not going to feel guilty for my first meal post illness being pizza. Although pizza is my ultimate comfort food, that doesn’t mean I have to binge eat until I’m so stuffed I can’t move and need to unbutton my pants. 

TRUTH TIME: I actually did eat too much pizza that day and felt super bloated for a while afterward. As my daughter said, “there are some foods that taste so good, you just keep eating.” I noticed that danger when I let myself have some potato chips today. I could have kept shoveling them into my mouth. DING DING DING!!! Time to listen to my body and hear I have NO. SELF. CONTROL. when an open bag of crunchy goodness is put in front of me.

Why is it so hard to take a moment to listen to our bodies? For me, I am the queen of reframing and justifying just one. more. bite. For instance, I was super sick from that stomach virus a few days after finishing Whole30. I threw the Whole30 reintroduction process out the window so I could just find something to stay settled in my stomach. But once I decided to not do the slow reintroduction where you eat a previously restricted food group for a day and then go back to Whole30 for a couple more days, I could tell I was in for a bit of a struggle. I went from restrictions and rules to freedom and no limitations. What choices am I going to make now? 

Here’s a few questions I’ve been trying to ask myself…

“How do I feel after eating (fill-in-the-blank)?”

“Are you hungry? If not, what is pushing you to the snack basket? Is it because I am bored? Stressed? Hormonal? Upset?”

“Is my stomach full? Do I really need more?”

“How do you feel now after downing a whole bowl of Golden Grahams (or whatever-food-choice) in 30 seconds while rushing around? Is this (fill-in-the-blank-food-choice) a lazy solution to meeting your needs?”

“What could you do tomorrow to set yourself up to make healthier choices?”

I hope that by slowing down a bit and asking myself a question or two, I can start to make wiser choices to take care of myself instead of drowning my sorrows in a $1.88 Meijer brand pizza.

Hopefully, in a month I will have some wisdom to share with you and not a gut full of cheap pizza. 

Here’s to a year of continuing to DO THE WORK of making healthy food choices, rule-free.

Next up for DO THE WORK 2020

February: Sleep Hygiene

Getting good sleep is a major factor when it comes to starting your day off on the right foot, having a strong immune system and fighting off depression. And one of the keys to getting good sleep is having good sleep hygiene. Another way to say sleep hygiene is healthy sleep habits. I decided after a couple weeks of terrible nights of sleep and lots of grumpy moments, I needed to learn more about this and put good sleep hygiene into practice. More to come in a month!

Your turn! How do you eat healthy? Have you ever bucked “food rules” and listened to your body? Also, do you have any healthy sleep habits that work for you?

P.S. Would you like a few new recipes to add to your arsenal? Here’s the link to my Pinterest board for Whole30 that has some of my new favorite meals!