Introduction & The Second Time Around

Starting on January 5th, 2015 I embarked on my second Whole30 meal plan. Don't know what a Whole30 is? Go HERE. Read, be enriched, and come back.

Brutal, right? No dairy, no grains, no legumes, no sugar. I remember when I told my gram about it the first time I did it (about 6 months ago)...

"But... what CAN you eat dear?" She asked a little puzzled.

"Meat, fruit and vegetables. And certain healthy fats." I responded with remorse. I didn't mention nuts because I don't like them.

"No dairy?" She inquired incredulously.

"No dairy." I practically whined into the mouthpiece.

"Well then... good luck, dear. Let me know how that goes!"

Yeah, I could tell she didn't think I had a prayer of keeping that up for 30 days. Honestly, I didn't think I had a prayer of keeping it up for 30 days! And you know what?

I didn't.

I ended up taking a last minute trip out to San Francisco to help a dear friend of mine and fell completely off the wagon. My bad. But I made it 20 whole days! Know what happened in that 20 days? I lost 15 lbs. I slept like a baby each night. I woke up with energy, ready to face the day. I was clear headed. LITERALLY. Acne cleared up and my skin shone like someone was holding a flashlight underneath. I just felt GREAT!

This lifestyle has also helped me a great deal mentally. I have an anxiety disorder which causes me to pull my own hair out (trichotillomania). When I'm stressed, it's worse. I've left myself bald in patches before (I have two now) and I've been doing it since I was 13 years old. Anxiety is a prevalent and debilitating problem for many. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 40 million Americans suffer from some anxiety related disorder. 40 million. That's a lot!

On the Whole30, I got to about day 10 and I stopped. I didn't even notice for a week afterward, but when I did it was the greatest feeling I'd had about myself in a long long time. It is the hardest thing in the world to know you're hurting yourself and your image all the time, sometimes unconsciously, but being unable to stop. There is no medication or therapy that works for me with this. None. I've tried them all. I have to wear gloves or band-aids on my fingers if I need to quit, which is embarrassing to say the very least.

I sit her on day 9 of my second Whole30... all I've eaten are meats, veg and fruits with certain allowed healthy fats. Guess what? I've stopped again. I slept last night like I hadn't slept in years... and when my kid accidentally woke me up at 4AM, I had enough energy to slay an ox. Thankfully after an hour I managed to convince my stupid brain it was still sleepy time and got another hour of sleep... but if there had been a nightly prowler I could have totally kicked their butt!

Oh, and I know that I'm not supposed to weight myself on the 30, but there is no flipping way I'm going to do this and not know. I am incapable of not knowing. So, here it is:

Day 9
-6lbs
-6.15 inches overall (neck, arms, hips, waist, thighs, chest)

I plan on keeping this little journal up. I might even include food pictures and what not at some point. Right now, I really just wanted to just keep track of things "on paper" and I plan on sharing this with my Trich support group on Facebook in hopes others might find it of use.

Anyway, I hope someone finds this useful besides me! But, even if it's just me that's just fine too :)