I started a program called The Whole 30 on March 25th, 2012.
I had read about it on THIS freshly pressed blog at the beginning of March.
I mulled it over for a few weeks until one night, I couldn’t sleep. It was 4:30am when I decided I was going to do this 30 challenge.
My body could use it, I’ve been counting calories for months. I was eating 1200 calories a day (as recommended by MyFitnessPal), I dropped 5lbs in about two months (it was a terribly long process) but that’s as far as it got. My weight kept fluctuating. I kept gaining and losing the same 5 lbs for another 2 months after that.
I was exercising as much as my schedule would permit. I went to weekly yoga sessions where I’d burn 700-900 calories in an 1.15hrs. I’ve started bike riding, when the weather permits it,  2,3, sometimes 4 miles at a time.
Whatever I was doing, I must have been doing it wrong.

Well, I’m fed up. Enough is Enough. I’ve started this 30 day challenge and I’m seeing it through. I also bought a Boot Camp package off of Groupon that I will be doing 2x/week, too.
I took my measurements and weight on the first day, I will retake those same measurements on the last day (April 23, 2012).
At the end of it all, I will post the before and after measurements (now THAT’S pressure!)

Anyways! Now that you’ve read through my spiel, let me briefly explain what The Whole 30 is and where you can find more information:

What is The Whole30?

Certain food groups (like sugar, grains, dairy and legumes) could be having a negative impact on your health and fitness without you even realizing it.
Strip them from your diet completely. Cut out all the inflammatory, gut-disrupting, calorie-dense but nutritionally sparse food groups for a full 30 days.

What NOT to eat during the Whole30 program:

• Do not consume any added sugar, real or artificial.
  
• No alcohol, not even for cooking.
• No grains. Not even corn.
  
• No legumes. This includes ALL beans, even forms of soy, like tofu.
• No dairy. The only exception is Clarified Butter or Ghee.
• Obviously, NO white potatoes. This also includes Yukon, red, purple, and fingerlings.

What you CAN eat during the Wh0le30 Program:

Eat real food – (lean) meat, seafood, eggs, tons of vegetables, some fruit, and plenty of good fats from fruits, oils, nuts and seeds. Eat foods with very few ingredients, all pronounceable ingredients, or better yet, no ingredients listed at all because they’re totally natural and unprocessed.

• Fruit juice as sweetener. 
• Clarified Butter or Ghee is the only acceptable form of dairy.
  
• Certain legumes like green beans, sugar snaps, and snow peas.
• Vinegar, except those with added sugar and malt vinegar.
• Processed foods like coconut milk, tomato sauce, applesauce, chick broth, and canned olives but avoid anything with carageenan, MSG, or sulfites.

Do you think you can do it?

Start now. Right this second. Count 30 days from today’s date. Use the resources given to you HERE. For the next 30 days, focus on making good food choices. You don’t need to weigh or measure, no counting calories, and don’t stress about organic or free-range .
Give it a FULL 30 days. No cheating, no slip-ups, or special occasions (in April, I have a surprise party, a birthday, Easter, AND The Beauty Board. We can do this!)

Now for some tough love…

• It is not hard. Don’t you dare tell us this is hard. Quitting heroin is hard. Beating cancer is hard. YOU HAVE NO EXCUSE not to complete the program as written. It’s only thirty days, and it’s for the most important health cause on earth – the only physical body you will ever have in this lifetime.
• Don’t even consider the possibility of a “slip”. Unless you physically tripped and your face landed in a box of doughnuts, there is no “slip”.
• You never, ever, ever HAVE to eat anything you don’t want to eat. We would hope that you stopped succumbing to peer pressure in 7th grade.

Want to learn about about this program before committing? Click HERE