Whole 30

I'm on board to start too! Let's do this!

Add me if also into clean eating. Need all the support I can get and happy to give back.

I just looked up the program.

Rules:
"eat real food".
"don't eat legumes" etc...

Legumes are real foods!
Whole grains are real foods!
What did soy ever do to anyone?

There are no vegetarian sources of protein approved on the program. Also appears to be zero science.

Good luck but I'm going to keep eating my chickpeas and tofu (which are filling, low calorie and full of protein and fibre).

homesweeths wrote: »

kyrannosaurus wrote: »

I just looked up the program.

Rules:
"eat real food".
"don't eat legumes" etc...

Legumes are real foods!
Whole grains are real foods!
What did soy ever do to anyone?

There are no vegetarian sources of protein approved on the program. Also appears to be zero science.

Good luck but I'm going to keep eating my chickpeas and tofu (which are filling, low calorie and full of protein and fibre).

Soy can be pretty toxic, depending on how your body processes it. For example, if you have estrogen-sensitive cancer, soy is really bad news -- I forget if it stimulates or simulates estrogen production, but it affects estrogen levels. We have soy allergies in our family. Some of us can manage soy sauce, some of us are so sensitive to soy that even eggs from chickens fed soy grains can cause a serious allergic reaction, whereas soy-free eggs don't.

Legumes contain anti-nutrients. (Ever get bad gas after eating beans?) You can negate some of this effect by soaking the beans and discarding the soaking water before cooking.

I'm curious as to what appears to be a double standard expressed here. Vegetarians eliminate entire food groups as well, and yet I don't see them catching the same kind of flack as meat-eaters do. Is that right, or am I getting the wrong impression?

p.s. I think the "eat real foods" refers to eliminating processed food with lots of preservatives and additives. I know the jury is still officiallyl out on GMOs, at least from what I've heard, but we (speaking personally) seem to enjoy better health by avoiding them.

Nope, I'll continue to eat a healthy well balanced diet while enjoying the foods i love in moderation. Im not at all swayed by the new woo fads that scare people into eliminating certain food groups from their diets . Unless a medical condition exists, all foods can be enjoyed in moderation.

flyingtanuki wrote: »

homesweeths wrote: »

kyrannosaurus wrote: »

I just looked up the program.

Rules:
"eat real food".
"don't eat legumes" etc...

Legumes are real foods!
Whole grains are real foods!
What did soy ever do to anyone?

There are no vegetarian sources of protein approved on the program. Also appears to be zero science.

Good luck but I'm going to keep eating my chickpeas and tofu (which are filling, low calorie and full of protein and fibre).

Soy can be pretty toxic, depending on how your body processes it. For example, if you have estrogen-sensitive cancer, soy is really bad news -- I forget if it stimulates or simulates estrogen production, but it affects estrogen levels. We have soy allergies in our family. Some of us can manage soy sauce, some of us are so sensitive to soy that even eggs from chickens fed soy grains can cause a serious allergic reaction, whereas soy-free eggs don't.

Legumes contain anti-nutrients. (Ever get bad gas after eating beans?) You can negate some of this effect by soaking the beans and discarding the soaking water before cooking.

I'm curious as to what appears to be a double standard expressed here. Vegetarians eliminate entire food groups as well, and yet I don't see them catching the same kind of flack as meat-eaters do. Is that right, or am I getting the wrong impression?

Kale, swiss chard, lettuce and spinach can be pretty toxic depending upon which medications you are taking. For example, if you have cardio vascular issues and take Coumadin, eating too much of these can interfere with your blood's ability to clot or cause a blood clot when it shouldn't.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/thrombophlebitis/expert-answers/warfarin/faq-20058443

I remember reading about that somewhere. Is the problem lessened by cooking? I do know that when I read about that, my first thought was that maybe all those people blending up those green smoothies didn't have such a great idea after all... But maybe it's only if you take those medications?

I remember a few years back, a woman at a farm stand warned me against eating raw green beans because of some toxic substance in the beans, that was reduced or eliminated by cooking.

If one went only by warnings of toxic foods, there wouldn't be anything left to eat.

I think the best course is to figure out what works for your own body, and stick with that. I don't pooh-pooh veganism, because even though it wouldn't work for me (I do not have the proper enzymes to digest plant proteins well), I have heard glowing reports from people for whom it *has* worked. "Paleo" style eating has worked wonders for my auto-immune issues (joint pain almost gone, pre-diabetes gone or at least blood sugars look good nowadays, blood pressure much reduced), but I realize it doesn't work for everyone.

CICO didn't work for me. I lost weight, but then would gain it back again as soon as I eased the calorie restriction. I fought cravings the entire time I was "dieting" too, which was horribly discouraging. As it turned out, the cravings were due to food allergies. Who knew? Only by eliminating the foods I was allergic to, was I able to begin to lose weight in a healthy way, and eat all the calories I wanted! (Oddly enough, I'm never hungry these days, so it's not as frighteningly out-of-control as it sounds.)

I was a vegetarian for several years, for as long as it worked for me, but when I developed a life-threatening condition related to my inability to digest plant protein, amplified by the demands of pregnancy, I gave it up and started eating meat, poultry, and fish. Sure beats the alternative of starving to death, or dying of (or losing a baby to) toxemia.

That's why I don't pooh-pooh the Whole30, either. It may not work for everyone, but it worked well for me, to break my addiction to certain foods and figure out some of my food allergies. (Cravings are often caused by an allergic reaction, isn't that ironic? You might well crave what sets off your body's allergies. Bummer.) It's only 30 days. I don't think you can do a whole lot of damage in 30 days. People on hunger strikes have fasted longer than that, as a matter of fact (though I'm not saying long-term fasting is a healthy choice -- sure doesn't sound healthy to me, anyhow). ETA: And you do eat protein and carbs and fat, and lots of fresh vegetables are encouraged, so it's saner and more balanced than, say, eating only bananas for a week, or the cabbage soup diet, or the grapefruit diet, or the cottage cheese diet, or any number of fads. If I may risk sounding judgmental, I'd consider it way saner than mutilating one's body surgically, by stomach stapling (is that the same thing as gastric bypass, or something else?) or removing a length of intestine. My heart goes out to the people who are desperate enough to do such a thing.

So, yeah, OP. Try the Whole30. They're pretty serious about it (the people who created the program), but they mean well. At least you don't have to buy anything to do it. (This, from a lifetime Weight Watchers member. Yeah. Beaucoup bucks, invested in a program that ultimately failed me because of my unsuspected food allergies.) And it does seem to work for a number of people.

If you try it, and it doesn't work for you, well, there are hundreds of other things to try. Even CICO.

(And just because CICO and IIFYM doesn't work for me, doesn't mean I'm going to snipe at every CICO proponent I run across, saying what a stupid concept it is because it only works as long as you can maintain the iron willpower to continue to restrict your calories, and as you age you have to restrict more and more as your metabolism slows down... No, because CICO/IIFYM might actually work for somebody. It must work for some people, from the number of people who claim it's the only way to lose or maintain body weight.)

I'm not a troll. I'm just fed up with snipers.

I just started as well on Sunday. So far it isn't that bad. Big change from IIFYM which I usually follow. I really have no intention of completely giving up any of the restricted foods, but am excited to see how my body responds to eliminating these things for 30 days. I'm really not a fan of the Paleo diet or eliminating entire food groups, but I am a bit curious to compare the 2 eating styles. :-)

I'm starting my 2nd round of whole 30 tomorrow.

I'm on Day 1 today. I'm vegetarian (well, pescatarian), so it's going to be pretty restrictive for me. I know some vegetarians do eat some dairy and/or lentils while on the program. I'm going to try to do it clean, though. We'll see if I need to make an accommodation at some point.

I've had stomach issues for a while now and I'm doing this to try to get a clean slate for my system. Afterwards, I'll re-introduce foods that I love like chickpeas, lentils and quinoa.

For some of the posters above, I don't think the idea is that foods like oatmeal, barley and beans are bad for you, but rather your body might have issues with them.

How is everyone doing on the program?

To each his own. Do things your way, if it doesn't work do it another way. Eat the way you want to eat and as long as your calorie count is where it should be to lose weight then it's all good. Whole 30 is a good place to start. It's a start and we learn by doing not by others saying what to do.