We finished our first whole30 and are jumping right in again! Here’s the low-down from my whole30 praise report:
“WE’RE DOING IT AGAIN! (well, sort of) Here’s the scoop: For the past week I’ve been “gently prodding” Brandon to have a game plan ready for when our whole30 is done so that he doesn’t, and we all don’t, fall back into a bad pattern of eating, exercising and reading the bible. He thought about it, debated back and forth in his head, struggled with it a little and this is what he decided: That he feels great! He likes the way he is looking, feeling, and sleeping and he wants to continue to feel that way. He also is aware of how SIMPLE (my favorite word) eating paleo/whole30 is and doesn’t feel constricted eating this way- but actually enjoys the delicious food, how he can eat as much as he wants, and how good he feels afterwards. With so many great reasons for eating great he doesn’t want to stop! To make his, what may sound crazy, decision he also based it on his mind-blowing weight loss these past 30 days and the fact that he would love to lose more.
Soooo….. we came to a compromise and decided together to take off 2 days and start again. We are starting another whole30, actually a “whole20″. The reason for this is we will be starting Nov 2nd and ending Nov 22nd, the day before we leave for Tennessee to visit family for Thanksgiving. Perfect!”
Yesterday was Halloween and I let the kids eat what they wanted, including as many sweets as they wanted. They didn’t go crazy but they had a few pieces of candy and a dessert each. By the time we got home Jeremiah (who can communicate the best out of the bunch) was holding his belly telling me how much it hurt. His sugar was high and didn’t get under control until halfway through today. He said he felt so bad that even though he could eat whatever he wanted to today, he wasn’t going to. And he hasn’t. They’ve all been eating whole30 approved foods— because they want to— except for a praline after lunch. They are making great decisions for their health and I am so proud of them all.
We really did give them the option to join us on our whole20 challenge. I told the kids that it was up to them, but either way, they needed to have a good reason for their decision and then stick with it. Jeremiah was the only one who wasn’t fully sold. He had a valid argument that Shiloh’s birthday party is coming up, and it’s at a fancy place, and he was really looking forward to eating the fancy food. We agreed that they could eat what they wanted for that meal. As he continued to think about it we had a WOW GOD moment. We drove by a church that had previously been selling pumpkins but were now giving them away. We had wanted to get some but never got around to getting them so this was perfect. We picked out our pumpkins and happily finished driving home. We had just talked about looking at circumstances through the “God lense” and this was the perfect circumstance to do that with. Through the God lense Jeremiah said that he believed God was giving us a present for glorifying Him through our whole30 challenge and encouraging us to do the whole20 challenge– as a WHOLE FAMILY. I asked him if he was encouraged (yes, I am a mom). He said YES and that he would definitely be joining us on our whole20 challenge! God is so good.
Brandon has a similar story to the kids eating circumstance. He ate sushi (the deep-fried cheesy kind) for lunch and couldn’t finish it, and he always used to finish his food, because it quote” wasn’t as good as it used to be”. For dinner we went to the Fall Fest at our church and Brandon went to town, piling food on his plate. He sat down to eat it all and didn’t get very far. He ate some barbeque and that’s about it. He didn’t have room for the soup and his favorite sweet tea that he couldn’t wait to have…well, he lost the taste for it and asked for some of my water. WATER. If you know us, you know the last thing we would normally want to drink is water, and yet WE’RE DRINK WATER…A LOT OF IT. In the car on the way home Brandon told me how he felt that the way he ate that day “just wasn’t worth it”. It’s crazy to think that Brandon, MY husband Brandon, is at the place where he WANTS to eat good food, even if bad food is available to him. My oh my have things changed around here!
I did eat a few pieces of candy yesterday and a bowl of jambalaya…along with healthy food during the day as well. H0w do I feel today? GREASY. I’m not sure how to explain my “greasy” feeling but I do, I feel greasy. I feel like my insides need a bath. I feel like my pores are clogged. I feel GREASY. I have a headache and feel very foggy, like I can’t drink enough water to get my head clear. I feel sluggish and bloated. It’s not all that pleasant!!! I am very much looking forward to starting again tomorrow on our 20 day journey.
We set goals for our whole30 and likewise we have set goals for our whole20. Here they are:
1. Brandon and I have made the commitment to each other to read together through the book A Marriage Without Regrets by Kay Arthur before our 20 days are up. There are 14 chapters so we will be finishing a chapter every couple of days.
2. We are slowing down our workouts. We both are always looking for ways to SIMPLIFY our lives and in this season, that means simplifying our workouts. Brandon is
switching gyms to start working out at a gym that is only 5 minutes from our house instead of 30 minutes. He will still be working out 3 times a week, but
he will be home when we’re home much more often. I am cutting down my workouts to a local crossfit gym once a week and speedwork with the girls once a week. The
kids want to do a 1-mile race next year and I am training for a relay half marathon next year as well. Other than that we will be outside playing, running, biking and whatever else we can think of with the kids.
3. We will continue to have a daily bible study time as a family going through the book Training Hearts, Teaching Minds. Jeremiah and I will continue to study the book
of Daniel through our different Precept upon Precept studies. Brandon is meeting with other Godly men to study more about what the bible says about being a biblical father.
4. I have made a commitment to God and my friends through www.prayandreadtheword.com that I will be meeting with God for a considerable time each day and I plan on
fulfilling that commitment. I am very excited to see what the Lord is going to do through us praying women.
5. Brandon has a number goal this go around. Before whole30 he lost 10 pounds over the course of a good amount of months. During our whole30 challenge he lost 15 pounds.
His goal for our whole20 is to lose another 10 pounds. That would put him at 155 pounds, having lost a total of 35 pounds.
So, please keep us in your prayers, keep supporting us, keep growing- or shrinking- with us. We love the questions and the words of encouragement. We love knowing that God is using our family to encourage and motivate other families to live better too. We love what it this is doing for our family and we are so THANKFUL for it.
