Whole30: Days 21-22 and One Man Down!

And we’re in the home stretch! Well, let me revise that to say I am in the home stretch. After 21 long days of a restrictive diet being forced upon him, my partner in crime opted to have a protein shake today with almond milk. And while on a typical day, I do not think this is unhealthy or anything at all, neither the protein powder nor the almond milk are Whole30 approved. So one slip-up and right back on track after, right? Nope.. While I was at home enjoying some chicken pesto and zucchini noodles, his dinner plans include adult beverages, a super turkey club sandwich, and bread (and not just any bread, but my most favorite delicious garlicky buttery bread from a local bar down the street). Dang him.

::drool::

Do I blame him? Not one bit. There are many other challenge/detox/elimination diets that only run for 21 days, so 21 days I think is an awesome accomplishment. Jared really struggled with this and I think being subjected to 21 days of the Whole30 honestly had an adverse affect on him, however the results of his food and drink binge were even more of a punishment. One of the key take-aways from the Whole30 is that you are supposed to become more in-tune with your body and use this program is somewhat of a “reset.” Upon completion, if you choose to go back to eating the way you ate before, you are encouraged to reintroduce foods back into your diet, one group at a time, to see if that food is really something that you want to keep in your diet or not. So on the first few days, only add back dairy. See how you feel. If there are negative effects on your body that were not present during the Whole30, you can then determine if it is worth keeping that food in your diet or not. Then, for example, add back grains. See how you feel. And go on. A one-night all-out free-for-all incorporating every type of non-whole30 things (bread, vegetable oils, ranch dressing, meat-from-who-knows-where, beer, Coke, liquor, cigarettes).. will only lead to much time hovering over the toilet and having mad sneezing fits in between the violent vomiting (true story). This is not meant to scare anyone from wanting to do a Whole30, but you really need to pay attention to your body!

While I am still going to finish up the next 8 days strict mostly on my own (dinners here will likely stay 100% Whole30), I am going to share with you guys both the good and the bad points of my journey, and possibly Jared will write me up a nice guest post on how he felt about the process. On the other side of things, our workouts are still a bit rough and I think that there is still more tweaking that needs to be done to my diet to work out where the issues are. A lot of people claim to be hitting PRs at this point in their Whole30 but not so much for this girl.

But we did get two recent new additions to the home gym this week!

My very first kettlebell..

And a homemade dip station!

So here is where our garage gym is at today (though my kettlebell is not pictured!)

Other good news..

I got my new iPhone5 this week!! AND got this awesome package full of goodies to review, and a giveaway to share in the next couple weeks! If you want to get a sneak peek at what you can win, visit www.vitacost.com (the link provided is a referral link, so if you go through this link, you and I both will receive a $10 off coupon if you are a first-time buyer!)