Know what’s even better than a dessert cupcake? A breakfast cupcake.
#imsorryimnotsorry
As I sit here licking the frosting from my fingers , I’m reminded of one of my favorite scenes from America’s Sweethearts, which is a great movie if you haven’t seen it.
Kiki: You know the expression, “falling off the wagon,” Lee? This is what it looks like.
Lee: Yeah, but you got twenty or thirty pounds of food to break your fall.
Ok, it’s not that bad. The breakfast cupcake is definitely an anomaly in an otherwise pretty healthy routine. But it reminded me that I should post an update on where I am with the Whole 30 detox. And I might have already given away the ending – my bad. But I’m going to give you the longer update anyway.
I lasted about 15 days on Whole 30. Other than weighing myself, which I already talked about in a previous post, I didn’t cheat. And the results surprised me: I didn’t feel better, I didn’t weigh less, and the psychological impact was net negative. Granted, I already felt good, so when I say I didn’t feel better, that doesn’t mean I felt bad. It just means I felt normal – the regular good I usually feel anyway. I wasn’t reaping a huge reward of more energy or deeper sleep. Though to be fair, my sleep is typically deep, immediate, and frequently interrupted. Otherwise described as short moments of passing out between crying babies.
The psychological impact is what made me ultimately decide to stop and go back to my normal paleo lifestyle. I felt suddenly like I was ” on a diet.” Restricted. Deprived. Which immediately made me want to eat everything, all the time. I was constantly thinking about food, the next time I could eat, how good it would taste, and whether or not it would be satisfying without whatever ingredient would be missing. I HATE that frame of mind. It’s both obsessive and compulsive, which are tendencies I try to tamp down, not emphasize.
Even though a paleo lifestyle has restrictions, I don’t mind them. It’s actually a fun challenge to me to plan around the restrictions to get to the things I’m craving. Like cupcakes. And I’m not constantly thinking about food or feeling like this is a white-knuckle effort to hang on… it just IS. It’s a lifestyle. It doesn’t mean I’ll never eat cheese again, or that I’ll never sit down to a plate of hot wings and blue cheese dressing again. Just not today. Not right now. And I feel good about that.
Right now is the healthiest I’ve been in my life, and it’s the healthiest my relationship with food has ever been. It isn’t perfect on any level, and I’ll likely still flirt with the occasional detox or change because I can’t help myself sometimes. (I acknowledge it’s a really weird hobby to have, but at least I don’t collect toenails or something even weirder.) But when I stopped and assessed how I was doing on the Whole 30 around day 15, I realized I was taking steps backwards and not forwards. So I stopped.
My last note about this (for now) is that even though I stopped, I definitely don’t want to discourage anyone else who is doing it. You rock on with your bad self, and I wish I was a little more like you. But if you haven’t tried it but are looking to generally feel better through a lifestyle diet change, I’d recommend the paleo approach over Whole 30. It’s gentler on the soul. And if you’re looking for a place to start or some simple changes to make, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d love to help.
And now, for the recipe for Paleo Carrot Cake, which I made into cupcakes, check out Primal Palate (NOTE: I did not use the cream cheese frosting in the recipe)
and for the paleo cream cheese frosting, check out Fresh4Five:
http://www.fresh4five.com/2013/10/grain-free-carrot-cake-with-dairy-free-cream-cheese-frosting/
the Superwoman Manifesto 