Whole30: Day 1

Why do we wait for specific days to make meaningful change in our lives? (NOTE: bear with me this will be a little long)  Why does the date on the calendar dictate what we are going to do? Most people make a meaningless gesture on January.1st to lose weight after a month of literally stuffing themselves from American thanksgiving, through all the Christmas parties, trays of danties brought in by co-wokers. I have never done New Year's resolutions because I think they are bullshit. You can change you life right this very moment if you want to ("But I just opened this Diet Coke!")

I typically get a bug up my ass about changing my life in either April or September (the last 2 years it has been September). There is no need to wait for the magical first of the year to do something big, something really bold! All of this really stems from yoga.

Yoga changed my life...dare I say, yoga saved my life. I got an email from my studio saying come in for a cheap month. With the weather getting cold I though delicious hot yoga would be a great way to keep moving if I couldn't be out on Drake. Soon after I started they offered their signature 30 day challenge...30 days of hot yoga (with a sticker chart...look at mah stickerz!)

 I participated in 30 days of hot yoga not missing a day and attending over 50 classes in the 30 days. I also went to a special workshop put on by my studio in which I heard a phrase which reshaped the way I was thinking and had been thinking for awhile. The speaker said:

"If you are running FROM something, you can run forever...but if you are running TOWARDS something you have to get there eventually"

I got....it made sense for me. I was running and had been for a long long time and I didn't want to anymore. I was going to stop running from something and starting running towards something and that was going to be the best version of me possible. That was in October.

Yoga gave me courage and strength both mental and physical and my amazing friends silently lead by example. A.C sent me the Whole30 link in the summer and I thought "Whoa, crazy pants no way am I there yet" I probably thought this while drinking a beer but now I am ready. Really ready. Ready to stand up and be accountable for myself and my health because I am so worth it

 So without further ado I am making my official statement

*I AM STARTING MY WHOLE30 TODAY WITH 100% COMPLIANCE*

I want to be standing at the top of the mountain (metaphorically...work with me) on January.1st not at the bottom unable to see the top because the clouds are distorting it. Along the way I will share my recipes, goals, struggles and whatever else comes to me all with fun pictures because reading is for wankers but since you are all wankers already and have made it this far...MOAR reading for your wankery eyes.

I did not do this on a whim. I am in fact going against 2 things that the Whole30 people advocate (sorry Melissa & Dallas...don't hate me, I'll make ya proud).  Don't do this...listen to them, they are the experts but I know me better than they do (sorry again!).

#1...they thought it would be unwise to do a Whole30 over the holiday. I have no big family dinner to attend with Aunt Milfred's special lard crack pie. I do not work in a modern prison office building where Jane, Sally and Barb have all stocked the break room table with more grains, sugar and dairy. There is no boozey work party to attend or friends that are heavy drinkers that would be douchebags and pressure me.

#2...they also advocate a "JUST START NOW" approach. I am a planner, a maker of lists, a fan of pondering and writing things down. I have spent over a month preparing for this by reading, reading, reading FOR THE LOVE OF READING, I bought "It Starts With Food" and I read some more,  I slowly cleared my house of tons of food items and totally reorganized my kitchen cabinets, I slowly bought all the expensive shit like coconut everything, acv etc etc etc (there is a lot to buy if you are going for 100% compliance), sourcing good food in various stores, ordering things online, MORE reading, trying out recipes, talking with friends and finally a 99% compliant 6 days prior to today that I never told y'all about. I know full and well I would have failed miserably on the first day without this preparation.  I set myself up to be successful by preparing, by knowing that I can't drink boxed almond milk, knowing that tons of shit contains sulphites and propolyene glycol yackyackyack.

If I don't lose a pound I don't give a crap (probably since I have lost about 25lbs since September) but it doesn't matter. I am going for 100% compliance and my long term goal is to make this my family's way of life which I have already begun to do with no resistance.

In order to gauge progress I went to see K.P at her sweet place of work to get a BIA done. A BIA is a bio-impedance analysis. It tells you specifically what your body make up is...what percentage of you is fat, water, muscle etc. I wish I would have taken one of these in September, I would have had very dramatic results (I have gone down 2 cup sizes and lost over 5 inches off my waist...these are all just casual clothing observations)

The numbers are good...really good, so good in fact I am slightly worried I am about to make a fool of myself and there will be only a tiny amount of change. I plan on taking this test again at the end of my Whole30 so I am able to have something to compare it to.

Apparently K.P says it looks good. My lean body mass is .2 over their mean "norm" and my body fat is .2 under the mean. I am so over judging fitness and healthy by weight (for myself...if you are fat you are probably unhealthy...sorry). I want my lean body mass to go up and my fat mass to go down (but not too low...woman are naturally "fatter" thanks to babies and biology) I don't care if I stay the same weight, I WANT TO BE RIPPED!  My basal metabolic rate which is the amount of calories your body needs just to do the day to day breathing and cellular repair is 1616 which is 200 over their "normal" mean for my age...this is because I have more lean muscle and lean muscle takes more calories to support than fat mass. Yeeehaw muscle!

Ok no more words and science...PICTURES! This was yesterday's breakfast. Everyone I spoke with wondered why the test kitchen was closing...fear not...I am pretty sure I need to eat every single day for the rest of my life and I still have a few things to test out that I didn't get a chance to do this past week. I stole this recipe from Fast Paleo and hacked it to my own liking. I am physically incapable of following a recipe exactly to the letter. I always tweak or change something. Proscuitto eggie cups. I am loving my ramekins. Line with meat

Sautee any veg you like...zucchini is my go to breakfast veggie and mushrooms since we had fresh ones.

3 eggs beaten then dumped on the whole lot

After about 25 minutes of sweet love in the Breville

Mmmm easy and delicious

 

 Veggies loves me and I lurve veggies

I took these 2 pictures at K.P's work

This was on the wall in the test room...my favourite part... "You live inside a body that either serves or limits you"... this sounds so much like what Melissa & Dallas say "The food you eat either makes you more healthy or less healthy...there is no food Switzerland" treat your body well and it will take care of you.