Mother's Day Whole30 Update

Happy Mother's Day to all my mommy friends!  I had yet another day of not celebrating by eating anything special, lol.  Anna, Grace, and Faith made me breakfast in bed--my usual 2 fried eggs, sauteed red peppers, and a bowl of strawberries, blackberries, and grapes (well, that wasn't usual--I never go to the trouble of cutting up fruit in the morning!).  We did have a lovely day at church and just hanging out at home.  I didn't cook--we had enough leftovers, even of things I could eat, so that was a nice break.  The kids picked me a lovely bouquet of yellow flowers while we were watching Luke's rugby game on Saturday!  Don't be fooled--this is just one very small part of all the flowers I received from Faith, Micah, and Drew!  It definitely kept them occupied!

So now I'm on day 26--only 4 more days!  I've lost about 10 pounds, so that gets me back to where I was in August.  I'm not confidant that those pounds won't pile right back on as soon as I left a bite of carbs touch my lips though, and I really am getting tired of not being able to eat anything to celebrate.  I have lost some inches, but not where you might think.  I've had to start wearing my fitbit on a tighter setting!  You can all admire my thinner wrists, lol.  Unfortunately I have not noticed a huge tummy difference, although I didn't find a measuring tape until just a few days ago, so I don't really know for sure if I have lost any waist inches or not.  I still look pregnant though!

Also, surprisingly my cravings were much less the first 2 weeks I was on the diet.  The past 2 weeks, however, I have really had a bigger struggle in resisting them.  It was like they were crying out to me!  I think the difference is hormonal, and it was really shocking to see how much of my eating (and most likely, weight gain) the past few months must have been driven by monthly hormonal changes.  

Honestly, it's been a big shock to me to *have* monthly hormonal changes.  In May of 1995 I had surgery to remove my right first rib after all my blood clots, and a few weeks after that surgery, we PCS'd to Colorado.  That combination of stressors shut down my body, and I didn't have a cycle on my own for over a year.  Eventually I did, and I finally got pregnant with Nathan in October 1996, which was a huge answer to prayer.  That started almost 19 more years of gestating and nursing, such that I really didn't have too many cycles in a row ever.  So this past year has been the start of a new normal for me.  And it turns out it is one where I really, really want carbs when I'm premenstrual.  With all the stress of Latin and biology this year, my will power certainly hasn't been high, and really I don't think I thought at all about struggling to resist.  Now that I've done it for a month, I'm certainly a lot more aware of the struggle.  It was so funny to me how easy it was to resist the first half of the month, and how much harder it was the last half.  Really eye-opening!

I never got any "surge of energy" or anything like I've seen other people mention.  In fact, I really don't feel any different at all.  I don't seem to have any real issues for digesting food, even dairy, so taking all those things away hasn't seemed to make a difference, other than losing 10 pounds.  Going forward, I am planning on keeping my fried egg/vegetable breakfast, instead of bran flakes, milk, and a hard boiled egg, which has been my breakfast every morning for years.  I think I will try to stick with salads for lunch, or at least a paleo lunch.  Then I'll eat more normal dinners.  I've also been not eating anything after dinner, to make sure I have at least 12 hours, if not 14, between dinner and breakfast.  Everything I've been reading has pointed to at least that limited amount of fasting to be beneficial, if not a longer break, so I'll stick with that plan too.  Maybe that will be enough to at least keep off these 10 pounds, and then hopefully I can do another month of Whole30 this summer, and see if more weight comes off.  I don't see me being able to keep up with it during the school year, at least not the first semester.  It's always so busy and stressful.

I've also started using this Bowflex down in our basement 3 times a week.  Nathan encouraged me to do more with weights, so I started a few weeks ago.  It's actually a lot more fun than I expected.  I used to really enjoy the rowing machine when Bob and I would meet at the gym in the mornings before we got married, and so I like "rowing" on this thing.  Then I do about 20 minutes of various arm things.  I must say I haven't noticed any great improvement in arm toning either, but hopefully it's burning more calories.  Bob and I are still walking pretty much every night, and I do pilates 2-3 times a week as well.  But I've been doing that for awhile, and it never made any different before, lol.  

So we'll see what happens in 5 more days . . .  I can say I am really looking forward to a bowl of ice cream!