Happy New Year!

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Happy New Year!

It’s January 1, 2016. It seems like just yesterday that I was part of a Y2K team running around like a madwoman on a mission to make sure there wasn’t a complete meltdown of the IT department. Where does the time go?

Today is the first day of the rest of my life.

Today I am taking 30 days to change my life.

Today is day 1 of my first Whole30.

I admit it. I’m scared. I’ve been trying to psych myself up for it the past two weeks. Here’s a little background –

Early in December I was given a lead on a doctor that would not only work with me on my PCOS, but one who also uses a combination of Western medicine, Eastern medicine, nutrition and supplements to actually adjust hormones, versus just handing out a script for some expensive medication that only masks the symptoms. I really wasn’t sure I would ever see the day…

I rushed to make an appointment. Got in and saw the doctor. Unfortunately this was all AFTER my annual enrollment period for insurance. Of course my insurance that is now in place as of today is not as good as what I had last year. The cost of our insurance options at work went up more than my cost of living pay increase would cover. Since last year was essentially a waste of money in the insurance department I moved it back a tier and it’s just barely under what I was paying for premium platinum level insurance last year. Murphy’s Law.

Alas, I’ll just suck it up and pay a ton of money for the help I’ve been trying to get since I was a teenager and I’ll change it back next year no matter what the cost.

Back to this amazing doctor…the office crammed as many visits and procedures in as possible the first couple of weeks of December – to take advantage of the better 2015 insurance. #Awesome. Blood work, ultrasounds, annual, physical, and 22 pages of medical history questions later….BAM! My test results came back and much to my mother's continued dismay, my cholesterol is just fine. In other news {shocker} I’m insulin resistant (duh…PCOS) and I’m very, very deficient in Vitamin D. Go figure…I live in the Sunshine State. Damn that Murphy. So I left with a bottle of Vitamin D pills and orders to read up on Whole30 because that was my first assignment. So I jumped on Amazon and $9.99 later, there’s a digital copy of It Starts with Food in my Kindle Library. I read it in TWO days. Essentially, it’s an elimination diet. No grains, no legumes, no added sugar, no alcohol, no processed foods, and (OMG) no dairy. I’m 99% sure this is going to kill me. No Diet Coke? No cheese? GAH! The good news is that it's only 30 days and that SHOULD be long enough to detox and reset my systems. That said - depending on the 'damage' done - it can take longer. Like 45 or 60 days to heal your intestines. Oh and after 30 days you can start to introduce some stuff back into your diet - like legumes, some grains, etc. Sadly, Oreos are not on the reintroduction list. The bad news is that you don't start feeling the up side to all of these changes until the midnight hour...like literally day 25 or something like that.

So yeah – I’m fat because I’m insulin resistant and until my blood sugar issues are resolved there is ZERO point in watching what I eat because – it just won’t matter. I already knew that from spending a year going to the gym 6 days a week, alternating cardio and strength training days, watching what I ate, and still playing tennis regularly. Do you have ANY idea how frustrating it is to do everything “right” and get almost zero reward? My thighs did jiggle less. I spent many hours with the StairMaster, Versa Climber and Elliptical machines. For my year of effort – that was what I got. No weight loss. No real inches lost. No change in clothing size. I was living proof that you could be FIT and still be FAT. 

Whole30 is supposed to detox my body (goodbye artificial sweeteners that have been blocking my hormone receptors and probably making me crave sugar - See ya food that has been so over processed it shouldn't even count as food anyway). Reset my metabolism. Balance my hormones. FIX my insulin resistance... For the next 30 days my wonderful husband and I will eat mostly lean meats, vegetables, fruits, and healthy fats. We will eat three meals a day – unless we are working out. Workout days there are pre and post workout mini meals added - suffice it to say, I’ll be eating my three meals and just three meals.

This weekend I will be clarifying butter, making salad dressing and mayo that are Whole30 compliant, prepping fruits and veggies to have on hand for breakfast and lunch next week. Planning meals and grocery shopping.

My next appointment is in 14 weeks. #1 – our scale is jacked up. #2 – you are not allowed to measure or weigh yourself during the first round of Whole30.  What that really means is – I won’t have the slightest idea if or how much weight I will have lost. Surely I will lose weight without eating sugar, dairy, carbs, cheese, grains, etc. Right? 

The rules say you can eat out. Personally I think that’s going to be too hard. Especially for the first round of Whole30. I don’t see myself toting my own salad dressing every day, or grilling servers as to how every.single.thing. is cooked. Is there butter on the steak? Are the vegetables cooked with oil? What kind? Do you add milk/cream/pancake batter to your scrambled eggs/omelets? Please don’t bring bread and for the love of all that is Holy do not ask me if I want dessert! Nope. We will just cook…and pack lunches.

I’m going to attempt to keep a running food journal for these 30 days.

Cheers to a happy, HEALTHY 2016.