Gastography

It’s almost the new year and I feel myself itching for some change.

January 1 is a fantastic jumping off point to enact some habit building and direction correcting to focus on this upcoming year, and I’m going to be taking full advantage of the seemingly universal hive mind urging me to start something new and redouble my efforts on goals that have fallen by the wayside.

Over the past month or so, I’ve been in a rut. I haven’t had clear fitness goals, so workouts have been directionless – and I haven’t really felt like making anything too complicated, so my meals have been kind of boring. And then came the holidays. This past few weeks, I’ve let my food intake go off the freaking rails and my body is telling me very loudly and clearly that I need a reset. I need to get back on track both food and fitness-wise and I need to find inspiration again. These things keep me happy and I’ve really let myself get away from them; that changes now.

In that vein, I’ll be doing my third Whole 30 in January and will be changing the way I do things a bit. Normally, I post my daily food and a recipe a week with a wrap-up at the end. I’ll still be doing all that this time, but I thought it might be neat to see what my partners in crime are up to as well. I will be completing this challenge alongside at least one person (*waves*) in my fitness support group – Nerd Fitness. We will be messaging each other with pictures of each meal and, if this challenge is anything like last time, for support and guidance when things get rough/we are unclear of what is actually ‘in’. Having a W30 buddy is invaluable – not only do I have someone I can nerd out with about recipes and ingredients, I have built-in accountability from someone I can trust to kick my virtual ass up one side and down the other if I’m not doing what I’m supposed to be doing. Internet side-eye is a powerful tool.

What Is Whole30?

Whole30 is a month-long hard reset for the body. Kind of like paleo on steriods. No sugar (even honey or stevia), grains, dairy or legumes. Just whole, natural foods – like meats, veggies and fruits. Nothing in a package. No soy. No extra crap. Read all labels.

This program is designed to break the back of sugar and carb cravings and give your body a balanced place from which to build healthy habits. It seeks to reset your metabolism, knock out systemic inflammation (that you may not even know you have) and zero out other gut health issues. Have random stomach pain like I used to? This may help balance that. Irregular? IBS? Feel like crap all the time? Can’t lose weight? Well .. this crazybananas plan might work for you.

My favorite part of the plan, aside from the reset, is the tough love.

From the W30 site: This is not hard – not like quitting heroin or beating cancer. Don’t even think about slipping – what you put into your mouth is always a choice. You don’t have to eat anything you don’t want to eat – learn to stick up for yourself, peer pressure is for elementary school students. This will take effort but you will be better for it – especially if you’re a first-timer to cutting out grains and legumes. But … you can do this.

You know what? They’re right. In the grand scheme of things, 30 days is a small amount of time to deal with a little inconvenience. Unless there are roving bands of rapist donuts in your neighborhood; in that case, maybe stay inside and eat what you’re supposed to anyways. Rapist donuts are the worst.

You’ve Done This Twice Before … Why Are You Torturing Yourself Again?

I don’t look at Whole30 as torture, I look at it more as a chance to re-set my mealtime thinking away from whatever bad-for-me thing has clawed its way back into my diet (helllooooo, Holiday Season Indulgences – and that dream about a freaking sandwich I had last night) and a great way to kick-start my motivation to keep on track. A reminder, if you will, of how much better my body feels when I’m eating like I should be. As an added bonus, Whole30 is the best way I’ve found to light a fire under my butt and re-ignite my passion for food. W30 sparks my creativity and reminds me that by eating right, I’m not actually missing out on anything – I’m making conscious choices that will amount to a whole lot of good down the road. And you know what? I need that right now. These past few months have been less than stellar and I have big goals in 2015 – like huge, looming 12-mile OCR goals. I need to be at peak performance to be able to accomplish my goals and fueling my body mindlessly with crap is not how I’m going to get there.