whole30 weeks 4 and 5 – wrap up, results, and what next?

I did it!  I survived Whole30!  Here’s how the last 9 days went and then read to the end for my Whole30 results.

Day 22 (Sunday)

breakfast – Two fried eggs with ??? (I’ve already forgotten)

lunch – Avocado tuna with radishes and grapes

dinner – Leftover vegetable soup with ??? (I’ve forgotten this too…that’s what happens when I don’t write it down each night)

Day 23 (Monday)

breakfast – Two fried eggs and a smoothie

lunch – Avocado tuna with radishes and grapes

dinner – Grilled chicken seasoned with a homemade taco seasoning recipe, roasted green beans, and crash potatoes.

thoughts – Another good day!  I am just so glad to be out of my funk from last week.  Being back home and on my routine has helped a lot.  Getting a variety of veggies is helping too with the boredom.

It’s no longer an “I think”…now I know for sure that my ring is looser!  I’m not sure if it’s loose enough that I’ll be able to get my real wedding rings on yet but it’s a start!

Day 24 (Tuesday)

breakfast – Two fried eggs, leftover grilled chicken, leftover green beans

lunch – Avocado tuna with radishes and grapes

dinner – Spicy cinnamon orange shrimp, crash potatoes, and roasted broccoli with homemade mayo

thoughts – HOW have I gone 24 days of Whole30 without making my own mayonnaise?  Oh my!  Tonight I added some parsley, paprika, and onion powder to make a pseudo-ranch dressing and dipped my potatoes and broccoli in it.

Day 25 (Wednesday)

breakfast – Two fried eggs, leftover grilled chicken, leftover green beans

lunch – Avocado tuna with radishes, grapes, and leftover broccoli

dinner – Chicken in the crockpot and baked sweet potatoes with lemony-dill mayo

thoughts – Mayo.  Seriously.  That’s good stuff.

Day 26 (Thursday)

breakfast – Two fried eggs, leftover grilled chicken

lunch – Avocado tuna with radishes, grapes, and leftover crash potatoes

dinner – Chicken stir fry (chicken, bell peppers, and broccoli with some cajun seasoning) dipped in homemade mayo (mixed with some garlic powder and chipotle seasoning) and leftover sweet potato

thoughts – I’m just so thrilled that I’m having an easier week.  I’m not going to say that the second Whole30 is over I won’t dive into a brownie ;) but the intense cravings I was battling last week have subsided.

I keep twirling my ring around and reveling in the fact that it is lose.  I have not tried on my real wedding rings yet…I’m holding off until Whole30 is over (it’s hard but I can make it just a few more days!).

Day 27 (Friday)

breakfast – Two fried eggs, leftover grilled chicken

lunch – Avocado tuna with radishes and grapes

dinner – Steak, yellow squash, and asparagus

thoughts – Ok I lied…I didn’t want to wait until whole30 was over so I tried on my rings.  Sad news…they still don’t fit.  I’m so bummed!

Day 28 (Saturday)

breakfast – Two fried eggs with sweet potato hash.

lunch – Avocado tuna with radishes and tangerines

dinner – Leftover crockpot chicken with roasted broccoli and roasted potatoes dipped in homemade chipotle mayo.

thoughts – I already love roasted broccoli but dipped in mayo…oh man.  So good.  And Michael sliced the potatoes really thin so they crisped up like chips – yum yum!

Day 29 (Sunday)

breakfast – Two fried eggs with sweet potato hash

lunch – Avocado tuna with radishes and grapes

dinner – Spicy tuna cakes with roasted green beans

Day 30 (Monday)

breakfast – Two fried eggs, leftover green beans, leftover squash

lunch – Avocado tuna with radishes and grapes

dinner – Grilled chicken, roasted potatoes, and spicy cauliflower with chipotle mayo.

thoughts – I survived!  I did it!

My snacks were basically the same every day this week: tangerines, apples with almond butter, and/or smoothie (banana, blueberries, almond butter, avocado, and coconut milk)

Also, sorry for the boring breakfasts and lunch…that’s usually how I operate (even non-whole30) – I’ll eat the same thing for breakfast, lunch, and snack everyday for many days without getting bored as long as I get some variety at supper.  I started off Whole30 trying to keep it exciting and varied to keep me from getting burnt out but by the end was back in my comfort zone of repetition.

Results

I know, probably the whole reason you’re reading this post…to find out if it worked ;).

Drumroll please…

I lost a smidge over 10 pounds! (10.4 to be exact)  I would have loved to lose more than that (I mean, who wouldn’t?), but 10 pounds in 30 days is really great, especially since I’ve struggled so much since Hudson was born to lose anything at all, so I’m very pleased.

I also lost an inch around my waist (I did not do all over measurements, like arms, thighs, calves, etc. so my waist is the only area I have data on).

Now to keep going and work on the other 50-60 pounds I need to lose….

Thoughts about my whole Whole30 experience (see what I did there?)

Well.

Whole30 was by far the hardest “diet” I’ve ever done.  It took a lot of time and effort and money.  Oh my, our grocery bill this month has been astronomical.  And it was much more restrictive than anything I’ve done before.

Honestly, I can’t say I’m all that impressed.  I feel no different now than I did 30 days ago.  I don’t feel any better or worse (not that I felt bad to begin with) nor has my sleep changed (I was already sleeping fine but Hudson was not and I was hoping this would help him but it didn’t seem to make a difference).  I didn’t start randomly waking up at 6am ready to tackle the day like some people reported.  I didn’t miraculously lose 25 pounds and 2 pants sizes like others.  I didn’t arrive at some amazing state of mind where I no longer am tempted by sweets.

Basically I ate healthier and as a result I lost some weight.  Which is great and I’m not knocking it.  And in fact, if I hadn’t done something so restrictive where cheating wasn’t an option I probably would have kept back sliding and eating junk.  So I think this was a great jump start and it showed me that I *can* lose even while breastfeeding and I’m hopeful that now that I’ve gotten used to eating so healthy again I will continue doing so and continue to lose weight.

So did it help me on my quest to get healthier and lose weight?  Yes.  Was is the magical, miracle diet I had read about?  No.  But that’s ok.  I’ve learned over the years that there is no magical shake or pill or diet…hard work, self control, eating healthy, and exercising is what it takes.

What now?

You are supposed to basically continue eating whole30 and begin gradually adding some of those “trigger” foods back in to your diet.  Add legumes, wait a few days to see how your body reacts, then add dairy, wait a few days, then grains without gluten, and so on.  However we will be traveling Saturday and having our family Easter dinner Sunday so I will likely eat some non-whole30 foods before I have finished the gradual adding in process.  I’m playing it by ear and starting today just by adding in legumes (peanut butter with my apple and black beans with our supper).

So nothing exciting.  As much as I’d love to eat a ton of Reese’s eggs I’m trying to stick to reintroducing some healthy foods first.

Long term, I will now go back to our “real food” way of eating.  Like I said when I started whole30, I believe in most foods in moderation so I’m not on board with whole30, whole9, paleo, vegetarianism, etc. as a long term way of eating (unless there are health issues that require that to be how I eat).  I much prefer to eat a little bit of everything that is real, whole food (not tons of processed junk…although I have a bit of that too from time to time).  I’m excited to add back in butter, whole milk, sour cream, wheat bread, corn, peas, and beans!

Thank you for following along with my journey.  I appreciate the comments I’ve gotten here on my blog, on my Facebook page, via text, and in person.  It can be scary to admit that you need to lose weight, or even that you just want to try to be healthier, and tell the world that you are dieting but I am thankful that (most) everyone was supportive and encouraging.