An overall recap of my second Whole30!

Welp my Whole30 is officially done. In fact I have been done for about a week now. After each week I did a weekly recap, but wanted to do a final recap. If you missed my other recaps, you can find them here:

The Start of Whole30 #2
June Whole30 Week 1 Recap
June Whole30 Week 2 Recap
June Whole30 Week 3 Recap
June Whole30 Week 4 Recap

Warning: this post is long, but broken up with a bunch of food pics from the last month haha!

I would say I ate pretty clean beforehand. Lots of veggies, eggs, some animal meat, fruit, quinoa, beans, oats, nuts, healthy fats, and the occasional treat. The main things I cut out of my diet was grains, beans, and dairy. Oh and alcohol. That was a biggie. And I added in a lot more animal protein than I normally would eat.

Honestly coming up with new Whole30 recipes was fun. A lot of the time I did resort to easy stuff…ground meat, sweet potatoes, avocado, eggs, and salads. But I had to make new stuff for the blog so it was fun putting my own spin on some recipes. We also made some new recipes that were great.

I say you need to have a good mix of easy eating and then spicing things up a little. It is good to always have some kind of protein (chicken breast, eggs, ground meat…), sweet potatoes, veggies, leafy greens, avocado, and fruit available and ready to cook or ready to eat. For the times you come home starving, are in a pinch for time, or just feeling lazy, you can fall back on those things. You can’t eat that all the time though. At least I can’t. I would say throw in a new recipe 2-3 times a week for some variety and change of pace. You might find something you love and have it as a staple even after Whole30. [like this curry below]

The good

There were a bunch of good things that came out of Whole30. Throughout the month I had good energy. I also slept pretty well. Overall I lost 3.4 pounds which was nice. My body feels so much more leaner and less bloated. Even if I didn’t lose weight, my body composition is heading in the direction I want it to. I think a lot of this had to do with the no alcohol.

I would say the best benefit was not feeling like I had to workout all the time. I tend to feel guilty when I don’t workout, especially if I have had an indulgent weekend or night. I feel like I need to burn off what I consumed. It is a bad habit that I am trying to break and I really do enjoy working out, sometimes it is just hard to break those thoughts and feelings. On the Whole30 I knew my eating was on point, so if I didn’t feel like working out, I didn’t sweat it. More than half the battle is nutrition anyways.

The bad

I would say I probably spent more money on groceries than I normally would. I wasn’t eating that much meat before, so that can add up quickly. And beans, quinoa, and lentils are pretty cheap. We didn’t go out to eat though, so we saved money on that. It was probably close to balancing out in the end.

When I cut things out, I want them even more. I’m sure this happens to most people. Tell me I can’t have something and I might not even like it that much, but I want it more. My cravings weren’t horrible, but I did want some kind of baked good and a freakin smoothie real bad.

My social life was pretty lacking during the month. You can tell from my June Rewind that most of the month was spent at home. I did get a lot of stuff done that I probably wouldn’t have gotten done otherwise though. So that was a plus. But I enjoy going out to eat, trying new places/things, and being out with friends.

One thing I have been trying to focus on is intuitively eating. Eat when I am hungry, stop when I am full. I sometimes felt that I was eating just because it was dinner time. Or I needed to eat lunch now so it would digest in time for working out later. I didn’t want to not eat and then be hungry later at weird times. I guess I would just say I felt like I wasn’t listening to my body as much as I would have liked to.

Realizations

Holy crap I used to snack way too much. Most of the time I wasn’t even hungry and it was just out of boredom or habit. Even though it was mostly all healthy, it was excess calories that I didn’t need.

I kind of enjoyed not drinking alcohol as much as I was. And I barely even drink that much compared to a few years ago. Before Whole30 I probably drank 1-2x a week. But those one of those days probably consisted of at least 4-5 drinks. I mean Saturday day drinking in the summer is so much fun. But then Sunday comes and I am worthless. I hate that feeling of doing nothing. I constantly feel like I have something I need to be doing, so doing nothing doesn’t work for me anymore. And like I said, I am pretty sure not drinking helped me lean out.

Don’t get wrong, I’m not saying I will never drink again. Just not as much as before.

Final thoughts

Overall the month was not that bad. I did cut out some of my favorite foods and staples, but did I die? No. Did I miss them? Yes and no. Yes I did want them on occasion, but didn’t really need them.

I really missed going out to dinner. We don’t even go out that much, but I like to try new places every so often and not have to cook one night. Food makes me happy, especially prepared by some of the awesome chefs in Austin.

I have talked to some of my friends and a few of them agree that you feel somewhat lost when you are done. Yes you want to keep feeling like this and seeing results, but you can’t keep simply doing the Whole30 forever. I miss going out to dinner an trying new things. Having a drink or two on the patio. Eating pizza with my boyfriend.

What I come to realize is that life is about balance. For me I need to pick and choose if things are worth it or not. Do I want the corn chips and salsa? Yes. Do I need to have them…not really. I could easily sub plantain chips, or even better cucumber slices. If we are getting my favorite gelato made from local ingredients and grass-fed cows, then yes, that is completely worth it. I can still eat clean for the day and have a splurge here and there.

As of right now I plan to stick to the Whole30, just not as strict. I haven’t really introduced anything back in yet (except a little alcohol and popcorn, and didn’t feel the best the next day). I plan on adding in beans and some dairy here and there. Maybe some gluten free grains too. But I want to keep it pretty clean until we go on a beach vacation in mid-August. I might slip up here and there, but need to remember that one little thing will not derail all my progress.

It is a marathon, not a sprint!