Great question!
Whole 30 is an elimination diet that removes foods that potentially cause you inflammation (read that as pain, fatigue, anxiety, and brain fog, for one whole month. After the month, you reintroduce each food group separately and observe how your body responds to each food.
When food is affecting us negatively, as in, maybe after every time you eat cheese your knees hurt or every time you eat bread you feel sleepy and groggy, we need to…
Remove the stressors (the foods that make you feel that way) and strengthen the defenses (your immune system).
Whole 30 helps us do just that!
When I did the program my first time around I was then struggling with pain in my knees, foot pain so bad that sometimes I could hardly walk around the house, random times of falling asleep in the middle of the day and waking up with swollen joints, mood swings and lack of motivation to keep moving and working.
All this and I was only nineteen years old! I felt like I was eighty.
When I did the reintroduction phase of Whole30 I found that adding in dairy brought back my knee pain. This opened up a whole new world of information to me and over a few years I studied a lot and worked on healing my gut (I used a lot of different healing modalities and test but that’s a story for another time) and fast forward to today I can eat raw dairy in most forms without a negative effect!
I say all this to let you know that removing certain foods for a while will tell you so much about your body and how it works. It’s like doing an individualized food test except that it’s free!
Below is an outline of the rules of the diet…
For a more in-depth list of rules for the diet visit the Whole30 website here.
YES…
Healthy fats: avocado oil, olive oil, pastured lard, grass-fed ghee, coconut oil, olives, and avocados. When building your meal your solid fats should be the size of an open handful (1/2-1 avocado, 1 heaping handful of olives) and your cooking fats should be about the size of your full thumb finger. This is just a general guideline to give you an idea and will most likely need to be adjusted to your individual need especially if you aren’t staying full in between meals.
Protein: Grass-fed beef, pastured pork, pasture-raised organic chickens, chicken/duck eggs, wild game and fish that is available to you. You don’t have to eat all organic, grass-fed, pasture-raised animals to stay on track with the diet but I would of course always encourage you to choose grass-fed over conventionally raised. When building your plate the protein should be about the size of a deck of cards or the size of your palm. Again this is just a general guideline and will need to be adjusted for those who are exercising or do physical jobs. You may find you require 2-palm sized portions of protein.
Lots of veggies: Veggies will fill in your plate around your meat and choice of fat.
Fruit: Fruit is great and is allowed but it is important to keep it in moderation as all fruit still can potentially spike your blood sugar. Two servings a day should be your maximum.
For a more thorough explanation of how much to eat visit this page. To be clear we are not counting calories or restricting food. I like to give the recommendations for how much to eat because when switching to a healthier diet I find some people do not know how to prioritize eating protein and fat and therefore don’t eat as much as their body needs.
NO…
Dairy: All forms of dairy even raw dairy except for ghee which is butter that has had all the milk solids taken out. Ghee is easy to make, and I like the flavor of my homemade ghee better than the store-bought kind.
Gluten: Bread, pasta, anything made with flour. Watch out for store-bought food items that have gluten added.
Legumes: This includes peanuts, and all your standard beans plus dried peas. Fresh green beans and fresh or frozen peas are allowed as they are mostly green pods.
Sugar: This includes organic raw sugar, honey, maple syrup, stevia, coconut sugar, monk fruit, and all other sugar substitutes.
Grains: This includes all grains such as rice, wheat, corn, barley, buckwheat, quinoa, etc… Watch out for modified food starch being added to foods because it is corn.
Other things to note
1. Whole30 is like a detox for your brain. Our goal here is to reset your cravings by completely removing sweet things that you feel like you rely on. Even though stevia MIGHT not spike your blood sugar and honey and maple syrup are considered more healthy than sugar we are still removing them so that we can focus just on whole foods.
2. There is to be no paleo-ifying your old diet to fit with the whole30 outline. What this means is don’t take allowed/healthy foods and try to make things that are usually bought as unhealthy food. No almond flour-based pizzas, muffins, coconut milk ice cream, sugar-free chocolate, avocado pudding or desserts, etc…
3. No junk foods or treats made with Whole30 approved ingredients.
“Recreating or buying sweets, treats, and foods-with-no-brakes (even if the ingredients are technically compliant) is missing the point of the Whole30, and won’t lead to habit change. These are the same foods that got you into health-and-craving trouble in the first place—and a pancake is still a pancake, even if it’s made with coconut flour.” -Quoted from Whole30 site, here.
* there are some exceptions and additions to this rule. Protein bars made with whole30 approved ingredients like some Larabars (check the label because not all of them apply), RXbars, and epic bars can be used when you are in a pinch or away from home and need to eat but have no other options. These will keep you on track but you need to be aware of anything that makes you feel out of control. Larabars and almond butter are made with on plan ingredients but if you’re the kind of person who eats a whole box of Larabars or a half container of almond butter in one sitting than you should restrict these foods as they don’t lead to go habits.
We are not trying to mimic your old diet we are trying to learn a new style of eating! Remember…brain detox.
To read more about the Whole30 program I recommend this book, or the Whole 30 website.
If you are interested in trying Whole 30 and doing it with a community of other people, consider joining our Whole 30 group! More details here.
