Tom Denham

Here are the rules: Vinegar. Most forms of vinegar, including white, balsamic, apple cider, red wine, and rice, are allowed during your Whole30 program. The only exceptions are vinegars with added sugar, or malt vinegar, which generally contains gluten. I expect corn vinegar would be fine because the fermentation process is transformative.

The ingredient list includes everything that matters to the Whole30. If there is no alcohol listed in the ingredient list, the product is Whole30-compliant even if the extract is made with alcohol. To put this into context... Sniffing your neighbor's beer means you have some exposure to alcohol, but that would not count against your Whole30. An extract made with alcohol that was not required by law to list alcohol as an ingredient would mean you might have a sniff of exposure. Nothing to worry about.

When it comes to an ingredient list, you do not need to investigate possible ingredients within ingredients. The product, based upon the ingredients listed by JenBoo, is Whole30-compliant. When you are in a restaurant, food might be fried in soybean oil, peanut oil, or corn oil without any note in the menu about it. So you have to ask about cooking oils in a restaurant.

The company cannot tell you whether the product is Whole30-compliant or not. The ingredient list is key. What are all the ingredients?

Food sensitivity testing conducted in doctor's offices is notoriously unreliable - false positives and false negatives. I'm just saying. There is a reason the Whole30 asks you to eliminate the typical trouble makers for 30 days and then to reintroduce under controlled conditions. Elimination and then testing is the reliable way to figure out food sensitivity issues.

Your low energy and emotion when you get home may not be related to food. You may be tired after a busy day and need time to center yourself. What about your energy and emotion on days you don't go to work?

Something is off in your body if you don't get hungry every 5 hours give or take a bit. So if you eat only two meals a day more than once every other week or so, you need to be trying to figure out what is off.

The Whole30 encourages you to eat when you are hungry AND we encourage you not to snack. The point is that when you are not lasting 4-5 hours between meals, instead of scheduling a snack, make changes to the size and fat content of your meals so that you can last 4-5 hours between meals. This is a critically important skill to being healthy and enjoying food freedom. Keep working on this skill. Skipping it means missing some of the real value of making this effort.

I went back and looked at a handful of your previous posts. My concern is that you may still not be eating what I would recognize as well-composed meals all day. At one point, you were getting too many raw veggies versus cooked, nuts in various forms, and you were combining breakfast and your post-workout meal - which means you were missing an important meal. These things tend to mess with your hormones and keep them from getting into the kind of rhythm that supports losing any excess weight. It is okay to spot check your calories/macros every once in a while. The problem with that check, however, is that what it tells you is often not very helpful. For example, eating 65 percent fat is not necessarily good or bad. I did not find a food log for you, although I did not do an exhaustive search. Knowing exactly what you are eating and drinking is the critical piece we would need to provide useful feedback to you.

I am late to this discussion, but want to add that I think LadyShanny and JMCBN are on point. The key to losing weight is gaining the cooperation of your hormones. Unfortunately, intermittent fasting and keto protocols can push your hormones into the opposite rhythms of what you need to lose weight. Any technique to jump start/force weight loss can push your hormones out of a good rhythm. Our culture has taught us that we should try radical new things when what we are doing isn't working. Or isn't working fast enough to suit us. Sometimes new things work. Sometimes new things keep from working what really will work if you let it. When you are following Whole30 best practices - eating within one hour of waking. Eating meals that keep you satisfied 4-5 hours at least 3 times per day. Eating post-workout meals after intense exercise. Drinking 1/2 of water per pound of bodyweight per day. Avoiding nuts and fruit as a snack. Avoiding snacking at all. When you do these things, your body will respond, although it may take longer than you want. Minimizing carbs from starchy veggies can be counterproductive. You can lose weight while eating starchy veggies several times per day, so I am suspicious of protocols that ask you to eliminate them or consume them irregularly. Many people have tried 30 different diets before coming to the Whole30 and, unfortunately, the Whole30 proves to be number 31 and soon they are on to number 32. The thing about the Whole30 is that it is organized to have you eating nutrient dense foods that your body needs on a schedule and in a volume that supports optimum health. There is not a more health-enhancing approach to eating. There are more convenient approaches and there are certainly faster ways to make weight disappear, but no approach will improve your health faster or support your keeping it longer. KellyBurghart, I am glad you heard the blessings in what people have said. I think you are on the right track. Stay strong.

Sauces are meant to add flavor to meat or vegetables, so there is no serving size. What you have to do is to decide how much flavor you want on your meat or your veggies. I would start with two tablespoons and keep adding until it looks right or tastes right to you.

Lara Bars WILL erode the success of your Whole30. You can consume a variety of the flavors without technically violating the Whole30 rules, but why bother to do a Whole30 at all if you don't want to get all you can out of the time?

I eat a lot of chicken liver from chickens raised on a farm I visit every week. I never buy ordinary chicken livers at the grocery store because I don't trust how ordinary chickens are raised.

Of course. After reading the Whole30 rules, what would make you think you needed to ask?

Soy milk is likely to have a different effect on your system than a serving of black beans or lentils. I would test soy milk independently from beans.