The time for change has come! Here is the deal, I was a tired, overweight and lacking focus 39 years old male. My stomach was always feeling like garbage, and that told me I had to go on a diet. Below you will see my Whole30 timeline for the last 30 days.
The diet is called Whole30, as I type this, I only just found what it was two weeks ago.
To sum up, briefly, it’s a diet that cuts out, sugar, dairy, bread, and booze! All of this was very much active in my food. If you could imagine cutting this out, what would it correctly do for your life? You can read my Whole30 timeline below, I started to write seven days into the diet, and all I can say is I’m so happy I did this.
HERE IS MY DAY BY DAY WHOLE30 TIMELINE
Before I start the timeline, let me just tell you a few quick things.
- I weighed in the night before I started, my weight is 197.2 lbs. <—-The most I have ever weighed in my life!
- My goal is to get down to 174 lbs., I don’t expect Whole30 to take all that weight off, but a little would help kick-start this.
- I’m 5’8, 39 years old. I live in the coldest place in the United States, Minnesota.
- I love food; I love happy hour, I eat tacos, I drink craft beer ( I have a kegerator in my basement, with two delicious beers currently on tap!) That might not be a great idea having around with the Whole30.
- My wife is doing this at the same time, so that is a big plus. We can do this.
Whole30 – DAY 1
Who even came up with whole30, they have a stupid rule. And that is, you CAN NOT, weigh your self during the diet. So you get a before and after reading. Which I honestly think is BS. Here is why, I love seeing data, especially if the scale is going down. That to me says, keep going, you’re doing something right.
Monday is probably the best day of the week to start a life-changing diet, and with a 1-day notice, I begin! I think it is fair to say that things are going to go well the first day.
Let’s start the day off with coffee, my love! I take my coffee with a tablespoon of cream and tablespoon of sugar. I usually have coffee all day long, throughout the day I will lightly sweeten each cup.
Today, it’s black coffee. I honestly do not mind black coffee. I like to visit Starbucks and get a nice fancy coffee every other day, so that might be a challenge.
For breakfast, I usually have whole pinto beans, two eggs over-easy, topped with cheese and giardiniera peppers and lots of hot sauce. It’s one of the most satisfying meals I eat, and I think it would be part of my final me ordered if I was on death row!
Today, I need to get rid of the beans and cheese, sad face. But that’s ok. Instead, I make a two egg omelet with jalapenos, onions, mushrooms, red peppers and my favorite, giardiniera peppers.
And of course, hot sauce. I now know, Red Hot sauce is compliant with this diet, so that’s good.
As the day goes on, I don’t feel cravings and urges, just yet. But having coffee all day long makes my stomach sort of feel empty. We picked up a bag of pistachios, so I snacked on these moderately.
For dinner, I did a slow cooker chicken curry, with sweet potatoes. I think this was the topper of the first day; this was so good! It didn’t feel like diet food at all. There were leftovers, and my wife got to take it to work the next two days.
She also loved it, and even said she was tempted to lick the bowl! Wow, this is supposed to be a diet?
Now the evening has arrived, I sometimes have a beer or a few. Tonight, the diet is here, so I’m sticking to it, but don’t think it’s not on my mind.
I like to work until 1 or 2 am and then I watch TV until I’m tired. I have to say, about 10 pm the cravings for sweets has shown up!
Now I start feeling like I’m on a diet! Its panic and I don’t know what to do!
I did have some water with lemon, and I grabbed some clementine oranges. That satisfied me, but now I’m thinking about that beer I have in my kegerator! UGH, it’s time to focus and make it to tomorrow.
But, I keep mind, this is day one, let’s see what happens on day two!
Whole30 – Day 2
Woke up feeling OK, but a bit groggy. I’m not hungry or craving anything just yet, so that is good.
The first thing I do was go hop on the [amazon_textlink asin=’B01GKDYHGS’ text=’yunmai digital smart scale ‘ template=’ProductLink’ store=’hairyfoo99-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’dace4e41-153a-11e8-9a3d-45541157fcc3′]to see if anything happened my first day of this diet. To my suprise, yes, the scale went down, I now weigh 195.8 lbs.
I’m down 1.4 lbs from the day from yesterday. I certainly don’t look at this as the actual fat loss, more like bloat and water perhaps. I’ll make my judgment if this is working tomorrow if the scale goes down again.
I have my coffee going and start my breakfast, another delicious omelet with some garlic hot pepper sauce this time, and more jalapenos for the system.
Close to lunchtime, I’m starting to become anxious for cravings. I began to do some research for more foods I can have on this diet, especially snacks and condiments.
I make another run to Target and find Newman’s dressing, and I pick up some Almond “peanut butter” for my sweet tooth. I also grabbed some carbonated black cherry water.
I try celery with the almond butter, not bad, not great; I love peanut butter.
We add lots of veggies, olives, and grilled chicken. It turns out very well, and once again it doesn’t seem like a diet or a limited portion size, this sucker was huge and delicious!
The rest of the evening was the same as last night, craving beer more than ever and sweets too. I have a box of snickers right next to the kegerator, how dangerous and crazy is that! But so far, it’s ok.
I drink lots of lemon water to help the cravings. And end up going to be around 2 am.
Whole30 – Day 3
Today I wake up feeling Ok, same as before. I’m just really curious to see if that scale moved today, like yesterday. Awesome! The scale shows I am now 194.1, down 1.7 lbs from yesterday and now a total of 3.1 lbs since Monday. I’m starting to feel ok about this.
So far, besides the cravings for things I can’t have, it’s a decent diet. When I eat, I eat well. Big portions of the right foods, I don’t ever feel hungry. And I that is a good thing because I do love food.
This diet is starting to teach me how to make things I love but in a healthier way. Alternatives to the over processed foods.
I start the morning off like the other days, omelet with veggies and coffee.
I have a scoop full of almond butter later in the day and then another. The cravings are starting to go, but when they show up, they are powerful!
Today is Valentine’s day, so I went to the meat market to pick up some steaks and lobster to grill out. I also got asparagus wrapped in bacon for a side.
I had a big New York Strip, with the veggies, which was very tasty. I thought the scale wouldn’t go down much the next day because this was a very big dinner. I was stuffed!
I work the rest of the evening and fight off the cravings with some oranges, almond butter, and pistachios.
Whole30 – Day 4
Last night I had that big Valentine’s day dinner and a decent amount of snacks. There is no way the scale goes down, maybe stays where it’s at, or worse does it goes back up?
Typical morning and discoveries for foods. I went to Trader Joes and Whole foods. I become too overwhelmed by the stores and leave and head to Barnes and Noble to do some more research. I didn’t want to buy a bunch of groceries that aren’t on the Whole30 compliant list.
Tonight we made a chicken burrito bowl. Since tacos are my favorite, this was needed! The taco burrito bowl or salad turned out good, and another meal I feel isn’t diet food.
This one is missing the tortilla, cheese, sour cream all those good things, but after I’m done eating this I feel just fine, no belly ache that is typical after I have some smothered burritos.
Feeling hopeful for this diet and ready to take on the rest of the 25 days ahead!
Whole30 – Day 5
I’m starting to get excited waking up and jumping on the scale. On day 5, I weigh 190.5, that is down .6 lbs from the day before. Not bad, it’s still going down, and I’d love to get into the 180’s, that would be very motivating.
We usually go to happy hour and dinner on Friday or Saturday nights. Not this Friday. I end up going to Hyvee and probably spent an hour walking around and reading all the labels looking for compliant foods to eat. That was an eye-opening experience, a lot of food is full of crap! Just give me a few ingredients!
Tonight we stay in and make fresh salmon filets with Brussel sprouts. Usually, we would probably snack later in the evening, but something is changing, and that tasty dinner was enough for us.
Heading into the weekend is a good thing, some say day 6 and 7 are the days you feel the most tired. If that’s the case, I’m glad it falls during the weekend.
Looking forward to weighing in tomorrow!
Whole30 – Day 6
Today for breakfast I attempt to make eggs frittata. Lots of delicious veggies with eggs and a little bit of coconut milk. It didn’t turn out well; I should’ve used a Teflon pan because all the eggs stuck to the one I used. Halfway through I just made it scrambled, however, it did taste excellent.
One thing I noticed, I wasn’t able to eat the portion I made. My stomach must be shrinking a little bit, that’s cool!
My energy is decent today, I know they say that I should be tired on the sixth day, but I’m not. Probably all the coffee I drank!
I made some hard boiled eggs, and those fill you up when you have hunger pains. I eat about 2, and I’m full.
We take a trip to the mall to get some things and walk around. That was hard to walk past the cinnamon rolls, and other food court smells!
But that’s ok; I’m losing the weight I wanted.
Tonight for dinner we decide to have BLT’s! We found sugar free and non-processed bacon, that was super good. That later turns into a BLT salad with grilled chicken. High protein and awesome vegetables. I also discover how to make Mayo.
Here is my Mayo recipe
- 1 – Cup of lite olive oil
- 1 -Whole Egg
- 1 -Roasted Roma tomato
- 2- Basil leaves
- 1/2 – lemon juice
- Salt and pepper to taste
I picked up an [amazon_textlink asin=’B06XY8NMZG’ text=’ immersion blender’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’hairyfoo99-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’ab193476-15c0-11e8-afc5-23cdfee5bdfe’] from Amazon, and using that makes the whole30 mayo in less than 5 seconds. The Tomato basil mayo makes a nice veggie dip as well.
The Salad was extremely filling and very tasty, I love bacon!
After that meal, I thought there is no way I’m losing weight today. I still have not exercised during this first week, so we will see what tomorrow brings.
Whole30 – Day 7
I took a late nap yesterday and then I wasn’t able to sleep the rest of the night. I hate to say, but I slept until 1 PM! They also say, day 6 and seven you’re going to feel the most tired.
I wasn’t hungry at all; I have not eaten in over 12 hours. I go right to coffee and come up with a plan for dinner. I did eat before I left so that I don’t get light headed.
After doing lots of research, I head back to Whole Foods and Trader Joes. I scored some great whole 30 foods at Trader Joes and some at whole foods.
Tonight’s meal plan is Balsamic pot roast. Lots of veggies and today I use coconut flour to thicken the sauce. That was unsuccessful, but it did give it a nice sweet flavor.
Today I noticed I was a bit tired, but by night time after food and water, I was fine. Onto Monday we go!
Whole30 – Day 8
It’s been one entire week of cutting out beer, dairy, bread, sweets in my diet. Last Monday I weighed 197.2 lbs. And after just one week of whole30, I now weigh 187.8 lbs. That is 9.4 pounds lost in one week!
I already feel so much better, and I am looking forward to the results on day 31.
Day 8 I wake up and feel so sluggish, but not hungry. I do sort of force myself to eat so I can not feel out of it. That isn’t helping much, but I make it through the day just. By nighttime, I feel better.
For dinner, we are attempting a poke bowl, with Ahi Tuna.
I make a marinade/sauce with rice wine, fresh ginger, garlic and sesame oil. I taste it and thought this isn’t cutting it. I do some research to find an alternative to soy sauce, and I find [amazon_textlink asin=’B019QR8MQQ’ text=’coconut secret.’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’hairyfoo99-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’6c1641b8-1607-11e8-a691-f3247806ff08′] I run to target to pick a bottle up. This stuff is really good; it’s a bit more expensive than soy sauce but well worth it.
We also used cauliflower rice instead of rice. Overall, it was fresh and tasted pretty good. I made too much and could not eat more than half of it.
I feel pretty right now; I am worried I ate too much today and that the scale will have gone backward, but we’ll see.
Whole30 – Day 9
Last night I got about 4.5 hours of sleep. It was kind of a struggle to get out of bed, and I thought I would feel like crap all day. However, I have had endless energy all day long, and I think I could probably go another 4 hours before bed. It is 10:40 PM.
But I must admit, I was up late working and around 3:00 AM I went and had some leftovers of pot roast, carrots, and sweet potatoes. Could that be the reason I only dropped by 1/16 of a pound?
I’m really hoping for better results tomorrow. I did plan to get on the treadmill today, but I instead got to shovel snow for a half an hour.
Really wasn’t feeling any urges or cravings and wasn’t too hungry today.
Tonight for dinner, I made the coconut chicken curry in the instant pot. Super good, and it is whole 30 compliant!
Not much more to report tonight, I will probably see what the scale says in the morning and jump on the treadmill!
Whole30 – Day 10. Today, I nearly quit!
On day 10, they say you are most likely to quit. I don’t know if just because I knew that, I kept thinking about throwing in the towel.
I woke up, and I have to say I feel more energy and I like that. I wasn’t feeling too confident about stepping on the scale, but I did anyway.
Today I weigh 187.7, the same as the day before. Not very exciting, but if this is where it’s going to stop, then maybe I can have a beer tonight and think about the things I liked about this diet and just make those changes.
Or, maybe I wait and see what happens after another week?
For dinner, I had the chicken and lime burgers that I picked up from Trader Joes, with fresh guacamole and tomatoes. I also cut up a sweet potato and made sweet potato fries with chipotle mayo. Pretty excellent, and I could see myself eating this after the whole 30 is done.
Thinking about having a beer, a nice strong IPA would be amazing tonight.
Moving on to Day 11, and we’ll see if I quit today! HAHA
Whole30 – Day 11
Update coming later today, 2/22/2018