Whole 30 - November Challenge (Closed Group)

Grokette

Ok gang - Here is our November Whole 30 Challenge.

We are here to support one another through our successes, tips, hints, recipes and get answers to questions we might have. This is not the place to post negative comments or failures - please keep those comments to our individual walls, other topics or food diaries.

Part of the Primal Lifestyle is to stop stressing and live life as nature intended - so we will keep it positive here.

Focus on how you feel, how you sleep, energy and stress levels. Often times when you are changing your lifestyle your body must first heal before you can expect weightloss in the form of pounds lost or even inches lost.

Grokette

Here is a quick breakdown from the Whole 9 website on our goals. This month is more important than ever with Thanksgiving coming up toward the latter part of the month.

http://whole9life.com/2011/06/whole-30-v4/

No one is perfect, but the whole point of doing this 30 day challenge is to reset your body and break away from any addictions that are food, alcohol or tobacco related.

The only way this will work is if you give it the full thirty days, no cheats, slips or “special occasions.” This isn’t Whole9 playing the tough guy. This is a FACT, born of education and experience. You need such a small amount of any of these inflammatory foods to break the healing cycle – one bite of pizza, one splash of milk in your coffee, one lick of the spoon mixing the batter within the 30 day period and you’ve broken the “reset” button. You must commit to the full program, exactly as written. Anything less and we make no claims as to your results, or the chances of your success. Anything less and you are selling yourself – and your potential results – short.

Remember, the only person you are cheating is YOURSELF.


I will keep it simple and state what SHOULD NOT be eaten during the next 30 days:

Eat real food – meat, fish, eggs, tons of vegetables, some fruit, and plenty of good fats. Eat foods with very few ingredients, all pronounceable ingredients, or better yet, no ingredients listed at all because they’re totally natural and unprocessed. Don’t worry… these guidelines are outlined in extensive detail in our Shopping Guide.

More importantly, here’s what NOT to eat during the duration of your Whole30 program. Omitting all of these foods and beverages will help you regain your healthy metabolism, reduce systemic inflammation, and help you discover how these foods are truly impacting your health, fitness and quality of life.
1.Do not consume added sugar of any kind, real or artificial. No maple syrup, honey, agave nectar, Splenda, Equal, Nutrasweet, xylitol, stevia, etc. Read your labels (and your Success Guide FAQ), because companies sneak sugar into products in ways you might not recognize.


•Do not eat processed foods. This includes protein shakes, pre-packaged snacks or meals, protein bars, milk substitutes, etc.




• Do not consume alcohol, in any form. (NEW! And it should go without saying, but no tobacco products of any sort, either.)




•Do not eat grains. This includes (but is not limited to) wheat, rye, barley, millet, oats, corn, rice, sprouted grains and all of those gluten-free pseudo-grains like quinoa. Yes, we said corn… for the purposes of this program, corn is a grain! This also includes all the ways we add wheat, corn and rice into our foods in the form of bran, germ, starch and so on. Again, read your labels.




•Do not eat legumes. This includes beans of all kinds (black, kidney, lima, etc.), peas, lentils, and peanuts. No peanut butter, either. This also includes all forms of soy – soy sauce, miso, tofu, tempeh, edamame, tamari and all the ways we sneak soy into foods (like lecithin).




•Do not eat dairy. This includes all cow, goat or sheep’s milk, cream, butter, cheese (hard or soft), kefir, yogurt (even Greek), and sour cream.




•Do not eat white potatoes. It’s somewhat arbitrary, but they are carbohydrate-dense and nutrient poor, and also a nightshade (refer to your Success Guide FAQ for details).




•Most importantly… do not try to shove your old, unhealthy diet into a shiny new Whole30 mold. This means no “Paleo-fying” less-than-healthy recipes – no Paleo pancakes, Paleo pizza, Paleo fudge or Paleo”ice cream. Don’t mimic poor food choices during your Whole30 program! Those kinds of food miss the point of the program entirely.



One last and final rule. You are not allowed to step on the scale during your Whole30 program. This is about so much more than just weight loss, and to focus on your body composition means you’ll miss out on the most dramatic and lifelong benefits this plan has to offer. So, no weighing yourself or taking comparative measurements during your Whole30. (NEW! We do encourage you to weigh yourself before and after, however, so you can see one of the more tangible results of your efforts when your program is over.)