Virginia Beach portrait and lifestyle photographer specializing in comfortable portraits and candids
I did it! I did it! I did it! I completed the Whole30!
This is my success story.
I first heard of the Whole30 from another wedding photographer, Lucy O Photo. I met her when I lived in Charlottesville and followed her journey on instagram. Then I put it out of my mind. Then a good friend Erica was telling me about it. She lost 12 pounds, and looked phenomenal. I’d gained about 15 pounds since getting married, and I wanted to get back to my newlywed weight, or at least to where my clothes fit! Last year, I started working out with a personal trainer. And I loved it! I felt strong, was slowwwwly loosing weight and gaining muscle and eating really small meals. But then I had the whole Sesamoiditis thing… I had to stop working out completely… and my eating completely took a turn for the worse.
So, when I finally thought… “Maybe I could do this Whole30 thing to jump start my health…” I called Erica. She explained that, sure it’s hard, but totally doable. [And probably cheaper than a personal trainer…] I bought, “It Starts with Food.” Read it. And was ready to begin. Halfway through, I blogged how thing were going and not much has changed since that. But a few things have changed, so I may as well document them, right?
So now that I’m finished, I have to say I’m really proud of myself. Although I didn’t have a perfect run at it, and therefore I probably can’t claim that I’ve actually completed a real Whole30, I accomplished my goal of weight loss and trying as hard as I can to discipline myself! The real Whole30 says that if you slip up, or as they say, “choose,” not to eat according to their guidelines, you have to start from Day 1. I broke the rules a few times – mainly at weddings where I ate the meals they provided. But, I calculated it, and out of 90 meals in 30 days, I choose to break diet 5 times. So, after a 94.5% successful Whole30, here are my quantitative results!
When I started, I weighed: 137 lbs [omg, I just published that.]
Waist: 29.5
Hips: 36.5
Today, I weigh: 127 lbs [I LOST 10 POUNDS!]
Waist: 27.5, down 2 inches
Hips: 35.5, down 1 inch
Bam.
So, although I’m beyond excited about this, the real victory will be in maintenance. I thought when I started that this diet would not be sustainable. It really is, at least 95% of the time. Maybe 100% for others. I plan to eat like this as best I can and only “off road” when I reach that decision via this flow chart….Or when my vendor meal at a wedding is a sandwich.
Some people have asked for recipes, and I have to be honest, a lot of my meals didn’t consist of mixing or baking anything too fun. I don’t follow a lot of recipes in general, so I ate a lot of plain, whole foods…but I did have a few I really liked!
So, today I’m celebrating with Sweet Frog [yes, I still plan to celebrate with food SOMETIMES], and then jumping right back into the Whole30 guidelines! Who’s with me?!
a. read this first!! b. let’s do this! c. meal 1, day 1
d. funny moment – I took regular communion! e. meal 2, day 30 f. DONE!!!
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Yay!!!! GO ALI! So inspiring! 🙂
Congrats on your success! I love reading success stories 🙂 I’m starting a Whole30 (well 25) on Monday.
Thanks for updating us on the Whole 30 and congrats on your success. I’ve been hitting the gym almost daily this summer and trying to eat healthier, so I hope to also see positive results. BTW, we are still getting compliments on Katie n Justin’s wedding photos. Thanks again.
Congrats on completing your W30 Challenge! Your results are awesome! Thanks for linking to our roasted cauliflower recipe!
So seeing that cheviche was just too tempting. I just picked up all the ingredients for our dinner guests tonight. Yum!
Since you CAN have bananas, freeze them and then blend with a nut butter for “ice cream”. Pear “ice cream” is also amazing – chop and freeze the pears, blend lightly (I leave it chunky) with a splash of almond milk, slash of water, a few drops of stevia, and a few drops of lemon extract (this is key, I literally have a million bottles – I could mail you some haha).
YAY!!!! You did it!!! So glad you got positive results 🙂 I know it’s not easy but now you feel like you can accomplish anything!!! I felt the same way about “not feeling different” wait until you add things back in. I don’t mean one at a time (I would occasionally have a glass of wine, a bowl of ice cream, or maybe a sandwich) but if and when you fall off the bandwagon, that’s when you notice a difference! I ate paleo for two months after and maintained the weight loss and felt the great. With all of the weddings and craziness of summer I have not been eating well lately and I totally noticed a decreased attention span, not sleeping well, and crazy cravings. I’m ready for my next whole30 🙂