June Whole 30 - Time of Death: Day 25

I really wanted to be able to say I completed a Whole 30, but it just wasn`t meant to be this time. I have made some mistakes and kept thinking if I did better from the next meal or next day, then I could just tack on a day or two at the end and call it even. Last night I reread the program rules and that`s not how it works. If you mess up you are supposed to start over so that you get 30 consecutive days of not having anything which could affect your stomach in a negative way. So I decided to call it quits this round and will try to do a complete round again in September after I return from Texas. Regardless, I have had a good experience this time around and have some thoughts to share.

Overall, I have been feeling really good. I am not snacking as much as before I did Whole 30 and I am sleeping really well most nights. I have been waking up easier and having more energy overall. My clothes have been feeling looser and as of yesterday I can confirm that I lost 4 kilograms or 8.8 pounds! I know this because on Tuesday I had a thorough medical examination and was weighed at the clinic. I was happy to see my weight had gone down and kept thinking, what if I had exercised?!

So what now? Am I going to just revert back to my old eating habits? Absolutely not! I will continue to eat similar to how I have been eating the last 3+ weeks when at home, with an occasional splurge on something cheesy or some pasta or bread. And when we go out I will do my best to order sensibly, again with the occasional splurge on a hamburger or pizza!

Yesterday after my check up, which lasted over 3 hours total and included everything from a vision test to a chest x-ray to a stomach x-ray and more, the hospital provided lunch. I was surprised at how fancy it was! This was the card they gave us with our options:

It`s a bit hard to see, but my choices were veal, shrimp, or hamburger steak. I had the veal with salad and bread and hot coffee with dessert at the end. It was all so delicious!

After I finished my lunch I headed home where Koichi and Noa were waiting. Koichi had the day off to make up for a Saturday he worked earlier in the month, which is why I scheduled my check up for that day. Once I got Noa ready, because surprise surprise she was still in pajamas and had a wet diaper. When I asked him why he hadn`t changed her diaper he told me because she said she didn`t want to. I just looked at him and asked, who`s the adult here?! Anyway, I digress. We finally got ready and headed out. We stopped at McDonald`s to get Koichi and Noa some lunch and I admit I ate a few of Noa`s fries and one of her chicken nuggets. From the drive thru we headed to a place Koichi has been wanting to go since we moved here, the Toei Kyoto Studio Park. It turned out to be a pretty cool place! They had different sets for period pieces, specifically from the Edo Period of Japanese history. They also had some other attractions which you could do for an extra fee and some free shows. We enjoyed walking around and taking pictures around the different scenes. We also saw a couple of shows which were interesting.

Can you see the look on Noa`s face?

This is the beginnings of what`s known today as a cram school, a booming business allover Japan as kids typically go to cram schools to prepare for their entrance exams.

Noa and a couple of Edo Period ladies.

I loved the look of this area, so I asked Koichi to take our picture here.

With the stars of the ninja show.

Trick Art museum: check out Noa`s face!

And look at her face in this one too! She`s such a little ham.

The Trick Art Museum was loads of fun!

After we left the Studio we went to a mall that`s bigger than the one near our place to look at getting me some new glasses because I discovered in my medical check up that mine were a bit weak. If you have seen my new profile on FB lately, those are my new glasses, you can`t tell in the picture, but they`re a dark turquoise color and I love them! While waiting for them to put in the lenses we went for dinner at a buffet restaurant. While I did enjoy some stuff I couldn`t enjoy on Whole 30, I don`t feel like I went overboard at all. I only had one plate which had 9 little compartments and 3 of those were salad, 1 was 2 pieces of sushi and 1 the soy sauce. Other than that in the other 5 compartments I had a little roast-beef sandwich, a portion of potatoes & eggplant gratin, a small slice of pizza, and some macaroni salad. I didn`t go for seconds, but I did have dessert, a waffle with some soft serve vanilla on top covered with caramel and chocolate syrup. It was divine! At a lot of buffets here, they have a waffle making area with batter, waffle irons, and a timer to time the waffle. They make small, thin waffles, not like what we`d find at a diner back home, so they`re perfect for dessert. All in all I felt good about my choices at dinner. I wasn`t overly stuffed, but didn`t feel hungry either. I hope I can continue to listen to my body and eat mainly Whole 30 approved meals, with some treats now and then. 

Even though I`m not technically doing a Whole 30 now, I do plan to keep writing here about my eating because I feel like the accountability has helped me so much. I am also serious about exercising now that I realized that I lost weight with just changing my eating habits, plus the doctor told me yesterday that my LDL cholesterol was a bit on the high side and that I should be careful. She said there`s no need to check it monthly or anything, that we will just see how it is at next year`s check up, but if I watch my diet and exercise that will help. Now I feel even more motivated to try to find the time to get some movement in. For now I am thinking that getting up earlier than Koichi and getting a workout in first thing in the morning is my best bet. We will see if I can really make that happen though!