Skip to main content

Whole 30 Days 18-25: Back in the Evolutionary Swing

Just as I discovered when I first tried out the Primal Blueprint back in 2008, it is sort of amazing how quickly the body returns to processing the way it should be.  Only about three weeks into this Whole30 effort, I'm feeling fine and not feeling any real cravings that aren't habit-based (as opposed to nutrition-based).  

I make that distinction because I do have cravings that are habit based. I used to have coffee with heavy whipping cream every morning before this Whole30, and I'd been craving that pretty heavily as I started my work day.  I no longer have that dairy craving - even though it was basically healthy, this is the first time I've ever actively cut dairy out of my diet and I'll be interested to see what happens on May 22 when I add it back in. I haven't given up coffee, I've been having bulletproof coffee with ghee or coconut oil at home and I've been taking it black at work when I've wanted it (and even that has gone down quite a bit over these past weeks).  The only reason I haven't done bulletproof coffee at work is that I don't have a Silver Bullet or immersion blender to make it with - and I'm really not into having an oil slick at the top of my coffee cup.  In any event, dairy will be my first trial of a re-introduction.  

I also had some sugar cravings - I'd frequently do a Lara Bar or even a Hershey bar with Almonds (almonds were my pathetic justification for it!) after lunch.  Those cravings have pretty much gone away.  I'll give high-percentage dark chocolate a try again once this is over - I love chocolate, as I mentioned a while back, and of course the real problem with that is the sugar (and the dairy, but as I indicated above we'll see how it works).  Mostly those cravings were behavior-specific as well - mostly an after-lunch treat.  And I can't eat too much of that stuff because I get a headache from it.  A couple squares of it is all I can handle.  

It's interesting trying something like this and figuring out the difference between a nutritional craving and a habitual craving.  There really is a big difference between them - the nutritional ones just stay on you all day, but the habitual ones hit you at certain times of the day.  Your body is expecting that input at a certain time, because your habits are telling it that the input is coming!  And identifying that is all just having proper mindfulness about things.  

The other big thing that's come out of all this is that I'm doing much better in preparing for meals - as was one of my goals when I set out on this.  Not relying on cheap, quick foods or prepared foods from the grocery has been a big plus.  My vegetable intake has gone up, which is a bonus as well.  And I've saved quite a bit of money simply by not being out and about at stores or restaurants during lunch.  

So with four days left, I'm sort of feeling like the Whole30 experience is more just winding down, instead of building up to a big end where I can get back to what I was doing before.  Which is the best result, I think.  To do otherwise is basically the antithesis of what Paleo is all about.  This isn't a diet, where we stop eating like crap for a month and then go back to what we were doing when the weight falls off.  It's about changing your life, pushing the "reset" button and getting things back to the way we should be.  And in that regard, it's been fantastic.  I'm glad to be feeling the attitude toward this that I am.  

On May 22nd, my Whole30 will be over.  And honestly, I don't feel like I could care less whether it is or not.  

That's success.  

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Caffeine and Cortisol - a 30-Day Experiment

No Caffeine for Me! Today, I began upon a 30-day experiment to reduce my cortisol levels by removing coffee from my diet. The goal is to see how it might be affecting my cognitive function and my belly fat. Cortisol is a hormone that is related to stress .  At a very basic level, cortisol is created as a response to stressors in our environment.  Back when we were still chucking spears at deer and chasing down antelope, cortisol was helping to preserve our lives by giving us quick energy by signalling to our livers that it was time to engage in a process known as gluconeogenesis. This process is basically the breakdown of amino acids, the building blocks of protein, into glucose - one of the two monosaccharides (the healthy one) that our bodies use for fuel. Picture this - you're walking across the street, enjoying the day, when suddenly some inattentive driver tries to turn and doesn't see you.  Your heart rate speeds up, and you get a little burst of speed to quickly sprint o

More on Journaling: So many tools...

Journaling was long a habit that I wanted to pick up but just never did.  And it was never because I didn't believe in its worth, it was that I just never built the habit or found the proper method that worked best for me.  I'd start it for a while, be enthusiastic about it, and then lose the habit when something else came up and interrupted me.   That's all changed for me now, as I look forward each morning and night to journaling in my newest tool I've found.  But that search has clued me in to a ton of great journaling tools that might help you as you're looking for that great push to get you into the journaling habit!   The Five-Minute-Journal:    This is obviously   the one I've adopted .  It's simple, it's quick, and it does the trick.  I won't expand into stuff I've already talked about with this in the two posts I've done on this fantastic tool.  But let's talk about some of the other aspects of the Five-Minute Journal.

Low-carb/Gluten-free helps with ADHD in study

The ADHD Research Centre in Eindhoven, the Netherlands has some interesting things to say about the treatment of children with ADHD: Diet can do it. Medscape, a website affiliated with WebMD , reports on a study by the Centre where groups of children with ADHD symptoms and behaviors were tested on their reaction to an elimination diet. The study included 100 children with ADHD, all of whom were checked for allergic reactions to foods before the study began.  Half were placed into a control group, half into a test group where their diet was limited to "mainly rice, meat vegetables, pears, and water, complemented with potatoes, fruits, and wheat."  And all the children were monitored by their parents for behavior changes. Now here's the interesting part:  after 2 weeks, 41 of the children in the test group were showing no changes, so the diet was limited even more to rice, meat, vegetables, pears, and water.  Notice what was left out:  gluten and fructose via the wheat and