Whole30 … err Whole 40 – My Whole Experience

On January 4, 2020 I started the Whole30 Program.  On February 12, 2020 I completed the Program…Whole40.

If you are unaware, Whole30 emphasizes whole foods and the elimination of sugar, alcohol, grains, legumes, soy, and dairy for thirty days.  This allows for the slow re-introduction of these foods to see if any of them are adversely impacting you.  For more information on the Whole30 Program, please visit https://whole30.com/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole30.

My wife got me started on the idea of doing the Whole30 a few years ago when she experienced it for the first time.  Although I didn’t fully participate during her first Whole30 go-around, I did eat whatever foods she prepared, while still eating whatever I usually did when not having a meal at home.  During her first Whole30 in 2017, we experienced some household issues that disrupted the graceful end to her Whole30 experience.  Although she completed it, the tail-end was a bit rough and not the way she wanted it to end.  The re-introduction of foods was not done smoothly or methodically.  2020 was the year she was going to take another stab at it.  This time, I was going to join in on the experience.  Over the past year or so I have been feeling a bit run down and not quite myself, so I thought I give it a try (along with some other things I have tried)…thinking my lethargy may have been due to my diet or something in my diet.  I started Whole30 on January 4, about 9 days ahead of my wife.  I did so since I had no other reason not to.  My wife had some social obligations where she didn’t feel comfortable starting this fairly restrictive program on January 4, so she started on January 13.

The Whole30 for me started with typical fare that I usually had in my diet…salads.  I have always enjoyed a good salad, but I did have to tweak things a bit to make sure that anything in addition to the vegetables was Whole30 compliant.  I usually like a lot of dressing…the kinds with a lot of added stuff and high in calories, so I had to resort to making my own that was Whole30 compliant.  I generally made my own dressing because it was simple enough and less expensive than store bought Whole30 compliant dressing.  I like oil and vinegar, so the dressings I made used this as a base.  I also had to make sure that any meat I put on the salad was compliant.  That generally meant no cheap canned chicken, no cheap canned or pouch tuna, no marinated beef, no lunch meat, and no run-of-the-mill bacon.  As it turns out I actually make great dressings (IMHO) and easily cooked meat (or my wife cooked it for me) for my salads ahead of time. I also had to cut out putting any beans, pasta, or croutons on my salads (I do like a salad with some crunch, but oh well).

I have always enjoyed eggs…eggs with toast, eggs with bacon, eggs with sausage, eggs with (fried) hash-browns, and eggs with cheese…sunny-side up, scrambled, poached, over-easy, and hard-boiled.  All I had to do was alter a few things to be Whole30 compliant.  My new daily favorite became microwaved scrambled eggs with veggies (usually onions & peppers) and occasionally with compliant sausage or other compliant meat that my wife made.  It was easy enough to pull together at work and is actually quite enjoyable.  My wife also made a few frittatas along the way that were also very enjoyable.

I never had any problems with chicken, ground meat, steak, most pork, or fish, so in the protein department I was good.  Again, a few changes needed to happen.  I needed to make sure that any protein I was about to savor was compliant.  I typically consumed meat with some sort of seasoning or sauce…usually drenching it in all kinds of stuff…stuff with sugar and high in calories.  For simplicity sake for Whole30 I  resorted to compliant hot sauce (Frank’s Red Hot or Texas Pete Original) and regular yellow mustard as a sauce/seasoning substitute.

Generally, I enjoyed all of the foods that were Whole30 recommended, but I did need to make a few modifications from my usual preparation to be compliant.  One of the big things for me was keeping it as simple as possible, as I didn’t want to get bogged down too much in meal preparation.  Also, eating out may have been an issue if I looked to eating out as treating myself or for entertainment or for a quick meal that I didn’t have to prepare, but I was able to pretty much avoid eating out for over a month to make things easy for me.  I did have a few meals outside of my daily Whole30 routine, which consisted of garden salads without dressing.

Before Whole30, snacking was one of my dietary failures outside of my day-to-day meals.  I think I reached for food for comfort, out of boredom, as a stress reliever, because it was there, or maybe between meals when I thought I was feeling a little something/anything.  It’s also interesting that when people see you eating, they are more than happy to leave you alone until you are done.  So perhaps I was eating for some quiet time, as well.  Snacking would include chips, sweets, pepperoni, popcorn with heavy butter and salt, cheese & crackers…basically anything I could take a bowl of, a plate of, or handful of was fair game.  I would snack at work, in the evenings, and on the weekends.   I also had to avoid the foods that my co-workers put out in the kitchen and at their desks…donuts, left-over catering, the candy bowls, and all the other stuff co-workers leave around for others to consume.  Looking back, I  did consume a lot of food between meals.  I consciously cut down on the snacking and after a few days or so I didn’t have the same cravings between meals that I used to have.  When I did feel an urge to snack, I would refrain as long as I could and hopefully make it until the next meal.  If I couldn’t fight the urge between meals I would resort to either an apple, an orange, a banana, a Lärabar (Apple Pie), pistachios, or a V-8…something Whole30 compliant.

There can be a lot to Whole30 and I can see how it can be difficult, especially if you need a lot of variety in your diet, if you regularly eat out, if you don’t really like to cook/prepare meals, if you have an attachment or “addiction” to certain foods, or if you socialize over food.  My meals didn’t need to be a culinary event or gourmet or something a foodie would love.  I didn’t have any “Have-to-Haves” as far as food went.  Fortunately, I was able to keep it simple.  During Whole30, I generally had eggs for breakfast, salad for lunch, and whatever awesome Whole30 meal my wife made for dinner for the duration of the program.  My wife needed more variety than eggs and salad, so dinner usually consisted of a Whole30 meal that I would never have taken the time and effort to prepare for myself, so the variety was a bit of a treat.  Otherwise, I would have had a breakfast/lunch combination of eggs topped with a salad for dinner.  During most of the 40 days of Whole30, I never felt hungry or that I was missing something.

As far as side effects that have been known to impact those on the program (https://whole30.com/is-this-normal/),  I may have experienced them to some degree, but I did have a viral illness during the first couple weeks or so of Whole30 that may have masked any direct side effects with being on the program.

I very much enjoyed the Whole30 program.  I do feel better, I seem to sleep better (according to FitBit), and I am in more in control of the foods I put into my mouth.  My awareness of how foods could impact me and how much sugar and other unnecessary ingredients are in food seem to be the most stand-out benefits of having stayed away from non-whole foods for over a month.  I no longer wake up in the middle of the night with heartburn or acid reflux.  And after 40 days I have lost around 15 pounds (not that Whole30 is intended as a weight loss diet…it is not).  It was a win-win all around for me.  I don’t plan to go back to eating the way I had been for the past couple of decades.

For me, Whole30 was not all that difficult to complete.  I am certainly not bragging, just telling my story.  I don’t think there was anything that I craved obsessively over and I wouldn’t consider it the end of the world if I never had cheese, bread, beans, or alcohol ever again.  I did have the here-and-there “it would be nice to have some potato chips”, but it wasn’t an urge I couldn’t control.  My lack of uncontrollable urges might have been due to the fact that I was already regularly eating a lot of veggies, fruit, and eggs, so I was just removing the non-compliant stuff from my diet and avoided snacking like I was used to doing.  Overall, it was a fun experience.  I set my mind to it and got it done.  Anyone can do anything for 30 days or so if it is something that an individual wants to do.   If you don’t want to do Whole30 (or anything else for that matter)…it’s going to be hard.  Easy things are hard when you don’t want to do them or if you dwell on how “bad” it is.

The staples in my diet beyond salad and eggs were:

1. BLACK COFFEE
2. Salt & Pepper
3. Hot Sauce – Frank’s Red Hot and Texas Pete Original
4. Apple Cider Vinegar
5. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
6. Home Roasted Oven Chicken Breast
7. Ground Beef
8. Home Made Compliant Sausage
9. Lärabar – Apple Pie
10. Steak
11. Potatoes – Regular and Sweet
12. Vegetables (pretty much any and all)

I finished Whole30 on February 12…40 days after I started, to coincide with my wife’s Whole30/31 completion.  The plan is for my wife and I to slowly re-introduce those foods that we have stayed away from back into our diet since they may be beneficial, overall, to our health.  Well, maybe not the alcohol…which is much more socially beneficial for me.  If we add these foods back in slowly, I may be able to determine what foods adversely impact me and to what degree, so I can minimize their intake.  At this point I am in no hurry to throw back a candy bar, down a bottle of beer/wine, or eat a loaf of bread.  Regardless of how the reintroduction of sugar, alcohol, grains, legumes, soy, and dairy go, my plan is to treat meals and food as I have been over the past 40 days.  Simply, all I need to do moving forward is maintain the core of the Whole30 Program and be very aware of snacking as well as the choices I make when planning a meal.

The way I see the Whole30 program is that it was very helpful.  Did it solve all of my woes?  Do I feel like the 25 year-old me?  No.  However, it did help me understand food a bit better and how I interacted with food.  Do I feel a little better?  Yes.  Well enough that I am going to refrain from going back into my old food habits.  I should have tried it sooner…back in 2017 when my wife first gave it a shot.

Here are a couple of Whole30 recipes that were pretty awesome (above the others) that my wife found and made for us:

Chili – https://www.wellplated.com/whole30-chili/

Tomato Soup – https://www.tasteslovely.com/paleo-whole30-tomato-basil-soup/

Keep in mind that a dietary reset or an elimination diet via Whole30 or other program is only a piece of the puzzle to overall health.  A mental, emotional, and physical reset is sometimes needed, too, to put you back on track in those areas.  Take care of yourself mentally, emotionally, and physically, as well

David J. Kearney

david.kearney@comcast.net

http://www.davidjkearney.com

Got Complaints?

In my younger, immature, and youthfully enthusiastic days I have to admit, I complained a lot. I complained about people, places, things, and events.  If someone wasn’t acting like I thought they should, or working as hard as me, or weren’t as “smart” as me I would complain…to anyone that would listen, particularly if it made me feel good or look better to others.  If an event didn’t go the way that I thought is should have or I somehow thought if something was done my way it would have been so, so much better.  If the lines in a store or restaurant were longer than I thought they should be or if service didn’t meet my standards, I would say, “If I was the manager…”

Now I am about to complain about complaining.  As I make my way through my days it appears that people complaining about anything and everything is on the rise, whether it is one group against another group, us against them, or among friends or co-workers.  Complaining seems to have become a game to see who has the best compliant or who can put someone else down the best.  After examining why this has become a pastime, I have to think it is either an insecurity issue or a way to maneuver to appear better then someone or something else.  In the past few years I have listened to others complain like there is no tomorrow and wondered if that was what I sounded like in my past life.  Yep…that was me.  Insecure, young, and perhaps a little over confident…and maybe even just plain mean.  As I have made an effort to get out of that trap, because it is so easy to go along with the crowd and jump into what amounts to be a “bitching session” rather than abstain from participating or just leaving the conversation altogether, I find myself a bit more sympathetic to people, events and situations that are being complained about.

It seems like building someone up or helping them grow in their weaker areas is too much effort and complaining is the easy way out.  I hear comments like “So-and-So is so stupid”, “Why can’t So-and-So be like me”, “How did So-and-So get hired here”, “Why can’t they just do what I said”, and so-on and so-on.  I am sure you have heard these or something very similar.  Maybe you have even uttered one of these phrases.  If you find yourself complaining excessively about an individual, group, or event here are some ways you could actually help:

If an individual, group of people, or event is not living up to your expectations…

1. Don’t assume that this is somehow a way to make you mad…no one is out to get you.
2. Find a way to make the situation better. Mentor an individual and give constructive feedback to a group or an event leader.
3. Realize that not everyone is going to be or can be a workaholic, or be like you, or like the boss, or like those that have been doing a task for years.
4. Take into account that not everyone is as “smart“ as you are in certain areas and they may never be.
5. Recognize that others have their own style and ways of doing and understanding and looking at things and just because it isn’t “Your Way” doesn’t necessarily mean that that another way is wrong.
6. Look at things from other perspectives…not just one, but many and ask yourself maybe this happened or that happened or something is going on behind the curtains that can’t be seen entirely. Give the benefit of the doubt.

Although there are exceptions to this rule, people generally aren’t looking to get one over on you or take advantage of a situation and this isn’t a contest about who is most incompetent.  Sure, there are certain ways certain things need to be done and if that process is not followed, a problem could cascade downstream.  Outside of a strict production environment, there are some allowances for things to be done creatively or differently.

I am certainly not advocating that complaining isn’t warranted at times, but it isn’t needed under all circumstances with everything all of the time.

I have to believe that everyone wants to do his or her best, take pride in what they deliver and in who they are, and get a pat on the back.  Otherwise, I would complain all of the time.

The Complaint Department is now closed.

Invest in Yourself…With Lynda

At the end of every year I look for opportunities to invest in myself to enhance my professional skills and increase my potential. It is said that the best investment that you can make is in yourself and I have lived by that mantra for most of my professional life. Over the years I have taken courses, studied for and earned technical and non-technical certifications, and joined a public speaking and leadership organization to become more valuable to my employer. I believe that it is important to constantly learn, regardless of whether or not your employer fully assists, partially supports, or doesn’t contribute at all to your professional improvement. Although it certainly helps if your employer provides financial support, time off, or some other form of return on investment, it shouldn’t be the single motivating factor for improving yourself with updated or new skills.

As 2015 winds down, I was evaluating educational opportunities for 2016, including a return to a traditional college setting, on-line college courses, and possibly attending a technical school to enhance my technical chops. I have recently been very interested in accounting and marketing topics (which I really haven’t seen since my traditional college days many years ago), so I was considering taking local accounting and marketing workshops and classes as they became available. With the high expense of college and not being settled on pursuing a PhD (I have played with this idea for many, many years), another Master’s Degree, and not necessarily set on which technical skills I wanted to chase, I came across Lynda.com in my research.

Lynda.com is an award-winning provider of educational materials, including the Lynda.com library with over 4,050 online courses (more than 301,000 video tutorials): An online education company offering thousands of video courses in software, creative, and business skills.

During my research I found that Lynda.com could help me pursue most of my educational goals, until I decide to pursue that PhD or second M.S. degree, for a price that was affordable and a resource I could take advantage of in my schedule. After hemming and hawing over this decision for a couple of weeks and trying, but unable, to find someone that utilized Lynda.com to help me make a decision, I received a promotional E-Mail to subscribe for a year to Lynda.com for $287.00 (regularly $359.88). This price certainly helped in my decision making process. I signed up. Within a few days I had taken a couple of courses, including accounting and marketing related courses. Additionally, I took a course on utilizing Garage Band (I am a wanna-be songwriter, rock star, musician). All of the courses I took, so far, were high quality, very useful, and I could apply something I learned in every course to my day-to-day professional life. If I would have purchased books or took a course/series of classes on these topics I would have certainly exceeded the $287.00 I spent on the annual Lynda.com membership…and I am only 8 classes and 2 weeks into my membership. In my case, Lynda.com is less than a dollar a day and as long as I regularly attend courses, Lynda.com will certainly pay for itself with my enhanced and new skills. If you are considering enhancing your current skills or learning new ones, I would encourage you to look at Lynda.com…it’s affordable, available online and offline, and can be utilized on your schedule and on your device. Additionally, at least half of the sessions included downloadable “hand-outs” and one included testing during the course sections to reinforce the topics covered. One cool feature that I really like, but is outside of the educational courses, is that it can be linked to your LinkedIn account and will display your course completions on your profile in the Certifications area…a great way to keep track of and show your accomplishments.

If nothing else, be sure to constantly invest in yourself to help you and your employer. You now know someone that has taken advantage of Lynda.com, so don’t feel as skeptical as I was initially by not knowing the quality of sessions available or not knowing anyone that utilized Lynda.com.

Again…invest in yourself.

In Your Skin

In Your Skin

When we were born, some of us were told “You can be whatever you want to be” or even better “Just be yourself”. On the other hand we’re told about tradition…what to believe, how to believe, what is “right” and what is “wrong”. When we start to walk and talk…it’s cute, but soon enough we are told to sit down and shut up.

When a boy says he wants to be a race car driver or a girl says she wants to be a cheerleader at age 6…it’s really cute. Then these same children are indoctrinated into the tradition of “normalcy”. The independence that a child shows early on, the artistry that is shown, the thought process and logic that the child shows independently, and the child that plays differently than other kids typically gets beaten into submission.

Then…here we are. We do the same things we have always done, generally the same way our family has done…generation after generation. Perhaps there is some comfort in that, perhaps we are afraid to rock the boat, maybe we know no other way.   Some of us, if we are reflective, begin to question why we do these things and repeat history. It is nearly impossible to feel at home in our own skin when we are constantly barraged by ways we should act, think, and feel by the media, the masses, friends and family…we are put down or worse, shunned, by family members and so-called friends for unorthodox ways. I have been there…the black sheep, the one that makes people frustrated when I didn’t agree with following the road, but creating my own path…or at least trying to. Yes, I buck the system…because who says the system is right.

Whether or not this way is good or bad, at a young age I began to question what we do as the majority…we vote republican or democrat, we worship similar (if not the same) gods, we celebrate birthdays, holidays, the “Hallmark Day” holidays and have special months for a cause…primarily due to tradition…we don’t dare to move outside of the box…we don’t dare open our trap. The box is where the majority sits.  How can the majority be wrong?  How can what I have done since I was born be questioned?

Have you ever seen a crazy popular movie where the hype was far greater than the movie itself? Ever eat somewhere that everyone raves over to go away feeling unsatisfied with a meal that didn’t even come close to hitting the spot? Have you ever listened to a crazy popular band, The Beatles, N’ Sync, One Direction and wondered what all the hype was about? That feeling…that’s what I am talking about here…the place where you are marching to a different drummer

I have a feeling that I am not alone here.

But, what I can tell you…it can be a lonely road at times…to not be in “The-in-Crowd”, to have an event, individual, or object that everyone gets so happy over or celebrates be so anticlimactic. One that fills people up with overwhelming joy but yet leaves you empty.  I am not talking about depression or some other mental health issue, which is a different beast altogether, but a feeling that disagrees with what everyone else seems to carry with great happiness, joy, and excitement.

If you feel like a stranger in a strange land, I am here to tell you today…YOU ARE NOT ALONE.  But, you are not your parents, your friends, or your spouse. You are unique…you are your own mind, body, and soul.  You have to become comfortable in your own skin and in your own head with how you live your life.

 

I was speaking with a neighbor one day and we ended up talking about the recent Supreme Court’s ruling on marriage…though not quite sure how in the world we got on this topic.  This neighbor was telling me that the show Modern Family was on TV and his grandson noticed that 2 men were kissing on the show and asked him why? The neighbor seemed somewhat offended by the show and wondered what he was to tell his grandson. My response to him was, my approach to my son is and would continue to be that my job in raising my son is to give him enough comfort in himself to be his own man…to make sure that whatever conclusions my son comes to about anything…that he is comfortable in his own skin, regardless if that decision is counter to me, his mother, society, or whoever might hold a differing opinion. I am not going to be able, nor do I want to, to mold him in such a way that he believes what I believe just because I believe it.

The reason I told you that story is that how we become who we are, for better or worse, is due in large part to what society, family, friends deem to be “normal” and what people think about the skin we are in. Believe this, not that; Do this, not that; Work here, not there; Love this, not that, Buy this, not that; All of this is really a contradiction to Being Whatever You Want To Be and Just Being Yourself.

Unfortunately, I have witnessed people that have to be around other people constantly…and are seemingly never comfortable alone.  I see people that would rather follow the crowd because it is less painful and makes them feel like they are a part of something rather than become a bigger part of themselves.  I have known people that are so mean to themselves and just miserable because they don’t see in themselves the beauty that others see.

In these cases, loneliness or being uncomfortable with one’s self contributes to discomfort and discord in their own skin.

How can we become comfortable in our own skin when a major conflict exists when we compare ourselves to others? Therein lies a problem…a HUGE problem.

Conclusion

If you feel trapped, confused, or just plain out-of-place…I am pleading with you to reflect and come to terms with who you are and get to understand and like the skin you are in. If you feel that you are Out-of-Place…who is it with…those externally or is it something internally? Like the skin you are in by understanding what makes YOU tick, gets YOU excited, what YOUR likes and dislikes are. There is no magical solution and I can’t give you a Top 10 list of how to like yourself or to be comfortable in your own skin…everyone is different. What has worked for me probably won’t work for you. I have been able to break free from the expectations of liking sports, following a religion, disliking certain types of music, having certain types of friends, succumbing to peer pressure, and following a more traditional life path. It took many years of getting to know and respect the skin I am in. What I can tell you is, first and foremost, that this investment to get comfortable with yourself is probably the most important thing that you can do while you are here.  This isn’t going to be something you can figure out after you are gone. It takes a lot of hard work towards self-realization (to have freedom from external influence, from cultural expectations, political and economic opinions, and the freedom from worldly attachments and desires, etc.), and the acceptance that you and you alone are what makes you…quite simply…YOU. Your “skin” is what makes you perfect…perfectly imperfect, perhaps, beautifully broken.

You must know and be comfortable with no one else better than you.

Text of a Toastmasters Speech presented in September 2015