Five Reasons Why You Should do a Whole30

Five Reasons Why You Should do a Whole30

1.  You want to make meal planning and preparation challenging for say… a month.  😉

Wait, what?

Okay, for reals…  While the above might have some truth to it, here are five real, impactful reasons why you should do a Whole30.  

1. You have some serious cravings for some seriously not good stuff.  Do you crave sweets (yum… cakes, cookies, brownies, ice cream!) or salty snacks (like chips, pretzels, and popcorn!)?  Either way, you can beat these by cutting them out for a bit, in a strategic way.  (Ahem… Whole30!)
2. You know certain foods bother you.  Whether they give you gas or steal your energy, you notice that after eating pasta or tortilla chips or hummus, you don’t feel up to running a marathon.  Wonder what would happen if you didn’t feel these impacts for a while?  
3. You want green beans to taste sweet.  Okay, so no one would actually start a Whole30 for this reason, but this is a real thing.  I love sweets, and pre-Whole30 if you would’ve told me that I would think green beans taste sweet, I would have laughed all the way to that new mini-donut shop close to downtown.  But my taste buds changed.  Take out most processed foods (and all that added sugar) and you will realize that real foods can be sweet – and not just pineapple!  Roasted carrots and steamed green beans!  Seriously, it resets your taste buds and can give you a greater appreciation for real foods.  
4. You want to change your relationship with food.  Ever find yourself eating your feelings?  (No?  Really?  Ask your BFF and get back to me.  I can wait.)  Anyway, we all know emotional eating isn’t healthy, but that eclair tastes so good after a long day of toddler-wrangling that you deserve it, right?  I’ve been there.  But it is a slippery slope to use food as a reward to make yourself feel better.  Let’s try a bubble bath instead (or any activity that doesn’t involve fueling your body with sub-par choices)! 
5. You just don’t FEEL good.  Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying the Whole30 will fix all that ails you.  Modern medicine is amazing, and if you think something is seriously wrong, please seek medical attention and get that figured out.  However, don’t discount the impact of what you put in your mouth to fuel your body.  Nutrition is incredibly important and the advice we get today is often confusing and conflicting.  (I still don’t know if coffee/red wine/butter/bacon/eggs is good for me or not, but I have my theories, most of which are based on how I feel when I ingest them.)  So I say try an elimination diet.  (Spoiler alert… that’s what Whole30 is.  Just with a much cooler name!)  See how you feel after removing all inflammatory foods for a while.  I’m willing to bet you are going to feel better.  
6. I know I said just five reasons why, but here is a sixth one.  This is for those of you who are thinking that you don’t want to give up your favorite reward-worthy, cravable foods for a month.  To this I say… It’s a month, not a lifetime.  Do you remember what you ate last January?  I’m going to guess not.  And a year from now, you probably won’t remember what you ate this month either.  But you will remember how you felt and the lessons that you learned about food and how it makes your body feel.  You can have your cravable foods again, but on your terms, with the full knowledge of how they affect you.  And you may decide that they just aren’t worth it after all!  

These are just five reasons why…. So why not give it a try?  (Hey, that rhymed!)

I’m starting a new Whole30 on Monday, January 15th.  (Want to know more on why I started my Whole30 journey, check out my original Whole30 post here.) New meal plans will be posted weekly, starting later this week!   You can choose to follow them or do your own thing.  So whether you are doing this for one of my five reasons or your very own, you won’t be doing this alone!