I failed a Whole30

Back in 2017, I failed a Whole30. Yep, me. A Whole30 Certified Coach (although I wasn’t technically one at the time, but I had completed over 6 Whole30’s at the time successfully and was helping family & friends navigate their own Whole30’s.) Why? Because….emotions.

That spring, my husband’s grandmother passed away, which was devastating to our whole family (our boys and especially my husband were very close to her). We were in the midst of a Whole30 at the time of her funeral, and didn’t preplan with all of the food that would be at the services and simply just threw our hands in the air and said forget it. We failed. We used food to cope with our feelings and guess what….it didn’t make us feel better. After the dust settled, we continued to live our paleo lifestyle that works for us when we aren’t Whole30’ing until that summer….

Our dog, Jack’s, health was declining. Now, if you’re not a dog person this may seem trivial to you but Jack was our first baby. He was the protector of our boys and Dustin’s BFF. We knew he was no longer thriving, but simply surviving and we had to make the decision to send him over to the rainbow bridge. We knew it was the right decision, but it certainly wasn’t easy. We were in the midst of another Whole30 and I was so paralyzed by grief that I again threw my hands in the air and said forget it, and turned to my old habits of dealing with my feelings with food and alcohol.

This spiraled into about a month’s worth of bad habits. It snowballed into not wanting to workout since I was bloated and didn’t feel my best due to my food choices, and not taking care of my mental health through my daily personal development and gratitude practice. I had to snap out of it and get back to feeling my best and I know that I can always turn to Whole30 to help me do that. So I did just that and guess what? I felt better and more like the healthy version of me that I crave.

So if you have failed a Whole30…it’s ok! Show yourself some grace and don’t let it spiral into months of feeling bad like I did. Life happens. Move on, start your Whole30 over and continue down the path to your own version of Food Freedom and know that you can always reset when you feel like your healthy habits are slipping. I learned the most about myself and my habits when I failed my Whole30 than any other Whole30’s I’ve ever done. Be gentle with yourself….you got this.