Whole30 - thoughts? page 3

[catholicchick]

I did it for about three weeks. Didn't find it much different than what I was eating before. I did try to change the HWC in my morning protein shake to coconut cream - but that was the only real change that I found that needed to be made. By the way, no change in how I felt physically and no weight change... so I went back to my HWC. Hope this helps.

[Graycat]

I wanted to do it, but the only thing that put me off is not being able to have cream or h&h in my morning coffee. Screw that. It's one of my simple pleasures and I'm not quitting that stuff ever. Yeah, I've tried the coconut milk and it's not the same. Coconut milk has its place in my menu, just not in my coffee.

[qqemokitty]

I had positive experience with the Whole30. It Starts With Food is a great read and the community on their forums is quite kind. I've even had one on one contact with Dallas and Melissa via facebook and they were polite and encouraging. That being said, the Whole30 IS extremely restrictive, and while I did complete it once, it was a lot of struggle to give up my 1 tsp of sugar in coffee, to not have pizza once a month, to not even be able to buy bacon 'cept from online because it was cured with sugar. It's not the way I choose to live for the day to day, but as a detox it's extremely effective.

I would hardly hold Melissa's years prior "lack of health" or drug addiction against her. Do we fault Mark Sisson for his former addiction to chronic cardio? Do we fault ourselves and thus refuse to dispense advice to others based on our former lives as CW folk?

Hardly. We all have to start somewhere, and for many of us, the fresh start must come from rock bottom.

[PaleoPanda]

Wow, didn't realise this would provoke so much debate!

I did try to do strict paleo a while back, and the one thing I got out of it was realising I had a dairy intolerance. I can cope with a bit of butter, but anything more than that and - well, yeah, I won't go into it. I also found it hard to do strict paleo when coping with "real life" - busy job, workouts, looking after my dog, and having a social life. I found I actually didn't want to obsess about food that much.

But, if I had a flare with Crohns again, I think I would probably give it a go.

I didn't know that Melissa had previously had an issue with drugs. It explains a lot - I know quite a lot of folks in the mountain biking and climbing set who have previously done battle with substances, and I'll say including myself, I used to have an alcohol problem - wouldn't call it addiction per se, but there's various levels of substance abuse between "recreational" and "addict". It's not unusual for ex-addicts/substance abusers to then get hooked on health kicks, extreme sports, or things like marathon training for the adrenalin/endorphin fix. Some might say it's still unhealthy/addictive behaviour, but hey, I think being addicted to Paleo isn't as bad as being hooked on smack, unless it turns into an eating disorder, which carries its own set of health risks - someone on this thread mentioned orthorexia, which is a growing problem among serial dieters, and I do wonder if Whole30 with its very prescriptive-ness, down to every detail, might promote that among the more susceptible.

Back in the days I was on My Fitness Pal, I had a "friend" on there (in the online sense) who had got so hooked on Whole30 she turned it into her WholeLife - she rarely ate above 1000 cals a day, and was obsessive about everything being compliant. I don't think that's what Dallas and Melissa intend for people to do, but I can see how it might lead to that kind of behaviour, because they are really quite dogmatic about what's "good" and "bad".

[Tom B-D]

Thanks for the thread and all the good feedback. It makes me realize that if I'm going to try to lead my family down this path, an 80/20 approach would be a much better transition. If I suspected food issues with the kids, I would go the Whole 30 route (probably would have already), but I bet we'll see good results with Primal. For me...still undecided. Kind of interested in the experiment, but man do I like the HWC and red wine...

[Samphis]

I started paleo with a Whole30. It really turned my wife off to it, though, and took about a year of seeing me having progress and for me to have switched to a more 80/20 and more Primal approach to get her on-board, but I will say that it was phenomenal as a learning tool. I learned so much about food during that month, and lost about 20 pounds during it as well.

[Muppet]

I did it for about two months and cut out sugar of all forms be use I am a sugar whore. It helped cure the beast. I liked the challenge and the learning

[magnolia1973]

I did Whole 30 twice.

Is it restrictive? YES, but as someone who is prone to using my Primal 20% for way too much sugar, Whole 30 was a god send. It forced me to take a good look at why I eat crap. I felt that after those 30 days, I came back understanding how to have control over my eating- how to nourish my body,and how to enjoy a treat. A lot of what I use to excuse as "enjoying food"= eating sugar out of habit or emotional eating. The cool thing is I have come out of it able to actually enjoy treats. So even though I really try and eat Whole 30, I don't beat myself over a chocolate croissant on occasion because I know I am eating it out of enjoyment and am not going to "lose control".

For me, the restriction was kind of fun, as it forced me to get creative in the kitchen. I can get "stuck", cooking wise.

I would encourage anyone who struggles with sugar issues to try it to reset your pallette and maybe better understand why you eat sugar.

Also, my energy went WAY UP this time.

[Kymma]

I did it in April 2011. It is how I found MDA and the whole,paleo thing. It is how I found out I had gluten issues.

You have to have a strong why. For me at the time, I was 1 year off cigs, fat, unhealthy, tired, and in need of a change and health challenge. My family and everyone thought I was crazy. Not that that assessment has changed, but it taught me to be strong in my decisions and my whys, regardless of other people's input and opinions.

[magnolia1973]

For me it would mean eliminating the chocolate (88% dark, but every day), wine (red, 1-2 glasses, but again, daily) and dairy (cream in the coffee and tea, occasional cheese and yogurt), but that's about it.

My question to you is if the wine and chocolate are habits you want to change?(or make less than daily occurances). Whole 30 was cool because it made me change my habits (chocolate or ice cream for dessert daily transitioned fruit or nothing during Whole 30, then after Whole 30, occasional sugar dessert/no dessert or fruit dessert).

If you really don't think the wine and chocolate are issues in your diet, then it might not be worth the effort.