Manifesto

[Muddy]

So I'm hopping off this round of Whole30 early - Day 17, which was the plan. My holiday season starts tomorrow, and frankly, celebrating my family's gathering from all ends of the country with a glass of wine is something of a priority of mine.

 

I've been 100% compliant for this 17 days, though, and it's felt pretty good. Easy even. But here's the thing: Come January 1? There is NO WAY I AM EATING THIS MUCH MEAT EVER AGAIN. I'm going to be using beans, people. Properly soaked, forbidden beans.

Eating meat 2-3 meals a day (I'd eat eggs for at least one) was...GAH. I wasn't a vegetarian when I started W30, but I do have a decade of vegetarianism under my belt, for the reasons mentioned in the conscientious omnivore articles. I started eating meat when I was pregnant because I craved it, but I am currently neither gestating nor feeding anyone from my body. My meat standards slipped under this diet - I had to buy that green-washed Simple Truth stuff from Kroger, where the chickens are in bigger crappy cages. No more. Starting Jan 1, here are my rules:

Eat real food.
No sugar, grains, booze, peanuts, soy*
Template meals 3x a day, avoiding snacks
Eggs
Meat that meets my standards, which are high, maybe 1-2x a week
Beans as a protein as much as I want.

And lest you say, you'll screw with my results? Ummmm BAH. First of all, I don't have any interest in losing weight. I'm a lean mean running machine. Second, a mostly vegetarian W30 will cost between $200 and $300 less, if you rely on meat from ethical sources. Thirdly, well - there is no thirdly. You can say I'm not doing a W30 if I eat beans, and I can say, well...okay then. I can literally find no other sources that tell me that beans are bad for me. I'm adding 'em. And I can't wait.

 

If I come crawling back with digestive problems on day four, I promise I'll own it. But I can't eat that much animal. I just can't.

 

[GFChris]

Sounds like you've identified a way to ride your own bike after your Whole17 experiment. Best wishes on your approach.

If you're curious on sources for why legumes are elimnated on an omnivore Whole30, besides the legume chapter in It Starts With Food, there are several sources in the Master References appendix in the book.

Oh, and there is a vegetarian Whole30 that allows beans, properly prepared. Perhaps that could be another option for you to explore in the new year?

[Muddy]

I was thinking about just doing the VegW30, in part to detox from all this MEAT. However, I'm not sure I need to eliminate meat 100%, and I'm not sure I need to introduce dairy (yogurt, kefir) or soy in the form of tofu or tempeh, though I'm leaving my options open on both counts.

And the recommendation is against combining programs, which makes this hard to customize.
 

I do want to add most of this experience has been positive. I fell into a bit of a pie hole after I ran my (brushes off shoulder) first marathon this summer, and (not unrelated) sidelined myself with a pulled glute. This has gotten me back running, though I'm STILL being tender with this annoying injury, and has inspired me to focus on my eating again. ALSO, I love the breakfast. I'm a habitual breakfast skipper, and forcing myself to eat eggs and veggies in the mornings was absolutely a good thing.

[GFChris]

The Whole30 isn't intended to be customized. The Hartwigs designed it such that you follow one of the approaches (e.g., omnivore, vegetarian, aip, etc.) for 30 consecutive days. After which, you follow the reintro schedule for whatever foods you'd like to eat again or for which you're curious about your reaction. Armed with that data, then you decide how you want to eat going forward.

If you choose to combine different parts of the ominvore and vegetarian Whole30, that's certainly your prerogative: it just wouldn't be called a Whole30.

[Muddy]

Just like that. Out of the club! It's cool; I guess I'm willing to go rogue.

[missmary]

I hope you don't feel like you are being kicked out. I'm not doing a whole30 right now either, and neither is Chris, and we certainly feel we belong here. 

 

All that said. Although you are welcome to take what you learned in 17 days and make a new program yourself of whatever format you desire, at some point in the future I would encourage you to try 30 days of the whole30 program as written. It can take a while to get into the groove and figure out how to make the rules work best for your context. For example, knowing that a palm of protein is actually a small portion by american standards (your portions may have been bigger than necessary), and to combine that with fish and eggs in a frequency that feels best for you.

 

I would never have guessed that legumes are an issue for my body, probably not on day 17, but after 30 days and reintroduction I don't find them to be "worth it" very often. I don't know what you would find out, but I would say a  full 30 days+reintro would give you much better information to use to make that determination.

[Muddy]

We'll see I guess. I did have digestive issues, but they mostly cleared up when I of rid of gluten almost 3y ago (whoa that's long). My tolerance to beans went way UP with no gluten, too.

It's a well-taken point though. The appeal of this was the elimination aspect, really.