I've been in LA for over a year now, and it's been wonderfully magical and filled to the brim with adventures. Couple that with my last few years in OKC, and you'll understand what brought me to Whole30. Sure, I'm active and relatively healthy, but at 30.5 years of age I could feel my body begging for a reset. And that's exactly what I gave it.

All you really need to know about Whole30 is that it's the removal of certain food groups that more than likely have a negative impact on your health and fitness (more here) for 30 days. It sounds simple, but like any "diet" that forces you to change your habits completely, I knew I'd be in for a challenge. No popcorn, even if it's air popped, no margaritas, even if they were made solely from lime juice, no pizza, because of course. These were the best friends I was scared to leave behind, and now that I've got just 9 days left on this reset, I can say that, while I miss them terribly, I know the distance has been beneficial.

The first 4 days of this new lifestyle were a challenging, but pleasant surprise. I realized that I do eat generally healthy meals during the weekday. I wasn't upset at making a big salad with chicken for lunch, or doing the same for dinner because this has always been my preferred go-to. What I hadn't planned for was the sugar withdrawals that came after both meals. Sure, I'll have a piece of chocolate after lunch and perhaps another after dinner, but I had no idea that it had become such a regular occurrence for which my body begged. Did I even realize I was putting a form of sugar in mouth, or was I mindlessly listening to my brain? I stayed strong, fighting the craving with the godsend that is hazelnuts, and prepared for my next battle: Carb Flu.

As I'm sure most think, I was under the impression that I didn't eat that many carbs in a day. Yes, I will happily admit that popcorn is one of my biggest vices, but I pop it on the stove in coconut oil! Sure, I will eat a bag of chips from the pantry at work, but it's only snack-size and they're baked! Well, I realized by Day 5 that my body was going through serious withdrawals from the lack of carbs it had gotten so used to. The headache came on in the late afternoon every day, and on Days 7 & 8 I found myself going to sleep with a headache so intense I couldn't fall asleep fast enough. A Google search and discussion with my Whole30 partner later, I learned this was the infamous carb flu. It was then that I sat down and thought back to my daily eating habits, wondering where carbs slipped in that I wasn't aware of. The rice in the fajita bowl, the breading on the chicken, the bagel you didn't plan on eating but your boss brought in so you ate it. Sure, I didn't buy loaves of bread (because carbs!) but I was still consuming a lot more than I realized.

Thankfully, the carb flu passed around Day 10, at which point I had made it through my first Whole30 weekend. Because I know my self-control can be lacking, I stayed in the entire time, enjoying the productivity of hangover free days and nights of solid sleep. There was, however, one pesky temptation staring at my for 48 hours. My beloved margaritas. My margarita machine (thanks again, Matt!) sat on my bar, always watching and silently asking, Why haven't you used me yet? But as I sat in my living room or on my balcony, I realized I wasn't craving the margarita, I was simply in situations in which I was used to having a margarita. Reading a book, watching a movie. Much like the sugar to which I had grown accustom after meals, my mind associated relaxing at home with a goblet full of frozen goodness. I stopped and reviewed the past year and a half in my apartment, wondering when a margarita in hand on the weekend had become the norm. Much like everything else I had discovered in these 10 days, it was a habit I didn't realize had formed.

And as these unknown habits presented themselves one after the other, that's when I knew without a doubt that I would see Whole30 through to the last day.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of my experience, coming at ya July 3rd.