Whole30 - 1 Week Down

I've waited a little while to share this anywhere, but now that I have a week under my belt, I feel like it's okay to officially claim that I'm doing a Whole30. 

What in the world is the Whole30, you ask? Basically it is a strict Paleo eating plan for 30 days. So no sugar, dairy, grains, or legumes - and guess what? I'm not dead yet! ;) 

We had already been eating Paleo dinners since the beginning of September, and enjoyed pretty much everything we made. (We love the Against All Grain cookbook!) Jason was about 90% Paleo, but I was eating pretty much whatever I wanted all the time. 

Leftover birthday cake? Gone. 
Cookies and brownies from my sweet Mamaw? Gone. 
Chick-Fil-A nuggets and fries? Basically every day. 

I have been working out at the Y consistently for 9 weeks, and have felt better overall, but hadn't seen any improvement in my particular problem area. 

As a side note, I only gained 20 pounds with Miller (since he came so early), and lost that pretty quickly, but when I stopped nursing, I gained - you guessed it - 20 pounds. I weighed as much as I had 8 months pregnant. Except I wasn't pregnant. None of my pants fit. My shirts got super tight. The number on the scale didn't bother me so much (other than the fact that it kept rising...), but the way I felt was not how I wanted to feel.

So after a lot of prayer, God nudged me in this direction. Cut out my addiction to flavored coffee creamer, Halloween candy, French fries, and wheat thins. Get drastic and see if you survive. It's been tough!!!

I started out by cleaning out anything in our pantry that wasn't "on plan." Which... was basically everything. 

It's just stored for later, but now it won't mock me every time I open the pantry. 

So what HAVE I been eating? Breakfast is bacon, eggs, and grapefruit if we have it. (For the FIRST TIME in my life, I'm not piling sugar on my grapefruit. I took a note from my MIL who sprinkles salt on hers - it brings out the sweetness!) Lunch is leftovers or grilled chicken, grapes, sautéed zucchini or steamed broccoli, and a sweet potato for "dessert". Sweet potatoes used to mean butter and tons of brown sugar. Now it's cinnamon and salt, for the same reasons as the grapefruit. 

Dinner is typically one of our favorite recipes from the Against All Grain cookbook - BBQ bacon burgers, meatloaf muffins, slow cooker chicken tacos, and almost ALWAYS mashed garlic cauliflower, which fulfills my craving for mashed potatoes. 

Alright, do you think I'm crazy yet? Don't knock the cauliflower til you try it! :) It's definitely hard when temptation is all around (like ANY trip to Walmart, or the amazing cookies and cream cake I'm still having dreams about), but I'm committed to sticking it out! I'm ready to feel better and not feel like such a slave to sugar. 

Have you ever given something up (like for Lent) that you didn't think you'd actually be able to do for the set amount of time? What would be the hardest food/food group for you to give up?