What makes the Whole30 different from other diets.
Each year new diets make the headlines. They promise weight loss, clear skin, anti-aging and even happiness but one thing they often have in common is a one size fits all mentality. Certain foods are to be eaten and certain foods are to be avoided. Period. Exclamation point. This is where the Whole30 is different…
The premise of the Whole30 program is that the foods we eat either make us more healthy or less healthy and there is no in between. Within that there are certain foods that we know aren’t good for anyone such as fast food and soda but the tough part is figuring out whether foods that are considered “healthy” work for your individual body.
While the Whole30 is technically a diet in the form of a reset it is not intended as a long term “diet” (a special course of food to which one restricts oneself, either to lose weight or for medical reasons). The easiest way to understand the rules of the program is to focus on what you can eat rather than what you cannot.
During the 30 day reset you will be eating high quality meat and fish, vegetables, healthy fats, fruits and small amounts of nuts and seeds. This means you are eliminating all sugars/sweeteners (natural or not), alcohol and additives in addition to all grains, legumes, dairy and gluten. It is also important to note that Melissa recommends paying close attention to even compliant foods such as eggs and nightshades because those foods can have a negative impact on a small percentage of people.
Tiger Blood Say What?!
During the 30 days of heavy restriction you will hopefully start feeling really amazing. You will have beaten your sugar dragon and tiger blood will start to kick in and you will realize that you’ve been missing out on so much energy strictly because of what you are eating. Once you get a taste of feeling this great you will want to figure out how to keep it going!
Reintroduction
This is where the Reintroduction comes in! You reintroduce key foods back into your diet and assess how they make YOU feel. Did dairy make you feel congested? Was your headache and gloomy mood because of the gluten you ate? Maybe legumes caused your IBS symptoms to flair up? You will take the time to reintroduce key foods back into your diet one at a time and then take the time to reflect on what foods you want to incorporate back into your regular diet moving forward.
Worth It Foods
Then once you have the major foods figured out you can begin to explore how you feel with a glass of wine, paleo treats, natural sugars and even take out. Then as Melissa Hartwig explains in Food Freedom Forever you can then play around with “worth it” foods for when you feel that a food that makes you less healthy is worth it. For example having a slice of your Grandma’s homemade apple pie on Thanksgiving. You know you will probably feel yucky the next day but you consciously decide that it is worth it for you at that particular moment. It’s not about eating the “perfect” diet all the time is about optimizing your health by knowing what foods are making you more healthy or less healthy. Its all about bio-individuality. As Joshua Rosenthal says “One Person’s Food is Another Person’s Poison”.
