I started my 2nd round of whole30 January 1st. I was so excited, looking forward to feeling as great as I did the first time.

But that was not the way it worked this time around. I feel exhausted, and for the first week it is what to expect, but this continued into week three. It was disabling exhaustion, I couldn’t manage anything, and started getting really worried. Luckily I did the round with Lasse, and his tiger blood set in on week two, so he went to a conference during the day, and came home and cooked for us at night.

But after two weeks of being a total mess, exhausted, mentally unstable. Lasse and I started from on end to figure out what was wrong. Could it be home sickness, depression, what. All of a sudden Lasse asked what my blood sugar level was, and we measured it (Lasse is a diabetic, that is why we have the blood sugar measuring thing, I am not diabetic). This was after lunch, and my blood sugar was alarmingly low. I got some fruit and starting feeling better.

Total win, Now we new what the problem was – I wasn’t going crazy 😉

Now started the hassle of getting my blood sugar up, which we thought would be easy, but turned out it was nearly impossible. So last week I made the decision to drop the whole30 and figure out how i could stabilize my blood sugar.

Earlier this would have felt like a failure to me, having to give up. But by learning to listening to my body, still a work in progress, I don’t. And this is for me still a part of the whole30 learning experience, because the idea of the program, is to teach you to listen, and do what is good for you, and make decisions that are worth it – that is what i did.

I still eat mostly whole30, but I start each morning with a tbsp of oatmeal, before my regular breakfast with eggs, avocado and vegetables. sometimes I need a mid morning snack, and I will eat something, but mostly it will keep me fine till lunch. Here I make sure to eat something with carbohydrates, this can be potatoes, rice or homemade sourdough ryebread. This will keep me fine for hours. Yesterday I went for a long walk after lunch, 2+ hours. I had packed a RX bar and coconut water, just to make sure I didn’t drop, but I was fine. When I came home, I started feeling of, so I took a snack and was good till dinner, which I prepared. It is awesome feeling like yourself again.

It has taken me over a week to figure out how to get this to work. And I am still learning, but at least now I don’t have to eat all the time like I did the first week. It was awful having to eat when you are not hungry, I love food, but not when I feel like a Foie Gras duck. It means I can’t work out as much as I did earlier last year, but I am working up to it.

I have actually ended up learning more from this reset, than my full round in the summer. I have learned to listen to my body, rest when needed, and make sure to get good nutritious food. It means that my goal for food and exercise is set back a little, but as they say, it is not the result that counts but the journey there.

Maria