Whole10

Doing the Whole30 Program is difficult altogether, although I managed to get used to it quite fast and I enjoy eating healthy and feeling so good, but doing the Whole30 Program in December is even more difficult.

I was at our company’s Christmas party on Monday and the food was incredible: 10 appetizers, 6 main courses and 10 desserts to choose from. I expected to have a really hard time staying away from the unhealthy things but I feel so strong about eating healthy that I didn’t even flinch when I saw the potato gratin or the chicken in sour cream sauce or the fresh baguettes or…

I do however have a tough time to resist the sweets, even though I had none for the last 10 days and I don’t crave them so much anymore. So as they packed out the dessert buffet, I stayed as far away as I could. Out of sight, out of mind, right?

Today I am completing Day 10 of the Whole30 Program and, although it was a tough decision to make, I decided that from tomorrow I will start incorporating more of the forbidden food groups and instead go back to eating clean.

Why?

• I realized that I eat too much meat and eggs and I am not such a big fan of meat and eggs. I usually eat a bit almost daily but 3 times a day is simply too much for me.
• There is a controversy whether so much meat and eggs could cause high cholesterol. I’ve been reading about this recently and a lot of bloggers report actually the opposite, that their LDL cholesterol level was reduced after the Whole30 Program or after going Paleo while a few experienced that their cholesterol levels sky rocketed. Since I never had my cholesterol checked, I think it’s best to have it checked first and see where I stand before I do any big changes to my diet, since I’m eating healthy anyhow.
• I don’t eat enough on the Whole30 and, even though most of the time I stop eating because I feel full, the other reason is also that I get sick from so much meat. I know we shouldn’t log calories but I checked yesterday for example and I ate around 1000 calories which is waaay too low for a resting day but the problem is that I burned an additional 570 calories in the gym as well. The macros were also off: C 25% – P 35%- F 40%, my usual target is 40-30-30.
• The scale shows some improvements: weight -1.6 kg, body fat -0.5%, muscle -0.5kg. The weight is probably just water weight since none of my measurements changed but the muscle part is worrying me. In just 10 days I lost 0.5% of my muscles.

I don’t consider this short experiment as failing but instead a success because:

• I learned as a child that I have to eat everything on my plate, I grew up with this in my mind and I continued until now to eat all up even though I had enough long before I finished everything on my plate. I am now starting to learn again to pay attention to when I am full and when I should stop. I had lots of successes these past 10 days as I stopped eating when I had enough and I didn’t feel guilty about it.

• I worked so hard whole year and especially these last few months and I’ve managed to maintain my weight for the entire year (although I wouldn’t mind if I would be a few kg lighter) and it’s especially hard during the holidays but, doing the Whole30 Program for the last 10 days, I now know that I won’t give into the temptations (much) and ruin all the hard work.

Moving on to fitness, I missed my Sunday 5K run outdoors although I was really looking forward to it but we made plans to go to the city for lunch and a movie and it was just as nice so I have no regrets. We have to enjoy life too, right?

After a rest day on Monday, I was back in the gym on Tuesday for my first solo workout with the machines. I am so excited about it and the geek in me is really loving the high tech machines and touch screens and chip card and stuff. I still need to get used to the machines since the trainer kept coming to correct me (I like that they pay attention) so I am obviously not doing the exercises completely correct but I will eventually get there. I finished the day with a 15 minutes relaxation in the sauna. Did I mention how much I love my new gym?