Hi. 🙂 Last week I told you about how I was doing a little detox program and Chris was starting the Whole 30. I actually did my little detox program just like I was supposed to and felt wonderful at the end of the week. I haven’t eaten terribly since I finished, but I’ve definitely had what I wanted along with my mostly healthy meals. Chris, however, is still 100% into this Whole 30, so by default I have ended up doing most of the program with him. I would say I’m on the Half 30. Or maybe even Three-Quarters 30. I must admit that most of the recipes we have tried out from the book have been really tasty, but it is so much work. I feel like all I have been doing for the last 10 days is meal prepping.
So since I’m annoyed today with how much of my life has been consumed by food this month, here are some of my thoughts on starting any kind of a diet program in January:
It’s great to want to be healthier and to figure out which foods make you feel good and vice versa, but doing a strict program for a prolonged period of time (this would be anything over like, five days for me) just doesn’t make sense for me, because I know it’s not sustainable forever. And then how frustrating is that? You eat perfectly for so long and then as soon as your time is up it’s pizza and wine and chocolate and back to normal. Sure, you might pick up some new healthy habits and that is wonderful, but for me having a balanced lifestyle like, all the time, is way more beneficial that being super healthy sometimes and super unhealthy other times. Plus – whenever someone tells me I can’t have something, I just want it more.
The meal prep is insane. I am so freaking sick of tupperware containers and chopping vegetables. I think I have peeled a head of garlic every single day, and we have run our dishwasher like, twice a day every day. I feel like all we talk about is our meal plan for the week and what we need from the grocery store and if it’s worth it to buy a Costco-sized bag of sweet potatoes (spoiler alert: we bought it and now have about 20 sweet potatoes floating around our kitchen that I have no idea where to put them). I am so excited to go out to eat or order takeout or to do anything where I don’t have to cook. Typically I really like to cook, but to this extent it’s just getting ridiculous.
You basically need to have no social life. It’s just easier to stay at home with your boring fresh produce where you know exactly how everything is prepared.
You will spend approximately a million dollars on groceries, but good news – you’re literally not doing anything else, so it evens out in the end.
You will probably go to bed earlier and earlier every night, simply because when you are asleep is about the only time when you’re not thinking about what you will be eating next. Also on this topic, you will probably sleep like a baby.
Some of the recipes you try out will be delicious and you’ll want to recreate them over and over, and others will be disgusting, but you’ll make yourself eat it because you spent so much darn time meal prepping it that you are sure not going to let it go to waste. One of the main recipes I found from the Whole 30 book that we both loved was for a marinara sauce. It was super simple to make and has so many vegetables blended into it. This is absolutely something I can see us making in the future and maybe even freezing batches of.
It really does make you more aware of what you put in your body, which I suppose is an important thing to know. I know for me it’s really easy to go through my day in kind of a haze, but one of my goals I’ve had forever is to be more intentional about everything. Understanding the science behind food is actually really fascinating to me, and playing around with different diets is sort of like practicing what you learn.
There are certain foods that aren’t healthy for you in the slightest but that you love and that is so okay because they are good for your soul. It was our three-month wedding anniversary on Monday (no – we are not the type of couple that celebrates things like that, but I just happened to see the date on the calendar and joked to Chris about it over text while he was at work) and Chris came home from work with some flowers and gummy bears (my favorite) for me. They have been making me so happy all week and are so worth it.
Most likely you will have so much more energy when you are eating only nutritious food. It really is amazing how things like sugar and dairy can slow you down and affect your energy and sleep levels. But I’m never going to give up cheese, so I think I’ll just have to deal with being tired sometimes.
So in summary after all that, diets are just not for me. I would rather simply make good choices most of the time so I can treat myself when I want to and not feel guilty about it, but I understand why that might not work for everybody. Although I’m skeptical of it, I am so proud of Chris for actually doing this Whole 30 and am glad that we have already found some great new recipes to add into our regular rotation from it. But to be completely honest, I am so excited for him to be done with it so we can order some pizza and not have to be consumed by thoughts of food all day.
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