My Whole 30 was completed this past Tuesday, and here is my report:
1. In 30 days, I managed to lose 10.6 lbs. I haven't weighed this little in almost 8 years, and I've discovered belt notches that I never knew existed. It's amazing what a gluten-free, dairy-free, legume-free, sugar-free and preservative-free diet can do.
2. While my weight may have gone down, my food spending spiraled up - thanks mostly to Whole Foods shopping, and purchasing top-quality organic, grassfed, hormone-free meats. I can remember one meat run in particular where I walked a mile out of my way on a 12 degree Friday evening after work because I had heard a rumor that all-natural, sugar free bacon was being sold at the Savenor's near the Charles MGH MBTA station. The butcher there had no idea what I was talking about, and then I felt pressured to by $27 worth of fancy prosciutto.
Because I anally track my spending down to the cent, I can confirm that my grocery shopping (including cat and household supplies) spending plus my dining out (lunches, dinners, coffee, drinks, etc) spending totaled $695.29 over the Whole 30 span. In 2013, when I was a bit loosey goosey with my spending, my monthly average over the year for grocery shopping plus dining out was $582.39. In January 2014, when I made a conscious effort to manage my budget and coupon the shit out of everything, my grocery shopping plus dining out was $458.56. So you can see, any way you slice it, Whole 30 was not cheap. That being said, knowing what I know now, I could have been much more efficient with this. I'll explain in post #10.
3. It's hard to say whether or not I'm more healthy now, because I didn't have any preexisting chronic conditions to use as a benchmark before. I feel like I have more energy, but that's hard to quantify. I am certainly happier, but that's most likely because my pants fit better. I probably should have gone to the doctor to get before and after bloodwork done to make this more scientificky, but whatever.
4. My social life really suffered. ALL socializing involves food and drink. I made a point of being very strict with this diet, and as a result made sure to not put myself in situations where I might drink alcohol or be tempted to eat something that wasn't approved. As a result, I lived like the Unibomber for 30 days and had very little fun whatsoever. This diet would be impossible during the summer months. And seriously, I'm already a pretty antisocial person.
5. The food I ate was actually quite good. It was restrictive, but I really enjoyed what I was eating. I got really tired of eating sweet potatoes, chicken and eggs toward the end, but I think it was the restriction that made me resent the food, rather than the food itself. If I was allowed to eat anything I wanted and instead chose sweet potatoes and eggs, I would probably be fine with that.
I really learned to scrutinize labels and understand what ingredients are added to food. I also have a much greater appreciation for the companies that make an effort to provide consumers with all-natural and preservative-free foods. There are fewer of them than you think. While eating healthy can be tricky in many cases, I also learned that there are some go-to products that make it much easier. For example, if hot sauce is your thing, you can spend your money on Huy Fong Sriracha sauce, which has about 10 ingredients that you've never heard of...OR, for the same price, you can grab a bottle of Frank's Red Hot, which has 4 or 5 all natural ingredients and no added sugar. I've already raved about how great Larabars are over every other 'granola' bar out there. Go get some!
I also learned that I don't really miss dairy or grains. Well, I miss bagels a little. And ice cream. And cheese. I could easily remove these elements from my every day diet and not cry over it. And after 30 days without sugar or cream in my coffee, I really prefer my coffee black now. Good coffee is even better black, although shitty coffee is very apparent without anything to mask it.
Conclusion: I really have no idea if the cleansing part of Whole 30 works - the conventional wisdom of only putting natural, unprocessed ingredients in my body really appeals to me, and I can get on board for the alleged health benefits behind no dairy, gluten or legumes. I am weary of experts purporting that their own way is better than anyone else's - be it in the realm of nutrition or anything else. For all I know, this could all be snake oil, as there are dozens of diets that all have experts advocating different things with the same level of aggressive certainty. Refined sugar and artificial additives have never been good for anybody, and so these were obvious things to remove from my diet. For 30 days, this was certainly worth trying for me, and I have 10.6 reasons why. I REALLY liked the structure, which is something my eating habits lacked. When day 31 came around, I was actually a bit reluctant to eat anything that wasn't Whole 30-approved. And I had no craving to eat sugar.
My plan is to keep this up, but not in the same strict manner. I like beer, scotch and the occasional Kit Kat too much. I want to stick as closely as I can to this diet by only buying Whole 30 ingredients and by making Paleo lunches and dinners, but I also want to make allowances for nights out with coworkers and friends. I think the key for me is to find the healthy and happy balance between the nutritional benefits from this diet and maintaining a normal social life.
Because I anally track my spending down to the cent, I can confirm that my grocery shopping (including cat and household supplies) spending plus my dining out (lunches, dinners, coffee, drinks, etc) spending totaled $695.29 over the Whole 30 span. In 2013, when I was a bit loosey goosey with my spending, my monthly average over the year for grocery shopping plus dining out was $582.39. In January 2014, when I made a conscious effort to manage my budget and coupon the shit out of everything, my grocery shopping plus dining out was $458.56. So you can see, any way you slice it, Whole 30 was not cheap. That being said, knowing what I know now, I could have been much more efficient with this. I'll explain in post #10.
3. It's hard to say whether or not I'm more healthy now, because I didn't have any preexisting chronic conditions to use as a benchmark before. I feel like I have more energy, but that's hard to quantify. I am certainly happier, but that's most likely because my pants fit better. I probably should have gone to the doctor to get before and after bloodwork done to make this more scientificky, but whatever.
4. My social life really suffered. ALL socializing involves food and drink. I made a point of being very strict with this diet, and as a result made sure to not put myself in situations where I might drink alcohol or be tempted to eat something that wasn't approved. As a result, I lived like the Unibomber for 30 days and had very little fun whatsoever. This diet would be impossible during the summer months. And seriously, I'm already a pretty antisocial person.
5. The food I ate was actually quite good. It was restrictive, but I really enjoyed what I was eating. I got really tired of eating sweet potatoes, chicken and eggs toward the end, but I think it was the restriction that made me resent the food, rather than the food itself. If I was allowed to eat anything I wanted and instead chose sweet potatoes and eggs, I would probably be fine with that.
I really learned to scrutinize labels and understand what ingredients are added to food. I also have a much greater appreciation for the companies that make an effort to provide consumers with all-natural and preservative-free foods. There are fewer of them than you think. While eating healthy can be tricky in many cases, I also learned that there are some go-to products that make it much easier. For example, if hot sauce is your thing, you can spend your money on Huy Fong Sriracha sauce, which has about 10 ingredients that you've never heard of...OR, for the same price, you can grab a bottle of Frank's Red Hot, which has 4 or 5 all natural ingredients and no added sugar. I've already raved about how great Larabars are over every other 'granola' bar out there. Go get some!
I also learned that I don't really miss dairy or grains. Well, I miss bagels a little. And ice cream. And cheese. I could easily remove these elements from my every day diet and not cry over it. And after 30 days without sugar or cream in my coffee, I really prefer my coffee black now. Good coffee is even better black, although shitty coffee is very apparent without anything to mask it.
Conclusion: I really have no idea if the cleansing part of Whole 30 works - the conventional wisdom of only putting natural, unprocessed ingredients in my body really appeals to me, and I can get on board for the alleged health benefits behind no dairy, gluten or legumes. I am weary of experts purporting that their own way is better than anyone else's - be it in the realm of nutrition or anything else. For all I know, this could all be snake oil, as there are dozens of diets that all have experts advocating different things with the same level of aggressive certainty. Refined sugar and artificial additives have never been good for anybody, and so these were obvious things to remove from my diet. For 30 days, this was certainly worth trying for me, and I have 10.6 reasons why. I REALLY liked the structure, which is something my eating habits lacked. When day 31 came around, I was actually a bit reluctant to eat anything that wasn't Whole 30-approved. And I had no craving to eat sugar.
My plan is to keep this up, but not in the same strict manner. I like beer, scotch and the occasional Kit Kat too much. I want to stick as closely as I can to this diet by only buying Whole 30 ingredients and by making Paleo lunches and dinners, but I also want to make allowances for nights out with coworkers and friends. I think the key for me is to find the healthy and happy balance between the nutritional benefits from this diet and maintaining a normal social life.
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