It’s been a week of eating healthy, and I’m not really seeing what the big deal is so far. Sure, it involves a lot of planning (and I mean a lot) but… I don’t know.

Maybe I’m not doing it right, or maybe I wasn’t doing it that bad before Whole30. I am finding some things more difficult than others, sure, like not being able to have a piece of toast, but I’m not getting any problems with the sugar dragon (wasn’t addicted to sugar before anyway), or having any major cold turkey situations (hmmm, turkey…).

It’s true that lately I’m only seeing Papa John’s ads, which is quite annoying (especially when they have offers going on), and that even the chicken burger from that ad in which the kid “prepares” the perfect burger for his dad (because he’s the best) looks quite appealing, but meh. Whatever. So far, I’m not even craving Spanish omelette.

It’s only been eight days for me, to be honest, and maybe everything is going to come at the same time and I’m going to have a horrible couple of weeks, but hey, the biggest issue I’m having to deal with is being hungry all the time. I think I’m eating quite a lot, sometimes even a second serving. Sure, I know vegetables (like salads) don’t fill you up at all, but last night, for example, we pretty much finished all the pulled pork I made, had two servings and all, and I could have eaten more. Yes, I was eating slow to make sure I would be aware of when I was full. No, it wasn’t the tiniest portion of pork. I forgot to take a photo (that’s how hungry I was beforehand) but it was pulled pork, cabbage slaw, mashed avocado and ranch dressing.

This morning, I made scrambled eggs with mushrooms and blueberries (have I mentioned already I love blueberries?) and a couple of hours later, I was starving again. Stomach completely empty (no, it wasn’t thirst, or a craving, I checked) and roaring. I decided to have an apple, see what happened, and it worked. I know Whole30 isn’t about having fruit as snacks, but it was on my desk, and it would have gone off otherwise.

Today was my first workout with the new food programme, and I wasn’t sure what to expect.

I didn’t have any pre-workout meal, unfortunately, because I was late for the gym and I just wanted to get going before I changed my mind (Monday at work after a week of sleeping due to sickness, anyone?). It was a bit tough at first, mainly because I didn’t want to be there. I did 15 minutes on the bicycle and then fired up the N+TC app for a workout. It was called Back Definer (15 minutes), which had me panting and sweating like crazy. I didn’t do very well on not having a few seconds to change position and grab my weights! It was all go, go, go!

After that, I decided to do another 30 minutes, because it felt like I hadn’t done much, so I chose Conditioning Corps. I think I’ve found a new favourite. It has some killing exercises, but it’s overall quite nice.

First, you start with some lunges. I really don’t understand the difference between a side lunge and a side squat… I guess I’m not at that level yet… Lunges are followed by bicycles, which were actually much better than I had expected. I hadn’t done that since I was at school, so it was weird. I was worried my lower back would hurt, but I managed quite nicely. Score!

Next was one of my favourites, the walk outs. Super simple, yet tricky. I like it. Some more lunges after, and then onto the meaty part of the workout. Ouch.

It went straight into modified press ups. No beating around the bush, it seems. I love to hate press ups, because I really suck at them. Last time I manage to do something like 10, in which I lowered myself about 3cm (modified, of course). This time it was worse. Squats were next, which is great because I really want to work on those. The circuit was finished with deadlift with alternating rows, quite easy.

For most of these exercises, I was using 4kg dumbbells, but I also had the 2kg ones nearby, just in case (some exercises, like the plank row to rotation from the previous workout, I just can’t do with heavy weights).

After the recovery (30 seconds), I did split squats for the first time. I did them wrong. OK, not wrong but I wasn’t supposed to alternate them, and I did, so I was more focused on not missing the step and falling than anything else.

Now, this workout has an awesome, yet horrible, exercise… Side V-ups with leg kicks. Do you want to know what this looks like? Sure, have a peek:

Yup. Painful. I tried, and I failed, but I really liked it. Next time!

It was a session of trying out new things. Next, it was the foam roller leg curls… Another one in which I sort of failed. I say sort of because I could more or less do them with my left leg up in the air, but when the left leg needed to take the weight, I could really feel it’s my weak knee. Here it is:

(From Pinterest)

It was a killer! So the recovery felt amazing.

After that brief break, it was time for a one minute plank (I can only do a maximum of 40 seconds), followed by squat arm curls, walking lunges and another break. The workout went on with exercises such as modified tricep press ups (hate), suitcases (don’t have a medicine ball, so I do my version), single leg deadlift (one day I’m going to land my face on the floor), split squats (once you figure out the right way to do them, they become much easier!), Russian twists (really hate), more foam roller leg curls, another round of modified tricep press ups, some more suitcases and finally a well-deserved stretch.

I had never done this workout before, I must admit, but it was a lot of fun, and difficult enough to be challenging, but not to put me off. I’m definitely going to do this one again!

In the meantime, Brian was doing his thing… He first did P90X and then some Freeletics workout (from their Strength section), which actually made me stop mid-stretch to stare in awe, mesmerised. It involved a lot of this exercise (if for any reason you can’t see the exercise through the link and would like to Google it, it’s called burpee squat jump, and it looks horrible).

The amount of sweat… The pain… The noises… I wanted to video it, but in the end I opted for taking a pic of him when he finished (you can have a look on Instagram, if you’re curious).

So, basically, it was Monday, which sucked, but at least it was interesting. Oh, work was alright too, but that’s sort of secondary to this blog, right?

Great, now all I can think of is Spanish omelette…