I'm just finishing up day 30 of my Whole30 challenge (after wolfing down Paleo corn dogs for my celebratory dinner). The idea came about after I read It Starts With Food by Melissa Hartwig. It's a great book, and I highly recommend it. It changed the way I think about food, but it did not even come close to preparing me for the drastic changes that would come about through my Whole30 experience.
The basic rules of the challenge are these: no processed foods, sugars, or alcohols. It's basically paleo on steroids because you also aren't allowed natural sweeteners like honey or maple syrup. No baking (even paleo friendly) and no soy, canola, or beans of any kind. If you're like me, you're wondering what's left. Well, I'll tell you. Meat, vegetables, fruit, nuts, and what I now refer to as good fats.That's it. Simple enough to understand. Not so simple to do.
I talked a few friends into taking on the challenge with me, and the rest is history. I feel better. I sleep better. I have more energy (even early in the morning). That whole food as fuel mumbo jumbo? I get it now. I see food differently, and I use it differently.
The basic rules of the challenge are these: no processed foods, sugars, or alcohols. It's basically paleo on steroids because you also aren't allowed natural sweeteners like honey or maple syrup. No baking (even paleo friendly) and no soy, canola, or beans of any kind. If you're like me, you're wondering what's left. Well, I'll tell you. Meat, vegetables, fruit, nuts, and what I now refer to as good fats.That's it. Simple enough to understand. Not so simple to do.
I talked a few friends into taking on the challenge with me, and the rest is history. I feel better. I sleep better. I have more energy (even early in the morning). That whole food as fuel mumbo jumbo? I get it now. I see food differently, and I use it differently.
This list is just a small glimpse of what I learned in 30 days:
1. You don't have to be a good cook to be a good cook. Careful planning and quality ingredients go a long way in making you look like a wiz in the kitchen.
2. My food NEVER looks like the picture that accompanies the recipe. Are those really pictures of the food cooked using that actual recipe? I'm not convinced.
3. Sugar is definitely the magic ingredient in BBQ sauce and ketchup. Some things just can't be peleoized, and I have come to terms with eating them anyway (starting tomorrow).
4. The food industry is systematically designed to guarantee our sugar addiction. Bastards!
5. I have more will power that I ever would have imagined. Truth be told, I would have put my money on me caving on day 4.
6. Sugar cravings are just that - cravings, and they will pass. They will suck, but they will pass.
7. Eating out on Whole30 is just sad (and next to impossible). It's just easier to eat at home and be sure of what you are putting in your mouth.
8. The traditional idea of "breakfast foods" is bogus. Dinner leftovers for breakfast are the way to go, and it's a great way to get your morning protein in.
9. Gina S. is a better cook than I am, but I'm a much better cook than I would have ever guessed.
10. I don't miss alcohol. I'm sure I'll have a drink from time to time, but I thought I would want a beer a minute past midnight of Day 30. Nah.
11. I also thought I would be fiending for cheese, but...nope. I'm going to remain dairy free.
12. I may actually be a morning person. Don't tell Chipper Gin...I said MAYBE.
13. Sleeping through the night is a beautiful, beautiful thing. Who would have thought changing your eating habits could affect your sleeping habits so drastically.
14. I have become one of those people who get excited talking about food and ingredients and nutrition. Ugh!
15. Bacon is a magic elixir. Without it, life is sad and meaningless. And as a wise friend recently told me, the only limiting factor in eating it is how much someone will cook for you. He's right.
16. Legumes are characterized by a nitrogen-fixing bacteria in their root (or something maybe not remotely close to that). Yah, I finally had to ask a science teacher because every time I said I wasn't allowed to eat legumes, people asked me what legumes are. And...I couldn't answer...had no idea.
17. A peanut is a legume. Nope...not a nut. Who the hell named it peanut then? C'mon, George Washington Carver! All that research and you couldn't change the name while you were at it?
18. Coconut is a yummy sweetener. I love the meat, the water, the milk, the cream. It's really quite multi-functional.
19. Life is much more enjoyable when you focus on what you CAN eat instead of what you can't.
20. I've eaten more mayonaise (homemade paleo, but still), oil, avocado, and fried foods in the last 30 days than I have in the past year (or more). It seems to go against everything I learned in all of those Weight Watchers meetings. No wonder we are an overweight nation. We're confused.
21. Coconut oil has a gazillion uses (maybe more).
22. I can survive without weighing myself daily. It only bothered me for like the first week. Now, I will be weighed and have my measurements taken on Thursday, and while I know these 30 days were about detoxing my body and not about losing weight, I BETTER have lost some weight (or more importantly, inches).
23. Everything (including the Whole30) is easier when you do it with friends.
24. I cooked more in the last 30 days than I've done all year (28 of 30 nights, dinner from scratch). I'm telling you, success is in the planning. Sunday prep time was essential for me EVERY week, and I'm going to continue that habit.
25. There is a lot of empty space in my pantry. There just aren't that many pantry-stable foods that I need any more. But my refrigerator, on the other hand, is stocked and colorful.
Which reminds me...
26. Eating more colorful foods is important. It's not just a health thing. It's a visual one.
27. What I perceived as hunger was never about food or hunger. It was about boredom.
28. Sugar is everywhere. It's not the cake and cookies and obvious foods that are the problem. Packaged foods in general are sneaky. More sneaky than I ever realized. For instance, one can of tomato sauce will have sugar and the one next to it won't (for the same price). French's mustard doesn't have sugar, but almost all other brands do. WHYYYYYYYYY???
29. There are way too many names for sugar: dextrose, fructose, barley malt, cane juice, disaccharide, fructomyl, isomalt, maltodextrin, etc., etc., etc., blah, blah, blah, yadda, yadda, yadda...It's all sugar! Call it sugar, people!
30. One day at a time...that's how you get it done!
