Day 30?!?!

We're done!

 

Breakfast: Hardboiled egg & some coconut milk
Lunch: mixed greens salad, peppers, & carrots w/ grilled chicken & Oil & red wine vinegar
Dinner: Grilled chicked & some mixed nuts

Wow, it's really day 30.  But, it's not so final as it felt before.  Day 30 is the end of this Whole30, sure, but it's definitely not the end of a big change. I've cut out a ton of crap from my diet, and I have no intention of introducing [most of] it back in. The biggest things that are gone to stay are the processed, fake food from a wrapper, fake sugars, and random sugary snacks like Oreos & Elf cookies that used to permeate my days. I've found much better things to snack on that make me feel a whole lot better.

So I said yesterday that I would discuss all the benefits in this post:

Why I'm glad I did the Whole30

1. I don't get huge swollen mosquito bites anymore (this alone would have been enough to convince me that I was doing something right).
2. My skin has cleared up immensely.
3. It's helped me figure out which foods make me sick (not 100% sure about an allergy yet... blood work this week though).
4.  My hair & nails are growing faster.
5. I'm now 16 lbs lighter than I was when I started & wear a size 6 (which I haven't worn since my junior year of high school).
6. I actually know how to cook things now & find time to do it every day (even for breakfast!)
7. I can run faster & can tell that I’m more agile when playing sports.
8. I learned a lot about nutrition (mostly from Joe... clearly the reader of the family).
9. I started a blog that motivated other people to try the Whole30, too!

Why I'm not glad I did the Whole30

1. Now I’m spoiled and want to eat this way forever... Which will be expensive.
2. I will never get the hours of my life back that I spent explaining why I'm not eating _insert food_ or drinking _insert alcoholic bev_.
3. That's it. I'm mostly glad.

Now, for some really embarrassing pictures:

The left picture is before, the right is after (hopefully that's obvious).  I absolutely HATE these before pictures but I feel like I have to post them in order to really show the difference.  Same pair of jeans in both pics, but a whole lot looser now :)