Whole30: thirty days with no dairy, no grains, no added sugar. So basically, just a diet that consists of fruits, vegetables, protein, and good fats. It doesn’t sound too hard, right?
My mother and I started Whole30 on July 1, 2016. Honestly, I didn’t know what to expect. I thought it would be as simple as, “Okay, so I can eat a burger without cheese and without a bun. And I’ll just eat a banana for breakfast.” But, as it turns out, you can only have a banana for breakfast for so many days in a row before wanting to turn your head at the very sight of a banana.
One of the main points of Whole30 is to cut the junk out of your diet for thirty days; to press the reset button on your body and give it a break. See, I used to come home after a long day at work or after classes and reach straight for a bag of ChexMix. I really love ice cream, even though I usually get a stomach ache afterwards. I’m a sucker for popcorn at the movies and chips with salsa at any Mexican restaurant. Before Whole30, I would eat all of these things without even thinking.
It’s thirty days later, and I will honestly never look at food the same way again. Given, I’m nineteen and I’m not overweight; I didn’t do this to lose weight in the first place. I did Whole30 to kick some negative habits, like eating ChexMix every day and drinking “coffee” with more creamer than actual coffee. As a result, I learned so much about myself and what foods work well.
I learned that my body does not respond to dairy very well and that saying, “No,” to cheese is not hard. Likewise, black coffee is so much better than coffee with sugar and cream. I learned that I could have a sweet potato every day for the rest of my life and not get tired of them. I learned that Whole30 approved hot sauce goes great with basically anything. I learned that Whole30 approved beef jerky could keep me going through long afternoons working at the preschool this summer, and that it's easy to get tired of eggs.
(Here's a picture of a meal I made. Before the Whole30 people get after me, that's cauliflower rice, not actual rice.)
One of the key takeaways I have from participating in Whole30 is that you don’t have to eat junk food to be social. Think of all the social gatherings with (typically) unhealthy foods: potlucks, barbecues, birthday dinners at restaurants, summer get-togethers at the lake or at the pool. Before Whole30, I felt as though it was an obligation to eat all the “potato salad, macaroni salad, dinner roll, hotdog with a bun, homemade brownies” crap that is literally always an option at social gatherings. But it doesn’t have to be that way. No one is forcing you to eat the questionably-lukewarm potato salad at your neighborhood Fourth of July celebrations. You have the choice: do you want to eat what is easy, or do you want to eat what is right?
Please, please eat what is right. Your body will thank you. Especially in the summer, fruit and vegetables are fresh, delicious, and will taste so much better than pasta/other grains. You probably won’t even find yourself missing dairy, either.
As I was researching the Whole30 program, I kept reading, “Whole30 will change your life.” At the time, I thought, “Ha ha, yeah right.” But here I am, with one Whole30 round under my belt, and I truthfully can say it has changed my life for the better. For the first time in my life I feel as though I have control over what goes into my body, and with that, what energy I put out of it.
For more information on the Whole30 program, visit their website at www.whole30.com.
