Kristabella: Full of Snark Since 1977

Posted By Kristabella on January 7, 2013

Happy New Year! I have been completely absent from here. I was all “oh, my Gram died.” And then no follow-up until “hey, I’m shilling hair products for BlogHer!” So, I’m doing just fine, if you could guess.

So it’s a new year, which means it is time for resolutions and all that good stuff. I, for one, have made one to eat better and exercise more. Which I’m pretty sure is what I say every year. But this year, especially, I feel like I went way overboard with unhealthy eating from Thanksgiving to New Year’s. Like not a semi-normal, few treats here, few treats there, holiday-eating-in-excess-on-the-actual-holiday kind of thing. Nope, I went balls to the wall for like 2 months, eating anything and everything, enough to have my pants really not fit at all.

So in a fit of crying over tight pants and complete lethargy, I decided that I would do the Whole 30 in January. I’ve been debating it for a few months, but there was no way I was going to do that to myself over any holiday.

The plan was to start on January 2. Because I’m a realist and knew I would spend all day on New Year’s Day hungover and in bed. Which was the case because I was out until like 5 AM on NYE. This coming off a drunken binge on Sunday after watching football and drinking for like 7 hours straight and NOT eating. At 3 PM on NYE, I was convinced I wasn’t even going to drink that night. That went out the window, clearly.

And because of the early morning shenanigans (late night NYE dance party, FTW!), I did nothing on January 1. Well, not completely true. I napped. And I think I ate some food. And then I took another nap. And I even went grocery shopping. But that was the extent. Whole 30 was going to have to start on the 3rd, because I am a degenerate.

If you aren’t aware of what the Whole 30 is, it’s basically what I call a super strict, squeaky clean version of Paleo. On crack. You can read more here. I’ve read the book It Starts With Food and it was really eye-opening. I figured you could scoff at their research, but until you did the Whole 30 you can’t really judge. I am a huge emotional eater. I crave sugar all the time. I have wicked swings in hunger and crazy drops in my blood sugar level. (Crazy enough that I’ve almost passed out several times. This is not normal.) So I wanted to take on this clean eating and learn about the response I have to putting things (or not putting things) into my body.

The biggest challenge is not only sugar, but also booze. Because I am a 35 year old singleton and I would like to have some semblance of a social life. And that pretty much involves drinking. So 30 days without a drop of alcohol might very well kill me. Which is probably another problem all in itself.

Today was Day 5. It isn’t so bad. I’m thankful that I was doing a Paleo kind of diet in the last five or so months so at least I know that I will feel like shit. For all the crap I ate during the holidays, I’m surprised I haven’t felt worse. So far I’m just kind of tired at times. And I really want some ice cream after dinner. Damn you, Sugar Dragon!

On Saturday, I went out to see a show as part of Chicago Sketchfest. After that, we went to a bar down the street. I stayed out from 9 PM to 2 AM drinking nothing but water and club soda. It was not the worst thing in the world. I actually had fun. Also, people are really hard to understand when they are slurring at 2 AM. Is it something I can keep doing for the next 25 days? Yes. Is it something I want to keep up after Day 30? Hell no.

It was so nice to wake up Sunday without a hangover and be productive, though.

I don’t think I’m going to chronicle much of it here, since I’d imagine most people find that boring. But I am excited to let you know how it is all going and especially to hopefully share some good thoughts about it at the end of the 30 days. You know, once I get back from my week-long sugar and booze bender.

Categories: A Day in the Life of Me, Healthy Living, Mmmm Food
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