You might remember that at the beginning of this Whole30, I did a little personal inventory.

It was ugly.

Really ugly.

I thought the best way to see what this Whole30 has accomplished in me was to look back at it. The bold is how I was feeling 30 days ago, which was a rather ugly review of what my doctor said was fibromyalgia but what I believe was probably a gluten-intolerance all along. How I feel today is in italics.

• My hands and feet tingle. This was gone within a few days. I don’t miss it. At all.
• My joints have been freezing up. My joints are feeling awesome. It took about a week to get rid of the hip weirdness, but I’ve gone from it popping dozens of times a day to once or twice. That seems a lot more reasonable.
• I feel like my skin in bruised. Not anymore. You can touch me anywhere and I won’t wince. Also gone in just a few days.
• My weight is up. My weight is down to where it was before the holidays hit. So is bloating, swelling and anything else related.
• My sciatic nerve is acting up. Still a little sciatic pain once in a while, but not constant and not bad. My knees are feeling better, even with doing lots of squats and having started running again.
• I’m incredibly lazy. I am the absolute opposite of lazy. My to-do list has been tackled every single day. I do get tired, but it’s at night and at a time that’s reasonable to head to bed.
• I feel stupid. Mentally, I’m clear. Totally. It’s awesome.

A few other awesome things related to the Whole30:

• Cravings are gone. I can watch Top Chef without wanting to devour everything that’s prepared on the episode. I made breakfast muffins for the kiddos and wasn’t tempted. I saw Cadbury eggs at Target and didn’t bring twelve one home with me.
  The thought of them made my teeth hurt.
  The one thing I am craving? Pancakes. We’ll be having these for dinner tomorrow night, with bacon.
• The flu has hit our house and hit it hard. I’m usually the first one hit and have it the worst. I did get it, but after everyone else and so far it’s been a bit milder than what everyone else has had. I totally credit Whole30 for that.
• I’m convinced that one of the absolute best things about a Whole30 is how well I sleep. I’m out at 9 and wide awake at 5:30, and generally don’t wake up once in between. As someone who has struggled with sleep for years, that is a huge incentive to continue eating this way.
• I don’t mind eating a restricted diet. I’ve had stomach issues since birth that have often left me either in pain or afraid to eat (both of which make social situations a little awkward). Having used these past eighteen months and three Whole30′s to plot out what I can and can’t eat has been invaluable.

I didn’t take pictures this time. I went in with a clear purpose, and how I looked wasn’t really part of it. And honestly, after 3 of these, I think weight loss is probably the worst and least sustainable reason to do a Whole30. I did lose weight, I did lose inches, but the way I feel today is so much more important than that. If you do want to see pictures, these will work from my last round.

Tomorrow, I’m sharing how it’s so important I take these past 30 days and turn them into my paleo framework. And Thursday, I’m sharing what that means for me.