Sunday, March 16, 2014

Whole30 Clean Eating Wrap-Up

I planned on writing more about the Whole30 diet while I was doing it, but like everything else in my life, that didn't happen as planned.

The first day was easy-peasy, and I was very proud of myself that I didn't have any cravings for anything and was able to turn  my nose up to processed shit food.

Days 2-7 were a completely different story.

I spent those days fantasizing about opening up a gallon sized Goldfish carton and dumping it into my mouth.  I had the worst time keeping my energy up, especially when running.  My mile pace dropped significantly, and I found myself walking a lot on my long runs. I went from a steady 10 mm to 12 + mm.

I had a very hard time figuring out my work out nutrition, but I did learn, quite by accident, that when I eat 16oz of guacamole for lunch, I can run 4 miles at 10:38 per mile.

Because I'm a sugar addict, I chose not to eat fruit for the first week.  My first fruit after the hiatus was a blueberry.  It tasted like candy.  Every fruit since has been just as amazingly delicious.  I never want to eat sugar again.

By the last week, I began to feel amazing.  My running got easier, and I felt stronger.  I felt leaner, even though I don't think I look much different.  I lost 8 pounds, but I don't know where I lost them from.

My last day on the Whole30 was Friday.  We had a potluck at work.  I ate some carrots and cherry tomatoes, then bought a salad at New Seasons.  I sighed heavily at the fact that there were bagels and cream cheese for the potluck, but then I thought "That shit is crap, I don't even want it!"  and I felt better.

Today, I ran a 15k with an 11:38 mm.  This included a pause when my running pal had to stop and go back to the start line to pick up her inhaler that she dropped (about 15 seconds), and the fact that we got stopped by a train (couple minutes).  I pressed pause on runkeeper for that one, and got 10:52 as my pace on there.  Either way, it was less than 12 minutes per mile, and that was my goal.  Also, I didn't walk.  9.3 miles of running (some running was excruciatingly slow, but it was still running).  I didn't feel the need to pull out my applesauce packet for extra energy, either.  My breakfast of eggs (no veggies, which is a Whole30 no-no, but I'm technically not doing Whole30 anymore) was enough.  Afterwards, I got my free beer, and while it was tempting, I did not drink it.  Of course, it was only tempting at first.  After thinking about the fact that there is no nutrition in it what-so-ever, AND it's full of gluten, I had no problems passing it off.

Had it been wine, that would have been a different story alltogether.

I met my family for brunch at my favorite restaurant.  Verde Cocina.  I ordered the Buenos Dias Breakfast - eggs, bacon, bean mash, loads of veggies, and two made-in-house authentic corn tortillas.  Corn is the first non-Whole30 item I decided to add in.  I also had some sugar (from the bacon) and a couple of beans, but mostly it was the corn.  Fucking amazing, but I'm totally fine having it every once in a while, not all the time.  I much prefer (and I'm sure my mother's heart may stop when she reads this because I was THE WORST eater in the world when it came to veggies growing up) the veggies.  Kale, zucchini, carrots, onions.  Sooo delicious.  I'll be bringing the leftovers from my kids' plates to work tomorrow.
 
When I started the Whole30, I just wanted to do a cleanse and rid my body of processed food gunk.  What I learned on the Whole30 is that I feel better and want to eat better because I feel better.  I'm not ever going to admit that I'm "Paleo" or on a special diet, I'm simply going to say "no thank you" to certain foods because they don't provide sound nutrition and their ingredients are questionable. 

Because if food isn't nourishing, why eat it?  And the blueberries that I gobbled up during our teacher meeting on Friday was 100% more satisfying and nourishing than the chocolate cake everyone else ate.

I would upload my before & after photos, but I'm in my underpants, so I'll keep it clean.  Maybe when I lose another 10 pounds I'll delight you with pictures of my skivvies.

To make up for it, I'm adding in my post-race-beer-tent photo. 



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