Whole 30 Pros & Cons

I just thought I'd like to write the pros and cons of doing a whole30.

I'll start with the cons, because I'm sure that list is shorter than the pros.

CONS

1. It's expensive - I've already delved into this, but it is. Buying lots of meat, fruits and vegetables is expensive. And they suggested you get organic, pastured beef, etc. Ya right. that is even more expensive. 

2. A lot of prep - because you're making your own food all the time, plus chopping up mounds of veggies every day, and making your own mayo, bbq sauce, etc. it takes a lot of time. I felt like I was constantly thinking about food. What I was going to shop for the next week, what I was making for each meal, making sure I had lettuce washed, veggies chopped, etc.

3. Because of all that prep, the Dishes are insane! - I'm pretty sure I did dishes at least twice every day. If I didn't, they would get stacked up and I can't handle cooking when the dishes I need are dirty and dishes covering the counters. Lots of doing dishes. But it did get me in the habit!

4. It's hard. There's a lot of restrictions. I didn't realize how dependent my body was on sugar. And I don't eat cookies and cake and doughnuts on a regular basis. Instead I eat bread, which turns into sugar, and syrup and jelly and honey, etc. But there were plenty of nights I had to just preoccupy myself because I was craving sugar. Plus there is sugar in everything! Even mayo. No wonder we all love sugar so much. They put it in food that you wouldn't think has sugar in it. I still crave sugar, but I can say no to it.

PROS

1. I felt amazing. I never felt bloated or gross or that heavy feeling you get when you eat too much food. I don't think it was possible to overeat when eating like whole30 suggests because you get "nutritionally" full and the hormone that says you have all the nutrition you need gets triggered. Whereas when you eat lots of bread, you keep eating because that hormone never gets triggered. Bread, pasta, sugar, etc doesn't have all the "nutrition" that your body needs, so that hormone never gets triggered, hence the overeating empty calories. Interesting. I seriously felt full after each meal, but not a bloated "my stomach is so full I might barf" full. 

2. Restrictions - I actually like that it restricts you from eating certain foods. I'm one of those people that say "I'll just eat one" and then one turns into two, etc. It's so hard to just say I'll have one. But if I say none at all, then I don't get the taste on my mouth, I don't crave more than one. And it's easier to say no to people because you aren't eating it at all. 

3. I kind of have digestive issues - or something. My stomach just couldn't handle what I ate, I guess. I figured that's just how it was always going to be, but when I did whole30, my stomach issues were completely gone. And lots of people have had improvement with pain, Crohn's disease, allergies, even ADD issues from doing whole30. At least that's what their testimonials said in the book. Pretty cool! And they'll stay gone as long as I stick to whole30 as closely as possible.

4. Weight loss. They say not to weigh yourself for the 30 days, but I did anyway. I've lost 8 pounds in a little over 2 weeks. I'm also exercising on top of that, but that's awesome! I couldn't get the scale to budge when I was exercising alone, so whole30 definitely helped to get the scale moving down.

5. Resetting the body/mind. I think any diet would probably do this. Whole30 helped me to reevaluate what I was eating, what was making me feel gross, what I don't have to have. I don't have to eat dairy. I already knew that from being dairy free with Alexis, but I don't have to have ranch or sour cream or milk - ever. Alexis doesn't like milk anyways, and Jonas doesn't care about it either. As long as we get our calcium through other foods, which there are, or take a calcium chew for the kids, we're good. And I also realized I ate WAY too many carbs - like grains and bread. Just having a super low carb diet helps immensely with losing weight - and the no sugar. And I can say no to sugar. :)

6. Fruit tastes better. Because you aren't eating sugar (no honey, sugar, stevia, sugar substitute, agave, etc) fruit tastes so good! I actually crave apples! And when I want something sweet, I want fruit. Apples never sounded good to me before. They are so good - and so sweet and juicy! And vegetables taste better too. But that might be because I'm preparing them differently than just plain ol steaming them.

7. Whole30 made me try new recipes. I love trying new recipes anyways, but there's a ton of recipes out there that are good and healthy and don't have sugar in them, or heavy cream or dairy. Many different ways to prepare chicken, and seriously, I have found some very tasty ways to season ground beef (or ground turkey, in our case). Paprika and cinnamon together? SO GOOD! Who would have thought?

I'm pretty sure there are other pros, but those are what I can think of right now. I love whole30. I think it works, and it is healthy. I mean a diet that says you have to eat fruits and veggies and no sugar has got to be good, right? Ya, the whole no grains, or no dairy is a little much, but they do it to see if your body reacts harshly to it. You're supposed to reintroduce the foods at the end of 30 days, one at a time to see if your body reacts to dairy, or gluten, etc. But I didn't quite get there. Oh well. I feel good doing whole30, so I'll just keep trying to do the rules as closely as possible as much as I can, and only make exceptions for SPECIAL occasions.