Why Whole30?

Today (actually yesterday by the time this is published) D and I are starting the Whole30 diet. I read about it last year from my favorite blog, Today’s letters, but I didn’t think it was for me. But ever since I had Millie, I have been so much more conscious of what goes into my body, because what I eat she eats. I also have thought a lot about how I want her to be willing to try new things and eat lots of good vegetables. But how am I going to teach my daughter to eat healthy if I fail to eat healthy on a regular basis. We only occasionally have a good green veg on our dinner plates, and I eat way more sugary foods than healthy foods. I also started thinking about processed foods and all of those ingredients that I can’t pronounce and don’t need to be in my food. But with all these thoughts running around in my head I wasn’t quite sure what to do.

Then this past January I was talking to my sister-in-law who said she was doing with my brother-in-law and they felt so good after the 30 days and it changed the way they think about food. I thought, if they can do it with 3 kids at home, I can do it with one! But I wasn’t convinced that cutting out all dairy and grains would be wise for me since I am nursing so I did some research and found out that many nursing moms found an increase in milk supply and their babies started to sleep more soundly and become less fussy. That was pretty much the clincher for me. All I had to do was get the husband on board. Luckily for me, this wasn’t that hard. He has done the South Beach diet a few times and this is just a few steps harder than that, so I knew he would jump on board, and he did.

So we have been planning over the last week to start this diet when I am on vacation. It made the most sense to start it now, because we will both be home (my husband currently is out of work) and could start meal planning together when we had the time. It also seemed like a good week to start because the first few days are the worst and I didn’t want to be struggling with grain and sugar detox while at school trying to teach 9th graders (all you teachers know that you just aren’t allowed to have bad days when you teach).

So today is the big day. We went shopping yesterday and bought a lot of veggies, some fruit and some meat (we had a good amount of frozen fish and beef already). We spent more than we normally do, but the reality is we won’t be going out to eat much over the next 30 days so it should balance out a bit (hopefully) and if it doesn’t I am okay with that. I am willing to spend a bit more on food if I know I am eating healthier and passing down good habits and nutrition to my daughter.

I will keep a list of foods and recipes we try to keep you updated once a week on how we are doing, so stay tuned! I am actually quite excited about this journey and may need you to remind me on Friday that I chose this and it is good for me!

A lot of people are concerned about me being on a diet, mainly because I am quite thin already. But if you read through the whole30 literature, you will find it is not about losing weight, it is about changing the way you think of food and clearing the toxins and inflammatory foods from your digestive tract. I am not interested in losing the rest of my pregnancy weight, I am interested in learning to make good decisions about food.