The day after labor day last year is when I began the Whole30 program for the first time. I was new to the whole paleo thing. Going from an intense 15 day juice cleanse in December to a mostly vegetarian diet for the 8 months after with constant roller coaster of ups and downs with my battle with food. I was working out a lot, running and still not seeing the results I wanted. Sure I was lean, but were was the muscle and tone from 8 months of running and lifting?! The whole30 opened my eyes to food in a way i’d never thought about it before. Watching and feeling my body transform from eating clean whole foods for 30 days was one of the most rewarding and beneficial things I’ve ever done for myself. So fast forward 8 months later and I’ve maintained a mostly paleo diet. Doing the whole30 changed the way I thought about food and made it more natural to just cook whole clean foods, but the sugar demon is still there, the roller coaster of good food/bad food decisions are still at war and I can feel when my body is not burning fuel from fat, but from the nasty sugars that I just “had” to have that day.
I decided it was time to do the whole30 program again. Remind myself why I choose paleo over sandwiches or cookies and I thought it would also be good to re-read “It Starts With Food” since I’m more familiar and can relate more now then when I first read it. I love Dallas and Melissa Hartwig and I think there book and there program is such a life-changing experience. It really is true what a difference eating whole foods can do to you. As I was sitting on the bus on my way home, reading the book, I thought for one second what the bus would feel like if every single person on the bus was doing the whole30 program together and what a difference the bus ride home would be. I laughed and pushed the thought away and got back to the book.
So this week I’m doing what I’m calling the pre-season or warm up. Since for every great sport or run, in order to succeed and have a good year, you need to warm up, practice and a test run. I’m reading the book as a part of my warm-up, stocking my pantry with only whole30 approved foods, meal planning for the weeks to come, checking my schedule and making sure not to schedule anything that involves non-whole30 approved activities and just simply getting my mind and body ready for the challenge. So there isn’t any excuse to fail. I’m also test running, by doing my absolute best to eat 100% paleo. I made it all of Monday and failed today by eating 2 small bites of a oatmeal-cranberry raisin cookie that a co-worker had. And yes it was delicious, but in the end not worth it-but a great reminder for the next time my brain decides it thinks a cookie is a good idea. I will begin the whole30 program officially next Tuesday, June 28th.
I’m excited to see the changes both mentally and physically and see how it improves my fitness and running as I approach the beginning of my marathon training and my 2nd half marathon of the year.
Whole30 is a great program with really high success rates. I highly recommend you check it out and join me on this challenge. I will give weekly updates on how I’m doing and try and remember to post new recipes that I try along the way.
