Or is it over...

This past weekend marked the end of the weight loss bet against my husband. Unfortunately we have yet to decide who the winner is. You would think as two engineers, this would be easy. It’s just numbers. I went from 25 to 20% and him from 15 to 11% according to our body caliper measuring skills. In my opinion I won (naturally) but by the way he’s calculating it he won (psh men, of course). Really I just want to be the winner so I can buy another cycling kit and pair of Lululemon speed shorts.

In the end, irrelevant of who the winner is, we both accomplished what we wanted to. We lost fat, are happier with our bodies, and most importantly are eating healthier. I used it as a way to jump start my motivation for healthy eating. Sometimes I struggle getting in a zone of caring about what I eat. This pushed me into the zone and then I was happy to take it to the next level with Whole30.

Sunday also happened to be the last day of Whole30. I didn’t intentionally plan it that way, just happened to line up. Whole30 helped me learn a lot about myself in regards to eating and I’ve broken several eating habits. I’ve always known I’m an emotional eater (went straight into the deep end during my mom’s situation) and this confirmed that. I’m also aware of how often I eat or want to eat purely because I love eating, not because I’m hungry. I never did manage to break my snacking habit. But I’m ok holding onto that habit as long as I’m reaching for fruits or veggies and not spoonfuls of peanut butter or handfuls of chocolate chips. Just yesterday I started pounding pecans (a new found love) like they were crack. Really didn’t need to eat all those before dinner but at least they are healthy.

Other than pecans I’ve found several new food obsessions such as Brussel sprouts, spaghetti squash with homemade sauce (just as good as pasta), baked butternut squash/apple/pecan mixture, corn. Yes corn. I’ll admit I’m a bit out of control on portion control when I easily ate almost a pound of London broil and five corn on the cobs. Yep count that… 1, 2, 3, 4, 5! Sadly, I could have eaten more. And it’s not that uncommon now for my plate to be filled to the brim.

This has also forced me to start cooking more which admittedly I used to be horrible about doing. I don’t mind it anymore and I feel a lot more comfortable in the kitchen now. I don’t feel the need to follow a recipe but instead find some ideas online and then sort of cook on the fly. So far it’s gone pretty well or at least I think. My husband’s honest about when he doesn’t like something I make.

The thing I’m actually most proud of from this whole experience is the progress I’ve made with my husband. Not that he lost fat (which obviously I’m not complaining about), but how he’s eating. When I married him he never ate veggies and really didn’t like them. Now he eats whatever veggie I cook and he’s grown to like several of them with me… “I actually look forward to the Brussel sprouts.” So proud! Of course now that the bet is over he’s back to enjoying Grooves and he somehow picked up the handfuls of chocolate chips habit.

As for me, I haven’t returned to old eating habits yet. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time and I can admit that. I’m still following Whole30 rules without even thinking about it. Really the only thing I’m thinking of eating right now that’s not on the list is black beans because I want to make my bean/tomato/avocado/corn mixture. On Sunday I prepared my breakfast for the week like I started doing a month ago. Didn’t occur to me to eat something else. I still eat my yummy salads for lunch and I keep planning dinners which happen to be Whole30. Perhaps I’ll start the process of introduction one time back into my diet at a time because I do want to see how my body reacts. Not chomping at the bit to eat desserts or pasta again though. But like I said, I’m sure slowly over time things will return to how they were again. If that means I need to do Whole30 to jump start eating healthy again every year, so be it.