Congratulations, Whole30’er! You’ve successfully completed 30 days of the Whole30 program—no small feat! (Yes, we know the most famous line of the Whole30 is, “This is not hard,” but as we explain in the preface of The Whole30… we knew this would be hard, and we are so proud of you for sticking to your commitment to yourself and your health.) This doesn’t mean your Whole30 is OVER, however. This isn’t a program you jump into and out of like every other fad diet. The thirty-day elimination is just the first step in your reset and only an introduction to what will become your new life-long healthy habits. Now, it’s time for phase two—reintroduction. (If you need a little help with that part, or are even a little bit tempted to blow it off, check out our reintroduction references, and our Kick-Start Your Whole30 Reintroduction with Melissa Urban webinar, presented by Chipotle.
Success! But Wait…
However, come Day 31, you’re just as excited to evaluate and share your Whole30 results as you are to start reintroducing some of the foods you’ve been missing. And for some, that might look like stepping on the scale. Not so fast, dear reader. The scale may not be a good idea just yet. We know, we know, this may not be what you want to hear—but the tough love doesn’t end on Day 30! We encourage you to be just as aware and honest with yourself with respect to your relationship with the scale as you’ve been with your relationship with food over the last month. If that number is a nice-to-know but won’t make-or-break your day, go ahead and weigh. But if you’re at all anxious, nervous, or unsure about whether or not you’ll let your results tarnish your Whole30 accomplishments… the scale can wait a little longer. And it should.
Count Your Non-Scale Victories
However, regardless of whether you choose to weigh or not to weigh, the scale and tape measure are not measures of Whole30 success. What about things like changes in your energy, sleep, mood, cravings, digestion, skin, medical condition or symptoms… the list goes on and on! In fact, it goes on for two whole pages, in our Non-Scale Victory checklist! In The Whole30, we outline more than one hundred Whole30 success metrics for you to evaluate, related to your physical appearance, psychological outlook, health, and more. We encourage you to run through this list, checking off as many benefits as you can, so you can see for yourself all of the ways you’ve changed your life by changing the food you put on your plate. Then we thought, why not give you an actual list?
Use our Non-Scale Victory checklist to:
- Visually represent the benefits you know you’ve achieved with the Whole30
- Show family and friends when they ask, “So how did your Whole30 go?”
- Post on your blog or our Whole30 forum, or link to it on social media to share your Whole30 results with our community
- Compare this round of Whole30 with previous rounds
- Remind yourself in Life After your Whole30 that you are a healthy person, fully capable of remaining in control of your health, habits, and relationship with food
Congratulations, Whole30’ers! You’ve successfully accomplished your “reset,” and now get to reap the benefits of your hard work and dedication. Enjoy the reintroduction process and stay connected to us via email, Instagram, and our other social platforms for all of the support, resources, and motivation you’ll need in Life After your Whole30.
Best in health, Melissa Urban Whole30 co-founder
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