Life Lessons from the Whole30

Life has been a whirl of planning, processing, organizing, grieving and traveling lately. While all that has been important, necessary and sometimes even fun, it hasn’t left much emotional energy for writing. Rather than go another week without a blog post, however, I decided to pull the last remaining piece from my reserve supply and share it with you today. 

Happily, it’s not about parents dying or hard seasons or anything of the sort. It’s about eating. And what can be learned when we remove entire food groups from our diet for a set amount of time. Bon appetit!

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As trendy eating plans go, the Whole30 is pretty straightforward. Eliminate grains, legumes, dairy products, sugar, alcohol and preservatives from your diet for 30 days and voilà—you’ll feel better, sleep better, lower your blood pressure and cholesterol, solve dozens of other complex health problems and maybe even lose some weight.

Actually eating like this is not necessarily the panacea that some proponents make it out to be. But it does have its benefits—including recalibrating your digestive system and putting the kibosh on bad habits that have crept in over time—which is why Randy and I have taken this month-long food journey three times now.

We finished up our most recent round of the Whole30 in early March. This time, as with the other two, I was a bit anxious about ending it. I would compare it to how someone might feel upon leaving the safety and security of the hospital after an extended illness (or, as Randy prefers to look at it, when a person leaves prison after a long period of incarceration).

On one hand, you can’t wait to pour dairy creamer in your coffee and spread jam on your toast. But after a month of severely drawn food boundaries, you’re faced with so many choices again, and you wonder how long it will be before the good effects of the last 30 days will start to wear off.

The first time we did the Whole30, I began the month with all kinds of expectations of how much I would get done around the house over the next four weeks. While fighting off cravings for cheese and cookies, I figured I would distract myself by writing and cleaning out drawers and organizing all the things. Instead, I spent an inordinate amount of time chopping vegetables and searching for Whole30-approved recipes that didn’t require another trip to Whole Foods.

Not my finest Whole30 cuisine.

Each time since then, I prepared better beforehand, purchased more ready made products (without a trace of guilt) and spent less time chopping. We even made it through this last round without having to fall back on Chipolte for dinner because I burned the chicken strips I was trying to fry in coconut oil. (It’s nice to have Chipolte as an option just in case, but a Burrito Bowl without rice and sour cream just isn’t the same.)

After each previous round of the Whole30, I’ve intended to write a blog post about what I learned from it. What usually happens, though, is that once I push past my anxiety about eating normally, my attention moves on to more pressing matters and those lessons stay stuck in my notes file.

Not this last time. When I was going through all my blog notes files in late March, trying to figure out what was worth keeping and writing about, I kept coming back to this. I always find it interesting to read about other peoples’ experiences with such endeavors, even those I would never attempt myself. So here it is, at long last: What I learned from the Whole30.

• I didn’t like sweet potatoes before we started the Whole30, and I still don’t like them now. I roast them for Randy, and I’ve tried to enjoy them that way too—I really have. But my distain is life long, and it’s here to stay. (I feel the same about kale, by the way.)

• My writing tapers off to practically nothing when I’m on the Whole30. I originally anticipated that once I got used to this new way of eating, the creativity would kick in and my brain cells would start firing on overdrive. Never happened.

• Foods pretending to be other foods don’t fool me. For example, I like cauliflower and I like rice, but cauliflower masquerading as rice? I’d rather just go without until I can have my favorite Japanese sushi rice again.

• I could never do the Whole30 alone. With Randy on my team, quitting isn’t an option. We encourage each other to stick to the plan, even when all we want is a big handful of Doritos.

• Doing the Whole30 makes us linger around the supper table. Even without dessert (which we both love), Randy and I often sat there talking long after we were done with our meals. Maybe it’s because we simply don’t have the energy to get up, but it also might have something to do with the bonds that are strengthened when you do something like this together.

• I will never be a food photographer. I always think I’m going to share about our Whole30 journey on Instagram every day. But aside from a few posts here and there, I just can’t get into it. Most of my food pictures look sort of anemic, and plus, I prefer pics of flowers, old country churches and my children.

• You have to consider holidays when planning a Whole30. Last year, Mother’s Day fell in the middle of our 30 days. Our family’s observation of this special day usually includes eating at our favorite Mexican restaurant and drinking Sonic slushies while walking around the lake at the park. We skipped both last year, and Mother’s Day just wasn’t the same.

• When the Whole30 gets tough, avocados give me the will to keep going. So do pecans. And cilantro. And store-bought, Whole30-approved salad dressing.

• Food is comforting. I guess this is something I always knew, but it really hit home in February when I was craving chocolate cake and crusty bread. I was able to squash those cravings, but if we had been doing the Whole30 in January or December when my dad’s health declined so severely, I don’t know if I could have kept it up.

• Once a year is enough. Some people eat like this all the time due to food allergies or other dietary issues, and I’m all for that if it helps. But while I definitely eat differently than I used to in some ways, I can’t permanently eliminate entire food groups or categories from my diet.

That’s just me, though. What about you? If you’ve ever done the Whole30 or a similar eating plan, please share your experience in the comments.

♥ Lois

P.S. I’m linking up this week with Purposeful Faith, #TellHisStory, Let’s Have Coffee, Faith on Fire, Faith ‘n Friends and Grace & Truth.