Okay so the title is a little deceiving. I am actually giving up dairy, grains, legumes, alcohol (I don't drink alcohol, but if I did, I'd be giving it up), and sugar. For thirty days. A whole month.
Now if you know me well, you will know that I literally have about forty pounds of noodles in my apartment. No joke--my boyfriend's brother has connections to a guy that used to work at a noodle factory. You'll also know that I love bread and cheese and cream and ice cream. Sounds healthy, right?
Before college when my metabolism was better and I was in the barn every day, eating like this wasn't a huge problem. Now, as it turns out, I need to actually eat well to maintain a decent weight. The past semester, I started a new job where I get off at about 8:30 and I'm usually starving because I work in a kitchen. So I get off work and want something quick to eat to satisfy my hunger. Typically, it ends up being pasta, tacos, burgers, fast food, or something frozen. With this diet in mind, my body isn't happy.
Enter Whole 30.
Whole 30 is not "diet" per say, but rather a reset. It's goal is to cut common irritants for thirty days, and seeing how your body feels. When the reset is over, you slowly reintroduce those irritants to see how they effect your body. The goal of Whole 30 is to find out of gluten actually makes you lethargic, if alcohol makes you queasy (well that's a duh anyways), if cheese gives you indigestion, and so on.
While weight loss isn't necessarily a goal of Whole 30, it is a common benefit (I have many friends who have lost upwards of twenty pounds while eating this way!). The plan discourages stepping on a scale during the thirty days, counting calories or carbs, and eating purely kale. It does strongly discourage cheating - in fact, if you cheat you're supposed to start over from day 1.
I'll be starting Whole 30 on April 24th. Due to my tight budget and picky palate, I'll most likely be eating a lot of eggs, sweet potatoes, chicken, taco wraps, fruits, and vegetables. I'll be cutting my favorite pasta in exchange for zucchini noodles and spaghetti squash, dropping cheese and heavy cream, trading french bread for sweet potato bread, omitting my boyfriend's favorite food, pizza, from my diet, and omitting my sugar heavy Greek yogurt from my smoothies. Oh and don't forget, I'll also be leaving behind my chai teas and Red Bull chargers. If you want to keep tabs on my Whole 30 adventure, I'll be giving you weekly updates right here!
