Why Did I Attempt the Whole30 Challenge?
Do you ever wake up in the morning, look down, and wonder what the heck you ate last night that could have caused the monstrous bloat or gas you’re feeling?
I chose the Whole30 because I needed a way to clean out my entire system to see what could be the cause of these effects. This was, honestly, the first time I had even looked into trying a type of diet. On the Whole30, you eat ‘whole’ foods, and only whole foods, for an entire month.
Whole foods are those that you can identify their source by looking at them. Nothing processed, no sauces, no sugar, no pasta, no chocolate, you get the idea.
After those seemingly neverending 30 days, you slowly begin to introduce a single new food ingredient back into your diet, one by one, to see the effect it has on your stomach and *cough* bathroom visits.
It seemed like a good thing for me to do, first because we were in the middle of quarantine and there was nothing else to do, and second because I would get these days where I would get so bloated I looked like I was 4 months pregnant. Cute, right?
Attempting the Whole30 diet as a pescatarian was extremely intimidating. Those who aren’t pescatarian, vegan, or vegetarian can rely on eating an entire breast of chicken to hold them over until their next meal, while I’m over here cutting out all my vegetarian protein options except tempeh, which got boring really quickly. I missed beans, lentils, and all my delicious Gardein and Dr. Prager vegetarian protein sources.
So, what did I do? Well, I felt hungry. All. The. Time. I ate so many sweet potatoes and a lot more fish than I was usually comfortable eating, but nothing seemed to hold me over. I felt this constant need to keep eating. I would find myself wandering into the kitchen between meal times unsure of what I was looking for, but not even really sure I was hungry.
I had apples with almond butter for breakfast. I made power bowls with avocados, spinach, tuna fish, mushrooms, tomatoes, beets, and, of course, sweet potatoes. I missed sugar so badly and definitely craved carbs, like real carbs, like butter on pasta or a toasted gooey grilled cheese.
When the 30 days were finally up, the first thing I introduced back were lentils. After that first lentil meal, I went back on the Whole 30 for two days (as it recommends) to see how my body reacted. Nothing happened!
Ecstatic I finally had a great protein source back in my diet, I planned the next food I would introduce. Having a piece of avocado toast was something I had been dreaming of for weeks, so I picked bread. I chose a slice of fresh baked, low ingredient bread from a local baker. Bread greeted my body without a hitch and so I kept on introducing one thing after another waiting the two days between each introduction. Nothing seemed to cause the massive upset I had been experiencing.
While my Whole30 experience didn’t single out particular ingredients that were effecting me, it was an interesting experiment on my self control as well as understanding what my body needs and listening to my cravings. I craved spinach and greens when I needed more iron in my diet. I craved fruits and veggies when I needed more vitamins. I learned more about my body and what fuels it.
Today, I still crave whole foods over processed ones. I think my body got to see the light and doesn’t want to go back to the ‘dark side’ of processed food.
Have you tried the Whole 30 diet or another diet? What did you learn about yourself? Self-reflect in the comments below, I’d love to hear how your process went!