Whole 30 – Week 2

Yay! Another week done! Now I am half way…and how do I feel? GREAT!!!! My plan for week 2 was starting to exercise and there were learning curves with that too. More on exercise later. I celebrated the start of week 2 with a special treat – Philadelphia cream cheese on a delicious fresh bagel…no, that would be another food dream I had. I haven’t had any since. But I do find it funny that chocolate and fresh bread, which normally are wonderful treats, feature so strongly in my dreams. I did however attempt 3 breakfasts on day 8. One was a complete flop! Two was the most perfect omelette, with no flavour! I just couldn’t force feed it to myself. So third time was the charm. I’ll stick to savoury omelets in future and keep fruit for ‘dessert’. Another challenge at the start of this week was baking for friends. Baking delicious banana bread, that I could not eat. But I was feeling too good to let that bother me! I found my support team on Instagram a real treasure at the start of this week! The world will poke holes in your ideas, people will think you are weird, strange, even crazy. You might be thinking that now as you read this. That is why it is so important to have like-minded people to encourage you.         

Day 9 started with exercise. The book said to start with a snack just to warn your body that something is coming. So I had a snack and then went for a run. Now you would think because I listened to the book’s advice on ‘before exercising’ I would follow their post exercise advice too. Nope! For some crazy reason I decided I knew better. The book clearly says to eat(a small meal) after exercise and then an hour later have a meal again. So me, I just ate breakfast when I got back and proceeded to be hungry all day!!! Big mistake! I fixed that problem the following day when I went to gym, but as I exercised later in the day, I found I wasn’t hungry after eating dinner.

       

As far as hunger goes, I feel like I am on a hunger roller coaster. There are days when I am starving by the time I get to work and others when I am not hungry at all, even when meal times come. No day is the same so I am now just always prepared with snacks to get me through, incase I have a hungry day. Being super prepared helps me to not reach for the wrong thing when I am hungry.

        

I am not really into drinks, except for water. I am more of a social drinker. That doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy drinking tea, coffee, juice, wine etc… It’s more like it’s just not on my radar. I have trained myself to drink herbal green tea in the morning, which I do quiet enjoy. But on the whole30 all of that had to go. What they did recommend was Red Bush tea, known to me as Rooibos. Yay for my South African roots, as I grew up drinking Rooibos, so this was not new to me. I also normally drink it without sugar or milk, so drinking it while doing the Whole30 has been easy. What I was not prepared for was how often I would be drinking it. For someone who only drinks one cup of tea a day, pretty much only at work, I am drinking 3 cups a day!

         

Week 2 ended with an interesting development. I ran out of olives for my salad. But I had a snack pack of olives in the cupboard, so I just threw them on. After lunch my stomach was telling me it was not happy and I felt so bloated. The only thing I had eaten differently were those olives. When I checked the packaging it said they contained preservatives which none of my normal olives do. So now I am carefully reading labels because it may look whole but it doesn’t mean it is. Lesson learnt.

        

I am feeling great! I have so much energy! I wake up early and don’t have to hit the snooze button. I have some nights where I am wide awake till late and others where I am tired and need an early night (most of those are at the end of the week). A sign for me that I have energy and feel great is that I catch myself singing. I enjoy singing but over the years I have noticed I only do it when I am happy and relaxed, normally on holiday. But now I am singing while I prepare food. I am so looking forward to week 3!

        

I just want to say thanks to my friends, family and new Instagram friends who have been such a support and encouragement to me over these 2 weeks.