The Journey Begins

I am not a diet or nutrition expert. I am certainly not a doctor. I am just a 60 year old lady who has turned her physical and emotional life around due to The Whole30® Program. I decided to put parts of my personal journal into this blog because I was finding that more and more people were asking me, "How did you do it? Lose all that weight," and they really wanted to know, so here is the answer to how "I did it," complete with my non-professional menus and recipes.

I have two regrets as I begin this blog. The first one is that I did not measure or take pictures before my journey began. The best I can do is a three year old picture,

but it is fairly representative of how I have looked for the past three years. The second one is that I began my journaling in a journal instead of online. I wanted to transfer my journals with the original dates, but having just realized how many entries there are and how long that would take, I will give a weekly synopsis until I get caught up. So here goes...

Shortly after Christmas my daughter Elyse announced that she would be starting a Whole30 eating lifestyle and invited me and her sister to join her. She also said that she was going to begin a running regimen. I am not and never have been a runner, so that part was of no interest to me. As far as the diet goes, I think it looks too restrictive, expensive and requires too much prep time. As January 1st arrived and she began her new lifestyle, I looked into some past diets that I had tried and I've tried a lot. I began a pro/con list.

Atkins

Pros                                Cons
 Meat                                Limited food list
Cheese                             High in fat
Quick results                    Not lasting results
                                        Not a lifestyle change

Subway

Pros                              Cons

No prep                         No variety
Cheap                            Not a lifestyle change


Weight Watchers

Pros                               Cons

Large variety                   Measuring and weighing
Lifestyle change              Measuring and weighing
                                      Prep work

Marilu Henner Total Health Makeover (Macrobiotic)

Pros                              Cons

Lifestyle change              EXPENSIVE
Large variety                  Prep time
                                     No  caffeine

The Mayor's Diet

Pros                              Cons

No prep                        Not a lifestyle change
Cheap                           Preservative filled

Calorie Counting

Pros                               Cons

Large variety                   Measuring and weighing
Semi-lifestyle change       Measuring and weighing

Whole30

Pros                                Cons

Large variety                   Prep time
Lifestyle change               Can be costly

Caffeine                           

I tried to convince myself that I would be better off going back to one of the previously tried diets, no new rules to learn. In the end though I had to admit that although I had  been successful at losing weight in the past, nothing stuck, the weight returned and I lived for the day that I could go back to eating the foods I loved, always promising myself that as soon as I saw a five pound gain I would go back on the diet. I never did. So I have decided to give Whole30 a try. January 5th I weigh 184.