One thing I've found to be true of me is that I do best when I push myself and make it hard... Eek! Not always fun, but it is in those moments of being strict with my eating plan and pushing myself in my workouts that I stick with it. I guess you could say I'm an "all or nothing" kind of personality.
Enter in the Whole30 program. Recently I was learning about what clean eating really is, and why we should all consider trying a program like this out for a time. For me it made sense. I am a sugarholic! I own it. But I don't like it! So through this Whole30 program I'll be eliminating sugar from my diet entirely and giving my body the chance to get over this addiction while learning to enjoy other foods and not constantly ending up in the ice cream line.
The thing that really got my looking into Whole30 was learning how food really is responsible for so many health issues we have, from joint pain, headaches, hormonal issues, digestive issues, how focused we are, etc. It's such a powerful source of nutrients and energy for our bodies, and yet we often will eat food filled with chemicals, artificial food and additives that have been proven to be harmful to us. I am in that category!
The more I learn though the more I want to see what I can change in my diet, see what physical issues I have that food may be responsible for, and see what it's like to eat a diet that we as human beings were really designed to eat—natural, whole, and filled with vegetables.
So on Monday I embarked on this 30+ day journey. Day one was a breeze, minus being at a BBQ where I couldn't eat 95% of the food—and where they had ice cream sandwiches!—but I stayed strong and powered through. Day two began with a massive headache, which I was warned might happen. My body is going through a detox process, and it's trying to figure out how to use food the way it's supposed to. I've been feeding my body so much junk for so long that it's used to "quick release energy" foods. It needs to relearn a few things.
I am determined to power through this. I want to get to the other side and compare how I feel then to how I felt before starting. Plus as I share this journey while digging for more info, I learn so many more fascinating things—like recently a friend shared several articles on how women who struggled for years with infertility issues, stopped eating grains and got pregnant. So who knows?! But, hey, even if that doesn't happen for me I still get the opportunity to use my body as a science experiment that can be nothing but beneficial.
Want to learn more about Whole30? Go to their website Whole30.com or pick up the book, "It Starts With Food," by Dallas and Melissa Hartwig and keep following my journey.