My dear friend Jes gifted me It Starts With Food for Christmas last year. She had done a round of Whole30 with her family in November and had told me a about it — I expressed interest in learning more so she gifted me the book. She told me that she and her family were starting another round on January 5th and that they’d be a support to me if I wanted to try it.

I decided that I wanted to do it. I wanted the change. I read (most) of It Starts With Food and The Whole30, I researched online A LOT about the rules and dos and don’t and on January 4th I was meal prepping for the week. Eeee! I won’t get you wrong, it was hard and scary to start. I’m not a particularly good cook, not a morning person so I rarely prepared breakfast, and I felt I was basically a huge wimp who’d been so lazy for such a long time that how in the hell would I be able to pull this off.

In the book, they say things that are actually hard to do: fight cancer, etc. and I really let that resonate with me. I work for a charity that raises money for children’s hospitals. These kids would do anything to be strong and healthy and here I am with a healthy body that I wasn’t being good to. I made the intention when starting to change the bad habits I’d grown accustomed to. I desired so deeply to understand my relationship with food and how I had used it as a comfort, punishment and pleasure.

Anywho, moving right along — meal prep + learning how to cook went really well (hahahahah):

I had some setbacks, just from being new, I accidentally ate pasta sauce with soybean oil in..for dinner, lunch and dinner over the course of three days. When I realized it..I was COMPLETELY crushed. I knew I had to start over. I seriously wanted to run to Wendy’s and eat my feelings (SUCH a wimp!) and I had only been on day four (better than being on day 22, amirite??!?). Realizing how OVER I was of running to food for comfort, I started day 1.2 the next day. Delicious dinner with soybean oil in it pictured below:
As the weeks went on, I felt more and more amazing and proud of myself:
I became a breakfast maker and eater: And ate fancy dinners (without soybean oil!): Even lou loved all my cooking (yes, even the brussels sprouts):
By day 30, I was feeling amazing. I had lost weight, but more importantly, I had gained a pride in myself that I’ve only experienced once before when I got a B+ in Math 1050 😉

Fast forward to today and I’ve lost 37.6 pounds. Whaaaaaaaat! More exciting than that, I have found a food freedom that allows me to feel good and continue to improve. With that said, I’m participating in Whole30 in September because I feel like I need a reset.

My goals for this round, as I mentioned in my previous post, are to:
become a better cook.
drink enough water.
eat a complete plate.

Good luck to all of those starting your Whole30 journey. Reminders if you’re feeling like continuing to be a wimp ass:

LOVE YOU,

yes, you.

B