Today marks one week of Whole30. The first two days pretty much sucked, as I anticipated, but living through the suckage was painful. It wasn’t so much that the food was bad; it was that I missed certain things and didn’t know what to do in their place. Scrambled eggs without cheese? What’s the point of that?
Without being able to put honey in my tea, I went without caffeine and had a raging headache on both Days 1 and 2. (I’m not sure if it was lack of caffeine or sugar that was causing it, but it was bad.) I tried some black coffee on Day 2 and wanted to die after tasting it and realizing I wouldn’t be able to stomach drinking the very thing that might make my monster of a headache go away. Day 2 also happened to be the day that the boys had a field trip to the aquarium, and we’d planned to make a family day of it. It was a disaster, for various reasons, that ended up with Roy’s dragging our screaming 2-year-old out of the aquarium and down the street to the car while I followed quite a ways behind with the boys. I still have no idea why Daphne was screaming, but I do know that we were half a block behind Roy and Daphne and I could hear her. So if you were at the aquarium and/or Cannery Row on Monday, February 2, my apologies.
For the rest of the day, Roy and I took turns staying in bed. (I had more turns.)
I was shocked to wake up on Day 3 and discover that I felt great. I expected the period of really tough withdrawals to last at least a few days longer, but once I was out of it, I stayed out. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’m still getting adjusted, but no more headache and resulting crankiness.
I can already feel how Whole30 is affecting my body. I feel much less bloated, more clear-headed, and more energetic. Yesterday I was able to fit back into the jeans that I’d puffed out of back in November. My stomach seems to have shrunk a bit so now I only look a few months pregnant instead of six. This is good.
Know what else is good? The food. I’ve actually eaten Brussels sprouts and enjoyed them. We made Paleo Pad Thai that is even more delicious than regular Pad Thai. I made a salad out of mostly cabbage that is to die for, and I hate cabbage. I’m loving how eating Paleo has really pushed me to try new things, as I’m not the most adventurous eater.
I do get bored sometimes, though. I want to be able to go into the kitchen and shove a cookie in my mouth. I want to eat chips and salsa. I miss the honey in my morning tea, and I can’t stand to eat scrambled eggs right now because they’re so boring without cheese. Since I can do none of these things, I find other things to do, other things to eat. I’ve learned that much of this process so far is about patience. About waiting it out. About taking deep breaths. About realizing that discomfort isn’t something to run from because it’s okay to be uncomfortable. It will pass, as all things do, whether I eat cookies or not. Since I made a commitment to not eat cookies for at least 30 days, that’s what I’m doing, Girl Scout cookies be damned.
(But seriously, I really want some Girl Scout cookies.)
spark and echo 