About me
In my 30's, I went from having a baby to trying to have more babies to several miscarriages, one of which landed me dangerously in the hospital. Throughout this process and for years after, hormonal imbalance became a normal part of my life and perpetuated my bad eating, drinking, and workout habits.
At 44, it all caught up to me. I was lethargic, bloated, and had watched my weight creep up. I consulted my doctor for a medical explanation figuring that my thyroid was off. It turns out...my thyroid was fine. My labs, however, suggested that I was entering perimenopause. What? Already? The doctor encouraged a holistic approach to this new phase of life: yoga, good sleep, and really paying attention to how and more importantly, what I was eating. Ouch. I had been trying to blame my symptoms on my thyroid, or the holidays, or entertaining, or travel, or most certainly hormones. But come on! The truth of the matter was that I had just made too many bad choices for too long a time. I had been making myself sick. Ironically, perimenopause wasn't a death-sentence; it was a turning point.
My friend Terry, who is one of the healthiest and fittest friends I have (she's 55 but a dead ringer for someone in their 40's), told me about her experience with The 30 Clean and urged me to sign up and participate in a challenge. No gluten, no refined sugar, no dairy, no soy, no corn, no alcohol for four weeks in an effort to heal the gut. A reset of sorts. Just an abundance of whole clean foods, organic or grass-fed proteins, veggies, healthy fats and loads of spring water. I just laughed - this was way out of my tortilla chip/vodka gimlet comfort zone but I needed to do something. As luck would have it, the next challenge was about to start so I took a leap and signed up.
What I experienced was pretty awesome. The first seven days, alone, on The 30 Clean changed the way I felt physically and the way I thought about food. For example, I didn't "cut out carbs". All fruits and vegetables (especially root vegetables like sweet potatoes, carrots, and beets) are most definitely carbohydrates! But yes, cookies, cakes, tortillas, chips, and all breads were gone. As was processed sugar and dairy. While not easy, the challenge wasn't a burden, it was actually a lot of fun. I lost four pounds that first week and wore a pair of jeans that I pulled out of the Goodwill donation pile. Mercy! And then, momentum! Newfound self-efficacy! Hallelujah! Not only did I make it through the four weeks, I quickly signed up for the next four high kicking and clean eating all the way! I have never felt better.
No, The 30 Clean is not encouraging or sponsoring this blog. We all know that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and getting the same results. So, hey, I tried something new and fantastically healthy and guess what? It worked.