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I need some single sentence talking points...


kaybee

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People ask me often about the W30, and after I outline the program briefly (eating whole, unprocessed foods, etc, and what is excluded) they invariably ask "why are legumes out?" or "why are all grains out?" "why soy?"... you get the idea. Now, I have read the book, but there's a LOT of info in there. I think it would be helpful to be able to say "grains are out because they're 'x'". Whatever 'x' is. Bullet points, you know?

 

Thoughts, anyone?

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  • 3 weeks later...

I've had good luck with "who isn't healthier when you eat more veggies and as little processed food as possible?" It takes the scary "oh my gosh, fat is the worst!" conversation out of the topic initially. If someone says that eating veggies instead of grains is less healthy...they've got issues. 

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I've also used something along the lines that there are no nutrients in legumes and grains that we can't get from vegetables and the vegetable sources are more bio-available (and if they look like huh I define bio-available as more easily obtained and absorbed by the body).

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My sister said to me this morning "I have an issue with cutting out whole food groups from my diet." *eye roll*

 

Sometimes I think it's just easier to reassure them they I am perfectly happy with my nutrition and health plan, and I hope they are happy with theirs.

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I just turn it around and ask them to explain why I/they/anyone needs to eat grains.

 

"You need the fiber" - You can easily get the recommended amount by eating a healthy amount of veggies and some fruit

"Nutrients" - see above

"You need them for energy" - I have much more energy by using dietary fats and a few starchy veggies/tubers for energy.  My race times are dropping like crazy as my body gets better at using fat for energy.

"They are the base of the USDA food pyramid and you should have 6-11 servings per day" - facepalm.  I guess I'm stuck on this one, since the US federal government always has your best interest in mind with no attention to the balance between political favors, power, and money. [/sarcasm]

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  • 2 months later...

When people ask me about how eating grains or dairy, they almost ALWAYS NEVER listen to what I have to say in response. So it's like why even take the effort. Just say I feel great eating this way- let me know if you ever want to try and feel great too.

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Crib notes:

http://www.whole9life.com/category/manifesto-series/

 

Also, I'm likely offering a biased perspective here, since I'm a personal trainer and a certified fitness nutrition specialist, but when you drop some biochemistry into the conversation (the 'science-y' stuff) people tend to fade away pretty quickly from being self-assured in their opinions.

 

I oftentimes will get questions about 'what's the best thing to eat, post-workout?' and I'll mention something like the fructose load (hepatic) of a banana. I don't do it in a smarmy way, I just listen to what they have to say, and calmly explain what I know.

 

Usually there's a long pause, and then "...Oh."

 

:)

 

Lead by quiet example.

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  • 1 year later...

Has anyone come up with a fifteen word or less (roughly) explanation for whole30? because it seems that people that ask or give me a look when I order, they just want to hear something very short. I say I'm doing a whole 30, it's really similar to paleo, it's like a 30 day clean eating challenge. I know it's not completely accurate, but it satisfies them, and they don't seem to want to know more (unless on the off chance they do, I can explain more).

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I say I'm cutting processed foods and potential allergens out of my diet for a while. Keep it simple ;)

 

Good one! I recently tried the "nothing but whole foods" with my niece. At her look of "huh?!" I tossed out "If it passed through a factory door, it doesn't pass through my lips" and the result was.... she promised to make me some homemade cookies so I could have "something good that didn't come from a factory". That one comment has been giving me huge bouts of amusement for days now! (And not to worry... her follow-up skills are non-existent.)

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Keep in mind that there are a lot of people that associate the word "healthy" with things that are not necessarily "healthy".  Like ordering a salad with just lettuce and shredded carrots, opting out of the hard boiled egg AND the dressing because fat is bad (healthy?), or eating a football sized chipotle burrito but it's OK because you got brown rice and no sour cream (healthy??).

 

Since my coworkers had a bit of a condescending attitude about it, I've just been saying what Britishgal has written. I eat real food and eliminated the things that people often have trouble with like beans, soy, dairy, etc, and if I find that those things don't effect me, then I'll take them back into my diet.

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Keep in mind that there are a lot of people that associate the word "healthy" with things that are not necessarily "healthy". Like ordering a salad with just lettuce and shredded carrots, opting out of the hard boiled egg AND the dressing because fat is bad (healthy?), or eating a football sized chipotle burrito but it's OK because you got brown rice and no sour cream (healthy??).

Since my coworkers had a bit of a condescending attitude about it, I've just been saying what Britishgal has written. I eat real food and eliminated the things that people often have trouble with like beans, soy, dairy, etc, and if I find that those things don't effect me, then I'll take them back into my diet.

I don't mention "healthy" for that reason. My mother, for example, firmly believes (because she has always been told) that you HAVE to have whole grains and calcium from milk and other things to be healthy and worries about me. She thinks healthy meals are porridge it beans on toast...this is a woman who spent the 80s eating little more than all bran, prunes and skimmed milk. She is obsessed with my (perfectly healthy) cholesterol and thinks my arteries are horrific.

Also there is soooo much info around and on tv here about healthy foods such as rapeseed oil and fruit juices and other things. It's a minefield.

I actually lie to my mother and say I eat rice and oats although I don't...she worries...

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Just this past weekend several people told me that recent discoveries indicate that Paleolithic people ate grains. I explained to them that eating Paleo isn't supposed to be an exact reenactment of the time period, and that Whole30 is different from Paleo, anyway.

 

I think I did a good job of explaining it, but folks seem to get a big kick out of trying to expose Paleo eaters as hypocritical or inconsistent. It's really irksome. But I just highlight how great I feel. And several of these people did note how much energy I have.

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It's like they expect us (everyone who says they eat paleo) to have a hive mind and agree rabidly about everything. Real life is rarely that neat and tidy, though, so they think we're all hoaxes because some people who eat paleo allow honey or white potatoes but some people say that neither of those are paleo. Some paleo people eat "paleo baked goods" and some don't.

 

I usually just say that I enjoy a lot of paleo/primal recipes (for my life post-W30) and leave it at that. It leaves room so that they don't assume that "she said she was paleo/primal so she must fit my exact mental image of what that looks like." Or I just say I eat real food.

 

I avoid the "clean eating" label because that has a ton of different connotations...one time I clicked on a pin on pinterest out of curiosity and realized the caption was about how mad this person gets when people say a recipe is clean eating but it includes meat and blah blah blah vegan rant. Um...people, no one out there is policing things up. Especially with vague labels like "clean eating" - there isn't exactly a clean eating board that reviews whether something is or isn't "clean."

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  • 8 months later...

I should have read this post before I went out last night and everyone was asking me:  but doesn't meat give you inflammation because it's a protein?  Isn't coconut milk really high in saturated fat and going to give you high cholesterol?  Why can't you have white wine instead of red wine since only red wine has the sulfates?  ETC.  I came home feeling so frustrated with not being able to/having to defend myself.  I can not remember all the research and reasons why whole30 is a good way of addressing your sugar dragon, learning how your body responds to food.  I have a foot issue that is gone now that I'm whole30 (only day 6-but haven't had it) and even trying to explain that reason was hard.  Just needed to vent.  

 

Beth

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