Whole30 Results and Throwing Out the Scale

First, scales aren't totally meaningless, but the number they shoot back at you is. I'm not talking about people with real health problems who might have perfectly good and necessary reasons for having a scale or needing to know how much they weigh. I'm talking about people like me. People who step on a scale at least every other day to see what the number will say. People who step on a scale for vanity, assigning power to the loss of pounds. But here's the thing.. how much you weigh doesn't even come close to defining what you look like, what your body shape is, or how healthy you are. 

One of the Whole30 rules was that you couldn't weigh yourself for the entire 30 days of the program. So after I weighed myself on Day 0 I took the scale and put it at the top of my linen closet. Out of sight out of mind. I'm sure there are lots of reasons why this is a rule, but in my life it helped me to focus on how things were changing without getting hung up on a number. 

If this picture was a feeling.. I have felt it.

I'll come back around to the numbers later, but here are some of the things I loved about the Whole30:

• Portion Sizes
  
  If there is one thing that will make me fail on an eating program, it's limiting my food. I need a program that says "here are the right foods, and fill up your plate." That's what this did. Eventually you get less ravenous and things even out, but I am still in shock that I didn't go up a size in clothes with all of the food I was eating. Especially all of the homemade mayo. I am officially a mayo person.
• It's Challenging
  
  This seems like a weird thing to love, but it's empowering because it is a challenge. I know I have issues with some foods. It's hard to get over emotional ties or longstanding history. Just so we are clear, I am still talking about food. Doing this for 30 days showed me that I can be more powerful than a craving. Discovering that power gave me power in other things. It's like a self esteem up-cycle.
  
  
• FREE Resources for DAYSSS
  
  You don't have to buy the books. You can do this entire thing very easily with the power of the internet. The Whole30 website has every tool that you can get in the book except the recipes. But all you have to do is google "Whole30 recipes" and there are TONS of things right at your fingertips. Want to know if something is compliant? Google it. Because this program has been around for a few years, someone, somewhere has asked your question. And someone answered it. Google can find it all for you. Can't tell you how many times I used my phone to check for compliant ingredients. One of my best days was when I found out San Daniele Prosciutto was compliant. And melons are in season.

• The Whole30 Community
  
  There are TONS of strangers on the internet who REALLY want to help you make it through your Whole30. They want you to succeed. Strangers who taught me why my first attempt at homemade mayo failed. Strangers who suggested I eat more sweet potatoes (that's a good stranger) and strangers that told me to drink even more water. Strangers who cook things that you see and then you are like "shit I forgot about monkey salad!" and your life changes for the better. 

Now the results. At the end of my 30 days (before I step on a scale) here is where I am:

• A Better Me
  
  I'm happier. I can say that without a doubt. It's nothing to do with "I'm happier with my physical appearance," I'm just happier. I feel more optimistic. I don't get anxious about things, and that's coming from someone who at one time in her life got anxious about everything. I am more fun to be around and that makes me a better wife and a better mom. The ripple effect means that my relationships are working, my kids are happy, my marriage is strong. Because when you work on yourself, things around you kind of magically become better, too.
• Solid Sleep
  One night over this 30 day period, I swear I woke up in the exact same position I went to sleep in. It's the same amount of sleep, but the quality is so high. It makes a huge difference in my mornings and my days.
• Clearer Skin
  
  I was hoping the Whole30 would completely clear up some random eczema problem areas I have, and while it did improve them, I would probably have to live a very clean long term life to get rid of them. My skin in general though was much clearer and the areas I usually put concealer on weren't red anymore. Since I don't wear makeup every day, that was an easy one to tell. So dark circles and red t-zone became even toned and non greasy.
• Energy on Retainer
  
  It's not energizer bunny energy, it's energy that is there when I need to use it. When I do use it it's consistent and not up and down. I don't have an afternoon crash anymore, and that is huge with the kids. They want to go everywhere and do everything, and they should. Now I can better facilitate our adventures.
• Speaking of the Kids
  
  The Whole30 rules asked me to sit down to a meal 3 times a day. I found myself often sitting at the table with my kids eating. They want to try what I have (if it's not what they have) and this opened me up to a whole lot of foods that they love, but have never been exposed to. Plus my daughter very much wants to do what "grown ups do" right now. When I eat junk, they want junk. When I eat healthy, whole foods, they want healthy whole foods. The snacks that they ask for have changed over the last 30 days. That is just INSANE to me how much of an impact what I eat has on what they want. When you clean out all of the cheddar bunnies they will eventually start asking for fruit instead. But let's be realistic, there will still be cheddar bunnies and pirate's booty, and popcorn on movie night.
  
  
• This Way of Eating is now EASY
  
  Which is an insane thing to say considering I spent the first 10 days of the Whole30 walking around with the cookbook like it was my phone and having mini panic attacks when I would lose it. Even though this 30 days has something to do with the myth that it takes 21 days to form a new habit, I did form some new habits. Of course I still have a lot of my deep rooted old ones, so maybe it's just that I formed a back bone or the ability to overcome my old habits. Whatever happened, it made this way of eating pretty straightforward and simple for my continuing days thus far. 

So here is why I am giving my scale the side eye, if not a kick out of the door. In 30 days of hard core commitment, but no official working out, kitchen slave level cooking, marathon grocery shopping, not drinking, bloated belly, energy DRAIN, physical withdrawal, BOTH kids having ear infections (on separate occasions), two 2 year molars breaking through, memorial day weekend, a 100 year flood, 4 children's birthday parties, 1 wedding, and low lows followed by high highs.... well I took a look at the noticeable changes in my body and I expected that I had lost somewhere around 7-10lbs. But I lost 4. And I'm not unhappy about that, because I am happy with my physical results, I'm just stunned at the power I used to give the number on the scale. I'm REALLY glad I didn't get on a scale for 30 days. Because when the days were hard (and some really were) if I would have gotten on a scale and seen that I hadn't lost any weight or had lost 1 pound, I might have gotten into the "it's not working for me" mind game instead of embracing all of the changes that were happening beyond the scale. 

 I didn't do this to lose weight. If I lost weight I wasn't going to complain, but I am not overweight. I wanted to get rid of belly bloat (which I did) and just kind of see where this would take me. I am probably an 80/20 healthy real food eater, but when I do one of these things I realize how much mindless eating I do. This is especially true when it comes to my kid's food. There are all kinds of new things that you learn about your eating habits when you take on something like this.

I took before and after pictures and I wasn't going to post them. First, because it's not really my thing, and second because these pics are literally rolled out of bed selfies in the bathroom mirror. If I planned to share them I would have put some more thought into them. But with the 4lb loss I feel like the photos better illustrate the body changes. I also measured before and after and will give those stats as well. So here we go:

L: The Day Before my Whole30 (Day 0)  R: The Day After my Whole30 (Day 31)

I did also take a picture of myself blowing my stomach out as far as it would go and then sucking my stomach in with protruding ribs. Both of these photos are relaxed body. I lost 1.5 inches in my waist, 1 inch in my hips, .5 inch on each thigh and 1 inch in my bust. Arms stayed the same. And yes, I do think that 2 of those 4 lbs came out of my bra. And I'm not complaining.

So there it all is. Lots of words that I can sum up like this: I learned a lot over those 30 days. About my relationship with food, but also about myself. I like the me on the other side of the Whole30 better. I think my results would have been more drastic if I hadn't have already tamed my sugar dragon last year, but the results were still amazing from an emotional standpoint. I didn't realize I was feeling bad until I got back to feeling good again. 

If you think a Whole30 is too much for you to take on, then pick some smaller goals and work your way up. That is essentially what I did. My journey started a year ago when I gave up refined sugar for a month. My food choices only improved from there and then out of the blue I wanted to take on the Whole30. If someone was on the fence I would say absolutely do it. But it's not something that is for everyone and I respect that as well. The really insane thing I didn't see coming until I was done: I know now that this will not be my last Whole30. But I promise to officially stop talking about it (unless asked) until it's time for the next one. 

Seriously --thanks everyone for the support. Y'all have been lifesavers and completely amazing. Now here's to summer cocktails with zoodles, steak and eggs. 

The daily journey continues at www.instagram.com/raisingtexas.

B

So I've Been Busy.... again.

I was kind of absent last week and I'm very sorry about that. The thing is, I usually blog at night, and almost every night we had something happening. Friends in from out of town, concerts, my sister, A, and my niece and nephew in town, I have a toddler, etc. This particular night the Texans are on Sunday Night Football, and I've been a Texans fan since before they were good. This means EVERY season with the exception of last season when they first went to the playoffs and this season when they are undefeated. I'm not going to lie to you and say I clear my schedule to watch every game, but when they are on Sunday Night or Monday Night I watch. Then I take a quick Revenge break, and then I watch again. Bulls on Parade... GO TEXANS. 

Ok, so back to actual real life. This week we have some more easy one pot fall food coming your way, and instead of a fattening Friday, a FIT Friday. Have to keep those a little more even. We might even discuss my least popular posts, I haven't quite decided about that. S went to the grocery store this week, so I'm not sure what we are having for dinner. It's like a cooking adventure. Here are some shots from last week.

L (wearing her friend B's pjs) spent most of Monday falling down on purpose and saying "Uh-Oh" followed by "Help?" and "Up Up?"

 I didn't get any shots with our Tuesday night dinner friends, but Wednesday we had a dinner date and saw the Shins.

 This might be the same Elvis from Saved by the Bell that Screech's mom was so obsessed about. You know the one. They broke it while they were at his house while the parents were out of town. I needed to capture it.

My sister was in town Friday, but I didn't get any pictures because Landon was too busy showing off and running around like a crazy little toddler monster with her cousins. Saturday we came back from my parent's house and went to see the Soul Rebels that night. It's like a lot of New Orleans heaven in Houston. I loved it. They are AMAZEBALLS.

Continental Club

Rebel Music

NOLA Brass

At least when I have excuses they are really fun excuses and I show you pictures! See you tomorrow as I try to make up for last week. Nothing going on this week... that's a Unicorn Promise. You can take that to the bank! 

-RT

Now That We're Friends....

You can just call me RT Homemaker. Or Becky Homemaker. That's my real name anyway. Google me. But don't look that name up on facebook. Unless you enjoy seeing a naked, morbidly obese Barbie. You're going to do it aren't you? Well THAT'S NOT ME! Unless I've had a lot to eat. Really. 

Once when I was 13 I cut my own bangs and they looked like this.

 I think I'm a somewhat conventionally modern homemaker, like lots of women and some men. I am mainly in charge of the baby raising and related products, I care more about cleaning products, detergents, and family paper products and am more brand specific than S. I know what cleaning product is best to use when and on what kind of stain. S knows how to cook and also how to resuscitate a dress shirt that is showing stains in the armpit region. If you would like that information, here it is. Here's another tip: men shouldn't be wearing undershirts anymore. Throw them out with your pleated man pants. The loss of undershirts means that someone in your home should know how to remove armpit yellowing that occurs due to deodorant. (or so this blog says.) Hopefully you are all wearing it and not smelling funky while staining your pits.

Get ready, now I'm going to give you cleaning advice. I had a moment last night with an expensive pot that food was burned to the bottom of. I was kind of sad and angry with myself for letting it happen. Then I remembered my special friend since 1882: Bar Keepers Friend. My pot was Calphalon and you can only use BKF on stainless steel and copper. Here she is y'all:

I sprinkled BKF on the bottom of my pot and got to scrubbing. It very quickly saved the day! I fell in love all over again and then realized I had not photos and I need to SHARE this with everyone. Not only is this amazing at cleaning hard stains on my pots and pans, it is also the only thing that will get my sinks and tubs sparkly clean. See, doesn't that sound totally homemakerish? P.S. This is not a paid review. If that starts happening I'll be shouting it out across the interweb.

In order to show you the power of BKF I figured I'd do a before and after of my sink. It was last cleaned on Friday and because we cook so often in Stainless Steel (that we have to wash by hand) our sink gets scuffs and such. It also absorbs everything and holds on to stains. Fun. Here is my sink:

So it's not atrocious. Some staining on the bottom and lots of scratches from our pots and pans. What you might not know unless you have them too, those little scratches are a bitch to get out. This product makes it easy. Get your sink wet and then sprinkle some BKF on top. 

Every day I'm Sprankle'en

Then you do your special scrubbing moves and within a minute or less, the sink looks like this:

My sinks are now reflective. To keep it real (because I feel it's important that we all do that) I do have a housekeeper who comes once every two weeks and I love her dearly. Her mom brings me homemade El Salvadorian tamales and papusas. She is a cleaning fairy. But the rest of the time I am the one doing most of the heavy duty cleaning. We have dirty dishes every day, not just once every two weeks. I'm the cast iron cleaning specialist. You might even call me the House Manager. Get that generic dish washing liquid out of my cabinet... I only work with the grease cutting power of Dawn.... or Palmolive. But whatever.. you get the point. 

Come clean closet House Managers... do you have a cleaning product you can't live without? Sharing is caring. 

- RT (aka Becky Home-ECky)