And Now for Something Different: Whole 30

Hellohello!

I'm still chugging along doing my thing, and think about writing a new post but it somehow never seems to happen. Part of it is worrying about it being substantive enough, or interesting enough. It can be paralyzing!

I have been journaling in my Leuchtturm1917 notebook, though, ever since I posted about starting over again here, back in mid-August. Every day, even! Things have been going pretty well, though I haven't lost much of anything since that first week when I dropped like 8 pounds. It's been frustrating, but I'm not in the mood to give up anymore. I have goals. I know what I want to feel like. And being the weight I am now (335 give or take a pound or two lately) doesn't fit the bill.

One thing I learned in the first few months of my major weight loss back in 2015 was that perseverance is everything. You just have to keep doing what you know is good for you, knowing that the results you want will happen eventually. So that is the mindset I am trying to espouse.

Another thing. I hope that this will help: I'm doing Whole30 for the first time ever right this very minute. I'm closing out of day 3, in fact, and it's been relatively painless so far. Since I'd already been trying to eliminate added sugar from my diet for a couple weeks, adding on a few more restrictions didn't seem like too much of an inconvenience somehow. So, in case you've been living under a rock the past few years... in addition to sugar, I'm not consuming the following things for the next 30ish days: Dairy, soy, legumes, alcohol, grains, corn, um... what else? I think that covers it. I'm not sure what's been hardest to abandon just yet, but I'd probably have to say dairy at this point. However, because I can eat eggs and potatoes (and not just sweet potatoes!), life's not too bad.

I know, ask me next week how I'm feeling about eating my 100th egg. Thank goodness I actually really love eggs.

But really, it leaves you with a lot of choice. Any meat, any vegetable, any fruit. Sure, it's a bit of a pain reading every label making sure that something doesn't contain hidden sugars – and man! Just about everything not whole contains some form of sugar. It's tricky. My suspicion is that once I am done with W30 I'll just go back to keeping the sugar count down in general with mostly not eating obvious sugar, but for now I'm going for the science and giving it a college try, whole hog – I really want to see if any of these groups of foods have been causing my body trouble. While it's true that carrying so much extra weight is not helping at all, I still can't believe that all the horrible aches and pains I've been experiencing can only be attributed to that. I don't know.

So one day my partner read an article about leaky gut and was like, "So, I think you have this." I'd read about it before, too, and thought the same but stayed in my comfy state of denial unwilling to step out of my eating comfort zone. But for some reason it really hit me this time, maybe because of his noticing, and I thought – OK, let's see what we can do about this.

Really, it's just a scientific experiment. It's NOT a diet. Remember, W30's main purpose is not as a weight-loss diet, though many people do experience significant weight loss while doing it. I mean, I admit that it is part of my impetus, being stuck and frustrated. But most of all, I want to see if it is really that easy to manipulate your health and wellness. (If you think W30 is easy, I guess I should say.)

One more thing that W30 has disallowed is any sort of measuring during the 30 days. As a daily weigher, this has been a little tough for me, but I have a tactic: eat breakfast as soon as I wake up. I do plan to not weigh again until the 30 days is up, but I did fudge on that yesterday. (Hint: I was disappointed. That's what I get!) I finally took a few body measurements this morning, too. (Again, v. disappointing.)

So that is where I'm at for now! I'd really love to be able to take off ~10 pounds a month in the coming months. Timing doesn't really matter, I know, but I'm still kind of pissed off at myself for gaining as much weight back as I did, and I just want it back off. At least to get below 300 again, already! This week, though? I'd be so happy to see a number beginning with 32_. Ah, but I won't be seeing any number until we're into October, so oh well.

I hope you're doing well! Would love to hear from you.