Well, as expected, it was H.A.R.D.
It was hard to say no to so many things and to say it so often.
It was hard to see that despite thinking we ate quite well before we did this, we weren't doing as great as we thought we were.
It was hard to deal with the withdrawals.
It was hard to swallow how much money we spent (no pun intended....)
It was hard to be in the grocery store every 3-4 days.
It was hard to have to cook every.single.day and every.single.meal from scratch.
It was hard on our social life. The past long weekend we weren't very busy at all. Partly because we didn't want to book it up with BBQs and having to face one temptation after another.
It was hard to bake and not have a single lick of the beater...or the spoon...or from the bowl. Do you *know* how yummy cookie dough is?! Do you KNOW how YUMMY a fresh and warm homemade chocolate cookie is?!?!?
But, it wasn't all hard. It was also amazing!
It was amazing to come face to face with foods that we could actually have, foods that have been around all this time for us to eat!
It was amazing to fight through each temptation and challenge, succeeding!
It was amazing to see how blessed we were with such an abundance of healthy food at our fingertips.
It was amazing to see the changes in our bodies as the days went by.
It was amazing to see how fast a week goes by.
It was amazing to see how long an evening can feel when you can't eat anything.
It was amazing to work together as a team, tackling each and every day.
So, the review? Yup, it's hard, don't fool yourselves. But it is also amazing!
Now as for the results.
Nathan's results:
- lost 8 pounds
- the whites of his eyes have never been whiter or brighter
- lots of energy
- proud of himself for achieving the goal of eating like this for 30 days
- feels great about himself
My results:
- lost 5 pounds
- face is clearer
- sleep at night is waaaaayyyy better
- more energy
- no bloating (flatulence was at an all-time low......pretty much non-existent)
- proud of myself for actually doing this, the cooking, the shopping etc.
We have been off of this now for 3 days. We are loving the lack of rigidity of it all but are still pretty much eating the same as we have been the last 30 days. Because I did this for 30 days, my instinct is there to pack a lunch, including healthy snacks, as opposed to slapping a sandwich together with peanut butter (that's a "healthy" protein, right?! HA), with a container of greek yogurt (15 grams of sugar, people!!!) and a granola bar......what? It's got dark chocolate on it. That's the "good" chocolate, no?
Actually, what's really been neat is that all that stuff we've been craving for 30 days? Yeah, now that we are allowed to have it, we don't want it!! Murphy's Law, eh?! But seriously, the first thing we ate that was off limits before was that homemade chocolate chip cookie we were drooling over a few days earlier. It was rather a letdown - not nearly as tasty as our minds had made them out to be.
Are we glad we did it? Yup! I am!! It felt good to be given a challenge, meet it head on and successfully complete it.
But if you ask Nathan if he would do it again, his response is: I will never, ever do this in my life again.
We shall see, we shall see.
Me? Well, I would do it again.....but for now I am enjoying not having to live in a grocery store for awhile. And I better wait until my debit card has some time to cool down. :)
It's been interesting following this all. It's something I'm pretty sure I would hate trying . . but once in a while feel like I should. I don't like cooking as it is . . so that would be my major struggle!
ReplyDeleteGood for you guys for finishing strong!
Congratulations Nathan and Michelle. Now that you've done it once, you know that you can do it again when you feel the need. May God bless you in keeping your bodies healthy!!
ReplyDelete