Whole30 Results

Bernice Baran
Feb 5, 2018
5 min read

Probably should've done this like five days ago butttt here's my whole30 results! I will start by being totally honest...I know it says to restart your 30 days if you cheat but there was no way I was going to restart! Lol, I took a couple bites of non-whole30 approved things. I had to bake a cake for church and there was no way I was serving something I hadn't tried and I also ate chicken that was seasoned/cooked at a restaurant, but honestly that is not worth restarting! So if you read my post on starting whole30, I initially did this as a challenge for multiple reasons (you can see everything it could help with here) but my three main ones were:

Energy - I've been extremely sluggish this past year.
Acne - I've been breaking out for about three months and I've never had acne before.
Bones/joint pain - I've always had major headaches, bone and joint pain.

Of course, I was curious whether or not I'd lose weight but if I'm being completely honest I hoped I'd lose a little but I did not expect to lose anything (if you keep your expectations low, you don't get disappointed, lol). Reason being, I don't lose weight quickly or easily, I can never stick to a diet long enough to even see results, and when I diet I find it very difficult to work out. Whole30 is only 30 days and losing more than 1-3 pounds a week is unrealistic, for an average size human, so I would expect a weight loss of 5-10 pounds for most people (not for myself). I lost 3 pounds, lol. In fact, two weeks in, I was up one pound, then I lost five, then I gained one. So my net is three pounds. You're only supposed to weigh yourself on the first and the last day but I couldn't resist, lol and normally I NEVER weigh myself...I was just so curious! I will say, even though I didn't lose much on the scale, I feel lighter and I feel like my clothes fit a little better.

We'll talk about the calendar first for a second. If you look at the chart, it's scarily accurate for most people. I had most of the symptoms around the same time but they lasted way longer for me.

My headaches lasted like a week or so.
My dragon phase lasted TWO WEEKS not two days (Narcis told me I'm never doing whole30 again, lol)!
The nappy/sleepy/sluggish phase lasted about two and half weeks.
Bloating lasted maybe 3-4 days.
Dreaming of junk food lasted 30 days, lollllll. JK I think I only had one dream.
Tiger blood lasted only a week...it's like the best part and of course it was shorter for me.
Day 21-30 was pretty accurate.

Back to the main reasons for doing whole30, here's what I saw:

Energy - I was a COMPLETE BUM the first two weeks, I think I worked out once during that time. I felt like I had no energy whatsoever, like worse than before starting but then around tiger blood, week 3ish, I had KILLER ENERGY! I did start working out again around this time as well.
Acne - I didn't see any difference in my skin the first 2-3 weeks but towards the end, I felt like it cleared up a bit. It's not as big a difference as I hoped but those big painful zits are gone and the little tiny ones that I keep picking at are still there (most people are like what acne, your face is always so clear...it's in my hairline so no one can see them but they itch and hurt *eye-roll emoji*.
Bone/joint pain - I feel like I had almost no bone or joint pain the entire time and as soon as February (I just spelled February like nine times before I got it right) came around my legs started aching.

I know you're supposed to do reintroductions with food groups and what not but the truth is I just did this as a challenge and I don't plan on cutting out any food groups long-term anyway. I do like some of the things that whole30 taught me. I plan to continue some of the habits I've acquired during this past month, such as checking all of my labels, eating more home cooked meals, making more things from scratch, etc. I don't plan on being extra strict, and I did sort of feast the entire weekend after but hopefully I can continue/learn to eat healthier on a regular basis.

As for these photos you see here, this is what I baked this past weekend! I was really craving those pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and letttt meeee telllll youuuuu, they were every bit as good as I dreamed! The cake pops/cakesicles I made for Mara since we couldn't properly celebrate her birthday in January. The croissant looking things I wanted my mom to teach me how to make for another friend's birthday; I'll have to do a post on those soon. The cinnamon rolls I made for my family and of course I had some too, lol. Last but not least...I had three different types of pizza this weekend...that's a little embarrassing but honestly I didn't do it on purpose! I did plan on going to Pizza House on February 1st because they're feta breaaaadddd *drooling emoji* but then I worked Friday night and Saturday night and when I woke up Sunday, Narcis had left over pizza in the fridge...which I ate. Then we had a last minute get together with my family and there was more pizza...what was I supposed to do?! I will admit, I am a bit of a pizza addict.

After all that eating you would think I would've had a stomach ache and felt terrible... NOPE! Not even bloated! I feel great, except I do feel sluggish again, lol. I will say, I do prefer my sweets a little less sweet now, and I do put a lot less milk and sugar in my coffee than before; it's actually about half as much as I used to because I got used to drinking straight black coffee.

If any of you have done whole30 before, let me know how it went for you! I think it's a great challenge to do and really requires a lot of discipline but it's not something I would live by religiously. I think it's great to eat healthier and being aware of what you are eating in general but life is about balance and that's different for everyone. I am now on the quest to finding my happy medium. Oh yeah, and I almost forgot! My February resolution is to stretch for 30 minutes everyday. I HATE stretching and I'm really bad at it but I bet my joints will thank me by March! Thanks for reading friends, as always, have a blessed, fabulous day!