Journey to Whole 30

My Story


I've struggled with depression on and off since Jr. High. My seventh grade year, it affected my health so much that I missed over a month of school that winter. When I did go back, it was only for half days for a while. Jr. High is already torture, so this really made it hard for me to get through the day. Eventually, I learned coping skills that helped to some extent. But often in the winter, I get so tired that it's a battle to get out of bed in the morning. Sometimes, I feel like crying all day long - so then it takes extra energy to "hold it together" all day. I get irritable with the kids and my husband. I don't want to socialize at all, but I do because not socializing makes it worse. I feel like I could go to bed everyday at 8:00 when the kids go, but I don't because that makes it worse, too. Ug!!


My understanding of how food affects our mental health started about two and a half years ago. Our oldest son had been diagnosed with Autism when he was 3 years old. We had some wonderful early intervention that made a huge difference for him, but we wanted to also see how he responded when we changed his diet. After a great deal of research (done by my wonderful husband!) we decided to try the Paleo diet with him. The difference it made was astounding. He continues the diet and continues to make progress beyond what we thought would be possible for him.


So, when it came to my own health, this year I was desperate enough to get drastic. I started eating Paleo in September. To be honest, I cheated a lot. So, I'm not sure I can honestly say I was really "eating Paleo". I wasn't feeling fabulous. My husband said "If you really want to go for it, you could go Whole 30."


Whole what? I had kind of heard of the Whole 30, but wasn't sure what it was all about. So I read Dallas and Melissa Hartwigs's page www.whole9life.com. Then, I read the book It Starts With Food. Their realistic, tough love, tell it like it is tone convinced me. I had to go Whole 30.


I have to say - after these 30 days, I'm feeling better than I have in years! No, seriously. It's like someone came along and took the wet blanket off my limbs and lifted the fog from my brain. My mood is great. I have rarely gotten headaches (which used to plague me). Even my lower back (which will never be the same after having twins) is feeling better than is has since the girls were born.


Do I still get tired? Yep - I have four kids. Two of which routinely get up in the night for random complaints. But it's a different kind of tired. It's a "I didn't get enough sleep last night" tired. Not a "every part of body feels like there's 20 pound weights attached and I can't seem to get my brain to make sense out of anything" kind of tired.


Do I still get headaches? - Yep. Again, four kids. 'nough said. But it's not as often as it used to be.


Do I still get irritable? Seriously - I HAVE FOUR KIDS. However, I find that with my energy level staying consistent throughout the day, I can let the little things go a bit easier. And, I can think more clearly about how I want to handle the big things.

My Purpose

I want this blog to do a couple of things
- Share with others the food that I have found to be so amazingly helpful. I want to help others feel as good as I do. I'll share recipes, mistakes, successes, things I've learned along the way.


- To be real. Nitty-gritty real, I-yelled-at-my-kids-today real, this-looks-nothing-like-the-picture real, I-laughed-so-hard-I-cried real. I am nothing special. And I love that. I'm just me. It's great to just be me. God loves me. I'm His child. So, I don't have to be anything special. I just have to be me. It's wonderfully freeing. Real is freeing. So, I'm going to be super real.


So, if you're interested, follow along. Join me in my craziness, my happiness, and my messiness. And join me in my health. I hope you'll enjoy the recipes I post and find out for yourself how great it feels to be Whole 30 healthy. If you don't want to do Whole 30 - no problem. No judgements here! Just follow along with me to enjoy knowing you're not the only one with kids who drive you crazy while you still love them fully, or a kitchen that's messy, or bathrooms that don't get cleaned all that often, or that when you do a project it never looks as good as the picture on Pintrest. Join me to be real.

Until next time, my friends.

Live Well,
Becky

PS - Special thanks to my exceedingly patient husband who gently endured all of my computer illiterate questions while getting this up and running. (I know, I know - blogger is super easy to use - I really am just that bad at it!)