Looking back 60 days after finishing the Whole 30, it doesn't seem so bad. The time did go pretty quickly, (I actually started Whole 30 on January 2 in order to observe our Italian family tradition of making ravioli and drinking wine on January 1).
What was easier than I expected: black coffee. It's bitter, but it really wasn't that bad. I immediately went back to having doctored coffee afterwards.Kicking the sugar habit. It was actually kind of nice knowing I couldn't have ANY of that stuff and it made it easier to avoid things I KNEW had sugar in it. That said, avoiding items with sugar in it was almost impossible. Breakfast sausage? Sugar. Packaged Tuna? Sugar. Lunch meat? Sugar. It was extremely frustrating.
What was harder than I expected: snacking. It's difficult when you have an on the go kind of family like we do to make sure you have some things prepared ahead of time. If I needed a quick snack, I tried to grab fruit etc., but if I was on the road or out of the house, I'd try to find a Larabar or some nuts (not peanuts). It became kind of an odyssey on some day. The diet can be extremely restrictive sometimes and in rebellion my tastes veered toward having three Larabars in a row in revolt.
What was unexpected: I have an issue with dairy. I know this now because I had no dairy whatsoever for 30 days and the first day after having coffee with some milk in it, my entire plumbing system was not pleased. So I've switched to a plant based protein supplement for after my workouts.
Pleasant discoveries: Cauliflower makes an awesome rice substitute. I use my cuisinart to shred up the cauliflower and then just plop it in my wok with a bit of coconut oil. It gets all toasty and glistening. Very good stuff and my toddlers even like it. Larabars. I basically lived on these in a very bad way so now I remember them with the fondness an ex-smoker probably has for cigarettes, but they are very very good. Dried, unsweetened coconut. I don't know who looked at dried coconut and thought, I need to put some sugar in this, but that person is crazy. Coconut is so good without all the sugar added.
Unfortunately three days after finishing my Whole 30, I contracted a wicked stomach bug that kept me vomiting and in distress for about 24 hours. The good news is that I met my goal weight after the first day. The bad news was that I had to eat saltine crackers and ginger ale the entire time therefore wiping out all my Whole 30 lessons. It also messed up my usual food discipline so when I started eating normally again, I ate larger quantities than I used it.
I'm glad I proved to myself I could do the Whole 30, but I'm also not sure I'd do it again. I'm glad I learned that I have a bit of a dairy intolerance though. And I'm glad I'm more conscious of what has jaw dropping amounts of sugar in it.
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