Our first Whole 30

This Monday Justin and I started our first Whole 30 challenge. If you don't know what it is, the program rules and anything you need to do it are all online HERE. You can also get the books It Starts With Food and The Whole 30 basically anywhere. I checked them out from my library because I am cheap. To extremely simplify it, it is a 30 day program that focuses on eating whole, nutritious foods and cutting out foods that could be having a negative impact on your life. Later, you reintroduce foods to see how your body is impacted and figure out what works for you. It is close to Paleo, but a bit more strict. I had been wanting to do it for a while but did not want to have supply issues with breastfeeding and there was just always something going on that it didn't seem like a good time to start (birthdays, holidays, etc). I am nearing the end of primarily breastfeeding Aspen and I saw a good opportunity with no big events coming up so we finally started it. The reasons that I am doing it are to lose the last bit of baby weight but also to gain a healthier relationship with food (i.e. not having ice cream every night, being able to say no to donuts/cookies, eating better on the weekends). Justin and I already ate pretty healthy. We already ate at home during the week but we definitely had a lot of things to clean up. Today is Day 5 and while it is not easy, it is definitely not impossible. So far, I have learned that I need to just stick with what I like sometimes and not over complicate things. For example, I tried to eat hardboiled eggs and I definitely gagged. I will stick with my scrambled eggs because I like that and it is just as good for me. I am also still learning how to fuel correctly for runs. I went out for a 5-miler on Wednesday and it was one of the worst runs I have had in a long time. Definitely need to eat carbs appropriately leading up to a run. I have definitely not felt hungry but I do miss my treats. My supply has decreased but it had already been decreasing as Aspen has been eating more solid foods. I still want to continue nursing but I have a good backup in the freezer so I am not too worried. I have no energy issues (except for that run) but I do workout 5-6 days a week still so I am sure that helps. As far as what we have been eating, it includes a lot of eggs. We already went through like 30 eggs this week so I have to get more for the weekend. We have been eating lots of meat and veggies with some fruit and potatoes. My favorite things so far are bananas and almond butter, all nuts (no peanuts allowed), scrambled eggs, sweet potatoes, avocados, and green beans. We have been making extra dinner so we have leftovers for lunch and that makes things a lot easier, but we used to do that before this challenge. We weighed ourselves before and also my gym owner let me use the Body Fat Calculator so I will compare that to my results at the end. We also took before pictures to compare with after pictures. I have a feeling I will be gaining muscle just due to the increase in protein I have been eating so the Body Fat Calculator will help with that. I will try to do an update halfway through and then again at the end. It won't be easy, but I am fairly competitive and I started it, so I will finish it. Here are a couple things from this week:

Breakfast: Fruit with almond butter (Costco), veggie/egg scramble, sweet potatoes and a slice of prosciutto (Trader Joes).

leftovers for lunch: grilled chicken, guacamole cup (Costco), green beans and sweet potatoes

Prosciutto egg cups (with spinach, tomato, and onion)