Whole30 COMPLETE!

For those of you who may not know, I just completed the Whole30 challenge.  Since a lot of people have no clue what that even entails, I found this outline of it on whole9life.com.

What is the Whole30?

Certain food groups (like grains, dairy and legumes) are probably having a negative impact on your health and fitness without you even realizing it.  Are your energy levels inconsistent or non-existent?  Do you have aches and pains that can’t be explained by over-use or injury?  Are you having a hard time losing weight no matter how hard you try?  Do you have some sort of condition (like skin issues, digestive ailments, seasonal allergies or fertility issues) that medication hasn’t helped?  These symptoms may be directly related to the foods you eat – even the “healthy” stuff.  So how do you know if (and how) these foods are affecting you?

Strip them from your diet completely. Cut out all the inflammatory, insulin-spiking, calorie-dense but nutritionally sparse food groups for a full 30 days.  Let your body heal and recover from whatever effects those foods may be causing.   Push the “reset” button with your metabolism, systemic inflammation, and the downstream effects of the food choices you’ve been making.  Learn once and for all how the foods you’ve been eating are actually affecting your day to day life, and your long term health.  The most important reason to keep reading?

This will change your life.

We cannot possibly put enough emphasis on this simple fact – the next 30 days will change your life. It will change the way you think about food, it will change your tastes, it will change your habits and your cravings. It could, quite possibly, change the emotional relationship you have with food, and with your body. It has the potential to change the way you eat for the rest of your life. We know this because we did it, and thousands of people have since done it, and it changed our lives (and their lives) in a very permanent fashion.

Our Whole30 program, as outlined.

Eat real food – meat, fish, eggs, tons of vegetables, some fruit, and plenty of good fats.  Eat foods with very few ingredients, all pronounceable ingredients, or better yet, no ingredients listed at all because they’re totally natural and unprocessed.  Don’t worry… these guidelines are outlined inextensive detail in our Shopping Guide.

More importantly, here’s what NOT to eat during the duration of your Whole30 program. Omitting all of these foods and beverages will help you regain your healthy metabolism, reduce systemic inflammation, and help you discover how these foods are truly impacting your health, fitness  and quality of life. 

        Do not consume added sugar of any kind, real or artificial. No maple syrup, honey, agave         nectar, Splenda, Equal, Nutrasweet, xylitol, stevia, etc.  Read your labels (and your Success Guide FAQ), because companies sneak sugar into products in ways you might not recognize.

• Do not eat processed foods. This includes protein shakes, pre-packaged snacks or meals, protein bars, milk substitutes, etc.

•  Do not consume alcohol, in any form.  (NEW! And it should go without saying, but no tobaccoproducts of any sort, either.)

• Do not eat grains. This includes (but is not limited to) wheat, rye, barley, millet, oats, corn, rice, sprouted grains and all of those gluten-free pseudo-grains like quinoa.  Yes, we said corn… for the purposes of this program, corn is a grain!  This also includes all the ways we add wheat, corn and rice into our foods in the form of bran, germ, starch and so on.  Again, read your labels.

• Do not eat legumes. This includes beans of all kinds (black, kidney, lima, etc.), peas, lentils, and peanuts.  No peanut butter, either.  This also includes all forms of soy – soy sauce, miso, tofu, tempeh, edamame, tamari and all the ways we sneak soy into foods (like lecithin).

• Do not eat dairy. This includes all cow, goat or sheep’s milk, cream, butter, cheese (hard or soft), kefir, yogurt (even Greek), and sour cream.

• Do not eat white potatoes. It’s somewhat arbitrary, but they are carbohydrate-dense and nutrient poor, and also a nightshade (refer to your Success Guide FAQ for details).

• Most importantly… do not try to shove your old, unhealthy diet into a shiny new Whole30 mold.  This means no “Paleo-fying”  less-than-healthy recipes – no Paleo pancakes, Paleo pizza, Paleo fudge or Paleo”ice cream.  Don’t mimic poor food choices during your Whole30 program!  Those kinds of food miss the point of the program entirely.

One last and final rule.  You are not allowed to step on the scale during your Whole30 program.  This is about so much more than just weight loss, and to focus on your body composition means you’ll miss out on the most dramatic and lifelong benefits this plan has to offer.   So, no weighing yourself or taking comparative measurements during your Whole30.  (NEW!  We do encourage you to weigh yourself before and after, however, so you can see one of the more tangible results of your efforts when your program is over.)