Well, we started the Whole30 challenge 2 days ago, and it’s been the longest, hardest, and most shocking 2 days ever! I’m sure you are wondering why and there are 
several reasons. First of all, for completely unrelated reasons my oldest son was totally unexpectedly rushed to the hospital for his existing heart condition. He is 8 and was born with SVT – basically he can have episodes when his heart beats VERY fast. We have known about this since birth and he used to be on a daily medication – as he got older he no longer needed the meds, but still has episodes from time to time. We have a couple techniques we can try when his heart starts racing to make it slow down, but for reasons only God knows, today we were unable to get him out of his episode. After trying for an hour to make it slow, we realized it was just a bad attack and off we raced to the hospital. Thankfully we know his SVT is not like an actual heart attack, but if his heart continues to race for an extended amount of time, it can cause a lot of stress to not only his heart, but his whole body. We found ourselves at the hospital for most of the day while he was hooked up to numerous heart monitors and EKGs. It was a long day of ups and downs, but we were released early afternoon with his heart slowed back to a normal rhythm. Thankfully my mom came to the rescue today and brought us Whole30 approved food to eat at the hospital all day! Totally silly, but I’m glad we don’t have to re-start. I praise the Lord that He was with us all day as I held Coen’s hand at the hospital. He is home now and resting and even got an excuse note from his doc to miss school tomorrow! I know that this excitement has nothing to do with the Whole30 challenge, but it’s part of my story so far.
Here are the other reasons why the Whole30 challenge is really a challenge. Yes, the Whole30 is hard. It’s a ton of work prepping, planning, and preparing food. I’ve done similar things to this before, so I know how hard completely fresh and wholesome food is to prepare. The hard part is preparing those foods 3 times a day when I already feel like our lives are so 
busy! I did a lot of research before taking on this challenge – in fact I gave myself 4 full weeks to read the It Starts With Food book, pin and plan recipes, read up on what others have done with this challenge, and mentally prepare. I knew it was going to be a lot of work so I tried to give myself some time to get it all together. I feel like I did a pretty good job – but I’m not following my meal plan very well – I tend to jump around on my intended meal plan – it’s sort of ridiculous for me to even plan food for certain nights because I never stick to my plan. I’m never in the mood for the food I planned for – so I usually just plan to get all the ingredients I need for a handful of recipes and then I just pick one of those each night. That has definitely happened this week so far and I’m only 2 days into it.
Another reason the Whole30 is truly a “challenge” is breakfast. The typical breakfast meal should be the most important meal of the day and I’ll tell ya, I don’t have time or even want to get up really early every day to make a big hot breakfast. My kids are not huge egg lovers and on this challenge besides eating leftover dinner for breakfast, your typical breakfast option is eggs. Needless to say my kids are soooo not happy about this challenge! My youngest son, who is 3, is having the hardest time. He loves cereal for breakfast, chicken nuggets for lunch and then doesn’t fight me too much on dinner. As a mom, I realize I’ve been doing the biggest disservice to my family with the type of foods we have been eating over the years and I have only myself to blame when my 3 year old doesn’t want to eat the big plate of veggies and grilled chicken. So I’m truly fighting my own uphill battle.
For example, on Day 1, we had scrambled eggs and some diced potatoes and a bunch of veggies for breakfast. It took so long to make in the morning
that I was way behind getting kids to school and getting me actually dressed on time. Plus, all 3 kids hated it, my youngest hated it so much that he refused to even look at me when I took his picture. That’s always fun – first meal of the 30 day challenge and my kids are already wanting to check out. Great. Lunch was better and they all 3 loved dinner! So that was good. Today breakfast was another huge war. My youngest was so angry that he couldn’t have Cherrios that he refused to eat anything at all actually. I saved his eggs, ham and veggies for lunch and he still dug in his heels for his grandma and refused to eat. By 3pm he gave up and ate his breakfast so he could have a snack. He ate ALL his dinner! But I know it’s going to be an uphill battle.
So far I’m feeling just fine. I don’t mind the food, and I’m not at all feeling starved. In fact, I’m very full after each meal. I’m not sure with how busy the last 2 days have been if I’ve really had time to even notice how I’m really feeling. I miss my coffee most of all. Yes, I could still have coffee, but it would have to be black – and I just can’t do black coffee. I know what I like about coffee is the cream and sugar. So, I’m 2 days with no coffee and it’s truly what I miss most of all. My husband told me when he got home from work tonight that he just wanted a Snickers bar really bad, but is feeling ok so far. I do like how this is forcing my kids to try some new foods and they are trying. We will find new things we like to eat and thankfully I really do love trying new recipes!
That’s my Health Quest update for now! Better get some sleep, who knows what the Lord has planned for me tomorrow!
Share this post:
