I’m officially 21 days done with the Whole 30 program, and I’m finally feeling like I could do this forever! I’ve spent a lot of time this week thinking about what life would be like if I just didn’t eat bread again or if I never ate chips or pasta, cheese or ice cream. Obviously these are some big things that, while I didn’t eat them daily, they were integrated into a lot of my meals. It’s unlikely that I’ll actually cut these things out completely and permanently, but as of now I think I could.

This past week has been super empowering. I’ve been able to get up, socialize, and act like a normal human being who is not “hangry” 24/7. I learned to not literally wince when there is really good food around that I can’t have, and I’ve stopped mentally groaning about it, too. Also, big update, I’ve finally stopped craving pizza.

Because of this past week, I’m considering expanding my journey to 35 days. Now that I’m up and functioning like normal, I want to continue to install healthy eating habits into my daily life. So hopefully I don’t give up on day 30, but it’s something I’ve yet to make my mind up about. I’m also in a place where I’m really excited about what I’m doing and the positive impact it’s having on me. I feel more motivated, and though it was a struggle to get up and out of bed for a while, when I’m up, I’m up.

As the final week approaches, I have some new things on my plate, including work and (hopefully) fitness classes. My biggest goals for the week are snacks high in protein (aka nuts and hard-boiled eggs) as well as staying hydrated. La Croix has really grown on me this week, and I’m excited to add it to my Whole 30 menu.

With only 9 days left to go, I have some goals in mind for when I’m no longer restricted by this diet. I’ll probably go into more depth about them in my last blog about the experience, but the general ideas are portion control, substituting, and what I plan on eliminating fully out of my diet for the rest of the summer.

Stay tuned for the Week 4 Update!