Yup, you read that right, Whole 365.
For those of you who have never heard of Whole 30, it is an amazing food discovery program. Notice I say program and not diet. The premise of the program is there are many, many items we eat on a daily basis that are not really food, even though the manufacturers out there would like to argue otherwise. We eat things that are either what some like to call "Frankenfoods", things that contain some real food elements and some man made elements or they are completely man made altogether. The Whole 30 program argues that our bodies are just not meant to process those kinds of "foods" and by consuming such items, we do damage in multiple ways to our bodies, that run the gamut from mental to physical issues. Whole 30 challenges you to eliminate all such evil "foods", in addition to foods that are known to cause issues or allergies for many people, like wheat, for 30 days. This is to give your body a chance to heal and function properly. For more information, check out whole30.com.
I have done two full rounds of the Whole 30 program, plus some shorter stints, with amazing results. Needless to say, when you cut out garbage, you will lose weight. My own loss was ten pounds over 30 days. I also dropped two pants sizes after that first round. But as the creators of the program will tell you, weight loss is not the goal, it's just a nifty side effect. For me, I think the most significant benefit of the program was the improvement in my overall mental health. Prior to my first round in January 2015, I was short-tempered and cranky. ALL. THE. TIME. Everyone annoyed me constantly and I would snap at people (mostly my poor husband) with little to no provocation. I was also constantly fatigued, often falling asleep on the couch as early as 8 p.m. each night. About two weeks into my first round I found that stress hardly affected me anymore. I often joked that I had found my Zen place. My energy level increased, as well. I found myself needing less sleep and thriving on the sleep I did get. I felt ready to face any challenge and rarely felt overwhelmed by the needs and requests of others.
In addition to the significant mental improvements, I found a decrease in a variety of small physical complaints I had been facing for some time. For example, for a few months prior to my first Whole 30, I experienced a frequent mild ache in one of my big toes (not gout). It didn't impair my activity in any way - I was still able to run several miles with no issues. It was just there and noticeable. About three weeks into that first round, I realized it was gone. No fanfare, just gone. There was the patch of itchy skin on my forearm. Gone after Whole 30. Lower back pain - significantly reduced after Whole 30.
If you can't tell by now, I am a big believer in the Whole 30 program. I have never felt as good as I did when eating real food and eliminating garbage from my diet. BUT (there's always a BUT, right?). I faced some struggles post-Whole 30. 1) The reintroduction phase didn't work well for me. The program encourages you to reintroduce individual food groups you previously eliminated from your diet like wheat and dairy. While I followed the program as suggested, I feel like there should be more time in between each food reintroduction. The program suggests three days between each food. I think, for me, a week or two might be more realistic. 2) I didn't tame what the program calls the "Sugar Dragon". I didn't binge on fruits initially, but I did treat my banana and almond butter as a dessert, which is a big no no on the program. I then started OD-ing on dried fruit, another big no no. 3) I have some heavy duty food related issues going on. My feeling is that I have some pretty addictive behavior when it comes to food. After my second round of Whole 30, I knew I wanted to take an extended break from Whole 30, eat some foods way off-program, and enjoy some events that are hard to stay on-program with. I tried to moderate my food choices and mostly stick to a Whole 30 type diet, but I quickly found myself demonstrating what I believe is addictive behavior - mostly hiding the crap I was eating from people around me. This last one is a big one. It's made me begin to think I might need some therapy to help with my mental health in this area. I haven't decided on that yet, but I do feel that an extended round of Whole 30 and food deprogramming might be a big help, too.
That's where the Whole 365 comes in. I have a lot of hopes for a whole year of Whole 30 eating. The first being as a mentioned above, a reprogramming of my food habits and attitude towards food. Of course, I'm hoping for the weight loss, too. At 5'8", I'm far too close to 200 pounds to be healthy or comfortable in my skin. I look forward to the extended time period of mental clarity and stability. I hope the combined weight loss and other health improvements will help my husband and I finally have the second child we have been trying for for years. Recently, through blood tests, I discovered that I am not absorbing vitamin B12 correctly. Think that might be related to digestive health? I do. I also have to guess that there may be other strange little health issues I have lived with for a long time that will clear up as my body has an extended time to heal.
So here is my plan....on August 1st, I will embark on ONE YEAR of eating according to the Whole 30 program. That means no wheat, no dairy, no legumes, no grains, no sugar for one year. Oh, and just for good measure, I'm eliminating caffeine, too (read: Monday will suck big time). Come with me. Help me stay accountable. I will officially start with my related posts on August 1st and continue with updates every Monday for the following year. I will put it all out there for you, weight, measurements, pics and all. Wish me luck!
For those of you who have never heard of Whole 30, it is an amazing food discovery program. Notice I say program and not diet. The premise of the program is there are many, many items we eat on a daily basis that are not really food, even though the manufacturers out there would like to argue otherwise. We eat things that are either what some like to call "Frankenfoods", things that contain some real food elements and some man made elements or they are completely man made altogether. The Whole 30 program argues that our bodies are just not meant to process those kinds of "foods" and by consuming such items, we do damage in multiple ways to our bodies, that run the gamut from mental to physical issues. Whole 30 challenges you to eliminate all such evil "foods", in addition to foods that are known to cause issues or allergies for many people, like wheat, for 30 days. This is to give your body a chance to heal and function properly. For more information, check out whole30.com.
I have done two full rounds of the Whole 30 program, plus some shorter stints, with amazing results. Needless to say, when you cut out garbage, you will lose weight. My own loss was ten pounds over 30 days. I also dropped two pants sizes after that first round. But as the creators of the program will tell you, weight loss is not the goal, it's just a nifty side effect. For me, I think the most significant benefit of the program was the improvement in my overall mental health. Prior to my first round in January 2015, I was short-tempered and cranky. ALL. THE. TIME. Everyone annoyed me constantly and I would snap at people (mostly my poor husband) with little to no provocation. I was also constantly fatigued, often falling asleep on the couch as early as 8 p.m. each night. About two weeks into my first round I found that stress hardly affected me anymore. I often joked that I had found my Zen place. My energy level increased, as well. I found myself needing less sleep and thriving on the sleep I did get. I felt ready to face any challenge and rarely felt overwhelmed by the needs and requests of others.
In addition to the significant mental improvements, I found a decrease in a variety of small physical complaints I had been facing for some time. For example, for a few months prior to my first Whole 30, I experienced a frequent mild ache in one of my big toes (not gout). It didn't impair my activity in any way - I was still able to run several miles with no issues. It was just there and noticeable. About three weeks into that first round, I realized it was gone. No fanfare, just gone. There was the patch of itchy skin on my forearm. Gone after Whole 30. Lower back pain - significantly reduced after Whole 30.
If you can't tell by now, I am a big believer in the Whole 30 program. I have never felt as good as I did when eating real food and eliminating garbage from my diet. BUT (there's always a BUT, right?). I faced some struggles post-Whole 30. 1) The reintroduction phase didn't work well for me. The program encourages you to reintroduce individual food groups you previously eliminated from your diet like wheat and dairy. While I followed the program as suggested, I feel like there should be more time in between each food reintroduction. The program suggests three days between each food. I think, for me, a week or two might be more realistic. 2) I didn't tame what the program calls the "Sugar Dragon". I didn't binge on fruits initially, but I did treat my banana and almond butter as a dessert, which is a big no no on the program. I then started OD-ing on dried fruit, another big no no. 3) I have some heavy duty food related issues going on. My feeling is that I have some pretty addictive behavior when it comes to food. After my second round of Whole 30, I knew I wanted to take an extended break from Whole 30, eat some foods way off-program, and enjoy some events that are hard to stay on-program with. I tried to moderate my food choices and mostly stick to a Whole 30 type diet, but I quickly found myself demonstrating what I believe is addictive behavior - mostly hiding the crap I was eating from people around me. This last one is a big one. It's made me begin to think I might need some therapy to help with my mental health in this area. I haven't decided on that yet, but I do feel that an extended round of Whole 30 and food deprogramming might be a big help, too.
That's where the Whole 365 comes in. I have a lot of hopes for a whole year of Whole 30 eating. The first being as a mentioned above, a reprogramming of my food habits and attitude towards food. Of course, I'm hoping for the weight loss, too. At 5'8", I'm far too close to 200 pounds to be healthy or comfortable in my skin. I look forward to the extended time period of mental clarity and stability. I hope the combined weight loss and other health improvements will help my husband and I finally have the second child we have been trying for for years. Recently, through blood tests, I discovered that I am not absorbing vitamin B12 correctly. Think that might be related to digestive health? I do. I also have to guess that there may be other strange little health issues I have lived with for a long time that will clear up as my body has an extended time to heal.
So here is my plan....on August 1st, I will embark on ONE YEAR of eating according to the Whole 30 program. That means no wheat, no dairy, no legumes, no grains, no sugar for one year. Oh, and just for good measure, I'm eliminating caffeine, too (read: Monday will suck big time). Come with me. Help me stay accountable. I will officially start with my related posts on August 1st and continue with updates every Monday for the following year. I will put it all out there for you, weight, measurements, pics and all. Wish me luck!
