Whole 30: Day 11-20

Collard green chicken wrap

Prosciutto wrapped cod with roasted veg

“Deconstructed” salmon omelette with salad and dates.

Burgers on a potato bun. We *almost* don’t miss the bun.

DAY ELEVEN – NINETEEN …we are starting to fall into a Whole30 rhythm. Sure, Day 10 was rough, but every day is a new day. I know that holds true in all facets of life, but it’s especially true in Whole30 world. One minute, fantasizing about punching defenseless strangers. The next, running 5 miles while whistling and smiling.

Here are the big lessons learned:

• We were so bloated before. SO BLOATED all day everyday, and we didn’t even know it until now. It’s kind of freaky.
• Overall cravings are way more manageable/non-existent. Dairy was my first craving, then grains, then sugar. Clay craved sugar first, then bread, then dairy. I’ve always identified myself as more of a sweet tooth than Clay, but the cravings don’t lie! Now we look at a cupcake and go “meh.” Seriously, who are we?!
• Don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone! So true. It became quickly apparent how often we used food to get us through the day, every day. An afternoon snack. A salted caramel after lunch at work, and another one a few hours later just because. Clay realized that he eats the branch’s dum dum suckers when he’s bored or discouraged or lacking energy. (So the next time you’re at Chase bank and all the cream soda suckers are gone, chalk it up to Clay having a rough day.)
• I HAVE’NT BEEN HANGRY ONCE! This is a HUGE WIN! As I mentioned in this post, hangry is who I am always. My parents were like “Oh, like the snickers commercials?!” … Kind of. Except more big green Hulk and less Monroe.We’re not starving, ever. Waiting an extra hour, or even two, for our next meal isn’t a big deal anymore. That doesn’t mean we aren’t ever hungry, it’s just that we aren’t shaking, or whining, or turning into the Hulk because we’re so hungry we can’t think. As a result, neither of us eat until our sides burst because we don’t get home and do this anymore:

• We are also a lot better at discerning hunger vs. craving. boredom. We ask ourselves if we’re hungry enough to eat boiled broccoli and steamed rice, or another unappetizing equivalent. Clays asks “am I hungry enough to eat Ethiopian food?” (which he strongly dislikes and describes as eating different colored pastes) and if the answer is no, then it’s a boredom or a craving. (On the flip side, I love Ethiopian food! Little Africa is so good!)
• There’s sugar in everything. We didn’t realize how much until we can’t have it. I didn’t expect to find it in my tuna, or balsamic vinegar, 99% of bacon and even the less processed deli meat, certain hot tea, even UNsweetened ice tea. Pretty much everything has sugar in some form, and it’s frustrating. No wonder we’re all addicted to it, it’s everywhere.
• Clay noticed we weren’t eating enough vegetables pre-Whole30. I’m not trying to make us sound better than anyone, but we did eat a fair amount of vegetables before. People would look in our refrigerator and remark about all the produce. So it makes me wonder how many people are even more nutritionally unbalanced than we were?

On DAY TWENTY  I did journal that I had fierce sugar cravings. So intense I started to cry. “This is hard. This is hard.” I mean, what! Get a grip, Brinks! Looking back the whole tantrum seems ridiculous, yes. But at the time it was #thestruggleisreal. SO REAL.

Anyways, we are over halfway there! It’s gone by so fast and yet it feels like we’ve been doing this forever all at the same time.

10 more days. Eeek!