It’s been a while since I put up a new post. It’s not that I don’t have anything to share, it’s that I have too much to share!
I hit the mid-point of my nutrition program and am heading into the second half. This part of the program is a little more hands on. I actually have to round-up some practice clients and start putting what I’m learning into action. Any takers?
I also continue with self experimentation or N=1 experiments beyond what I’m doing for my nutrition classes. It’s all related to nutrition and health but my self experiments are a bit more tangible than the reading and writing that I’m doing for class.
The two big things that I have focused on for the last month or so are DIY all natural skin care products and The Whole 30. I haven’t perfected any of my recipes for skin care products yet but I am close. Once I have some that I really love I’ll share the recipes.
The skin care stuff is a real science. Every time I think I’ve got it and am ready to start whipping stuff up I learn more and realize I’m not quite ready – more reading. Due to all the reading I’m doing I can now pick up a commercial product and understand the ingredient list! I still can’t pronounce most of the words in the ingredient list(s) but I do know what they are and what they are used for. I hate to say it but I’m totally off commercial skin care. Lots of chemicals, yuck.
The other thing I’ve focused on is The Whole 30. This is a 30 day “reset” diet. I hate to use the word diet but it is about food. I think of it as a “program”. The Whole 30 was created by Dallas and Melissa Hartwig over at The Whole 9. They recently published a book called, It Starts With Food. I have the book and I like the book. I think you can get what you need regarding The Whole 30 from their blog but the book is worth buying.
I’ve toyed with the idea of The Whole 30 for some time. I never dove in because I was unwilling to give up my white wine. I LOVE white wine. I started to ask myself why I LOVE white wine. Was it really the wine or was it what my glass(es) of wine meant to me. I decided it wasn’t really the wine that I loved so much, it was what it represented – end of the day, quite time at home with my husband, a nice dinner out, a party, friends, relaxation, warmth, basically all kinds of things that make me feel good and smile. When I really thought about it, I realized that the wine actually made me feel kind of gross. I wasn’t sleeping well, I would get night sweats on the evenings that I drank wine. I would wake up puffy and even have a bit of digestive distress the next day (probably due to lack of inhibition about what I was eating) – tmi, sorry. There was a line in a sit-com recently about “digestively maturing out of pepperoni”. I thought that was very funny when I heard it, then I realized that I was probably digestively/metabolically “maturing” out of white wine – sad.
Once I wrapped my head around the idea that my white wine was actually making me feel worse, not better I decided it was time to give it up and dive into the whole 30. I’m at day 25. Wow, I feel great. I do feel like I have done a “reset”. I gave up the alcohol, I also dropped all dairy and sugar. The whole 30 also requires that you stop caffeine. I don’t drink coffee or soda so I had that going for me. I really do feel better. No more hot flashes or night sweats. I am in bed and a sleep by 9 pm on most nights, sometimes a little earlier. I wake up around 5 ready to get up. I have no idea if I’ve lost any weight or inches. I wasn’t really going for that so I didn’t document weight or inches at the beginning. I actually feel so great that I’m going back and forth about having a cocktail at Christmas eve dinner. I’ve been looking forward to the end of this since day one so I could have a cocktail or glass of wine but now that I feel so good and am sleeping so well (huge) I’m afraid I’ll mess it all up and throw my body back out of balance. Now, having just stated that, I also know that moderation is the key and it’s important to include all kinds of things into a well-rounded happy life. One of the big parts of the whole 30 is reintroduction. Alcohol is something that we could all live without but it is something I enjoy and I guess I am planning to have my glass of wine or cocktail Christmas eve. I’ll be curious to see how well I metabolize the alcohol now that I feel like my body is working efficiently. The dairy actually makes me more nervous. I have a feeling that may be a thing of the past. No biggie, it wasn’t hard to drop from my life.
The Whole 30 has made me feel so good that I’m preparing to do a detox/cleanse at the beginning of the new year. I have never been interested in the “cleanse” thing but the “detox” part of a cleanse has me intrigued. I’ve done some research and found a program that I think looks good. You are encouraged to eat food so it’s not a starvation thing – I think a “cleanse” as a weight loss tool is a BAD idea. I want to try this out and see how it goes because I would like to have a detox/cleanse (emphasis on the detox) that I can recommend to my future clients. A group of my girlfriends are going to do it with me which will produce excellent feedback/data. I’ll let you all know how it goes and what we all think. It’s a 14 day program so I should have something to report back with by mid January.
Well, that’s what’s been going on at The White House for the past month or so. One thing I will mention is the DIY skin care stuff really helped with my Whole 30. It allowed me to be creative in the kitchen while at the same time keeping my focus off food! It’s just like making dessert but you don’t eat it. I have a chocolate/peppermint body cream that looks and feels like chocolate mousse! It smells so good you really do want to eat it.
Enjoy the holidays. I’ll let you know how the food reintroduction goes and the detox/cleanse.
Eat Well, Feel Good, Have Fun!
I’m Amy a board certified holistic nutritionist, certified functional nutritionist and lifestyle practitioner and certified Life Coach. I help women in midlife understand the changing needs of their body so that they can stop dieting and lose weight permanently. At 56 I live what I teach. Don’t believe the story that your best years are behind you. They are not. Your best years are just starting!