There’s a group of us doing the #JanuaryWhole30 together and we have a little support group on Facebook. It’s awesome and this group is amazing because everyone is supporting each other, celebrating small victories, and being super chatty. It’s the best!
Recently we had a great discussion about doing the Whole30 and what is motivating us to do this challenge. Basically our WHY. Because you do need to have a WHY to get you through the challenge. Something to focus on that keeps you going and helps keep your motivation level high.
My WHY is actually in two parts.
Kick Starting Weight-loss
Honestly, I hate even talking about this because there’s so much more to this challenge for me than weight-loss, but I’d be lying if I said this wasn’t a small part of it. I’ve been feeling stuck and in a rut the past year. I had been doing CrossFit regularly for about a year and didn’t see any changes in my body. I didn’t lose any weight and in fact, I gained weight. Yes some of it was muscle weight but a lot of it was not.
What. The. Fuck.
You see all these awesome before and after photos of people who started Crossfit and six months later look like a beast. And I’m looking at myself going, um, I resemble Cookie Monster. The comparison trap is real and it sucks.
I was eating well, or at least, I felt like I was eating well, so what gives? I was pissed, frustrated, and felt defeated. I let that get to my head so that by the time the holidays rolled around I didn’t give a shit about anything. I decided to eat crap and would snack or have treats after dinner, because who cares? I didn’t lose weight or lean out, so what’s the point anyway? I imbibed a lot because holidays.
Basically for the last two months of the year I didn’t give a flying fuck about anything.
And right around Christmas time, I realized that this wasn’t getting me anywhere either. I gained more weight, most of it was water and bloat, but still, that shit makes the scale go up which in turn got in my head. I needed a change and to get back on track. For me, a challenge that still lets me eat real delicious food without having to count anything (because I hate that shit) is totally up my alley. I was in and Whole30 was exactly what I needed.
Learning To Fuel My Body
The biggest part of my WHY is so I can learn what best fuels my body,
- For my workouts.
- To properly fuel my body as I age.
I want to lean out and gain muscle. I want to do this to the best of my ability while maintaining a healthy body as I grow older. After a year of doing CrossFit consistently, I didn’t lose any weight so clearly something in my regular diet needed to change. Something was keeping me from leaning out. Possibly it was portion sizes but my gut was telling me that it was something else. I also found that lately I was getting super tired after workouts. To the point where I needed to take a day off during the week because my body felt run down.
My joints were also starting to ache after workouts and that also caused me to feel run down and old. I’m not that old, so I hate feeling old after a workout. I found that I was struggling with energy during the workouts as well. It was also frustrating to see people crushing their workouts and getting PRs while I felt stuck in grandma mode always slow. (This was happening before the holidays and before I completely gave up for two months.)
It was time to make a serious change. I’ve said that before and years past, but this year is MY YEAR. I’m tired of being chubby Andrea. I hate Chubby Andrea. And I know we’re always supposed to be positive about ourselves and blah blah blah. But Chubby Andrea isn’t the normal Andrea. Chubby Andrea is the chick who stayed to long at the party that you’re trying to politely get to leave. Yet since moving here, people only know me as Chubby Andrea and I hate it. I need to get back to me and what I normally look like, except stronger, faster, and with muscles. That’s what I want.
I’m doing Whole30 because it eliminates the most common inflammatory foods. I want to see how I feel with none of those foods in my diet. I’m already on the right track. Yesterday at the gym I did a crap ton of squats. Some weighted and a lot of body squats. My knees did not hurt one bit afterwards. They didn’t ache and they weren’t swollen.
Obviously there’s something that I was eating that was causing inflammation and now it’s time to find out what it is. This time around I’m going to take reintroduction super slowly so I can see exactly what is giving me issues and what is not.
So that’s my big WHY for doing this challenge.