We Completed the Whole30 in 14 Days (And A Note from Matthew)

Happy Mother’s Day!

I wanted to say “We failed at the Whole30, but it isn’t what you think” however my ingenious husband came up with the “We completed the Whole30 in 14 days.” Obviously that isn’t possible, finishing a 30 day detox in 14 days, so I wanted to explain why we feel we finished it.

Let me start off by saying, I did not fail or quit. This is incredibly important for you to know this. The last few days I have been dealing with the reasons of us ending our Whole30 early, and what the people closest to us would say. That is honestly what kept me from ending this earlier, I was no longer doing it for me and my health. I was doing it to prove that we could actually complete it regardless of what was said to us that it wasn’t possible. And that isn’t okay! My motivation should be for my goals not for those expecting us to fail. So no, I did not fail. And if you think we did fail, then you don’t understand why we did this.

My reason why from week one – “I just want the cravings to go away and to feel better”. On day 14, Matt and I talked about our past week and actually continuing the next 2 weeks. The past 2 weeks have been difficult, but as of day 14 our cravings were gone. The biggest issue with the Whole30 is we found ourselves starving because we didn’t have time to prepare food or just didn’t feel like eating anything we had. Yes we should prepare an entire week of food in Tupperware containers at the beginning of the week so we wouldn’t have this issue which doesn’t work for us… between sick kids, a tiny fridge, and a husband who works 6 days a week I just could not make this work.

So on the way home from church, Matt and I both had a peace about not continuing the Whole30. We will be cutting out sweets from our diet except for special occasions, limiting our starches/breads, limiting our dairy (not putting cheese on everything) and soda is completely off limits. My goal is to focus more on when I am hungry and eat at those times, not just because it is lunch time. And also stop eating when I am satisfied, not stuffed. We will also be making sure our portions look correct… which means more veggies (because we totally weren’t doing this before Whole30). Along with changing our diet long term, we will also go back to working out. I’ll be starting with Piyo and as soon as I find my 21 Day Fix workouts I will move on to that! 🙂

If you are wanting to do the Whole30, DO NOT BE DISCOURAGED. Please do it, because even though we didn’t technically finish it, it changed our living. No diet or magic drink would have done this for us, getting back to the basics is exactly what we had to do.

Now I want to end with this… lift each other up. Are we not in this life together? Why must we set each other up for failure, talk bad about our friends and family behind their backs, and be at the ready to say “I told you so”? My dad use to say to me, “If you cant say anything nice, don’t say anything at all”. I mean really think about that… if you followed this rule, would you find yourself being silent?

“Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep His promise. Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.” Hebrews 10:23-25

“Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.” Ephesians 4:29

I have been so guilty of always expecting the worst of people and gossip up until about a year ago when God convicted me. It didn’t happen overnight, I had to break habits that I had for years but over time it became more of a blessing to say positive words rather than negative words. I can honestly tell you it is more rewarding to speak life into someone in every occasion. Isn’t Christ so good, that He forgives even the worst of us? Focus on lifting each other up, even when it is the hardest thing to do. There is power in our words! Not only speaking into our lives, but speaking into others lives as well.

From Matt

I usually just let Cassie write her blogs and be a part of it from the side of proofing and adding my little tid bits. However I feel it is important for me to write some for this post. This detox, because I refuse to call it a diet, has been a challenge for me. I don’t diet… I make choices. I choose what I eat, and most days I’m pretty sure they’re good choices. I don’t eat a lot of junk: candy, soda, chips. I don’t eat an over abundance of food either… most of the time. However I have to admit that Whole30 proved me wrong. Chips not so much, not even soda, and I’d say not even candy. But junk, yes. I went into this detox because I knew I needed to back up my wife. I could have accomplished this from the sidelines, but I didn’t. I didn’t do this to change my outlook on how I eat, because I wasn’t that bad, was I? Well as it turns out, I have cravings… well had. Food these days are so full of junk. You would think making chicken wouldn’t be so blasted difficult when you start to watch what you eat, but you would be quite surprised. I think what this experience has taught me is to stop craving food. It’s time, at least for me, but I urge you to think about this too, to stop WANTING food. Eat food, heck, ENJOY eating food. But it shouldn’t be something that we have to have so much of. Our bodies are amazing, God designed a beautiful compilation of matter in you, and you will need food to sustain it. However HAVING to have that hamburger or pizza or even banana or apple is NOT sustaining, it’s indulging. God created us to want, but not food, not cigarettes, not alcohol, not video games, not money, not work. He created us to want Him. I have been encouraged by so many people in this small journey, I have also been bashed by so many people in this journey. This has been difficult, INCREDIBLY difficult at work for me due to people’s opinions. But I can honestly say that walking away from something like this certainly left me changed. I know it changed my wife, and I know it changed other people around me, even if they don’t think it did. My goal, is to do everything in honor of God. Did I do this diet to honor God? I don’t think it started out that way… not at all. But I can tell you it certainly ended that way.