Confession moment- I never finished the Whole30. I made it to day 25, October 1st, and pumped the brakes there. So, really, I completed the Whole25 ;). My Whole30 journey came to an end when Matt and I went to County Line Orchard for the day. I saw gorgeous caramel apples everywhere and just decided that a life without caramel apples is not a life worth living. How can you go to apple orchard and not eat a caramel apple?! I had a few pieces of Matt’s caramel apple and kissed the remaining days of the Whole30 goodbye. October 1st felt like a good stopping point anyway. I mean 25 days is not bad right?! I patted myself on the back for adhering to the Whole30 for more than 3 weeks. Three weeks without chocolate, Dairy Queen and wine! That feels like a whole big thing.
Overall, I thought that my experience with the Whole30 plan was really good but nothing life changing. It felt needlessly restrictive at times- I never really understood why the plan cut out beans and instead focused so heavily on meat. I struggled a little bit with having to eat so much meat because most of my life I have never been a really big meat eater. I definitely lost weight on the Whole30 (although I know it is not about losing weight bla, bla, bla….) but the biggest change I noticed was definitely the affect that it had on my skin. I swear my skin looked amazing after the first week. Any little dry patches I had before I started totally disappeared. It really felt like the program made my skin glow. I also thought the program did a great job getting my body back on track and really helped to reduce my post- Italy pasta and sugar cravings. I loved the way the program focused on the elimination of sneaky sugars in the typical American diet and really encouraged the consumption of vegetables and high quality meat as opposed to nutrient deficient foods. I would definitely do the Whole30 program again, but would use it more of a re-set when needed. I could not live according to the plan long term. (See major caramel apple weakness.)
After our day at County Line Orchard I used all our apples to bake an apple crisp and an apple pie. Apple picking is such a fun fall activity. I absolutely loved our day apple picking. I could not even contain my excitement about all the beautiful apples! If you are planning to go to County Line Orchard this weekend, give yourself a little more time than you originally planned because the orchard was really crowded last weekend. It took us a long time to find a place to park and eventually we just parked on one of the side streets.
Loving these overalls// just the best T-shirts // Comfiest shoes ever //
