Whole30: Week One Round-Up (And Other Stuff)

Today is officially day seven of my Whole30... the first week is over! Before I get into that, let me get into the sugar binge I had right before I started Whole30 that left me feeling horribly sick for the first few days. -__-

It was fun though. 

First, I had a work trip to NYC, where I ate everything. There are many things I dislike about the city-- the hoards of people, the urine-ish smell that seeps from the pavement when it's hot, the people asking me if I want to go to the top of the Empire State Building or ride a double decker bus every time I walk by. But I LURVE the food in the city. Anywhere, any type of food, any time. I even found a place to eat Filipino food! I was too full to eat there, but next time. Oh, next time, New York. You and I and a fork and spoon and my soft pants.

Over Labor Day weekend, my friend and I had a Pinterest win with these extremely unhealthy treats. 

 

It worked out. I felt guilty for making something healthy so incredibly unhealthy, especially after reading It Starts with Food. However, I was in Last Hurrah Mode, which is the worst attitude to have before starting a diet making a lifestyle change. I'm not gonna lie, it was super fun to make and eat. 

When we got home, I officially started Whole30. Before I started... I don't know, being lazy... I used to cook so much. This is forcing me to get back to those habits. I even made homemade mayo (which made me question every other mayo I've ever eaten because it was delicious) and chicken stock and stored it in jars because I scared myself reading about why you shouldn't store food in plastic containers. 

It's so simple, but I still felt fancy. 

 For my first week, I decided to take Melissa Joulwan's suggestion and do most of my cooking for the week on Sunday (in my case I did it on Tuesday, but whatevs). I used to do this when I was teaching because I was always really tired after school. Then I stopped because I got lazy (see the trend here?). I made chicken in the crockpot, used the bones and make stock, roasted a pan of sweet potatoes, and made bison chili. I made big batches so I could just grab and go all week. 

It worked out pretty well, except for the meat. I ate so much meat last week. 

 I'm okay with meat, but I'm not a person who eats meat every day. I'd much rather have beans or quinoa, or something else with protein like nonfat Greek yogurt. Beans and quinoa will be the first food items to be reintroduced into my rotation when this is all over. 

The good thing about the meat for Whole30 is that you need to look for meat from animals who have been humanely raised and not fed a bunch of junk. More on that here. 

Here is how Whole30 predicts your first week will go and they were on point with most of it:

On day one, I was feeling really great. We were in the car traveling and I even avoided road food and ate turkey and an avocado for lunch. I was missing a veggie, but I made it work. When we got home, I went grocery shopping and I got pissed off. Every. Thing. Has. Sugar. What is normally a forty minute shopping trip turned into two hours. Not cool. I'll write about my prep for this undertaking (and the DENT it left in my bank account) in another post because it deserves its own post. 

At the start of day two, I felt pretty good. I even ordered an extremely healthy lunch when I was out for work. Then, the headache started. 

Worst. Feeling. Ever. 

It was behind my eyes and on top of my head. It spread to my neck. It lasted for three days. I also experienced pretty horrible sleepless night on day two and three. I got about three hours each night and spent most of my night googling "Whole30 can't sleep" on my phone. I thought I was coming down with something-- I had the body aches. Turns out, it was probably just me detoxing from the sugar I so readily and easily consume each day. My body's reaction to no sugar kind of scared me. I'm glad I'm doing this. 

On days four and five, you're supposed to be so irritable that no one wants to be around you. Besides losing my temper at the dog and snapping at the Hubs for a few trivial things, I was all good. 

Days six and seven find you feeling extremely tired according to the timeline. I wasn't any more tired than I usually am, although today (day seven) I could have taken a nap. In fact, it's 9:30pm and I'm exhausted. 

So yeah, not a lot of positives yet because my body is like, "What the eff are you doing to me?" except that my sleep for the last two days has been FREAKIN' AMAZING. 

I ended my first Whole30 week with an awesome event in our community called Pedal to Your Mat, where I rode eleven miles on my bike and ended up at my mat for an hour of yoga. They even had food I could eat at this event!

 

I'm trying to find some way to treat ma' self as I near the end of each week of this Whole30 challenge that is not food related (the food at the end of this event was a bonus!) or crazy expensive.

Doing something healthy and physical after a rough first week of Whole30 seemed like a great reward! Yoga under a blue sky with live music. YAAS! 

Week Two is starting tomorrow... I hope this lasts!