Check out the beginning and middle of my Whole30 Adventure - week 1 and week 2-3.

Whew!  I did it! Two days ago marked 30 days since I began my Whole30 adventure.  And I am proud to say that I finished it, with only a few, minor deviations.  When I first started, I was slightly unsure how I would do the entire 30 days of eating only meats, fruit and veggies, nuts, some oils and olives.  But, I somehow managed to stick with it, and here I am, 30 days later, trying to figure out what to do next!

A few weeks ago, I would have said I could have never done a paleo-type diet for any length of time.  But now, I'm not sure!  My body feels good.  I've lost weight.  I seem to have energy, in spite of running around after 2 toddlers and nursing an infant.  I enjoy the foods I've been eating (although sometimes the amount of meat I need to consume gets to me...this coming from the girl who could probably do without meat completely!).  I sleep soundly.  I don't have those middle-of-the-day energy crashes.  I don't need coffee to wake up.  Basically, my body feels good after doing a Whole30.

What next?  Short-term is easy.  These next few days are mostly reintroduction days, where I'll spend a few days adding in dairy, then grains, then legumes, to see exactly how my body responds to those food groups.  This will give me a good idea of how each food group affects me personally, so I can judge whether I want to fully incorporate them back into my diet, or whether I'll want to be more careful and watch my intake of specific foods.

I am also curious to see how the foods I reintroduce back in affect Evie, since I fully breastfeed.  It'll be interesting to see if she is fussier/gassier due to any food groups.  Maybe she won't be at all!  Or maybe she will be.  It'll be nice to know what foods affect her more.

As far a long-term goes, I'm not exactly sure.  I guess once I know how each food group affects me, I'll be able to better determine what I'll do.  I know it's not realistic for me to follow a strict paleo diet forever.  I enjoy cheese and dessert and tortillas way too much.  But maybe it'll mean I loosely follow a paleo-type diet.  The other factor has to do with budget.  It seems to me that eating more meat and buying coconut oil/ almond flour/etc will end up being more expensive in time, but maybe I am wrong, and there are ways to keep grocery costs down.  

Although I know I won't jump too fast into my old eating habits (mostly because my body might freak out and feel awful!), and I'm not exactly sure what my new eating habits will look like, I am proud to have completed my Whole30.  I am proud that I stuck with it, in spite of having moments that were hard, were I wanted to give in and give up.

A shout-out to my mom - seriously, couldn't have done this thing without her!  I would often text her and tell her I wanted a donut or a latte or a hot, buttered roll - and she encouraged me to keep at it for a few more days!  And look, here I am!  On the other side, woot!

And wow, all of a sudden, a huge slice of raspberry white chocolate cheesecake sounds SOOOO good!

A few of the recipes we tried the past week, that I enjoyed - Turkey Chili, Butternut Squash Soup, Spaghetti Squash Egg Nests