Two Months In: How are we doing now?

It's been about two months since we started the Whole30 challenge. You may be wondering how things are going now.

First of all, we are so grateful that God has freed us of so many food idols. We were soda guzzling, fast-food burger chowing, sugar inhaling folks and all of that has changed.  We haven't had a single soda in these last two months.  We actually don't mind drinking unsweetened iced tea (which, previously, we felt unsweetened tea tasted like pond water).  And while there was a huge struggle in the first few weeks to do without bread, rice, and queso, it's actually become no big deal.  At some point, the focus shifted off what we couldn't eat because those things no longer held us hostage.

Since completing the Whole30, we have allowed ourselves little treats, but those treats have left their own little treat behind- one that's not very enjoyable.  On a trip back to Brandon's hometown in Louisiana, we had a link of boudin (contains rice) which caused Brandon to gain 15 pounds in one day. (Once it passed through his system, the 15 pounds disappeared.)  No kidding.  And rice is actually the one grain that causes the least issues. Corn causes us all to break out in bumps and hives, some worse than others. (Although, I, Mandy, admit my favorite treat is to have some corn chips with guacamole. I just have to put up with itchy legs for a day or two.)

When you see that these foods really do cause pain, inflammation, bloating, stomach cramps or other less desirable digestive issues, rashes, brain-fog, and a variety of other ickiness, it's really not that difficult to steer clear of them.

Last week, we went to a Mexican restaurant where our youngest (Molly Jo, 14 months) had a few bites of a flour tortilla which caused her to feel very sick and.... puke all over her bed in the middle of the night.  The good news is that she felt much better and slept through the rest of the night!  I had a few bites of the fried flour tortilla bowl my salad came in, and I was nauseated for several hours following. Yuck.

Molly Jo has been far less fussy, probably because she's no longer consuming those organic Wheat-O's that seem like a good baby snack, and likely because my breast milk is no longer tainted with gluten, dairy, and other foods that didn't go over well in her system.

All of our children pretty much follow a Paleo diet. We do allow them little treats, like basic rice crackers with their tuna salad.  At first, we allowed them to have grain and dairy "treats" at our weekly potlucks, but their systems were screwed up the rest of the week, so we have definitely reigned that in.  It is tough for some children to adjust, and, of all our children, Keagan (5) has had the most difficult time adjusting.  It's mainly because he's old enough to pick his own food from the potluck buffet but not old enough to really think things through.  Our older two can process, "Well, this probably will make my stomach ache later, so I think I'll do without."  If they are tempted by it, they will ask us first, and we can help them make that decision.  (Sometimes we all want someone to make that decision for us, right? Sometimes it's nice for someone to say, "No, I think it would be best to choose something else.")  Keagan is doing much better, and no longer asks one-thousand-times for things he cannot have. Now it's more like a dozen times, which is far less grating on the nerves. Ha!

Mother's Day 2013

I confess, I (Mandy) held on to some items when we went on the Whole30 because I figured they would do in a pinch.  I mean, one day when I'm exhausted, those frozen corndogs will come in handy.  Do I really need to throw out this enchilada sauce that has all kinds of weirdness in it? I ended up loading up a good bit of thing, intending to donate them, but... the box of canned good are still sitting in my car because I just can't fathom giving such crap to anyone!  It's not real food!

So, obviously, we are doing quite well and enjoying this lifestyle of eating.  In fact, as we suspected, this diet paved the way for yet another pregnancy (this always seems to happen when I am grain-free, dairy-free, and legume-free)!  We are expecting our 6th child in January 2014!  Eating this way has also caused me to go through pregnancy relatively morning-sickness free (as I believe I wrote about before).  Having gone through three pregnancies with HORRIBLE all-day, keep-nothing-down "morning" sickness, I know what a blessing it is to not be hanging over a toilet throughout the day or always searching for the best place to throw up when we're out running errands.  (And, for the record, Whole30/Paleo has not negatively affected my breast milk supply at all. The key is keeping hydrated, which, yes, I do have a hard time doing now that I am both pregnant and nursing.)

I (Brandon) always feel inspired to keep going when I look in the mirror and see the progress I've made. It's like, "Hey! I'm pretty stinkin' skinny!"   (Mandy here: Seriously, he'll come out of the bathroom and say, "Who is that handsome man?")

Everything actually tastes more flavorful when it's not wrapped in bread. Hamburgers are far more delicious without bread. I don't miss the bun at all. I'm not really missing cokes at all, but sometimes I want a little something sweet to drink so I go for some orange juice.

People offer me stuff and I think, "I don't eat that stuff. It's bad for me," whereas before I would have felt like it would be a sacrifice to turn it down.  For example, turning down a coke and going for water in the beginning was a sacrifice. Now water is my first choice. No big deal. No internal wrestling or feeling deprived.

I like that our kids are learning better habits and making better food choices.  We're no longer telling them about good habits and then having a bunch of cheats which say we don't really mean what we say.

A week ago I went on a 36-hour fast to break my plateau. I have been on fasts before, but usually, within the first five hours I was crumbling. I was hostile, cranky mess... just ask my wife. (True story.)

This time, I was able to go 36 hours without feeling moody, extreme hunger, or obsessive cravings and the mental gymnastics involved with that.  I am no longer completely controlled by food.

Before, I was addicted to breads and such, so these things made my blood sugar rise and fall, rise and fall. Fasting was a horrible experience then because my body was experiencing such lows during that time, just aching for another high, another hit... like a drug!  Now I feel steady and clear-headed when I fast. (Although, in the last hours, I was feeling a little "high" in a totally different way, and I was starting to feel hungry.)

Pretty soon I'm going to have to buy a new belt.  I've had this one since junior high, so it's going to be tough parting with it! It's very well broken in by now!

Conception, Pregnancy, and Nursing

Have you ever looked at a picture of yourself and thought, "Wait... that's me?  When did I get that big?"

This was one of those pictures for us:

This photo was taken at a family reunion in the Spring of 2009. At the time, we had three children and had experienced at least one miscarriage. (Maybe two by this point.  We had four miscarriages that year.)

A miscarriage does crazy things to the body.  First of all, the whole body doesn't always recognize that you are no longer carrying a wee little child.  Hormones are going crazy, and the whole system seems off.  Even if you hadn't gained much pregnancy weight yet, the hormonal issues can cause a gal to gain something similar to the Freshman 15. And, on top of that, there's the emotional eating.  Before I knew it, I had packed on 25 extra pounds.

This picture caused me to analyze my diet. Several months later, I decided to take the leap and go Raw Vegan, a diet I was fairly familiar with and had "tried" before. I stuck to it for several months, following our third miscarriage, because I knew I needed to reset my body. I was pretty sure my diet was the cause of our infertility problems.  I did go on to have another miscarriage while I was a raw vegan, but that was not due to my diet, but rather due to a drug I was given in the hospital for some kidney problems I was having.

By December, we were pregnant with our fourth child, Evangeline.  I've mentioned before how vegan and vegetarian diets didn't work for us because we were never full and still had some issues, but the wonderful thing about being a raw vegan was that, similar to the Paleo diet, grains, legumes, dairy, sugar, and processed, chemical junk was totally absent from my diet.  For the first time in my child-bearing life, I had a very smooth pregnancy.  With the first three, especially the third, I had been so terribly sick the first 20 weeks I could hardly function or keep any food down.  It wasn't just "morning sickness", it was "life sickness".  It was enough to make me wonder if I could even handle another pregnancy (but, you know, those little boogers are just so stinkin' cute that I felt it was worth it).

My last two pregnancies (Evangeline and Molly Jo) have been so wonderfully smooth.  When I found out I was pregnant with Molly Jo, I was actually doing a juice fast and was about to transition into a raw food diet again. I had issues with anemia (as I have had with all my pregnancies), but I realize now something about the raw food diet was allowing me to skip over the miserableness of nausea and the worst bits of pregnancy (sickness).  I have found that other women are experiencing the same thing, not because they are raw vegans, but because they have at least removed grains, dairy, and sugar from their diet (many of them have removed legumes too).

This tells me that the Paleo diet, and even the Whole30 challenge, are safe for most pregnant women.  I am currently breastfeeding and have not experienced any negatives. My baby is actually healthier and feeling much better now, which is a huge blessing.

W30- Day 30!!!!

Day thirty snuck up on us!  We don't have any comparison photos for you today, but we did want to share our current stats.  (You can see comparison photos we took on day 26.)

Brandon:

Weight: 267 lbs (that's 18 pounds down!).
Chest: 52 inches (one inch slimmer!)
Belly: 50 inches (a whopping six inches thinner!)
Belt area: 45 inches (one inch skinnier!)
Thigh: 29 inches (one inch dropped!)


Mandy:

Weight: 120 (5 pounds gone!)
Chest: 33 inches (3 inches of that back fat, gone!)
Waist: 31 inches (5 inches slimmer!)
Hips: 37 inches (3 inches disappeared!)
Thigh: 21 inches (2 inches kapoof!)

It's really amazing to see the results of only one month of healthy, clean eating.  Mandy's goal is to start toning, while Brandon's goal is to continue losing weight and healing his body.  We will continue using the Whole30 as our guidelines, because we are all benefiting from it!

W30- Day 26, PHOTO UPDATE

If you're considering taking on the Whole30 challenge, do yourself a favor and take photos.  I realize that most of us don't want to take photos because we want to spare ourselves the embarrassment (oh hi, back fat!), but seriously, do it.

On days when you feel like you haven't made much progress, do some side by side comparisons.  The changes may be small or they may be major, but hopefully you'll find yourself encouraged.

We wish we would have taken more photos of ourselves (some backside photos would have been nice), but we're thankful for the photos we did take because they prove the Whole30 has made a difference.

We haven't taken measurements lately, but the pictures speak for themselves.

When I (Brandon) look at this photo, I see an incredible difference. I didn't even realize I had slimmed down that much in my face!

Like Brandon, I (Mandy) didn't feel like I had lost any chub in my face. After all, my face is not all that chubby to begin with.  I did notice my skin was looking much clearer, but when I look at this photo, I can see the lower part of my face has definitely changed.  I don't usually wear a lot of makeup, but lately I've been skipping the concealer, mascara, and eyeliner more often! Who needs make-up when your face is already glowing?

I (Brandon) can look down (without leaning over) and see my toes now. Looking at this comparison motivates me to keep going!

I'm a small person, so obviously the changes will not be as drastic on my body. The photos on the left were taken in the morning before I began the Whole30. By lunch time, I would be even more bloated. I was so tired of getting, "When are you due?" comments.  I realize I have five children and people often suspect I am pregnant again just because, well, I've been pregnant a lot, but it also doesn't help when I look 4-6 months pregnant!  My tiny frame does not put away extra weight well, and because I'm small chested, extra chub around my midsection stands out even more.

I've often heard, "Abs are made in the kitchen," and now I'm seeing proof of that.  It's really amazing to see my abs begin to emerge! (And we have only JUST started working out, so these are the results of our diet changes, NOT exercise.)

We're glad we didn't put off the Whole30.  We're thankful we took the leap.  A month is going to pass anyway, might as well make the most of it! I realize Paleo isn't for everyone. We tried a lot of different diets (not fad diets, but "lifestyles") to improve our health.  There are so many different methods out there (raw vegan, vegetarian, paleo, etc) and some very conflicting evidence.  While some people may think we chase after fad diets, we know the reality is that you usually have to test things out to see if it's true or works for you.  Raw Vegan, Vegan, and Vegetarianism did not work for us.  We tried it! (We did see some benefits, but still felt VERY hungry, etc. You can read our post, "But weren't you guys vegetarians once?" if you're interested on how that went.

Maybe the Whole30 won't work for you, but I think most of us could greatly benefit from fasting from grains, dairy, and, obviously, sugar.  Brandon has always loved dairy products and never thought he had an issue with it until about two years ago when we cut it out of our diet for a period of time.  Sometimes we don't realize our bodies don't tolerate certain foods very well until we go without them for several weeks or months. It usually takes at least a month for you to notice a difference. I (Mandy) cut out gluten for two weeks, didn't notice a huge difference, and went back to it. But having been without gluten for nearly a month, I can see that my body functions much better without it!  (I, Mandy, have always known I had issues with dairy, so, that was not a shocker!)

If you're considering a Whole30 journey of your own, go for it! Don't keep putting your health on the back burner! What do you have to lose except weight, bloating, and some other nasty side effects of poor health?

We know it's hard to break habits. Processed foods are engineered to be addictive. Many of the ingredients within these foods are chemicals designs to send messages to the brain so that you want more and more and more.  We highly suggest you read the book, It Starts With Food.  We found it so helpful, especially on tough days, to know how our bodies work, why we feel the way we feel, and why it's so hard to break the cycle. 

Our 30 days may be coming to a close, but we're continuing on.  This is not a fad diet, this is a lifestyle. We are no longer slaves to sugar!  

But weren't you guys vegetarians once?

This is a question I have been asked by several folks when I started considering trying what is called the Paleo diet.  (Let me state here that I don't believe in an old world, so I don't agree that the world is millions of years old, but I do agree with many of the findings of those behind the Paleo movement.  But, this is not a blog to discuss the age of the universe or religion.)

I know it must seem strange that I was once a raw vegan, and so I figured it would probably be good to blog about our journey over the last couple years.

My husband and I once owned a barbecue restaurant.  It was right next door to our home, so, as you can guess, we often ate food from our restaurant- mainly fried shrimp,hushpuppies, nuggets, chopped beef sandwiches, dirty rice, and, of course, a bunch of french fries.  In fact, I would say I ate a huge plateful of french fries sprinkled liberally with cayenne pepper at least once a day (often more).

(Spring 2006)

A friend of mine was a raw vegan and was telling me how he overcame various health issues, so I decided to go for it.  That proved very difficult since I wasn't really good with preparing my own food, and I had this tasty restaurant (that I lived next to and worked at a lot of the time) always presenting temptations.  I don't think I lasted very long.

When we moved to Texas, I experienced a chain of miscarriages.  I realized that my diet was likely causing a lot of problems with my body, especially my fertility, so I decided to do "the raw vegan thing" again.  After a couple months of being a raw vegan, we conceived and that baby stuck!  (We had four miscarriages previous to her.) This was the first pregnancy in which I didn't feel deathly ill for the first 20+ weeks.  It was the first pregnancy in which I didn't feel constantly sick to my stomach or struggle to keep down even the smallest amount of food.  I was amazed!

My husband did not do well on the diet. He constantly felt hungry, so I tried adding beans and grains to his meals in order to fill him up.  I had read a lot of information on the importance of not eating meat which I thought was accurate (and some of it is, especially in respect to factory-farmed, hormone- and antibiotic-stuffed meat!), so I thought he would do much better without meat, if only we could figure out foods that would satisfy his stomach and not leave him feeling grumpy and starving in an hour.

This did not work, so we slowly added back meat, mainly sticking to chicken and seafood, with the occasional steak or burger.

Brandon has always struggled with pain.  For much of his life, he suffered from Fibromyalgia, but, by the grace of God, was healed one day when a group of men laid hands on him. While he had overcome much of the pain and suffering from FM, he was still experiencing a lot of aches and pains (mainly in his back) and a real lack of energy.

We tried various things and often went back through periods of vegetarianism and veganism, doing juice fasts and cleanses, and trying to find a way to get both of our bodies back on track. When we found out we were pregnant with Molly Jo, we were during a juice fast and transitioning into veganism and then into vegetarianism (feeling it would be best to take it slow).  Once again, I had a smooth pregnancy- no extreme sickness like I had with the first three- which I related to eating plenty of living, raw foods.

With Evie (left) and Molly Jo

During my time as a raw vegan, I did see major changes.  I gained energy. My migraines disappeared. And of course, my body was leaner.  But I still never felt full, and I had a difficult time getting enough iron (I was severely anemic) so I took various supplements.

So, for the last few years, my husband and I have been on a low or no meat diet with lots of raw, fresh fruits and vegetables, "healthy" grains and a variety of legumes.

So, side note- we homeschool, and in our homeschool lessons, I have been teaching the children about nutrition.  We've learned a lot about cortisol, how our hormones are effected by foods we eat, micro and macro nutrients, etc.

Earlier this month, I had posted a picture of a quinoa dish I had made because I had heard quinoa was really healthy and much better than rice (which our diet was pretty thick with).  Someone commented that quinoa caused inflammation, and I immediately dismissed it.  I mean, there's so much conflicting information out there. Quinoa is healthy and good for us, right?  Especially for those on a low or no meat diet, right?

But her comment stuck with me, so I was forced to research it out, which led me to information regarding the Whole30. I have several friends and many Instagram pals who are Paleo, so I was vaguely familiar with it, but I decided I should research it a bit more.

I was pretty astonished by what I found.  Grains and legumes are harmful to my hubby! I felt pretty bad that I had been making his gut and pain conditions WORSE, even though I was trying to make us healthier! I won't go into detail about that as there is much information out there about grains, legumes, and dairy and how these three things negatively affect the body, directly relating to those who struggle with chronic pain and gut issues.  I'm just saying, the research I found was going right along with what I had already learned (and taught my children) about how our bodies work.

I figure we have tried so many things, it can't hurt to try one more. So that is why we are in the midst of our Whole30 Challenge.

For us, it's not about subscribing to a label.  We just want to feel good.  We want to have energy. We don't want to look like stuffed sausages.  So, we're giving it a try. We can't yet say that it's the way to go or it's working for us, but I do see that some of the similarities between our former raw vegan diet and this Whole30 could be the key to optimal health, that is- no sugar, no grains, no legumes, and no dairy.

We shall see!