You might have heard of the Whole30. You might be wondering what it is?
Is it the latest fad diet? Is it one of those "paleo" things? Do I need to start going and killing my own food? The answers are no, kind of by default, no again (unless you want to).
The Whole30 is an elimination diet created by the founders of the Whole9. Check out their website to find out more about them. As for the Whole30, this is part of a nutritional program that helps people become healthier by figuring out what foods trigger bad responses in their bodies (like inflammation).
The reason I believe in the Whole30 is because it helped me to figure out that I have a gluten and dairy intolerance. No, I do not have Celiac disease nor am I 100% lactose intolerant. What it means is that if I eat either of them regularly, especially together, I have major inflammation and GI issues. My joints hurt, especially my knees and feet. I can barely walk. I look like I am 8 months pregnant (which is hard to explain when people know we are only planning on having one child). I have headaches and become short tempered.
For a decade I was a vegetarian. I was a good vegetarian too, eating plenty of veggies. The problem was I was not getting enough good protein. I ate eggs, cheese, nuts and occasionally tofu. Even fish once and awhile (making me a pescetarian I guess). However, my body was obviously not getting what it needed from these sources. Even though I thought I was eating healthy, I had the list of health issues mentioned above. I had to take expensive multi-vitamins and supplements. I regularly had to take pills for heartburn, headaches, IBS, painful joints and bloating. Medicine for constipation. A friend of mine subtly kept mentioning that maybe I needed to think about animal protein. Eventually I did start thinking about it. For weeks I kept thinking about it. Then I made up my mind. After dealing with these issue for years, I finally decided enough was enough. I was ready to try anything!
Then one day on FB she posted that she was going to do a Whole30 and I was intrigued. I knew her family followed a paleo diet pretty closely because her husband had a list of things that were cured, or at least manageable, when they followed that diet. I asked questions and then decided to start adding some meat protein. I had not eaten red meat (beef) in about 20 years, so decided to stick with chicken, turkey and pork. I also read the book 'It Starts With Food'. This book changed my life!
Once I felt my body was handling the new meat protein, I started the Whole30. I won't lie, the first two weeks were pretty tough, but then I started to feel amazing. By the end of the 30 days I was convinced, especially as I tried to reintroduce foods (like dairy, gluten, grains) and all my old issues would come back. After a few weeks of reintroducing foods I decided they just were not worth it!
Do I follow a paleo diet? Not exactly. However, they are similar. I am about 97% (just picking a percentage) gluten and dairy free. I do however still eat other grains occasionally (which is not allowed in the paleo diet). I am currently in my second Whole30 as I felt I got a little off track, mostly with eating habits, sugar and the occasional alcoholic beverage (because what mom doesn't need a glass of wine at the end of the day?).
I have to say this time around is a breeze! My pantry is already stocked with Whole30 approved condiments and foods. I know how to grocery shop, and the side affects of the elimination diet are minimal as I have been following an almost paleo diet for the last couple of months.
So, for anyone who is interested in what I eat in a day, here you go:
A Day of Whole30 Meals
Breakfast:
Sauteing the sweet potato hash and zucchini.
Add veggies
Parsley omelet with zucchini filling. Sweet potato hash, grapes
and coffee with canned coconut milk.
Note: You will have an extra serving of hash and zucchini.
Lunch: 
Lettuce wraps with chicken, homemade pickles, onions and tomatoes.
Kombucha, mixed nuts with coconut flakes and a Medjool date.
Dinner:
The Start of Cecil's Stew
Sauteing the carrots, garlic and minced herbs with olive oil.
Adding the rest of the veggies and chicken broth.
Dinner for Marie and I. A quart of leftover stock in the back, about 4 servings of soup left.
So there you have it. I plan to put the recipes in a separate blog and am still trying to figure out how to link recipes from my blog to my recipe tab. I will create a blog containing 'Sweet Potato and Pecan Hash' and also a blog with the idea behind 'Cecil's Stew'.
In closing I would like to mention two other things. First, I still take vitamin D, B-complex, and magnesium supplements. We just don't get enough of these, but that is a topic for another blog posting. Second, if you try a Whole30 diet, be prepared for the positive side effects. You will lose your brain fog, have extra energy, and there will not be enough hours in the day to do everything you want to!
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