I hate dieting. It’s something I’ve never really done, or stuck to for more than a week or so. One of my friends told me about Whole 30 and how she lost a ton of weight doing it. I thought, hey maybe this is something I could do. I enlisted my two roommates to join me on this crazy diet and August 1, we decided to go for it.
What is Whole 30?
Whole 30 is technically not a diet, but “a way of life” as the creators call it. It’s basically an elimination diet for 30 days. Here are the rules:
-No sugar
-No dairy
-No grains
-No legumes
-No alcohol
Now, that’s a pretty extensive list of what NOT to eat. Not to mention all of those categories are daily staples in my diet. So now that I listed what you can NOT eat, here is what you can eat: whole foods; vegetables, fruits, and protein (meats and seafood). That’s about it. Also, another rule of Whole 30 was you shouldn’t snack. They wanted you to eat 3 meals a day, breakfast lunch and dinner. That’s it. Did I follow this? No. And I’ll tell you why below.
And so it begins…
The first day I thought, wow this is a piece of cake. I can totally do this. I was excited to try this new diet out and more excited to see the end results. But then day two rolled around and I was already starting to regret it. I had BAD cravings. I realized I was seriously addicted to sugar. Not to mention all I wanted was an ooey-gooey cheese quesadilla. The first week was rough, and even the second week was pretty bad. Every day was OK until I hit around dinner time. I’m a huge snacker, with a big sweet tooth. After dinner, I’m always craving some sort of dessert. I substituted my usual desserts with a lot of fruit. Now, I know snacking isn’t a part of Whole 30, but I had to, I was driving myself nuts with the sugar cravings.
The good, the bad and the ugly.
Around the beginning of week two I started to feel a little lighter. Maybe I’m losing weight, I thought. This could all be worth it! Then a couple days later, I felt so bloated and gross. My body was certainly going through a big adjustment period with all the whole foods I was eating. A lot of people mention having extra energy while on Whole 30, I unfortunately didn’t experience this. If anything, I felt more tired. One of my roommates agreed with me on the lack of energy, while the other was the complete opposite. I also had weird food dreams, almost daily. My one roommate said she also had weird food dreams about cheating and eating something she shouldn’t have. It’s crazy to see how much restricting yourself on the foods you normally eat can affect your psyche.
At the half way mark of Day 16, we all decided to weigh ourselves. You’re technically not supposed to weigh yourself until the end of the 30 days, but we were dying to know if this was working. When I stepped on the scale, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I had lost 7 pounds. Woohoo! But here’s where is went down hill. A week later on Day 22, I decided to weigh myself again. I thought, this is great I lost 7 pounds in the first two weeks I surely lost a few more pounds. Nope. I lost .2 pounds. In one week. Granted, I did cheat one night at the movies with a pack of Sour Patch Kids, but I highly doubt that was that detrimental. I had plateaued. My friend who had previously done this diet also told me that she plateaued after the first couple of weeks.
How cheating lead to quitting.
Day 25 was the day I ended my diet. I know, I know, I was so close to the end. But at this point, I knew my body had already plateaued and I probably wouldn’t lose much more weight. And by this point I was hating my life, and this diet. I had never been so restrictive on myself before, and honestly I hated it. On Day 25, it all started with a coworker bringing in donuts. We had meetings all day and donuts are one of my favorite snacks. I was stressed and depressed from not eating sugar and I caved. I had a donut. And honestly, it was worth it. Then that night, we had a work dinner at Baltaire (if you live in LA and haven’t been to Baltaire’s yet, you are seriously missing out). My boss ordered us the lobster mac and cheese for the table, knowing it’s one of my favorites. Seriously, it’s the best mac and cheese in all of LA. Once again, I just couldn’t resist. I already cheated earlier in the day, why not just keep it going. The next day, the same thing happened. We had leftover donuts and leftover mac and cheese. At this point I decided, I was done with this diet.
After eating pretty crappy for a couple of days, I decided to step back on the scale. For sure I had gained atleast half of my weight back, I thought. But to my surprise, I had only gained half a pound back.
Overall thoughts.
Did I enjoy the Whole 30 diet? Yes, and no. Yes, to the fact that I had lost 7 pounds. I was able to squeeze into my favorite pair of jeans that I hadn’t been able to wear in a year. But, other than that no. I really hated being so restrictive on myself. I also hated that it really took a toll on my social life. I couldn’t go out to eat with my friends, like I normally would. And our weekends, were pretty much just sitting at home watching Netflix wishing we could eat some Ben and Jerry’s.
What I did enjoy about Whole 30 however, was learning to cook more. With the Whole 30 diet, you really have to prepare all of your meals. While this is tiring and can get old fast, I did find some really yummy recipes that I will definitely make again. My favorite go-tos for this diet was a Breakfast Chili (thanks Amy for sharing!) and Frozen Mango and Chia Popsicles (image above).
Moving forward, I definitely want to continue to eat healthier than I used to, but certainly not as restrictive as this diet. Have you guys tried the Whole 30 Diet? Let me know what you guys think in the comments below!
