Soft start?

[Miss Margaret]

Hi, everyone -

I read about the Whole30 program in a recent NYT article, and am very excited to start. I've given up sugar for the next two weeks, until a trip in January. I tried that before Christmas, and realized how much I used it to avoid feeling my emotions. I want to lose about 5 lbs, and do something about persistent belly fat. 

But...I have committed travel dates in January, February, and March, which will mean I can't commit to a 30 day program until mid-March! The best I can do is 23 days. Does anyone have any thoughts or opinions about a shorter start?

Thanks!

Margaret

 

[ladyshanny]

You'll never go wrong in following teh Whole30 principles for as many days in a row as you can string together. It won't be an official Whole30 until you can get that full 30 days complete but there is absolutely no downside to doing what you have outlined above.

Except the one downside.  If you consistently do 3 or 7 or 10 days of Whole30 and then go bezerk with sugar and grains in between and then come back to Whole30, all you'll ever experience is the sucky beginning part of coming down off of sugar and cookies because you never arrive at fat adaptation. Your better bet is to string together as many days as you can but don't go so far off the rails in between. The "magic" tends to come from fat adaptation and hormonal balancing which often only happens near the mid to end of the program.  And of course, we really recommend that eventually you commit to 30 days.

[Miss Margaret]

Thanks for the quick response! I've read through the links in your signature.

You are SO right about the relationship between binging and how hard it is to come back to better choices. I had quite a bit of sugar over Christmas. Today is Day 2 back on the no sugar plan and I'm feeling more pain than I did when I fasted from sugar a month ago. Thanks for the motivation to eat a few scones in England, but maybe not all the chocolate.  

I want to commit to 30 days, and have put a firm date on my calendar to do that at the first opportunity. In the meantime, I'll do a Whole23 starting in February. Looking forward to it!

M