If you missed the first 2 parts of My Whole30 Experiment check them out here and here.
Day 17-30 Last 2 weeks of the Whole30.
My honey and I have had several conversations about what we will do when our 30 days are over. Overall, we both feel good eating this way and don’t feel the need to permanently reintroduce any of the food groups that we eliminated (soy, legumes, sugar, vegetable oils, dairy, and grains).
That being said, I am confident I will eat the occasional slice of pizza, brownie and grilled cheese sandwich. I will need to reintroduce these favorite foods in a manner that will allow me to tell if they have a noticeable impact on my energy, my digestion or my sleep. Number 9 says when he reintroduced corn he realized it caused itchiness and some increased irritability.
I have practically eliminated all cravings. I don’t feel the need to drink a beer or a glass of wine while cooking. I am sleeping much better and although I still wake up 1-2 times at night I am able to fall back to sleep easily. I have not taken any TUMS for the entire 30 days! I don’t notice any improvement in my knee pain but I think Tai Chi is stirring that up a little bit. Hoping it is making the knee stronger while slightly aggravating it! My fingernails are not chipped, cracked or bitten off.
During the first 17 days, I gave descriptions of practically every meal I cooked here, I think I have given you a good sense of the food we ate.
During these last 2 weeks, we ate eggs for breakfast along with vegetables or a vegetable/fruit smoothie with a hardboiled egg for protein. Lunch is typically either leftovers from the night before or tuna salad, egg salad, soup etc. Typical dinner includes salmon, shrimp, flounder, chicken, or swordfish served with vegetables. We eat plenty of yummy sweet potatoes.
We eat lots of veggies, the usual ones that I described here as well as adding in the occasional roasted cabbage, spaghetti squash, acorn squash, brussel sprouts. I have learned to cook cauliflower rice (from Number 9), ghee, and homemade mayonnaise.
The Whole30 has given us a whole new way of eating. Foods that I didn’t eat before that are now included are ghee, homemade mayonnaise, collard greens, spaghetti squash, chicken, flounder, avocado oil and almond flour. I even tried sardines! I discovered coconut cream tastes yummy in my tea (despite my long held belief that I hate coconut)! I have always loved to cook but have a renewed sense of curiosity and vigor in the kitchen.
I thought I ate a lot of vegetables before starting the Whole30 but my consumption has increased dramatically. Part of the program includes eating vegetables with every meal. I highly recommend adding vegetables to breakfast even if you have no interest in trying a Whole30. It is hard to get the recommended daily allowance of vegetables when you only eat them with dinner!
Overall, this has been a remarkable experiment and count me in as someone for whom the Whole30 has positively impacted. I do not plan on going back to eating sugar or refined carbohydrates. I am convinced that the nutrition experts and government agencies that endorsed the low-fat, high carbohydrate diet for my entire adult life were wrong. And that by following their advice our nation has gotten heavier and sicker.
According to the National Institute for Health as of 1962, about 46 percent of adults in the United States were considered to be overweight, obese and extremely obese.
By 2010, the percentage of adults that fell into these categories had skyrocket to about 75%.
The statistics for diabetes are just as grim. According to the Center for Disease Control in 1962 1.06% of Americans had diabetes or 2.1 million of us. The most recent statistics are staggering at 9.3% or 29.1 million. This does not include the number of adults who are considered pre-diabetic. 
With obesity and diabetes rates rising, the new US dietary guidelines (2015-2020) continue to push a low-fat, high carbohydrate diet. It seems to me that this is pretty much what got us into this health crisis in the first place. Stop the madness! Check out the resources below if you are interested in learning more.
At least the new guidelines recommend limiting sugar to 10% of calories. Which means if you consume a 2000 calorie diet, no more than 200 calories should come from sugar. Why waste 200 precious calories on something that adds absolutely nothing to your overall health?
I am not a nutritionist or a doctor. I am just a person with a good deal of common sense and an interest in maximizing my personal health, wealth and happiness. I also encourage others to do the same both in person and on this blog. Make your own choices, follow your own path!
I am committed to and responsible for my health. Taking positive actions to maximize my health both now and in the future will keep my little blue kayak on the path not only of good health but also of wealth and happiness.
In 30 days I improved my sleep, increased my energy, increased my vegetable consumption and strengthened my nails. Oh and I lost 8 pounds!
Resources used in this post:
Gary Taube’s Good Calories. Bad Calories. 7 years of researching scientific studies on diet and nutrition.
Gary Taube’s Why We Get Fat. He takes the science of the above book and boils it down in a practical, easy to read book.
It Starts with Food by Dallas and Melissa Hartwig (the book that outlines the Whole30 Program).
Pictures from pixabay!
Lake Girl