Whole30 Accountability Blog

Well, I finished the 30 days.  I wasn't perfect but I finished.  I know for sure that I was tripped up with sugar in a spice mix I was using in the first part of the challenge.  I also have a feeling that a meal at a restaurant had some sugar or maple flavoring somewhere.  And my exercise routine really sucked which I felt was a missed opportunity.  But I will take having a high percentage of diet compliance for the 30 days as a victory which was rewarded with ice cream.   I wrote enough about what I learned, challenges, weight changes, various thoughts, etc..  I just want to say thanks to Craig for sharing the Whole 30 with me, thanks to everyone for doing it as a group, and to loop me in on future challenges.  This was an impactful event for me and I like the idea of doing this routinely while maintaining a fairly compliant lifestyle.

With 3 days to go, I'm surprised at how hard the last 2 days have been.  It feels like day 7 - 12 as far as how much I want to just stop.  It shouldn't surprise me because I know the voice I keep hearing that says "you've gone far enough".  I think this is how I'm wired because the same thing happens to me when I get close to a goal and like clockwork, the internal argument starts up.  Sometimes I give up and sometimes I finish driven by anger or irritation.  Having quit more than I care to admit I know how bad it feels to be so close and to give up.  I also know how good it feels to cross the finish line.  At this point, I'm easting an average of 3 servings of veggies to 1 meat protein, I'm sleeping like a teenager, and I dropped a few pounds.  Foodwise I'm looking forward to ice cream and popcorn.  I don't really miss cheese, bread or pasta, but Hot Chicken Takeove r with white bread sounds like heaven. 

I can hardly believe day 20 is here.  In some ways it seems like it should be day 2, in other ways like it should be day 200.  The good news I finally noticed a health change.  I have had crazy allergies for a long long time to the point that I would way up at nights to blow my nose because I couldn't breathe.  Most often I would wake up because my wife would wake me for snoring.  My nasal passages are clear as can be right now when I sleep.  Maybe not completely dry but certainly not clogged and certainly not resulting in snoring or waking up.  I'm really stunned by that simple fact. As for what I've learned is that I have more willpower than I thought.  I will get a craving from time to time but on the craving scale it is about a 2 now and passes as soon as I say no.  For example, I carried cracker jacks and cookies around for 2 days from a workshop, so I could bring them to my daughter as a special treat, didn't bother me at all....

I've done pretty darn good, but tonight I was done with it. I felt like I'd gotten out of this what I needed after 25 days so I ate a piece of pizza, had a glass of wine, and a few bites of ice cream. I failed in the sense that this is day 26, but overall, I felt like I learned what I needed to learn here. I think I'll go back to clean until Thursday. It's not like I got cravings and I just couldn't take it... I easily could have stayed on the clean... I just didn't have the desire to anymore. It was weird. I'm not going to beat myself up... I feel like I did pretty darn good and I can still go the next 4 clean if I want. That would still be 30 out of 31 days, except that time I had dairy in my salad dressing. So there you have it. Accountability means you have to tell the truth!

I’ve noticed that my cravings have become less. My routines are changing too. My meals are smaller and I snack more often. I snack on a trail mixture of various nuts (not peanuts), seeds, dried coconut shavings, and  raisins. These last 2 days actually have me thinking that this could be a new lifestyle rather than a 30 day cleanse. Likely not 100% compliant lifestyle but more paleo-like with some indulgences.  While I didn’t do this for weight loss I did hit a weight loss goal today. I crossed the 50lb mark about 12 months after setting the goal. Oddly enough I wasn’t overly excited about the number. Instead I was more satisfied with the total journey of smaller goals I reached so far in that year. I’m in my 40s and I have an eight year old and a one year old. When they are old enough to marry I’m going to be really old. The idea of being healthy and active when they have kids, like my father in law, is really what I set out to accomplish a year ago. Today I feel like I have ...

Next Friday when I wake up in the morning, I might have a bowl of cereal to see if my eye starts to itch! One more week... things are starting to feel more autopilot now. I've been really clean lately... except my small chunks of 75% cocoa dark chocolate after I eat. I've slept really bad last two days... lots on my mind and can't seem to shut it off at times such as 2:30 AM... besides that, I'm feeling great.

Guys, Chelle and I watched (some of) a GREAT documentary called "Love Paleo" from Netflix last night. You MUST watch it with your wife, friends, whomever will listen. It's the best one I've seen yet that explains the full story. Not just food, but sleep, exercise, culture, etc. it is VERY good. My Whole30 observation from yesterday was this: Sustained, even keel energy all day and night. No spikes, no drops, just even.... I worked from 5AM until 9PM (VMware work and personal work building a playset for the kids at church) and I had good energy for the full 16 hours!

Today was pretty easy for me. I’ve noticed that I sleep a lot more. In the past I would sleep about 7 hours. Now I’m sleeping 8.5 hours and am dead to the world. I’m dropping some pounds which is good but not really my goal in this. I’ve not noticed any health improvements like others are reporting. Maybe I need to be more observant in that regard.   I still get a craving for ice cream but it passed quickly today. I also can’t believe how much I like raw almonds.  They are quickly becoming my favorite snack. My cooking habits have adapted pretty well nice not been sealing out many new recipes but instead just augmenting what I typically eat. I have made a few new recipes though which is good. I have noticed that I like vegetables more than I typically ate them in the past.  I also haven’t noticed the difference between eating because I’m hungry vs. eating because it’s time in my routine.  Portions during a meal are certainly less but I still snack on fruit nut...

Took my son out to eat last night and purposefully gave in, but only a little bit. My wife and her friends are doing the same sort of challenge and their penalty for failure is 100 burpees in a row. So I decided I'd take that punishment. It was weird, in my brain I was just like "who cares!" Maybe that's why they make you do it 30 days... because after 20 days the cravings aren't much (at least for me) but you still have to "stick it out" for 10 more days. I took Max out to dinner, just him and me, and he wanted to go to an Italian food spot around here called "The Saucy Noodle"... so I got this salad that I just LOVE there... but the dressing is this amazing homemade gorgonzola dressing and it comes with a (very small, mind you) piece of garlic bread. I just went ahead and ordered it, along with a side of meatballs with "no cheese"... so I was bad on the salad, good on the meatball. For the purposes of looking back on the blog th...

Anyone tried this before? Pat Gelsinger has been doing this once a week for decades and he once told me it makes a huge difference for him. Guidance I have seen is to not eat anything except water, black coffee if you need it... for 18 hours. Best to eat a normal dinner... say, 6PM, then not eat again until noon the next day. So really you are skipping one meal but also no snacks. I've read and heard from friends that it does amazing things to jumpstart metabolism, prevent disease, raise energy, etc. The theory is scarcity: Rather than living as though we can get whatever we want, whenever we want it, we allow some times where there is nothing to eat... go back to our ancient roots. Natural living. You can only eat what you grow and kill.. which sometimes, causes scarcity. The body reacts well to this. Mark Mattson, a neuroscientist who's been intermittent fasting himself for the last 35 years has some suggestions: I suggest that in the morning you drink some  tea  or...

Had some strong temptations last night because we did a family night out to dinner... I think this is the first time we've gone out to eat all month, which is unusual, usually we go out about once a week, sometimes twice if you throw in carry out. We stayed in a hotel last night just for fun in Denver... when you get there, they hand out my kryptonite: warm, gooey, chocolate chip cookie. I politely declined. The kids laughed. They know how much dad loves warm gooey cookies. We went to "The Edge" for dinner, which we do once a year, it's a fancy expensive place but so so good. First thing they do is bring out homemade bread with this yummy salted butter. I declined, kids laughed.. and then I ordered a soda water with lime. But the food was good... I think the sauce on my fish had a little bit of sugar in it, I didn't want to ask. I ordered the healthiest thing I could find on the menu. Had some sashimi and brussel sprouts too. Of course then the kids got invi...

Day 7 sucked beyond any previous day...irritated, headache, cravings.  I had to pull out some old school speed metal to deal with the rage.  Day 8 started rough but I think it was more my own inner jerk coming out because plans weren't working out and things were way behind schedule.  I had a cool discovery.  I grabbed a handful of raw almonds during lunch and did a doubletake on how good they tasted.  Common food I eat from time to time tasted more almondy on day 8.  I also was content after lunch with a smaller portion size.  I had a bummer discovery today, too.  A common seasoning I make (rosemary, smoked paprika, season salt) actually has sugar in it and I didn't know.  It's minimal but felt more rage since I basically had my first trip up by using it on roasted potatoes last night.

What's up fellas? Got a heinous stomach flu Wednesday evening through Thursday, but the good news was that it went away really fast. Everyone else around here (our hood) that has had this it lasted 3-5 days. My cousin is an integrative medicine doctor and I do recall him saying that if you do a Whole30 and then maintain an 85% compliant lifestyle after, your immune system will be a lot stronger... either you won't get sick at all or you'll get less sick and heal up faster. That certainly seems to be the case. I think that's because the sugar is gone, and sugar messes up everything. I recently got a special edition magazine by Nat Geo called "Science" because of the cover story "Sugar's Powerful Pull" and it chronicles the history of sugar in our food supply and the havoc it causes in our brains and bodies. I'll add some of the key stats to my PPTX I sent out to my team at work. I wanted to have a drink last night, I guess because it's F...

Fella's, today is day 12, and its getting better! I lost 5 lbs in the 1st 10 days, but more importantly i am sleeping very well, waking up with no "brain fog" and ready to go! The cravings between 5-8pm are subsiding (to a degree) and I just feel better! I hope each of you is seeing the same thing!!!

So far things have been easy.  That's probably because I've had the flu for 4 of the 5 days.  Being sick had its own challenges that I thought were interesting and brought to mind how ingrained habits can be.  Typically when I'm sick I would grab a couple of gatorades, popsicles, and sleep.  By reflex, I started to do this but stopped myself.  This time I drank a ton of water (90 oz+) and ate apples, bananas, and oranges.  Luckily I didn't have any nausea so I could still eat a little protein each day.  Each day my wife would ask if I needed anything and each time gatorade and popsicles came to mind.  Not because I needed them but that was how I would always answer the question.  I'm glad I had some snack and meal prep done prior.  I was able to grab what I needed and go back into quarantine.  While in quarantine I noticed how many food commercials run each day.  And none of the food is anything that would...

Sleep: 7 hours (not quite enough, my "zone" is 7.5) Compliance: 98%, dark chocolate chunks. Still have the itchy skin thing I had before Whole30, just less. I hope to God it's not chocolate! Gonna cut it out the rest of the week and see what happens.  Workout: Did a CrossFit workout: 3 round for time: Row 1,000M 21 dumbbell thrusters (30 lbs dumbbells) 12 Chest to Bar Pull-Ups Time was around 22 minutes... it was crushing, as usual.  Have a great day!

What's up ya'll? I put a few pics in here. The top one is a must have cook book. Just got it for Chelle for Christmas, everything we've made from it has been awesome. Not all are Whole30 compliant but darn close. I'd think there's some dairy and grains in there, so just watch and sub. Like for cream, you can use coconut milk, etc. The next two are from a trip to the store... one is temptation (fresh pizza out of the oven, smelled SO GOOD!) in the past I'd have a slice, but I ran away. Then you can see what a Whole30 grocery basket looked like today. Getting stuff for some of those recipes! We already had all the meats at the house.  Then a recipe for salmon tacos, where the "shells" are compliant.. they are actually better than corn or flour based. Chelle has the recipe for those on her Facebook blog that I emailed about.  And lastly... I've been working out and getting outside a good bit! I use a Garmin cycling computer which connects to ...

8 nights in, and still haven't slipped. Last day or two I can feel my body getting tired, I guess getting used to the new fuels to burn and not easy cheap carbs of the past :) and making that transition to Ketonic fat burning. -Toughest part is still between 5-8pm, try to keep my mind busy and not focusing on an evening drink. -Friday night made a great Paleo Sheppard Pie that has lasted until Sunday, really good recipe. Need to start cooking some more! -This week and the next 3 will be on the road, so really got to buckle down!

Hey guys, try this trick when you feel tempted for ice cream, crunchy packaged foods, or a drink: Instead of telling yourself to "RESIST THE TEMPTATION!" (which is negative reinforcement... you are telling yourself NOT to do something)... flip that on its' head..... Tell yourself a positive: "For thirty days, I only put clean, healthy things in my body...." when you are tempted to do otherwise. The mind is so powerful, and how we think about or view a thing changes how we FEEL about it dramatically. Worked wonders for me last night. Day 12!