JWJones Posted September 25, 2013 Share Posted September 25, 2013 Hi everybody, I have been considering doing the Whole30 for quite some time, and transitioning to a paleo lifestyle. I finally started this past Monday, Sept. 23. Background: Having spent 12 years working in the retail natural foods grocery business, being an organic gardener, and having more than a passing interest in natural healing and herbalism, I'm pretty well aware of healthy lifestyles, the problems of our industrial food production system, etc. At the age of 15 I became a vegetarian. At the age of 19 I adopted the macrobiotic diet. Between then and now (age 47), I have eaten pretty well, generally, but somewhere along the way began to question the wisdom of a grain-based diet, and noticed things in myself that I found troubling, such as general sluggishness, heaviness, irritability, etc. So I did some studying and experimenting, and found that I was much happier/healthier eating a diet based on meats, fish, eggs, veggies, fruits, nuts, and seeds. Aside from occasional cheeses and butter, I already avoid dairy products, so that part is easy for me: they flat-out make me feel awful. So, I'm on my way, and already feel much better: happy, alert, energetic, vital. My breathing seems clearer, and my gut is noticeably happier. I'm looking forward to how I feel after 30 days of this. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wynne Jones Posted September 25, 2013 Share Posted September 25, 2013 Wonderful, John! Our paths getting here couldn't be more different ( I read a book on macrobiotics, had a panic attack, ate a ho-ho, and moved on) but I'm hopeful we'll both have great success. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWJones Posted September 25, 2013 Author Share Posted September 25, 2013 Wynne, I don't believe I have ever had a ho-ho in my entire life, hahaha. Tonight should be an interesting challenge: my wife and I are going to a dinner party. The food will be Persian. It might not necessarily be too bad, from a paleo standpoint, except for possibly dairy, rice, and garbanzo beans. Hopefully there's some nice roasted meat, veggies, and salad available, without goopy sauces or nasty dressings. We'll see! My wife is making baklava for it, which is delicious, but I'm not tempted to eat any, fortunately. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWJones Posted September 26, 2013 Author Share Posted September 26, 2013 So, I didn't really state any sort of goal in doing the Whole30. A female friend of ours at the dinner party last night asked "You look great, why are you doing this?" To which I replied, "Well, I've noticed that eating grains tends to make me feel bloated, sluggish, and sleepy, and I'm also wondering what effect it has on my seasonal allergies." I suffer from pretty bad hayfever during the months of about mid-April to early-July. Even when I did macrobiotics, my hayfever didn't go away, and I suspect that was due to the grain-centeredness of macrobiotics. It occurred to me that many people enter into something like this hoping to primarily lose weight, which is an issue I don't have. I am an avid cyclist, and bike at least 12 miles a day, at a brisk "training" pace, although I don't race any more. The dinner party was pretty navigable, food-wise. There were a couple of rice and chicken dishes, one sweet and one savory, in which the chicken was in the form of large, easily-separable-from-the-rice pieces, without gooey sauces. There was a simple salad of tomato, cuke, onion, and mint leaves (no dressing!), and there were "veggie condiments" in the form of raw onion slices, basil leaves, and mint leaves. So that was pretty good! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SharynF Posted September 26, 2013 Share Posted September 26, 2013 sounds like things are going well John. Great dinner party! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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