Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Whole 30 Challenge (Day 30) - The Final Stretch

It has certainly been a life changing 30 days... and as life would have it, not in any way I would have expected.  I didn't end up posting as often as I had planned, as I ended up interviewing and negotiating a new job that I will begin next month.  Despite the odd kinks that this process threw into my schedule, I have steadfastly remained on track with the Whole 30 Challenge.

I will post all of my statistics tomorrow after weighing/measuring in the morning.  Today, I'll recap some of the highs, lows and challenges of the past 30 days.



Highs:
- Learning that I not only can drink black coffee, I like it... especially iced!
- Discovering the wonders of coconut and it's many forms... flakes, butter, oil, etc.
- Surviving more than one big family celebratory dinner... and possibly peaking a bit of their interest in this way of life.

Lows:
- Forgoing family favorites like Caramel Cake and mom's fried chicken.  I thoroughly enjoyed my Brussell sprouts, but arrrgh...
- Having to turn down free foodstuffs from so many of my customers, some of Dallas' finest restaurants, bars and burger joints... Burguesa Burger came very close to breaking me.
- Reducing my bacon intake

How this challenge has changed my outlook on my diet:
- As I was pretty darn Primal for months leading up to this, there weren't too many things to eliminate.  However, I am interested to see how my body reacts to a slow re-introduction to dairy.  I believe it is quite possible that it has inflammatory effects on my body that I may not have noticed before.
- It is quite possible to go to a bar and not have a drink.
- I see myself changing my philosophy as it pertains to the Primal 80-20 ratio or the 4HB cheat day.  I felt great throughout these past 30 days and just can't see myself devoting a full day to spiking calories.  Moving forward, I'm going to limit the potential for "cheating/spiking" to a two meal window.  This will most likely be after a clean pre and post workout meal on Saturday morning.  To quantify this, I'd classify my revised philosophy as 90-10.

What I'm looking forward to in the next few days:
- Butter
- More bacon
- A glass of Scotch (JW Blue)

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