It’s almost like my body knew the craziness that was about to ensue this week. Yesterday, it went into straight panic mode. I wanted ALL the bad foods.

The day started off strong by me skipping breakfast. This never happens. While grocery shopping for my meal prepping crazy husband ,who eats better than anyone I know and then requests purple bunny peeps for snacks, I decided that, I too, wanted some peeps.

I packed the groceries in my car and proceeded to rip open the package of peeps and indulge in the pure sugariness on the way home. The bunnies didn’t stand a chance. As I made my own meals for the week, I had a huge bowl of chocolate easter eggs on hand. I ate mini saltines for lunch and after my soccer game I decided to crack open a can of Founders beer that was left at our house. I don’t even like Founder’s beer, much less after a soccer game. (Blasphemy, I know.) But there I sat with a can of All Day IPA, gripping on to it and sipping away as if it was the last beverage I’d ever drink.

And that’s because today, I start my Whole30 experiment. All real foods, no added sugars, no dairy, no alcohol, no “natural flavors,” no juice, no beans, no wheat, grains, no honey, no coffee creamer, no anything that isn’t legit food.

LORD HELP ME.

I first told my sister Katelyn about Whole30 back in January. I wanted her to do it with me. I had several friends in Alabama who had done Whole30 and LOVED IT. Katelyn did some research and picked up on it immediately. She’s been absolutely crushing this thing – she’s approaching 45 days of this experiment(overachiever!). Not only is she killing it, but she’s been managing it with her Type 1 diabetes. It’s been absolutely incredible to see the affect that going through Whole30 has had on her and her diabetes. She’s dramatically cut back on insulin, feels amazing and looks amazing. I couldn’t be more proud of her. It’s inspiring.

After talking her into doing this thing…I promptly put it off/wussed out for a really long time. There was always something coming up, some social event or party that I didn’t want to miss out on by not being able to eat and drink anything I wanted. So I made excuses…again and again and again. Interesting our relationship with food, isn’t it? As if I wouldn’t be able to enjoy my time if I couldn’t eat or drink certain things that weren’t considered “real whole food.”

Do a quick Google search and you’ll find incredible stories about people’s successes with Whole30. Pictures, testimonials, improved lives. I mean check these stories out:

A family did Whole30.

A 56-year-old preschool teacher.

A mom and wife.

A manly man. 

They must be on to something, right?

So, let’s be clear. The Whole30 is not a diet. It’s an experiment, a restart and recharge for your body. It’s about getting educated about what kinds of things effect you negatively. The purpose is to take out everything from your daily eating regime that doesn’t consist of real food. Certain food groups (like sugar, grains, dairy, etc) could be having a negative effect on your health and fitness without you even realizing it.  Especially if you’re like me and you haven’t really paid that close attention to the correlation between food groups that you eat and specifically how your body feels after eating them. Unless of course I eat a massive amount of junk food and feel terrible afterwards…but…that seems obvious, yes?

After 30 days of not consuming any of the things that are on the Whole30 “do not eat” list, you slowly reintroduce them back into your body and keenly observe how you feel and how your body reacts. If you continue with Whole30 past the 30 days…awesome. But the creators of this movement actually encourage you to have a good balance afterwards and practice the 80/20 rule as opposed to going straight up Whole30 100% of the time. It’s just not sustainable…and sometimes life calls for a glass of wine and some chocolate during the week.

That’s what I’m in it to figure out. Are the things I’m eating causing me to have that 2pm crash? Do certain foods affect my athletic performance? Am I addicted to sugar? When I started CrossFit and started cutting back on grains, wheat, and dairy I noticed that when I DID consume those things, my joints would swell up and I’d get really congested. Not good news for my love of craft beer and bread. I LOVE BREAD. (Insert Oprah’s Weight Watchers commercial here.) Give me all the soft pretzels and I’m a happy girl.

But when you realize how certain foods actually have an affect on your body…it’s an eye opening experience and extremely interesting when you consider the amount of health issues we have that could potentially be solved simply by changing our diet.

So, here we go. I’ll be posting updates throughout these 30 days to let you know if/when I’m going crazy. If anyone has done Whole30 before, I’ll take all the advice I can get! And if you want to hit up my sister Katelyn to learn more about her experience, shoot her a Facebook message or follow her blog. You’ll love her.

Cheers to real food, friends.