1. Food should promote a healthy psychological response
2. Food should promote a healthy hormonal response
3. Food should support a healthy gut.
4. Food should support immune function and minimize inflammation.
The book continues to describe each standard in more detail and then describe how these standards apply to food that is good for you and food that is bad for you. The unfortunate news is I think it is dead on. Unfortunate because it pretty much catches me red-handed over and over again with my eating habits. The good news...or not really good...but maybe somewhat reassuring...but not reassuring at the same time...is that, according to the book, we don't have much of a chance with food these days - that it is pretty much engineered to wreak total havoc on our systems and just make us want more and more and more. So yeah, that isn't really reassuring at all...just makes me feel a tiny bit better about the Kit Kat and Diet DP in my hands as I'm typing this.
So there it is. I admit it. I have a problem. Not that anyone reading this who knows me didn't know that already :-) I love sweets, sugar, and anything associated with it. I gave Diet DP and all sweets up for Lent both this year and last year, and lived to tell about it, but nothing great happened during that time of giving them up. So, it is probably also safe to assume the other food I eat still isn't 100%....no shocker there since i don't love veggies. But it is possible even the whole grains, fruit, lean meat, etc. I try to fill my diet with on a mostly regular basis still aren't going to cut it. Prime example is during Lent this year I was training for Ironman Texas and eating well and lost a whopping 2 lbs. My natural response was "why bother giving the stuff up?" But in reality, I know that isn't the right attitude. I should be asking "what else should I do?"
Sooooo, starting Tuesday, August 7, I will begin the Whole30 plan set forth in the book. I may die. I seriously may die. The good news is my awesome co-worker Tammy said she would do it with me. So at least I will have one partner in crime...she already has a huge leg up on me though because vegetables don't make her gag. We welcome anyone else who would like to join us - no doubt I will need as much help from my friends and family as possible for this to all work. The premise of the Whole30 plan is to spend 30 days doing the following:
1. Eat foods that make you more healthy - meat, seafood, and eggs, lots of vegetables, some fruit, and plenty of healthy fats.
2. Do not consume any added sugar, alcohol, grains, legumes, or dairy.
3. Do not attempt to recreate junk food or desserts by using "approved" ingredients.
4. Do not step on the scale for the entirety of your program (I'm gonna cheat there...I need some sort of motivation).
After that time, you slowly add back foods, one group at a time, and see how your body responds to it. Generally, anything not included on the Whole30 plan should be consumed in moderation at any time after it is over. Moderation. That is definitely a huge issue I have right now. It is all or nothing at times. If nothing else, I would love to come out of this having lost my extreme need for sweets and having gained a little perspective around that lovely term: moderation.
The authors of the book have a pretty good website set up with lots of information - enough to do the plan without reading the book if you would be so included to do so. The book does give the science behind the good and the bad foods, in relation to the psychological, hormonal, and inflammatory response your body has to each.
I'm hoping to post frequently during the 30 days - trying to be held as accountable as possible. Putting it on the internet makes it mean it really has to happen, right?
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