Whole 30 — Week 1
So just completed my first week of Whole30. I feel like it is becoming relatively popular but for those that don’t know it is what I would describe as a pretty strict diet that is meant to reset your body in order to get rid of any food related cravings you may have. It also gets you in the habit of eating strictly for nutrition and because you are hungry. The highlights (taken from their site):
The Whole30 Program Rules
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 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.
Do not try to re-create baked goods, junk foods, or treats* with “approved” ingredients. Continuing to eat your old, unhealthy foods made with Whole30 ingredients is totally missing the point, and will tank your results faster than you can say “Paleo Pop-Tarts.” Remember, these are the same foods that got you into health-trouble in the first place — and a pancake is still a pancake, regardless of the ingredients.
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://whole30.com/whole30-program-rules/#sthash.UvoPzSjQ.dpuf
Goals/Motivations
Anyone starting something like this should have some goals going into it. For some people it is losing weight — I am personally less concerned about my weight and just wanted to become more engaged in learning how to lead a healthier lifestyle with a demanding schedule. I am very much looking forward to the boost in energy and hopefully improved performance in my workouts. And abs.
Week reactions
First off- this is a HUGE time commitment. I figured it would involve a lot more time because I am cooking more meals than I am used to, but i severely underestimated all the other things that come with it. Before doing this on a good week I probably cooked food 50% of the time. I like to prepare my meals in bulk to the best of my ability so I have to worry about less throughout the week, but doing so usually requires hours of time. And that doesn’t include the time grocery shopping, planning your meals, and washing dishes. With that said, slow cooker is my new best friend. I can prepare meals and throw a lot of food in there, and be ready for the week. The food preparation combined with my work out schedule (1.5 hours 5x a week) really eats into your free time. In addition, the adjustment period for Whole30 takes a little bit of time.
The first 2 days I actually had a horrible headache throughout the day. Some googling showed that this was probably due to the immediate cut off of carbs and sugar that I am used to. I actually was never too big a grains person, but I did drink soda and I think the lack of caffeine + lack of carbs + 0.00000% sugar put my body in some stress. But after that the headaches completely went away, I actually started sleeping much better. The cravings are still coming strong but day by day I can feel the pull less and less.
Working out was especially rough the first couple of days. I am still in the process of learning how to optimize the balance of my meals and I wasn’t able to make it through my workouts. I figured this was due to lack of carbs so I made a point to mix more into my diet throughout the day. After doing this I felt much better and way more energized and saw consistent energy level improvements during my workouts.
The food
Ok, so what exactly was I eating this entire week? Well for breakfast i usually had sweet potato hash and eggs. I also sometimes mixed in strawberries and blueberries. Lunch and dinner the first half of the week was almost exclusively a gigantic beef brisket I made earlier in the week with my slow cooker. To mix up my meals for lunch, I occasionally ate some compliant turkey deli slices that wrap avocado and red bell pepper which was unusually delicious. Pre/post workout I generally ate an apple + almond butter or cashews.
Eating out
I had a guest over for the last half of the week so did a combination of cooking and eating out. This actually took quite a bit of effort as I had to check the ingredients for all the foods at the potential restaurants, call in if there were gaps in information, and if I couldn’t reasonably decide whether or not the food was compliant just cancel them out. One restaurant in particular was especially tasty and amazingly compliant — Cava Grill. Highly recommend them.
Closing thoughts
Only other thing I wanted to add was that I did pick up the Whole30 book.
It goes in depth about the science of some foods and explanations of behaviors with good examples. I have found it a worthwhile read. Not really too much of a blogger so hopefully there has been some useful information somewhere in this wall of text. I’ll have another update next week.
