Whole 30 COMPLETE

We did it!!! We did the entire 30 days and didn't cheat once.... During our 30 days we went to an out-of-town wedding with an open bar, and I tried to convince the Officer that one glass of wine wouldn't be a big deal, but the Officer is an "all or nothing" type and he gave me the "well I'm not going to have one, but you can if you want", and obviously I'm waaaay to competitive to be the one that failed the Whole30, so onward we dieted all the way through a delicious-looking Christmas holiday.

The super disciplined Officer has to pack lunch for his 12 hour work days, and this is what it usually looked like on the diet- this diet isn't easy "on the go" 

If you are considering doing a Whole30, you should absolutely do it (but make sure you do it with someone, because solidarity). The first 10 days were very challenging. I was in a grumpy sugar detox, and at lunchtime every day I was twitching for a soda. It was also a learning curve to make a grocery list that first week, and I had to adjust to spending much more time in the kitchen chopping veggies and cooking.

We ate salad almost every day for lunch with homemade balsamic vinaigrette. We topped the salads with all kinds of veggies, eggs, meat, almonds.... they never were boring

After the first 10ish days I started to feel good, and we figured meal plans that worked for us. We happily discovered that we really enjoyed all of the food we ate, and we never felt hungry. I never had any miraculous energy that I secretly hoped I would get, but I did feel really good.

oh my goodness this was one of my favorite meals - Bacon Apple Pork

The Officer and I both lost weight- I lost 16 pounds in the last 30 days. I've never really lost weight in my life, so that has been awesome. My clothes all finally fit again, and I don't feel like I constantly have to try to get my shirts adjusted just right so they are hiding my belly that has grown for 3 babies in the last 4 years. It's also been freeing to have complete control over food for the first time in my life. I have always been an emotional eater, and after a long day I always think "I need" a treat or a drink. In the past I thought I could never really say no to dessert, but for the last 30 days I said "no" every day, and it was easy by the end.

Belle requested that I take a picture of her food too- this is what their dinners usually looked like... I didn't make other meals for them- except the occasional grilled cheese.

I'm so glad that we did this diet, and we are still trying to figure out what we are going to eat now that we are done. I still can't eat dairy, soy, or peanuts, so I won't be able to go too crazy anyway. We both felt so good on this diet, so we want to keep doing some of it, but not as strict. I hope we don't get back into bad habits- then we might have to do another whole30, but I'm not quite ready to consider that again yet.

Here are some of the other meals we enjoyed if you are looking for ideas: whole30