Whole 30: What is it and why am I doing it?

The Whole 30 is something I have had my eye on for a few years now after reading about it on a blog I follow. It is a lifestyle changing way of eating- not a diet. For 30 days you essentially follow a Paleo diet with more restrictions to rid your body of the crap you've been eating for years and the bad habits associated with it. After 30 strict days, you go on to reintroduce certain foods in your daily diet to see how your body responds. If it does not respond well, to gluten for example, you would know that you are better off legitimately following a gluten-free lifestyle (unlike everyone doing it now because it's a fad). If you don't respond we'll to dairy products when you reintroduce hem, you know to avoid those as well. The idea is to cut down on snacking, get you to understand your body's signals when it is truly hungry or really full, to reduce the inflammation in your body from food that causes issues like asthma or migraines or diabetes. 

I do not have any major health issues. I just want to be healthier. I want to make changes in my life, even if that means cleaning out the beer fridge or not grabbing that Pizza Hut personal pan pizza when I run to Target at lunch. Mostly I want to do this to show friends and family it can be done. The couple who started this program and who wrote the book are skinny and good looking. 

Still, I somehow trust them. But I want my friends and family to see me do this and know they can do it too. Because I am surrounded by a lot more health issues than those of my own and I truly believe after reading this book that migraines, depression, anxiety, high cholesterol, etc can be alleviated by a change in what people are consuming and how people are eating. 

So here is hopingt that this works. Several testimonials say that they dropped weight by changing their diet only- no exercise boost. I would like to see if that's the case since I don't want to drive to my favorite fitness studio and it's not nice enough yet outside to of anything fitness-related. 

This may seem like another fleeting random fad that I found but I was right about Peak 10 so hopefully I am right about this too. And you will get to join me along the way because I will be posting weekly (maybe daily if the mood hits me right) my journey so you can travel along and them make your decision when I'm done whether it's worth it for you. 

In the mean time if you are at all interested, I would highly recommend reading the book "It Starts With Food" because it not only explains the science behind the Whole 30 but does some meal planning and shares people's stories too. 

Anyway, the journey (and test of my dedication and willpower) begins April 1. And no, this isn't an April Fool's Day joke- it was the closest month coming up with exactly 30 days. :)