In my 33 years, I never thought I would actually go on a diet. I eat fairly healthy, I don’t really have weight to lose. And I enjoy food. I don’t eat things just to get energy, I eat because I like to enjoy the taste. I like connecting with others over a meal. So I have never felt it necessary to worry about calories or what the food is going to do to my body.

So what has changed to make me want to embark on this diet with Whole30?

Well, some of it has to do with feeling good about my body again. I have been supporting another human being for the better part of 2 years. That takes a toll. And honestly I am surprised that Daphne didn’t come out as a donut by the amount I consumed during her pregnancy. Because of the two years of eating as much as I want, I need to retrain my brain on what healthy is again.

When I started doing my research on Whole30, I was shocked that what I was eating was not as healthy as I thought. For example, my lunch every day is a salad. Did you know that some packaged tunas have sugar? And pretty much any salad dressing has sugar added. At first this seemed really daunting because almost everything I ate in my normal day had added sugar. So it made me start thinking about what I was pumping into my kids unintentionally. I think this whole process will be educational so we can be more aware of the foods we are buying once this is done.

And on that note, Tom and my mom are doing this with me. We all have our own reasons to do this, but the support to take back our health helps.

Then when I met with my doctor recently, she said my blood pressure was not in a good place. She is concerned that my high blood pressure is no longer a white coat syndrome issue. We talked through my options which are either food and exercise change or medication. So this is motivating me to see if there are any changes that this food elimination can help with.

Lastly, I can do anything for a month. This isn’t a diet where you count calories or try to eat certain portions of things. Those seem too hard for me to follow through, and don’t seem to change my outlook on food. This diet is all about having a “whole” approach. You can eat as much as you want, and it’s all “real” food. I just have to be more intentional about checking ingredients.

The hardest thing for me is going to be giving up my twice a day chocolate fix. I live for chocolate.

We’ll see how this goes.

Hopefully it is not like Tom has mocked, “Whole30 is like Peter Pan. I’m having make believe for lunch.”

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