Woooooo! Lots of changes around here lately. One of the big ones is---I am now a Certified Whole30 Coach!! As you know if you’ve followed my page for any time at all, I have been coaching Whole30’s since last year. I coached my first group online group in October of 2016, a few months after completing my NTP certification. In August of this year, Whole30 announced that they were starting (re-starting. I think they did this several years ago originally) a Whole30 coaches program. And you know I signed right up!
As a holistic nutritionist, I love Whole30. I did my first one back in early 2013, all by myself. I think I stumbled upon the Whole30 website when looking for weight loss programs. I have always been a fairly “healthy” eater, yet was always on the hunt for the magical weight loss solution. I am definitely better at abstaining than moderating with certain foods, so this looked like the perfect thing for me to try, and there were so many testimonies about people losing weight and feeling great with this program. I had never cut out entire groups of food, not strategically anyway, and was not familiar at this time with elimination diets or food allergies or how food affects, well, everything. I didn’t tell anyone, except my husband who enthusiastically declined when I asked him to join. I read over all the rules, thought they sounded straight forward enough, I picked a date a few days away, and made up my mind I was doing it. I started on a Monday and the first few days were easy peasy and I breezed through. I was feeling on top of the world and hopeful that I had found the magical solution to all my problems (ha) I was accustomed to prepping food, making most of my meals, and packing my lunches for work so that part wasn’t too bad so far. Then the first weekend came and normally I’d have a few drinks, so this was the first bit of struggle for me and the first time of me feeling sorry for myself and wondering if this was a good idea. At this point, we (my husband and I) hadn’t lived in Colorado but about a year and half so our weekends were spent hiking and exploring and checking out all the craft breweries we could. I made it through the first weekend but it tough, especially since I was doing it alone, and nothing miraculous had happened as far as abs or the promised “tiger’s blood.” (I was following the Whole30 timeline but I’m impatient and as usual, was hoping for miracles before miracles were due.) The second week was even worse. The newness and excitement had worn off. I was sick of prepping food, packing snacks, saying no to donuts at work, and chugging water. (Even though I usually do those things anyway!) I was pretty tired, my workouts were sucking, I was hungry a lot, and my sense of smell was unbelievable. I swear I could smell pizza from a mile away. I was pretty cranky this week and definitely doubting myself and wondering why I was torturing myself yet again (I have a background of yo-yo dieting so I was always eating this and not eating that or drinking this shake or cleanse- more on that later). It was this week that I kind of started to pay attention the emotional hold food had on me. I ate when I was happy, bored, stressed, exhausted, etc. I was used to eating when I wasn’t hungry and honestly didn’t even know what hunger was because I was just constantly eating. I realized we went out to eat (or drink) for something to do with friends. I realized movies are more fun with popcorn and that a hike was more fun if I knew there was beer at the end. I realized I associated food with fun and happiness. Whoa….now we were getting somewhere. (Although this still wasn’t quite clicking for me at the time) The third week is where you’re over the detoxifying junk, and feeling fatigued and where the magic is supposed to start happening. I was anxiously awaiting the “tiger’s blood” and was feeling pretty good, maybe more confident even, about myself that I had survived two whole weeks of no sugar and weekends with not a drop of booze. I remember noting that I was sleeping a bit more soundly. I was still sick of prepping food, always having a bag full of snacks and turning down all the treats at work. I was looking for the magic and it just wasn’t happening. You know when you’re so laser-beamed focused on one thing, that you totally miss all the other things? Yeah, that was me. I missed a lot of non-scale victories that first go round because I was just focused on weight loss, and boundless energy, and the impossible, really. Oh, I should also mention that I was doing that one thing that the rules strictly say not to do…weighing myself everyday. There’s a reason they tell you not to do that! Which is the reason today that I don’t even own a scale. Anyways, so week 3 was just, like, whatever. I was over it but I was determined that I had made it this far and I was going to make it to day 30. Week 4 and the last 8-9 days of Whole30 were just, meh. Honestly, I don’t even really remember. I was following the timeline like a hawk, scouring forums and the Whole30 website to see if other people were not getting dramatic results either and for small glimmers of hope. I remember reading about the reintroduction phase and had already made up my mind that nah; I was going straight to chips and salsa as quickly as I could. I didn’t have any food allergies, dairy didn’t affect me, grains didn’t affect me, legumes didn’t affect me….. so I could just skip that part. (ha. HA HA!) I knew I didn’t need a whole bunch of sugar in my life and I knew that alcohol was not the beacon to good health but a few beers on the weekend wouldn’t hurt anything, right? Gluten can’t be that bad for me. So I made it all 30 days. I lost a few pounds but overall it was pretty anti-climactic. Fast forward to the end of this same year, 2013, I started having horrible cystic acne. Out of the blue. Bam, it just came on like a wrecking ball. To my face. (Stay with me, I’ll tie this all together in the end). I’ve never had great skin but at this point I was mid-late 20’s and these big red, painful bumps starting taking over my cheeks, jaw line and neck. I went to every (okay, not EVERY but I went to multiples and spent a lot of time and A LOT of money) doctor, dermatologist, and aesthetician I could find. I was given lots of topical creams that made things worse, some antibiotics that did nothing but jack up my stomach, and a different kind of birth control to “help my hormones.” None of these things helped, in fact they only made my face, skin, confidence, and mood WORSE. Finally, a friend recommended I see a Naturopathic doctor (I hadn’t even heard of one of these before then) and it was with her that we cleared up my skin by supporting my liver and balancing my hormones, naturally. She also connected the dots on how food and stress and lifestyle and inflammation, affect EVERYTHING. Skin, mood, digestion, weight, energy…..EVERYTHING. And so after having this information, I dug back in and completed my 2nd Whole30, this time in April or so of 2014, and this round was truly a game changer for me. Having the information and knowledge (really understanding the why’s and how’s, even though I had read the Whole30 books and used all the free resources) from working with the naturopath made me more aware of the physical effects, and non-scale victories, and the importance of reintroducing properly so that I could know which foods were affecting my mood and my skin and my hormones. I was way more aware and paying attention to how food was affecting me emotionally, too. It was kind of like a 30-day science experiment/therapy/self discovery/self development session. I didn’t realize it during the first Whole30, for me, it was the 2nd Whole30 that I seemed to started putting the whole emotional and psychological pieces together. The pieces of being aware of my relationship with food and my relationship to my body and how I thought food had the power to make me happy. Food was happiness. Being a certain weight and looking a certain weight was happiness. Food was just a distraction to some other deep-rooted issues…..That’s a whole other post though. So, my point with this whole long post is, Yay! I am now a Certified Whole30 Coach! I have new resources and tools in my toolbox as a nutritional therapist/holistic nutritionist. And my 2nd point is that even though Whole30 is a free program, a coach can save you time and frustration, and help you get the MOST of these 30 (plus) days. I’ll be the first to tell you it’s not easy. Food is delicious and emotional and it is tough to make changes to your diet. Especially if you’re new to reading labels or cooking all your meals, or asking for special requests at restaurants, or being social without your wine or cocktail as a crutch. There are a ton of resources available, the books are amazing, the forums are super helpful, but having a coach that is educated on the physiology of the body and a coach that has been through multiple rounds of Whole30 herself, and a coach that has coached over 60 people through the program, could be greatly beneficial to you. Whether this is your first Whole30 or your third Whole30, I would be so happy to help you through this journey. More info coming soon on when my next online and local groups start. I’d love to hear from you if you have any questions in the meantime!
2 Comments
1/8/2018 10:58:36 am
Hey Chloe:
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Hey Angela!
1/9/2018 03:56:50 pm
Sure! I would be open to having another round start in February. Great idea!
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AuthorChloe is a holistic nutritionist, certified Whole30 coach, certified personal trainer, and Beautycounter consultant who loves all things: food, fitness, wellness, outdoor, dog, and non-toxic living related. (especially people) She's on the hunt for optimal, yet sustainable health and happiness, and enjoys sharing her learning's and experiences with everyone who wants to listen. And some who don't. Archives
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