For the month of May, I will be stripping my diet back to strict paleo eating.
Why am I doing it?
Mainly for the challenge. I want to put myself in a situation where it is completely against the norm for what I usually do in my day to day food intake. Along with this I have fallen off the wagon with my food a little lately, and have done quite a bit of reading around the whole Paleo concept and think it is a good fit for me.
What is the 30 day challenge?
The 30 day challenge is a way for me to test myself on a full strict Paleo only diet for a full 30 days, with no cheat meals or cutting corners.
The in’s and out’s
Yes: Eat real food.
Eat meat, seafood, eggs, tons of vegetables, some fruit, and plenty of good fats from fruits, oils, nuts and seeds. Eat foods with very few ingredients, all pronounceable ingredients, or better yet, no ingredients listed at all because they’re totally natural and unprocessed.
No: Avoid for 30 days.
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.
Do not consume added sugar of any kind, real or artificial. No maple syrup, honey, agave nectar, coconut sugar, Splenda, Equal, Nutrasweet, xylitol, stevia, etc. Read your labels, because companies sneak sugar into products in ways you might not recognize.
Do not consume alcohol in any form, not even for cooking. (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, oats, corn, rice, millet, bulgur, sorghum, amaranth, buckwheat, sprouted grains and all of those gluten-free pseudo-grains like quinoa. 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.
Do not eat legumes. This includes beans of all kinds (black, red, pinto, navy, white, kidney, lima, fava, etc.), peas, chickpeas, lentils, and peanuts. No peanut butter, either. This also includes all forms of soy – soy sauce, miso, tofu, tempeh, edamame, and all the ways we sneak soy into foods (like lecithin).
Do not eat dairy. This includes cow, goat or sheep’s milk products such as cream, cheese (hard or soft), kefir, yogurt (even Greek), and sour cream… with the exception of clarified butter or ghee. (See below for details.)
Do not eat white potatoes. This is somewhat arbitrary, but if we are trying to change your habits (chips and fries) and improve the hormonal impact of your food choices, it’s best to leave white, red, purple, Yukon gold, and fingerling potatoes off your plate.
Do not consume carrageenan, MSG or sulfites. If these ingredients appear in any form on the label of your processed food or beverage, it’s out for the Whole30.
No Paleo-ifying baked goods, desserts, or junk foods. Trying to shove your old, unhealthy diet into a shiny new Whole30 mold will ruin your program faster than you can say “Paleo Pop-Tarts.” This means no desserts or junk food made with “approved” ingredients—no banana-egg pancakes, almond-flour muffins, flourless brownies, or coconut milk ice cream. Don’t try to replicate junk food during your 30 days! That misses the point of the Whole30 entirely.
My journey
I’ll be blogging each week about my journey and various food discoveries. As well as the food sources I discover, I’m also interested to find out about the limitation. I will weigh in prior to day one, along with all my measurements (photos included) and will not step on a scale or measure again until day 31. I will take a photo every few days, but will not look at them until the end of the challenge also.
Also check out my instagram as I’ll be hashtagging everything with #mypaleo
How you can be involved
I would love to hear from everyone who is eating Paleo now, and share any hints and tips (along with awesome recipes) that you have tried along the way. Also a little bit of encouragement never goes astray 😉
Wish Me Luck…I may need it!
mebeatingme 