For as long as I can remember I have been on a diet. Weight watchers,
Atkins, South Beach, the Master Cleanse. Every time it was the same
story, to varying degrees of success. I would start the diet, lose some
weight, get frustrated and give up, and gain all of the weight back. In
September 2014 I hit my highest weight ever. I had been working out and
dieting and gaining weight. I wanted to die. I had just gotten engaged
and all I could think of was how miserable I was and how much I hated my
body. I lived on Sugar Free Red Bull, I was constantly exhausted. I
felt like my body was broken.
Everyone always said "Jessica you are the healthiest eater I know. I don't know why you can't lose weight." I drank diet coke, ate only the egg whites, used light salad dressing, ate brown rice, I measured everything. I remember the exact moment my thinking started to change. I was standing in the refrigerator section of the grocery store shopping for low fat half and half. I looked at the back of the light half and half and I looked at the back of the full fat half and half. Full fat ingredients: cream, milk. Low fat ingredients: a bunch of stuff I couldn't identify or pronounce. I started thinking that maybe that everything I thought was true about nutrition wasn't true. Maybe lean cuisines, slimfast, and low fat yogurt aren't diet food. Maybe less processed, less chemicals, more natural food is what we are really supposed to be eating. Maybe I had been brainwashed to believe that the more diet food I ate and the more miserable I was, the closer to my "happy" weight I would be.
I decided that for 30 days, I would cut all chemicals, cured meats, sugar substitutes, dairy, and grains. I started searching for other people who had done this. I knew I couldn't have been the only person that was trying to live a more truly healthy life. I stumbled across the Whole 30 on Pinterest. I read the entire website, figured out what I had to do, and set a date. I started my Whole 30 on 2/1/14. I cut all dairy, chemicals, legumes, cured meats, wheat, sugar, and grains out of my diet for 30 days. I'm not going to pretend that it wasn't hard. Sometimes it was really hard. When I started I didn't know how I could go without cheese for 30 days. All I could think about was how I was going to break my fast and all of the beer and pizza I was going to eat.
The farther into the month I got, the better I felt. I had more energy, my stomach was less bloated, my skin was clearer. I stopped feeling like I was being deprived, and I started feeling like I was getting closer to feeling the way I wanted to feel all of the time. I ended up extending my Whole 30 to 45 days. When it was over, I didn't cheat. I didn't drink beer. I didn't eat pizza. I transitioned to a Paleo diet. Then I read the book Eat the Yolks and it changed my life. It confirmed that yes, everything I had learned about nutrition is wrong. You should eat the yolks. Low fat sucks. Diets are a scam. Soy is not magical. I had a lot of "Ah ha!" moments reading that book.
My friend Lauren started her Whole 30 not long after I started mine. She will also share her story and contribute here. Not only did the Whole 30 change my life, but it brought me closer to someone who I didn't realize was so much like me in so many ways.
Then I realized that nothing tastes as good as beingskinny
healthy feels. Sure, I still have somewhat unhealthy relationship with
the scale and from time to time base my happiness on the number I see. I
have lost 18 lbs, but I got my body back. I no longer blame myself and
my body. I now have a new definition of healthy.
A lot of people told me I was crazy and that what I was doing was stupid. A lot of days I doubted myself and felt like giving up. But now, every day that I jump out of bed a few minutes before my alarm, or feel my pants loser on my body, or my hair doesn't fall out in clumps, I know that I made the right choice. I am not 100% Paleo all the time. When it's really worth it, I will eat something that isn't part of my regular diet.
I can't promise you that the Paleo lifestyle and a Whole 30 will change you the way it changed me. But, I can tell you that I was you. I was tired, sick, and I hated my body. The freedom I have found from self hatred had changed my life. I have so much more time to enjoy my life when I'm not wasting it hating myself.
We are like you. I work full time and Lauren is a full time mom. We both have a million things going on from one minute to the next. We will show you that it is possible to live a healthy, fulfilling Paleo lifestyle on a budget and with a busy schedule.
Everyone always said "Jessica you are the healthiest eater I know. I don't know why you can't lose weight." I drank diet coke, ate only the egg whites, used light salad dressing, ate brown rice, I measured everything. I remember the exact moment my thinking started to change. I was standing in the refrigerator section of the grocery store shopping for low fat half and half. I looked at the back of the light half and half and I looked at the back of the full fat half and half. Full fat ingredients: cream, milk. Low fat ingredients: a bunch of stuff I couldn't identify or pronounce. I started thinking that maybe that everything I thought was true about nutrition wasn't true. Maybe lean cuisines, slimfast, and low fat yogurt aren't diet food. Maybe less processed, less chemicals, more natural food is what we are really supposed to be eating. Maybe I had been brainwashed to believe that the more diet food I ate and the more miserable I was, the closer to my "happy" weight I would be.
I decided that for 30 days, I would cut all chemicals, cured meats, sugar substitutes, dairy, and grains. I started searching for other people who had done this. I knew I couldn't have been the only person that was trying to live a more truly healthy life. I stumbled across the Whole 30 on Pinterest. I read the entire website, figured out what I had to do, and set a date. I started my Whole 30 on 2/1/14. I cut all dairy, chemicals, legumes, cured meats, wheat, sugar, and grains out of my diet for 30 days. I'm not going to pretend that it wasn't hard. Sometimes it was really hard. When I started I didn't know how I could go without cheese for 30 days. All I could think about was how I was going to break my fast and all of the beer and pizza I was going to eat.
The farther into the month I got, the better I felt. I had more energy, my stomach was less bloated, my skin was clearer. I stopped feeling like I was being deprived, and I started feeling like I was getting closer to feeling the way I wanted to feel all of the time. I ended up extending my Whole 30 to 45 days. When it was over, I didn't cheat. I didn't drink beer. I didn't eat pizza. I transitioned to a Paleo diet. Then I read the book Eat the Yolks and it changed my life. It confirmed that yes, everything I had learned about nutrition is wrong. You should eat the yolks. Low fat sucks. Diets are a scam. Soy is not magical. I had a lot of "Ah ha!" moments reading that book.
My friend Lauren started her Whole 30 not long after I started mine. She will also share her story and contribute here. Not only did the Whole 30 change my life, but it brought me closer to someone who I didn't realize was so much like me in so many ways.
Then I realized that nothing tastes as good as being
A lot of people told me I was crazy and that what I was doing was stupid. A lot of days I doubted myself and felt like giving up. But now, every day that I jump out of bed a few minutes before my alarm, or feel my pants loser on my body, or my hair doesn't fall out in clumps, I know that I made the right choice. I am not 100% Paleo all the time. When it's really worth it, I will eat something that isn't part of my regular diet.
I can't promise you that the Paleo lifestyle and a Whole 30 will change you the way it changed me. But, I can tell you that I was you. I was tired, sick, and I hated my body. The freedom I have found from self hatred had changed my life. I have so much more time to enjoy my life when I'm not wasting it hating myself.
We are like you. I work full time and Lauren is a full time mom. We both have a million things going on from one minute to the next. We will show you that it is possible to live a healthy, fulfilling Paleo lifestyle on a budget and with a busy schedule.
