Whole30 Round 2 – Week 1 – Ding Ding

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January 6, 2013 by Darlene McC

Way back in October I (Darlene) happened to pick up a copy of the book It Starts With Food and went on a magic food journey with Dallas & Melissa Hartwig (I promise not to use the phrase “magic food journey ever again). 30 days of clean eating following strict dietary rules that, D&M promised, would literally change my life.  I documented them all in a series of posts that sparked a lot of good conversation, some serious reflection about what I was up to, and resulted in many of our readers, friends, families, clients, etc embarking on their own Whole30.

That was 3 months ago.  Since then we’ve had a hurricane hit NYC (resulting in 6 days sitting in my apartment with a hungry hungry husband), Thanksgiving, my birthday, Christmas, and New Years.  All of those things did not promote a healthy, paleo diet.  So I’ve opted to join Dallas, Melissa, my mother & eldest brother, about half my clients, and a few friends in the largest Whole30 ever.  Since January 1st, it’s been ON.

It’s feeling a little different this time around and I have a few theories as to why.  I haven’t had the intense sugar cravings I did last time or the gastro intestinal distress (I was HORRIBLY constipated last time… sorry for the TMI).  No food related nightmares or cold sweats when I’ve smelled a bakery.  I attribute this to the healing my gut did during my first W30 and the neurological patterns I formed at that time.  If I’m not in as rough shape I’m not going to have as rough a time and some good habits were set (even if they were undermined over Christmas… oops).

While I’m not having the overwhelming desire to plant my face in a cake, I have noticed that my portion sizes are HUGE.  I have been over eating as bad or worse than during the holidays.  I haven’t quite nailed down why, but my goal for the coming week is to return to Dallas & Melissa’s formula:

I am not an artist…

At every meal. No exceptions. No more, no less.

I believe part of my problem is a lackadaisical attitude approaching this W30.  Because I did it before, I didn’t plan as well this time.  I subconsciously believed that I could just fall back into it.  Rookie mistake.  And very fixable.

Rules for this week:

• Husband & I plan ahead for all meals on Sunday.
• All ingredients purchased before the date of cooking so they’re guaranteed to be in the house.
• No eating within 3 hours of bed.
• Only 1 plate!

I got this. Ding ding.  Round 2.

-DarleneMcC