What is Whole30?

Whole30 is an elimination diet intended to help you find food allergens or sensitives you may not have known you had before. It is NOT intended for weight loss, but it is common for participants to lose weight while on Whole30. It is a structured diet to help you eliminate common irritants and slowly reintroduce them to find what works and doesn’t work with your body. It is said that Whole30 can change your life, because it can drastically change your eating habits, if you so choose. If you reintroduce a food and it does not work with your body, you know have the knowledge to eliminate it fully from your diet moving forward.

How is Whole30 going?

Personally, I enjoyed Whole30. I did not experience strange side effects, my cravings lessened after the first few days, and I feel much more in control on my eating habits/cravings. I didn’t feel too many physical differences since starting, although I noticed some physical aesthetics changing. However, I completed Whole30 for mental/perspective reasons so it went well for me.

What is not allowed on Whole30?

In short, alcohol, grains, dairy, added sugar, and legumes. Some food that many do not realize is off the list include, peanuts, soy sauce, rice, quinoa, chickpeas, beans, etc. The challenge here is that these foods can appear in unlikely places. For example, pesto often includes cheese. Most sauces and flavorings also have added sugar. Reading nutrition labels is key.

It is also recommended to limit snacking, smoothies, and juices. These can affect your body’s regulation and digestion. Whole30 helps tune into your natural hunger cues so eating too many snacks or smoothies can impact this! It’s recommended to have three full meals a day, and compliant snacks if needed.

What is allowed on Whole30?

Lean, unprocessed meats (be careful of deli meats, especially bacon! I was shocked at how much sugar was in bacon and turkey), vegetables, and fruits, mainly. Nuts are allowed, as long as they are not peanuts. Olive oils are allowed. Potatoes are allowed (THANK GOD!)

As stated above, snacks should be limited, but if you need one, there are a few compliant bars if you don’t want to reach for an apple. I love Larabars - BE CAREFUL though. Not all Larabars are the same and some are not Whole30 compliant.

There are also Whole30 compliant sauces and products, but I decided to not use those (for the time being). One reason is the price. Mayo was $10 for Whole30 compliant whereas the normal jar is $4. I also didn’t want to rely on my favorite foods in Whole30 form. I really wanted to challenge the way I eat and why. I knew I couldn’t do that fully if I just changed out ingredients for “compliant” ingredients.

How did you find your meals?

I used the cookbook for a lot of my meals, but I also just adapted my favorite meals into the Whole30 plan. I ate fairly similar to this plan most often anyway so it wasn’t a big adjustment. For example, I would eat chicken with potatoes and veggies. Sometimes I would add sauce so that’s probably the biggest adjustment.

What do you miss most on Whole30?

Peanut butter. Hands down. I love peanut butter and that’s been the hardest thing to not have, especially when my husband has a peanut butter sandwich every day for lunch…..

I also miss smoothies. I love smoothie bowls (with peanut butter) in the mornings, but I cannot enjoy those at the moment. Overall, breakfast is what I miss the most. I typically have avocado toast, smoothies, fruit bowls, or bagels, and I really can’t have those on Whole30. With limited options, most breakfasts look the same on Whole30 so I’m looking forward to having a variety again once I finish.

In general, the hardest adjustment for me was snacking. I used to snack throughout the whole day and get chocolate when I was stressed or bored. This was a big motivation for me to do Whole30, but it was weird to adjust to not reaching for the cabinet whenever I was bored or stressed. It makes me confront the feelings instead.

What is going to be your first meal after Whole30?

One thing many don’t realize is that after the 30 days of elimination you need to go through about 14 days of reintroduction. I’m not sure why it’s not called Whole45 for that reason, but whatever. As mentioned above, the intention of the program is to test foods with your body to see how you react to the common allergens. This involves slowly adding one food group back into your diet for a day, eating Whole30 for 2-3 days to see how you react before trying another food group. Since this process takes about 14 days, I won’t be able to “eat normal” until Valentine’s Day. Therefore, my first meal will likely be a smoothie bowl or cinnamon roll (lol it’s tradition!) and pizza for dinner (again, a Valentine’s Day tradition). Of course, I’ll probably have a box of chocolate from Jake (hint, hint).

What’s after Whole30?

I answered this in my final thoughts post here.