When I first heard about The Whole 30, I thought it was a little extreme and not really necessary for someone who ate as well as I thought I did. I understood the concept: eat whole foods for 30 days to change your relationship with food. I didn't think I needed to try it- my relationship with food was great, right? When I started to examine it, I had a long way to go. Part of me was in denial that I needed to work on my eating habits and part of me wanted to look back at how far I have come in my journey with food and just be done with the hard work already.
My course with food has been a total roller coaster. Growing up, I always wanted to be skinny and envied my friends who were just naturally thin. I grew up with athletic thighs and held onto my baby fat long after I was a baby. In high school, I went through periods where I would not eat or I would binge and purge because I wanted to look a certain way. I saw a counselor and nutritionist and although I stopped binging and purging, I didn't care too much about being healthy, I just wanted to be skinny. I would exercise and started to make healthier choices but I thought about food constantly. I counted calories and was always thinking about what I could eat and how much of it I could have as well as how much I would need to exercise to keep my weight a certain number. I spun on this crazy cycle for a few years. In my early 20s, I was driving home from work and realized I hadn't thought about food all day. I was so grateful to not be obsessing about food. In that moment I made a choice to start to educate myself about true health and wellness because I knew there was more to life than living in my head with a menu. I started practicing yoga regularly and started running on the beach because it felt good, not because I had to burn off the calories I ate at lunch. It was the beginning of learning to love myself in my skin. I began to try out different eating habits and settled on becoming a vegetarian. I liked the idea of not eating animals and noticed that I wouldn't feel great after I ate meat, so I gave it up. I was a terrible vegetarian. I didn't eat meat but I also didn't eat as many vegetables as I should have been in order to get all the proper nutrition my body needed. Soon after this, I met my husband. This was another big turning point in my food journey because he is a chiropractor and wellness advocate. He educated me on the vitamins and minerals our bodies need to thrive and why I should care. I was now beginning to "get it" about food. I was making educated choices and eating well. I was exercising because I liked to. I thought I had made it. A month after we got married, I became pregnant and although I had started to introduce fish and eggs back into my diet, I still hadn't been eating much meat. While doing my research about my body while pregnant, I decided to reintroduce meat in my diet since it was the easiest way for me to get the protein I needed for my growing baby. I cleaned up my daily consumption considerably since what I ate and drank was what my baby ate and drank. Fast forward a couple of years and I'm pregnant with my second child. A girlfriend of mine tells me that she is doing The Whole 30. I inquired and immediately thought she was slightly nuts. No dairy, no grains, and no SUGAR for 30 days?!?! It sounded so extreme to me and I even wondered if it could really be that healthy or if it was just a trendy way to starve yourself and lose some inches. Then a second girlfriend of mine told me she was going to do it... Hmmmmm, ok, maybe I should look deeper into this. I ordered the book and intended to read it and maybe even try this Whole 30 thing once I had the baby and after my milk supply was well established. The book sat around for a while. I was avoiding it. When I finally picked it up and started to dive into it, I realized how truly wrong I was. This is about so much more than food. This is about educating yourself on your own body. When you cut all the crap out of your diet, you get to start over and experience how your body was made to FEEL. Wow. When was the last time your body felt truly alive? When was the last time you woke up with energy and looked into the mirror at your bright eyes and clear skin? The writers of this book talk about non-scale victories achieved through The Whole 30 and I can tell you this is what it is really about. I haven't thought too much about scale numbers in years (because it's not good for my soul) but I know that many of us hold onto an ideal weight with a death grip. When I stepped on the scale before starting my whole 30, it was the first time in a very long time. It was a tough moment for me and it brought up some hard feelings. It was so good for me to get through those feelings and refocus my energy on what else was happening as I cleaned up my act with food. I actually feel younger since I started my Whole 30 journey and I am going to take the tools I gained from this experience and move forward with an education about what my body needs to feel its best. I look back at my younger self and want to hug her. How lost I was in the scenery of societal beauty standards. Nobody else could have told me what I needed to know and ultimately the shift had to come from within me. I can even look back at myself a couple of months ago when I thought I had it all figured out and I am grateful that I am standing on the other side of this experience realizing that the journey never ends. Don't stop searching for answers or questioning what you think you know for sure. Keep diving into deeper waters and trust that you will learn to swim. When you do, new worlds will open up to you. If nothing else, don't ever stop educating yourself on yourself.
3 Comments
Jessica
2/23/2016 10:48:13 am
Amazing job Rory! You look beautiful as always. I had no idea you went through all of that.
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Casey
2/23/2016 11:46:01 am
LOVE THIS ARTICLE!!!!! You look fab!!
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I am very happy of how far you've come Rory!!! You look stunning :)
2/23/2016 06:25:24 pm
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