Our Whole 30

What is a Whole 30? 
- Whole 30 is a "a learning tool to gain awareness of how the foods you used to eat were actually affecting how you look, feel, live and perform." (http://www.whole9life.com/start/)
- Basically, it helps you feel better because your body is being fueled by healthier foods and can teach you when you might be eating things that aren't helping you perform your best.

What can you eat on Whole 30?
- Meat, seafood and eggs, vegetables and some fruit, and healthy fats like coconut, avocado and olive oil
- My diet consists of a lot of sweet potatoes, eggs, chicken, lean meats, salads, some fruit, nuts (mostly almonds), coconut. 

What are you not supposed to eat on Whole 30?
- Sugar (or honey, or molasses, or cane juice, or any artificial sweeteners)
- Alcohol
- Grains of any kind (including quinoa, corn, oats, etc)
- Soy (including soy sauce)
- Legumes (beans, peanuts- even peanut butter)
- Dairy (including yogurt, kefir, parmesan cheese on your broccoli, even regular butter! Butter must be clarified- a super easy process to remove the dairy proteins)
- White potatoes (not sure if that is included in any of the above categories!)
- Some weird stuff like carageenan, MSG, sulfites and nitrates (found in processed meats mostly)

Are there any other rules?
- No desserts or snacking (unless necessary to make it to next meal!). Basically, no mindless eating.
- No "Paleo-ifying" recipes and unacceptable food to make them fit the plan (like making pancakes from bananas, eggs and coconut flour, or ice cream from frozen smashed bananas).
- No stepping on the scale (until the end!). This is more than just a weight loss plan, the idea is to gain knowledge about nutrition and change the way you eat for the rest of your life. 

Will you continue to eat like this forever?
- Probably not. I'm sure there will be things I permanently leave out, and things I bring back minimally. But, I think I miss my morning lattes too much to skip dairy for the rest of my life. It's not intended to be a Whole 365. 


The authors of the book this plan is based on and the website talk a lot about why they suggest cutting out these foods from your diet. I don't necessarily agree with some of their reasoning, and I don't think it's necessary to eat everything organic, pastured, grass-fed, uncured, lovingly-treated, humane, wild-caught, etc all the time. Yes, that might be better for me, but honestly, we can't afford $7.99/pound chicken the way my family (or husband) eats. I do my best to be compliant, but a lot of our meat is regular grocery store meat. My exception is processed meats- I physically can't/shouldn't have nitrates (migraines), so we eat uncured and mostly organic/grass-fed processed meats (read this and this about bacon and other pork products and why they should be organic/grass-fed). Also, cutting added sugar out of everything is nearly impossible (within a budget). Sugar is added to EVERYTHING- from ketchup and barbeque sauce and salsa, to soups and cooking stock, to the broth your chicken is treated with, to bacon and sausage. It's really ridiculous. So, for the sake of using what's currently in our kitchen and staying in our budget, we're doing the best we can and specifically looking for no-sugar-added products, but not stressing over it.


Here's some more info:
Whole 30 Program
It Starts With Food (at the bottom is a list of downloads that can be very helpful- especially the shopping list and meal planning template)


Something that was very helpful to me before starting was to see a woman's blog where she posted a picture of every meal she ate. I decided to post all my meals to (hopefully) help another person in their Whole 30 journey. I'll post them by week, and link recipes (if I used any, which, if you know me is rare). Hopefully, I can encourage and inspire others to make better eating choices.