What IS the WHOLE30??

I realize that I didn't go in to any detail about what exactly the whole30 is. I thought I'd take a minute to give you a quick rundown of the program in case you're interested and haven't looked into it at all. Of course I do recommend just heading over to the whole30 website and read about it all over there.

I have to laugh that I said "quick rundown"....nothing I do is quick! :)

So whole30 is a program designed to "reset" your system and help you determine what food groups have an effect on your body. I can't stress enough how awesome the book, "It Starts With Food" is. This book goes into so much detail and covers all the science behind what happens in your brain and body when you ingest certain things. It explains it in a way that even I could understand and although I may not be able to recite it to you, it made sense to me while I read it. So the program says to completely eliminate certain food groups that can potentially be having a negative impact on your life. Here are the rules of the program according to the website and the book:

Yes: Eat real food.Eat meat, seafood, eggs, tons of vegetables, some fruit, and plenty of good fats from fruits, oils, nuts and seeds. 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 in extensive detail in our free shopping list.
No: Avoid for 30 days.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, coconut sugar, Splenda, Equal, Nutrasweet, xylitol, stevia, etc. Read your labels, because companies sneak sugar into products in ways you might not recognize.

• Do not consume alcohol in any form, not even for cooking. (And it should go without saying, but no tobacco products of any sort, either.)

• Do not eat grains. This includes (but is not limited to) wheat, rye, barley, oats, corn, rice, millet, bulgur, sorghum, amaranth, buckwheat, sprouted grains and all of those gluten-free pseudo-grains like quinoa. 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, red, pinto, navy, white, kidney, lima, fava, etc.), peas, chickpeas, lentils, and peanuts. No peanut butter, either. This also includes all forms of soy – soy sauce, miso, tofu, tempeh, edamame, and all the ways we sneak soy into foods (like lecithin).

• Do not eat dairy. This includes cow, goat or sheep’s milk products such as cream, cheese (hard or soft), kefir, yogurt (even Greek), and sour cream… with the exception of clarified butter or ghee. (See below for details.)

• Do not eat white potatoes. This is somewhat arbitrary, but if we are trying to change your habits (chips and fries) and improve the hormonal impact of your food choices, it’s best to leave white, red, purple, Yukon gold, and fingerling potatoes off your plate.

• Do not consume carrageenan, MSG or sulfites. If these ingredients appear in any form on the label of your processed food or beverage, it’s out for the Whole30.

• No Paleo-ifying baked goods, desserts, or junk foods. Trying to shove your old, unhealthy diet into a shiny new Whole30 mold will ruin your program faster than you can say “Paleo Pop-Tarts.” This means no desserts or junk food made with “approved” ingredients—no banana-egg pancakes, almond-flour muffins, flourless brownies, or coconut milk ice cream. Don’t try to replicate junk food during your 30 days! That misses the point of the Whole30 entirely.

One last and final rule: You are not allowed to step on the scale or take any body measurements for the duration of the 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, analyzing body fat or taking comparative measurements during your Whole30. (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.)
- See more at: http://www.whole30.com/whole30-program-rules/#sthash.B71U9pTH.dpuf

So that's it in a nutshell.

Challenging? Yes.
Impossible? Not at all.

The book goes in to a lot of detail about how eating certain processed, less than healthy foods has interrupted the communication between your brain and your body. Interestingly, the chiropractor that I went to see was saying the same type of thing. He was saying that there is no reason to count calories when you're eating real food because your body knows how much it needs. And, when you eat whole, real, food you get the nutrients you need so your body tells your brain when it has had enough. When you're eating crap (like really bad stuff - fast food, processed food, etc), you may be eating lots and lots of calories, but since your body isn't getting the nutrients it needs it keeps sending signals to the brain that it needs more food. And, because you just get the message of more food, you eat more crappy food. Hence the idea of "empty calories".

A couple of the things I really like about the program are 1) they even say in the book that they don't expect people to be whole365. Meaning, they don't think anyone is going to eliminate all of these things for a lifestyle change. They do say that these 30 days will "change your life" and change the way you see food, etc. I'm hoping that it will help with my unhealthy relationship with food. I'm thinking it may not change for me in 30 days, but I'm also willing and prepared to do more than one whole30 to eventually get to where I want to be. My hope is then I will follow a less strict, whole foods diet. Only time will tell.... 2) The program is actually NOT about losing weight. They (and when I say "they" I mean Dallas and Melissa Hartwig who wrote the book and came up with the program) say they don't really care if we lose weight. As you can see above, one of the rules is to not get on a scale for the full 30 days. But they do recommend before and after pictures so you can see the difference. The program is supposed to focus on resetting your body and therefore if you need to lose weight you will lose, if you need to gain you will gain and if you don't need either you'll maintain. We're testing this in our household. My husband and I both need to lose weight (me, more than him) and our children absolutely do not need to lose weight. We all got on the scale on day 0 (actually I think Robbie may not have) and we will weigh in again on day 31.

So there you have it. That's what we're doing. If nothing else, it should be an interesting 30 days!