Whole 30 plan

tgirl0825

Hi! Anyone doing whole 30? Need to clean up my diet and get back to running...AND drop some lbs! Attempting to eliminate sugar, dairy, alcohol and carbs (processed, white bread, rice and potatoes). Any recipes or advice would be great. I've done it before but it's been a while and I feel like crap. Thanks!

miklamx

I'm just off Keto and not looking to go that route, would like to try the whole foods route. How do you plan your meals?

lemurcat2

I do whole foods mostly, not W30 since I consider potatoes, oats, and legumes to be whole foods, and see no issues for myself with dairy (or occasional pasta, for that matter). I do think W30 could be a fun motivator if you aren't used to cooking with whole foods, but the bad reasoning given for cutting out perfectly nutritious foods that I had no tendency to overeat irritated me when I considered it at one point.

How I plan:

I have a standard breakfast since I don't need a lot of variety in the morning (omelet with a little feta, lots of veg, usually some berries or avocado on the side, maybe cottage cheese instead).

Lunch is leftovers from a recent dinner (sometimes with a different veg which I prep when I prep dinner), but on occasion I'll cook a batch of lunches for several days ahead.

Dinner is usually planned around a protein and lots of vegetables (based on what I have on hand), and then I will usually add a starch when it goes.

The key for me was learning to cook with what's on hand, and then learning what I would need to have on hand, and not worrying too much about recipes and so on.

miklamx

Wow that was awesome! What kinds of vegetables are you eating in the morning? Back from China and after seeing the quantity of food as well as the kinds of food they eat, I'm under-eating but over processed! I'll have to check out Whole 30 but agree with the potatoes and pasta.

lemurcat2

Great omelet veg:

Spinach or kale + broccoli

Same + zucchini

Same (or chard) + leeks

All of the above + mushrooms, tomatoes, or onions.

Add peppers in place of one ingredient to any of the above.

Really love omelets as a great way to eat a variety of veg.

TavistockToad

tgirl0825 wrote: »

Hi! Anyone doing whole 30? Need to clean up my diet and get back to running...AND drop some lbs! Attempting to eliminate sugar, dairy, alcohol and carbs (processed, white bread, rice and potatoes). Any recipes or advice would be great. I've done it before but it's been a while and I feel like crap. Thanks!

Sounds a little extreme, are you going to not eat that stuff for the rest of your life?

Love_2_Hike

Whole30 is a type elimination eating plan. Eliminating inflammatory foods such as sugars, alcohol, grains, dairy ect to improve health and reactions. Then re-introduction to see what you react too.
It certainly worked for me. It is not a weight loss diet. “It Starts With Food” is the book to read first.

lemurcat2

It Starts with Food has a bunch of bad information in it, and it's not really like a normal elimination diet and the foods chosen aren't the primary culprits someone with actually food-based issues would be focusing on (although lactose intolerance is common, but usually not unknown). Also if it were a real elimination diet there'd be no issue with making versions of forbidden foods using other ingredients, and W30 says not to do that.

Many people do W30 as a weight loss diet (or to start or increase motivation when doing a weight loss diet) and many to try to help their motivation or create structure in focusing on whole foods and cooking at home. It can be useful to have a set time period and challenge to stick with it for some.

I think the foods excluded are kind of silly in that they in some cases are nutritious whole foods (potatoes, legumes, oats, corn on the cob), and in other cases may not be hard for people to eat in moderation, but they are clear rules that largely force you to cook at home and perhaps not rely on some common staples (rice, pasta, bread, potatoes), so expand cooking ideas and dishes, and for those who didn't already, eat more vegetables.

I think paleo (which is what it basically is) is a perfectly fine way of eating, and can be very healthful and may make it easier for some not to overeat since trigger foods may be off the menu, but the justification for excluding the foods it excludes aren't that great. As an entry to eating a largely whole foods diet and maybe realizing you can cut back on foods previously overeaten, it can work for some (I did paleo for a bit and it did help me stop snacking and I can now eat even good cheese in moderation, and I mostly enjoyed that way of eating).

soccermom004

I plan on starting whole30 on the 2nd. I need something for a restart. Feel free to add me and we can support each other. You can have potatoes on whole30 by the way. This morning I roasted some thin slices of sweet potato and had some sliced avocado and a slice of bacon one it. Pretty yummy. I eat roasted veggies and eggs for breakfast all the time so breakfast won’t be any trouble for me. My evening glass of wine may be a struggle.

lemurcat2

They changed that, didn't use to permit them (they always permitted sweet potatoes, even though both are tubers). The reasoning for excluding potatoes was so weak that it's what basically turned me off of W30/tipped me off that the founders of the diet were full of woo when I looked into it (this was 2014), and ultimately caused me to ditch paleo entirely.

That said, I think it probably can be a helpful exercise for some for the reasons I stated above.

kshama2001

lemurcat2 wrote: »

They changed that, didn't use to permit them (they always permitted sweet potatoes, even though both are tubers). The reasoning for excluding potatoes was so weak that it's what basically turned me off of W30/tipped me off that the founders of the diet were full of woo when I looked into it (this was 2014), and ultimately caused me to ditch paleo entirely.

That said, I think it probably can be a helpful exercise for some for the reasons I stated above.

Here they admit "The original exclusion of white potatoes was pretty arbitrary on our end"

https://whole30.com/downloads/ISWF-author-note.pdf

whoami67

I always thought potatoes were excluded because they were nightshades, but admittedly, I've never read any of the Whole30 books.

lemurcat2

They don't consistently exclude all nightshades. Tomatoes and peppers are not excluded. There's an AID paleo diet, but it's different and not by the W30 people.

ilovemyzippy18

I'm doing it. I started yesterday but was starving at 8pm and ate some crackers lol.

Today is better. Eating mostly veggies. Staying under 50g of carbs a day if I can and under 1500mg of sodium and under 30g of fat. This will be tough but I can do it and so can you! Takes a lot of will power.

psuLemon

ilovemyzippy18 wrote: »

I'm doing it. I started yesterday but was starving at 8pm and ate some crackers lol.

Today is better. Eating mostly veggies. Staying under 50g of carbs a day if I can and under 1500mg of sodium and under 30g of fat. This will be tough but I can do it and so can you! Takes a lot of will power.

Going keto (which is less than 50g of carbs) and low sodium is a terrible idea. As you deplete carbs, your body depletes glycogen and water storage which flushes electrolytes. For that style of eating, you need to increase sodium to replenish your electrolytes. Otherwise, you can experience fatigue, flu like symptoms or even tachycardia symptoms.

Caralarma

Any 'diet' that has a fancy name and cuts out food groups will only result in temporary success.

lemurcat2

psuLemon wrote: »

ilovemyzippy18 wrote: »

I'm doing it. I started yesterday but was starving at 8pm and ate some crackers lol.

Today is better. Eating mostly veggies. Staying under 50g of carbs a day if I can and under 1500mg of sodium and under 30g of fat. This will be tough but I can do it and so can you! Takes a lot of will power.

Going keto (which is less than 50g of carbs) and low sodium is a terrible idea. As you deplete carbs, your body depletes glycogen and water storage which flushes electrolytes. For that style of eating, you need to increase sodium to replenish your electrolytes. Otherwise, you can experience fatigue, flu like symptoms or even tachycardia symptoms.

Under 50 g of carbs and 30 g of fat isn't advisable either, and actually contrary to the spirit/plan of W30, which says don't log, don't weigh, etc.

Under 50 g and 30 g means you are getting no more than 470 g from carbs and fat combined -- so are either eating a crazy and unnecessary amount of lean protein or very, very low cals -- and are really limiting what you can consume way more than W30 does. One thing I like about W30 is that by taking away many staples that people rely on it forces you to get out of any rut in cooking and think about other options.

7elizamae

Caralarma wrote: »

Any 'diet' that has a fancy name and cuts out food groups will only result in temporary success.

Not necessarily. I lost weight on Whole 30 and have kept it off by counting calories.