How Whole30 changed me-inside and out

I can't believe all that has happened in these past 30 days.  We (my husband and I) have truly embarked on a journey through the realm of food this past year.  As you can tell by my previous posts on my blog- 2011 and 2012, our eating habits have changed considerably.  My mom has been interested in nutrition and health since I was born, and over the years has purged our pantry and fridge of many things consumed by the typical American.  However, everyone must resolve to go on thier own journey.  I always thought I ate pretty healthy.  I never drank much soda, tried to stay away from a lot of really fake, fried or artificially colored things.  I've always been a water drinker.  Even in the school cafeteria I usually chose grilled chicken and salad.  And I've always considered myself "pretty healthy."  Of course, I did have those things that are annoying that "everyone has."  Things like headaches, dry skin, acne, tiredness, and the hangry-ness that came from getting hypoglycemic and cranky after I went a few hours without eating.  (That is hungry/angry for those not familiar with the term).  

Over the years, I have tried to take normal comfort foods and make them healthier in some way.  By trading white flour for whole wheat, cool whip for organic homemade whipped cream, or using stevia instead of sugar, I tried to make the foods we crave healthier in some way.  

My brother introduced me to the Whole30 a few months ago.  I spent many hours on their very thorough and intriguing website, as well as many other Paleo food blogs, trying to truly understand what I was considering getting myself into.  I read dozens of testimonials and began experimenting with recipes.  After a couple months of cleaning out our cupboards, finding recipes that we liked and gathering as many tips and tricks I could- we dove head first into our Whole30.  This is how it changed me.  I welcome any comments/questions, but will begin by saying that everyone will have a different journey. Everyone's body reacts a little differently to foods, and everyone has their own list of health problems that may require a slightly different approach.  I recommend that everyone do their own research in their search for health.  

         How Whole30 has changed me, my health 

                                   and my mind-

                              I'm not hangry anymore.  Just plain hungry-

For those of you who know me really well, you know that if I am frustrated, upset, irritable or angry I probably am hungry, tired or both.  For years I have known that I get hypoglycemic and thus have been trying to eat a good amount of protein and fiber and also eating small meals several times throughout the day. I have also taken Chromium in attempts to stabilized my blood sugar and my moods.  All of these attempts I feel did help, but the irritability still came-especially at my high stress job.  Over the past weeks on the Whole30, I have noticed a drastic change in that the "hangry-ness" seems to have vanished.  I am just plain hungry!  I don't have a bad attitude, I don't feel irritated, I just think- oh, I am hungry- I should eat something!  I know a whole lot of people (mostly girls I think) that find that hangriness is part of their daily life.  Who likes being irritable, angry and frustrated, when you can be calm, happy and just plain hungry?  This change alone is significant enough for me to want to avoid sugar and high carb things (for the most part) for the rest of my life.  Having these mood swings even makes me more upset with myself because I get frustrated that I am frustrated!  And if you think "oh, she is not angry." I may not look like it on the outside, because I try to hide it, but on the inside I may be very frustrated over little things.

                          An increase in confidence and motivation-

Now what I am about to tell you may seem like I am stretching the truth or making this a bigger deal than it is because I am trying to get you to do the Whole30.  I am by no means making any of this up. I am telling the straight truth of what changes I have noticed in myself due to my diet changes these past few weeks. 

I feel more motivated to get things done and to make positive changes in all areas of my life, not just with food.  I have found the daily e-mails from Whole30 to be encouraging, inspiring and they really have helped me to take a look at what things I can change in my habits, my diet and every part of my life to be able to live a healthy, well balanced life.  I am very much of an extrovert and love doing things with other people- even to the point of not wanting to do things or not getting things done if I have to do them alone. For instance- we live in a safe neighborhood and for the past year and a half I have told myself I should go running outside.  But I never got around to it, because I didn't want to go by myself. The other day I actually WANTED to go for a run by myself- and I did! I don't know if this is from some type of hormone imbalance or some strange kind of mild depression that hindered me from wanting to do pretty much anything alone, but I promise you- there has been a change in my mind in these past weeks, that is different than how I have felt for the past many years.  

I frequently have not wanted to read because I feel alone. So I put on music or TV or movies or get on facebook or do most ANYTHING that keeps my mind off the fact that I am home alone and awake all night (due to my night job, I mostly am nocturnal all the time.) These past weeks, something changed inside my brain that just makes it seem OK to have alone time. I have read more than I have in a long time. I feel fine going shopping by myself. I generally think of myself as pretty independent, adventuresome and outgoing, but like doing everything WITH someone.  Even if I don't say anything, I really did not enjoy going to the mall by myself, being alone all night or anything like that.  I always tried to make the most of it anyways and tried to tell myself that I should not feel lonely.  I don't really know how, or what exactly changed these past few weeks inside my head, but something obviously did.  I know people have gotten over depression from Whole30, as things balanced out in their brain, hormones were balanced and so on. I don't think I was depressed, just lonely sometimes, but somehow that seems to be fixed!  As I said before, I am not trying to find things that aren't there, just so I have my own "Whole30 story."  I am telling you strictly what has changed in my life. Things that I didn't like the way they were before, and didn't know how to fix them- and how Whole30 obviously did SOMETHING good.

                   Looks aren't everything, but they sure are something-

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." "She is beautiful on the inside." "She has a great personality."  These types of comments, are kind of the worst types of compliments.  Its pretty much saying that they are a nice person, but they don't look good.  They don't do anyone any kind of good.  Every single girl in the universe likes to hear (and NEEDS to hear) that she is beautiful- on the outside as well as on the inside.  Yes, integrity, and compassion, love, happiness and  faithfulness, all of these things are very important, but if you don't think you look good, it impacts you on the inside as well.  It impacts your confidence. It impacts how you feel especially if you are around someone you consider to be gorgeous.  If you are not happy with how you look on the outside, especially if you don't have a lot of energy, or just don't feel healthy or have illnesses, that is going to impact how you view yourself on the outside as well.  When you feel good, awake and healthy- you automatically feel like you look better.  When you actually ARE healthy- your skin is going to show it, you hair and nails will look healthy and you will just feel happier.  (And a smile makes anyone look better)  Over the past few weeks on the Whole30, I have noticed several things in my appearance:
1-My skin is clearer and less dry
2- My stomach may be the flattest it has ever been (along with losing 6lbs)
3- I just feel healthier overall and more confident with myself because I feel better, more awake and more motivated to get things done

Other tidbits:

-I believe I only had ONE headache all month, when usually I had been having probably 1-2/week
-My husband stopped snoring!  At first I was checking to see if he was still alive, because I couldn't even hear him breathing!
-I do not crave sweets or carbs anymore. Even though I love bread and brownies, I don't feel like I MUST have them.  I can easily see someone else eating them and say no.
-I have gotten a lot more creative in my cooking. When there are so many things taken out of your diet, it pushes you to be resourceful and to try new things in  new way.  It gives you a new outlook on food.
-This month I have really realized how much crap is added to foods.  Why must there be sugar added to chicken broth?  Why is there yellow food coloring in some pickles? Why are oranges injected with food coloring to make them appear more appetizing?  Why do restaurants make breads with dozens of ingredients (and a lot of times) use more ingredients in the American version of their same foods that they sell in Europe and Australia?
-Why do so many Americans (myself included in the past) blindly eat things without having any idea of what they are ingesting or even care to know?

During this journey I have been inspired.  Vani Hari, author of FoodBabe.com has inspired me with her food blog and has shown the world what a difference one person can make by researching the American diet, informing the public and using her influence to make huge changes in our realm of available foods.

If I can encourage you to do one thing it is this:

Do your own research. Read food labels, and know what you are putting into your body.  Unfortunately, our world is getting bigger and sicker, and most of this could be prevented.  Whether you chose to do the Whole30 or eat according to the Paleo diet is totally up to you, but let me encourage you to just EAT REAL FOOD!  Your body will love you for it, and you may be suprised (as I was), what kind of positve results you see in your mind and body.

And check out these stories from other people who finished Whole30!

Whole30 testimonials