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Whole 30 - COMPLETE!

Me, at another finish line
(the 2010 Warrior Dash Ohio)
It's over.  Well, in 3 hours, it'll be over.  It's 9:05 PM on Day 30 of my Whole30 challenge, and I did it.

What did I accomplish?  Well, nothing particularly new since I went through this in 2008 with my first Primal Blueprint challenge, with one exception:

  1. I have solidified myself a lot - lots of body fat gone and replaced with lean muscle - again.
  2. I've improved my immune response - even when everyone else in the house got sick for a couple days with colds, etc., I had a slight case of the sniffles at worst.
  3. Stress levels have gone down a lot.
  4. I've created some great habits in cooking and, most important, preparation for cooking.
  5. I went dairy free for 30 days for the first time in my life.  
The last one is the most interesting to me, honestly.  I'm interested to see what happens when I introduce dairy back into the swing of things.  I recall Amy Kubal talking about how it affected her on the Health and Comedy show podcast a while back - she'd never given it up either, then did an on-ramp program.  When she introduced it back in, it did not agree with her to say the least.  So I'm going to be hesitantly getting back into that one.  

I'm pleased with the whole thing.  I enjoyed preparing food that was Whole30 friendly.  I am proud of myself for not lapsing once during the whole experience.  I am a person who has trouble following through with things for myself a lot (perhaps some self-esteem issues) and so this is particularly important to me.  

So what's next?  Well, slowly re-introducing some stuff.  Dairy will be first, for sure - just to see what happens.  I'm thinking that putting heavy whipping cream in my coffee will be best for tomorrow morning as that's something I always felt I handled well before (follow my Google+ stream or Facebook page for the results on that!)  

Keeping the progress going is also going to be big - focusing more on the movement and fitness aspects for a while.  I'm getting really interested in some of the stuff that's been making the podcast rounds lately - Dr. Kelly Starett was positively dynamic on the Fat Burning Man show recently, as was Darryl Edwards on the same show.  And of course, my interest in MovNat goes right along with that.  I've got some races coming up (the Savage Race in June and Mud Ninja in July, both as fund raisers for Train 4 Autism) so fitness and getting into top shape is of prime concern.

The other thing I really want to do is go back through Mark Sisson's The Primal Connection and start really paying attention to my lifestyle factors.  There's so much to pay attention to out of that book, and so much of it also goes along with what I've been learning from success mentors of mine like J.B. Glossinger and MorningCoach.com.  

So I'll be busy.  And I'll keep you posted on what's going on.  Because as much as this is about me, it's also about sharing with you and getting your feedback on all of this.  It's important to me that I give something back to this community because it's done so much for me!    
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Comments

  1. VirginieJanuary 25, 2014 at 11:37 AM

    What did you feel after reintroducing dairy ? I am still confused on wether or not it is good for us.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. JamieJanuary 25, 2014 at 3:02 PM

      I had no issues with reintroducing dairy. But that's not the case for everyone. I treat it as an "if it's there, don't sweat it" situation and try to make it as healthy as possible when I do have it.

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