Whole 30, Whole me?

I keep hearing expressions like "You can't out train a bad diet" and "abs are made in the kitchen" but for a while, I've wondered exactly what those things meant.  I mean I get the fact that if I go home and eat a meaty, greasy, cheesy, gooey pizza after leaving the gym, and then chase it with a bag of doritos and have ice cream for a night cap, I probably won't see the results I want.  But I am beginning to wonder if a diet can be healthy and still not be what is right for your body.  I watch my calories and my macronutrient ratios and even very particular things like my sodium/potassium and calcium/magnesium ratios. I don't eat a lot of crap.  I eat cheat meals, but they aren't often, and they are usually planned in advance.

But still my body is holding on to weight.  (Yeah, that weight loss I was so excited about a week or so again? Came back.  Which means that I am STILL plateaued.  Uh.  Since April.  Not cool, body, not cool.) And there seems to be a lot of inflammation in my body, which I'm thinking is part of this plaguing low back nonsense that just won't stop.  He-who-trains has mentioned several times that he thinks the Cortisol Effect is sabotaging me, and blames all my life stress.  But I'm under considerably less stress than I have ever been before.  We both expected the weight to just start falling off.

And I am getting more and more impatient.  Yes, I have achieved a lot, and no I'm not discounting that. But my body is just flat out not cooperating. (And it did not help to stand behind my client in the mirror today, and realize that she is in much better shape than I am.  Everyone that was in the gym today has seen me from the beginning, so they get it.  But at some point, I'm going to want to work with people that are new... and I want to look like a trainer!)   I think it was Einstein that said "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." I've varied my exercise routines a number of times, thinking that was what I needed.  But what I've never done, at least not since the very beginning, is completely overhaul my diet. Now that I've gotten the basics figured out, I think it may be time to do some fine tuning.  A while back several folks suggested that I might be gluten sensitive, and I got off it for a while, and dropped some weight.  Of course it came back when I started eating gluten again.  Hellloooooooo.

I've been kicking around the idea of doing a Whole 30 (Dino-chow, basically.  No dairy, no sugar, no alchohol, no soy, no grains.) I've been rereading the book that explains the science behind it It Starts with Food, and it's gotten me thinking about a lot of things. For the record, while I don't agree with everything, it's a really good read.

I have a lot of questions about how it will work for me with the intense workouts, etc but I am thinking it is worth a try. It's probably going to take several days of playing around before I can make it really work for me in its pure form, and while it could be a really hard 30 days, it might be worth it for all the things it could teach me about my body.  And maybe, it might help reset some things.

So, you know, if I'm uh... extra grouchy... throw some Dino-chow at me, and run!