Our daughter got engaged a few weeks ago and when the wedding date was set for 6 months later our family went in to “panic mode” with wanting to feel and look better before the big day. The start date of June 1^st was announced and we all agreed that we would do a round of Whole 30 to jump start our “get healthy and lose a few pounds” goal.

If you are not familiar with the “Whole 30” craze…basically it’s a kick-start, “detox your body of stuff you shouldn’t be obsessed with (and enjoy!)” month long diet of meat, vegetables, and fruit. <-that’s basically it…NO dairy, NO grains, NO sugar, NO alcohol.

You can also read that as “NO ice cream/sour cream/butter (or nightly chocolate milk for Tom), NO bread/chips/crackers, NO dessert (or anything processed-that has sugar), NO margarita at any Mexican restaurant or glass of wine or beer by the pool” – FOR A MONTH!

We started off strong and are currently on day 11. While we are in a groove now, and have an idea what we can eat and are no longer SHOCKED when we find yet another thing that we can’t, we have felt the pros and cons of this diet that has been a LIFESTYLE change.

Take “date day” for instance – typically we would enjoy a movie with popcorn (have I mentioned…NO popcorn – even if you get it without butter!), then grab dinner someplace fun and, if the night went on long enough, maybe end the day with some ice cream or treat. Yeah – not happening on Whole 30.

So- when Tom and I had yesterday/Saturday totally free and wanted to do something fun, we had to get creative enough so that it didn’t have to include food (yes, we realize how much “food/beverage” equates to “fun” and “social” for us). We decided the best bet was just to take a little drive and I’m thankful we had some fun places to check out.

This past year Tom started working in the custom home building business. He spends much of his day making things happen on the GORGEOUS homes they are building, dealing with clients and countless contractors,  and driving between locations. While I’ve seen a few in progress, it’s been a while since I’ve had a tour of some of them/new properties, so we headed to a remote location in McKinney where several are being built.

Before we left the house we went to grab our newest “appendage” – WATER BOTTLES (literally, we drink and drink and drink). As I was preparing to get mine I stopped and said, “WAIT…let’s be CRAZY and NOT take them!!  That way we have a reason to stop somewhere to buy a “TREAT”! Literally, we could stop along the way for WATER!”

Yes…it’s come to this.  Stopping at RaceTrac for a WATER BOTTLE!

Anyway – we had a fun time driving through neighborhoods, checking out the houses in different stages and noting what WE would do differently (floor plan wise) if we were building, etc. (and yes, it was hot…this picture proves it!).

I need to stop here for a second…Can I just brag on my man and his company? They do AMAZING work!  Truly – I was so impressed with the beautiful houses they are making “home” for their clients! So proud of him! #jparkercustomhomes

Anyway – It was a great afternoon, complete with a stop for our “treat”!

As we were checking out, I overheard another customer ask for some Powerball/lottery tickets. I turned and said to Tom, “I just saw on the internet that the Powerball is up to like 435Million!  We should get some and then talk about what we would do if we won!”

So- instead of ice cream….

As we drove home, we planned how much we would give and where we would want to donate. Honestly, I love that that is TRULY the first place both of our minds always go. We have certain ministries, organizations, non-profits, and many individual people we would want to give to.  Then we talked about how we would love to keep it a secret and tell all of our kids at once (maybe with tickets for a family trip to Disney…and announcing that any student loan debt was now gone!).  It was fun to dream….and even more “fun” to know that winning would just be a “bonus” to the life we were already living. No lottery was going to make us “happier” together…sure – it’s fun to dream, but it’s also fun to drive around with the guy who still rocks your boat (ohhh wait…boat? That would be fun!) with a dollar bottle of WATER!

*Oh, and “sorry” to all those groups/people we would have given multi-millions to, ugh – we didn’t win (shocking).

So- yesterday afternoon, I was actually OK with “Whole 30”. It was a good thing to get out of the “norm” of popcorn, dinner out, drinks, dessert. I’m thinking this was our cheapest “date day” ever…and one of my favorites.

Some other “pros” of doing Whole 30…

We are cooking a LOT at home and eating together almost every meal.   While sometimes I just want to SCREAM for a piece of bread (or even a cracker…and I might kill for a piece of pizza), it’s been cool to be in the kitchen more as a family.

We have also renewed our love of “game night”!  We love it and we have had some great conversations over “Sequence” and “Gin”…and last night Brooke had 80’s music playing the whole time so that’s a bonus!  (But let’s keep it real…the whole “game night thing”…it’s to keep us from sitting in front of the tv dreaming of (also read: “crying for”) wine or ice cream.) But still… #winning.

And- as a family, we have increased (if that’s possible) our support of each other and been each other’s biggest cheerleaders. It’s also provided some HILARIOUS (as well as “we are wayyyy toooooo close”) text messages.

This one was from this morning in church (please don’t be offended…every person who has ever done Whole 30 would have been excited for this moment, I promise!)

NINETEEN MORE DAYS PEOPLE…19 more days!!

#dateday #ilovemyman #heisREALLYgoodatwhathedoes #hardworkergoodman #istillwantapizza #hurryupandgethereJuly #IamsoooothankfulforJesus #andacrackerthismorning #whole30