#24: Lindsey Ward -- The Whole 30 Challenge

Like a Bigfoot

This week's guest is amazing, hard working, hilarious, loving and just so happens to be the most important person in my life, my beautiful wife, Lindsey Ward. (Brownie points for me!) As the clock ticked midnight on New Years' Eve, Linz and I started our month long journey to tackle the Whole30 challenge. The Whole30 challenge encourages you to eat only the absolute essentials- vegetables, fruits, and meats. It is not focused on counting calories, juicing, or portion control, and instead simply forces you to eat clean food. It also turns your focus away from weight and instead to simply observing how your body feels after eliminating processed food, sugars, alcohol, dairy products, etc. Lindsey and I wanted something to kick us out of our food routines to help nourish new, healthier habits. We also wanted to avoid the normal pitfalls of most unsustainable New Year's Resolutions. We chose Whole30 because, instead of creating vague goal over an indefinite time period, it offered a very black and white guideline of what we could and couldn't eat AND it had a set amount of time. 30 days to do anything seems very ACHIEVABLE versus the whole "no end in site mindset". Overall it was a good month that forced us to step outside of our comfort zone and challenged some previous beliefs. For example I didn't think it was possible to run a 50k (31 miles) without the use of gels, soda, or processed sugar. I discovered that not only was it attainable, but I actually felt MUCH better throughout the event. As for Lindsey, I am posting this with a huge smile on my face! I'm so proud of my wife for achieving this goal (even spitting out a cookie our 3 year old literally put in her mouth at one point. "It'll be yummy for you!"). Lindsey has an incredibly strong mindset that gotten her through the insanity of medical school and residency while overcoming some major adversity in her life. I'm excited to share our conversation (and maybe a window into our weirdness) with you guys! In this episode Lindsey and I share the ups and downs of our month doing the Whole 30 diet. What was easy? What was challenging? How do we feel now? What did we learn about our previous routines and how can we implement changes in a sustainable way? Also, a little change of format this week. We are playing with time in a very "LOSTesque" way! The first 15 minutes or so were recorded before the challenge on December 30th, 2016 and the last 45 minutes were recorded post challenge on February 1st, 2017. Hope you guys enjoy this episode! As always check out the rest of the podcasts right here: https://soundcloud.com/chris-ward-126531464 To learn more about Whole30 make sure you visit their website: http://whole30.com