Instead of jumping in right away, I decided to take a week or so to study and prepare for the program. I had a doctor’s appointment today with a new D.O., and I’m really optimistic about her! I’m super excited that she didn’t just want to shove medicine down my throat. In fact, we’re working together to try to cut down my current medication, and supplement my health with good nutrition and vitamins! I told her I wanted to do the VegWhole30, and she said that was great. Yay, officially doctor approved!
According to the Whole30 website, the first step is to Discover the Whole30. Big claims are made here. “This will change your life”. The philosophy behind Whole30 makes total sense to me. We have all these foods that we know have a negative impact on a lot of people (e.g. dairy, sugar, gluten, etc.) Some of these may be affecting your health without you even realizing it. What would happen if you just took them all out for a month, and then reintroduced them, group by group, and track how you feel with them back in your diet? For starters, I fully admit that I am addicted to sugar. I think that to some extent, most people in our society are. It’s all over the grocery store, in ways you may not even imagine. I was already considering quitting sugar for a month anyway before I seriously contemplated doing the Whole30. How is my life going to change by getting rid of sugar altogether for a month? Let’s break down some of the potential benefits the website gives for trying the program:
1. Low or inconsistent energy levels.
I have struggled with PTSD and depression since I was a teenager. Depression didn’t start manifesting as lethargy until college, however. I used to be really energetic, and while I’ve always enjoyed sleeping in, I never used to take naps. Once college started, naps never felt so good. I heard this was normal. Most of my peers looked tired all the time too. But my naps go beyond the normal. When I nap, I’ll nap for hours. Two hours is normal, but they can go up to five. I regularly have the urge on the weekends to get up late, eat breakfast, and go back to bed. You’d think I have trouble sleeping at night because of this, but I don’t. I will always sleep more than 8 hours if left to my own devices. The worst thing is, since I have PTSD, I suffer from nightmares. I know that the less time I spend in bed, the less nightmares I’ll have. But I just can’t seem to get up. If this program can help me with that, it really would change my life.
2. Relationship with food and with your own body.
I’ve never been a skinny girl, and I’ve struggled with body image problems since I was a child. Something that helped me a lot was getting into belly dancing. Unlike my childhood ballet classes, in which my seven year old self would get on a scale and be sad at weighing 60 lbs, belly dancing is unabashedly body positive. My self esteem went through the roof when I started dancing more seriously. I now am an avid belly dancer, and gig about twice a month. I still struggle with some things, of course. Comfort food can be a problem, and so can cravings (particularly sugar cravings). What would I do with myself if I wanted to comfort myself and chocolate wasn’t an option, for example? I guess I’m about to find out.
3. “More than 95% of participants lose weight and improve their body composition”.
I would be lying if I said this wasn’t a motivating factor for me. In the last year, I have lost 20 lbs. Check it out:
I did that by counting calories and limiting my sugar intake. I’m super proud of what I’ve done, but I don’t feel like I’m quite finished yet. Counting calories forever is just not sustainable. I’ve kind of reached a plateau of about 144 lbs since I stopped counting calories (hey, at least I’ve kept the weight off!). I’m excited to improve my nutrition and therefore improve my health. Also, at this point I’m more interested in losing body fat than I am in losing weight. If weight loss comes with that, then that’s cool too.
4. Migraines.
I went to a neurologist for the first time in November. She told me “You have migraines. You’ve probably had migraines since you hit puberty, and you’ve just been really stoic about them until now.” I had normalized my pain so much that I just figured everyone dealt with nauseating headaches from time to time. Crazy, right? My neurologist has been super awesome, and we’ve been working together to find good solutions for me. I’m about to get an IUD (eep!), and though I’m a bit nervous, I’m also really hopeful that the steady dose of progesterone will regulate my menstrual migraines (maybe I’ll even stop getting periods altogether, which would be really nifty!). For the migraines that happen when I’m not on my period? We’ll see if Whole30 can help me with those.
As a side note, I am already bracing myself for my first week without sugar: I am fully expecting to go into withdrawal. Everyone I’ve talked to who has eliminated sugar from their diet has told me that they’ve had a headache for about a week. So if I get a migraine in the first week of the program, I’m not going to think it’s a bad thing. Pinky promise to myself.
5. It all comes down to “Food Freedom”.
This is a little catchphrase I’ve found used in lots of Whole30 related readings:
The psychological benefits of the Whole30 may be even more dramatic. Through the program, participants report effectively changing long-standing, unhealthy habits related to food, developing a healthier body image, and a dramatic reduction or elimination of cravings, particularly for sugar and carbohydrates. The words so many Whole30 participants use to describe this place? “Food freedom.”
It’s an interesting concept. Deprive yourself of several foods you’ve grown to love and even depend on, and as a result, be free. The more I think of it, the more I correlate it to addiction literature. We may think we’re free by allowing ourselves to consume whatever we want. But at what cost? Are we really free, or are we subservient to a chemical dependency on these things? I guess it’s the difference between Freedom To and Freedom From. I have always been free to eat sugar and other things that may not be good for me. I’m about to experience the freedom from the influence they have on my life.
It wasn’t that big, but I was surprised by how much of my shopping list I was able to tick off here! I love going to farmers markets. I love putting my money directly in the very hands that worked to bring me my groceries, which invariably are better than what I can find in the grocery store. And the characters you meet! The lady selling eggs had a sign that said “eggs so fresh they slept in a chicken last night!” There was an incredibly diversified farm from a neighbouring town right next to where l go for private dance lessons – I might have even driven by them! Then there was an incredibly effusive Greek man selling extra virgin olive oil from Olympia, “where Zeus himself walked and enriched the ground when he descended to bless the first Olympics.” He ended up getting us to buy olive oil, kalamata olives, “the best oregano in the world”, and two jars of sauce that will apparently make me want to kiss the scrambled eggs I put it on. There were also people selling exceptionally good looking éclairs and croissants, but we won’t talk about those.
My Vegetarian Whole 30 