For some of you reader may remember my failed attempt at committing to being healthy back in 2017. Then tried it again at the first part of 2018 and fell off the wagon after a stressful month in college. I bet you rolled those eyes when you read the title of this post! Alas! I have completed my fourth Whole30 (30 days total) and rocked it.

So here I am again posting about being committed to being healthy as a goal for 2019 instead as a New Year’s resolution (why? b/c goals are easier to obtain mentally). Also being in my early thirties means I no longer can eat all the crap my brain still thinks I can! Still, after meeting Melissa Hartwig two times at book signings (own all four cookbooks now with signatures!) I should put all those books to use). After all, I needed to put my old college lab coat to use, why not as an apron?

With my lab coat, and the Whole30 Slow Cooker Cookbook in hand, I started my Whole30 on January second (January 1st is just too hard after being sleep deprived) and went all the way to thirty days January 31st. Here is the rundown of all happened in a month.

A Partial Fasting For One Week:

You can say Whole30 is a partial fast because, in partial fasting, you generally omit a specific meal or refraining from certain foods in your diet. If you want to go further, you can work the Whole30 plan into a regular spiritual or prayer fasting routine. For one week during the thirty days, I decided to try my hand at fasting from intake of food between 8pm to 6am (you can say intermitting fasting as well).

How Was I Successful?

Success for the thirty days was due to a little phone app by Samsung. If it was not for Samsung Health tracking my food intake, how many steps I took, how much sleep, weight, heart rate and oxygen saturation, it probably would have made the process harder.

What Didn’t Go So Well?

Well… recipe wise, there was one recipe that was a major flop. The Shrimp Boil recipe (p. 228) for the Instant Pot in Slow Cooker Cookbook turned out to be a lesson in why they call them New England Shrimp Boils for a reason. Maybe the slow cooker would be better, but this PNW girl will leave shrimp boils to New Englanders or the local seafood restaurant. Also trying to recreate Old Bay seasoning may contribute to the problem as well (I have no idea what Old Bay seasoning taste like).

I caught myself almost shoving pizza in my face about five times after work started ordering pizza to use up their pizza subscription service with the local pizza place. I resisted in the end! It has been hard trying to stay on track with food around the office at some point. Even the salad bar was not completely Whole30 approved!

What Can I do Differently?

Besides sniffing the pizza fumes, I could be more consistent in logging exercise. It has been hit and misses with logging in how much exercise I am doing a day. At work, it is hard to bring my phone into the lab to record all the steps I take for fear of having something nasty happen to the phone in my lab coat pocket. Next month I hope I will be more consistant in logging my excersise.

What Motivates Me?

The days getting longer as the days march closer to spring. Even in January there were days of sunshine here in Seattle! Getting out for a short walk during lunch at work motivated me to continue to on my journey of being committed to healthy habits.

How Do I Feel:

How I feel is a little better. I am starting to take back control of what I eat, and how it is effecting my overall health. I haven’t reached the “tiger blood” stage after thirty days, but it could be subtle compare to first time Whole30ers.

Progress Snap Shot:

I started the thirty days at 160lbs with a goal to get back down to 130lbs. By the end of the thirty days, I was down 5lbs. Now in the past Whole30s, I was averaging almost 7-8lbs. This time it was different. Thou 5lbs may not seem much from the past, it a whole lot more when the body composition showed inches lost around the waist.

I Give Myself  3/5 Stars

I’m still continuing onward on the journey of commit to being more healthy. I will continue to be doing another Whole30 (Whole60) in the coming month.