Difficulty staying motivated

[EmilyGray]

I thought I would write this to see if someone might be able to provide me with some insight into my inconsistent motivation with my Whole 30 program.

I kind of stumbled on the Whole 30 last month after discovering Nom Nom Paleo. Prior to this I had a little background about the Paleo philosophy of eating. I had heard about it for years but didn't get curious enough to look into it until very recently.

I decided to try out the Whole 30 because the eating plan made sense. I could see the value of removing grains (I had already done this for the most part after reading Breaking the Vicious Cycle). I've never liked eating breakfast though and I'm not convinced eating small amounts of cream or cheese is particularly bad for me. So you could say I'm mostly, but not entirely convinced about the diet. What I mean is, I'm not entirely sure that all the rules of the Whole 30 are required for good health. I also have a hard time seeing how I would lose weight on this program, since the food portions aren't restricted.

Because I'm not entirely sold on the program at a theoretical level my Whole 30 has been less than perfect. I'm traveling for work right now too, which makes perfect adherence to the program a bit challenging as well. But because I'm not following the program perfectly I'm also not reaping the potential benefits (other than experiencing an increase in energy levels). I want to BELIEVE so that I can commit more whole heatedly, because I do want to feel better and lose weight.

I wonder if anyone can relate and provide me with some insights and ideas. By the way I have been reading through the posts in this forum and have read ISWF. So I 'know' the theory, I'm just not quite convinced.

Thank you :-)

[AmyS]

It's just 30 days. It's not for life. I think you just have to believe it's something you want to do for thirty days. If you're looking for a way to believe in something you don't actually believe in, I'm not sure how to help with that - others may have insights. But I'd say forget the belief thing and just pick thirty days and do it. After that you can skip breakfast and eat dairy and whatnot. Really, it's just thirty days.

Basically, don't overthink or overbelieve, just do thirty days.

(In the interest of full disclosure, I did my first Whole30 only because a friend said she did one and it gave her more mental clarity. Four months later, I'm working my way, laboriously, through ISWF. I appreciate a lot of what it says, but I don't like how the word "man" is used to refer to humanity; and I don't like the tone of the book much - the combination of "woohoo!" and "this is tough love" doesn't work for me at all, I think it's more of a thing sports people relate to. That's just me, though, lots of people rave about the book. But if I had to wait for belief based on the book I'd never have done a Whole30. So I'm sayin' to just do it for thirty days and see what happens.)

[EmilyGray]

Thanks so much for your reply Amy. I appreciate you pointing out that I might be over thinking this. Usually if I change my eating habits it's because I'm really sold on the theory behind an eating plan and this drives my motivation. These days I'm less easy to convince, however (about any kind of eating program), hence the problem.

It's just 30 days. Good point. Maybe I'm wasting my energy trying to be convinced from the start. Better to just try the program and see what results I experience. I'm certainly not concerned that the program is unhealthy. I do however wonder if that much meat is necessary. I was a vegetarian for 20 years and so I still have this sense that too much meat isn't healthy. Old ideas are hard to change?

Thanks again ... I will see if taking this more experimental approach with the program will help me :-)

[AmyS]

There are several former vegetarians here (at least one who spent several years high raw), they can probably address the meat issue in a way that makes sense to a long-time vegetarian.

The way you think about food is very admirable. I don't want to dismiss that at all. I mean, I switched from junk food to Whole30, so I admire anyone who thinks about what goes into their body. I just never did. Ever. Now I'm starting to, three Whole30s in. (snort) So, ya know, don't underthink like me! But yeah, it's not a twenty year commitment. It's something that maybe makes enough sense to you to try it for thirty days. Bada bing, bada boom. You never know. It might be something you want to continue, it might not. I do weird stuff like make my own mayonnaise from scratch now, so who knows. The experience could be good.

[EmilyGray]

That's funny ... I might just get something interesting and unexpected out of this experience. Actually speaking of making your own mayonnaise, I spatchcocked my first chicken ever this weekend. This was a recipe from Nom Nom Paleo and I'm not sure if most folk know what spatchcocking a chicken is! Being a former vegetarian I'm a bit queasy about cooking meat and usually my husband cooks any meat we eat. But for some reason I was totally keen to cook this whole chicken. I certainly didn't predict that :-)

Good to know that there are other former vegetarians and even raw foodists connected to the Whole 30 community. Maybe I'll search the forum for this topic.

Thanks again :-)

[AmyS]

You spatchcocked a chicken? That's totally rad. I haven't done that yet. Awesome!

[Kirsteen]

Hi Emily, I was a vegetarian for years and a raw food vegan for a couple of years so I totally understand the squeamishness around meat. In the raw food movement, though it felt right ethically, it was the lack of science that bothered me. I was also ill and not getting any better on it. Anyway I'd read about Paleo years ago but dismissed it. I came across it again last year and started looking into it. Funnily enough I did love the Hartwiggs book. It was ISWF that convinced me to try it.

As Amy says it's only for 30 days. You say you're not convinced that small amounts of dairy are bad for you. Well, at the end of a W30, when you reintroduce them, you'll know for sure how your body reacts to it. How great is that? If you're fine with it, you absolutely know you're ok with it, you also know right away if it or anything else is having a negative effect on you.

I ended up doing a whole 60 and have eaten more or less this way ever since. I wrote a bit about it on day 51 at

http://forum.whole9life.com/topic/4369-captains-log-stardate-51/page__p__38577__hl__kirsteen__fromsearch__1#entry38577

any questions fire away.

[Zoodles]

I agree with all the others, treat it like an experiment, after 30 days you can go back to your cream cheese etc if you want to. I was in the same boat when I started my first Whole30, it seemed a bit extreme and unnecessary (no dairy??!!!), but being a scientist, it was an experiment and a challenge I couldn't resist. I had no intention of eating this way forever. Two whole30s later, I'm a convert, I feel so much better and my relationship with food is almost normal (haha). I thought I'd never be able to give up my daily cappuccino, feta cheese, yogurt... sigh... I do miss them in a way, but also have no desire to eat them. Weird.

Jump in and commit to the 30 days, you won't regret it! If you gain nothing else, you can confirm that you can still eat cream cheese etc with no ill effects on your health - yay!

[Kaleena]

I had been veg for 12 or 13 years and tried (red) meat for the first time last week. I'm still having a hard time dealing dealing with the idea that eating meat often is unhealthy and fattening.

[Moluv]

I can relate- but I wasn't skeptical about the whole30- I was skeptical about an almost identical eating plan my clinical nutritionist suggested to me about a year and a half ago. I had been vegetarian/vegan/raw/fasting for many years in my 20's, then just kind of trying a "balanced approach" but was just never quite happy with my weight and I thought I had ADHD. She suggested I was gluten intolerant and it still took months for me to commit 100% to that, and even though I felt a little better and went off my meds I still resisted her plan on issues like dairy and alcohol. I thought it was extreme and couldnt let go. When I came across the Whole 30 I was ripe for making a real change and I have been whole hog into the program and have reaped numerous rewards already. My recomendation is never stop learning, pay attention to how you feel. Are you 100% symptom free yet? Because you can be and if not there is still room to clean up your diet. I think the time will be right for you to commit to a Whole 30 days. Maybe it's after work travels are on hold for long enough. Those 30 days of clean eating are such a gift to give yourself and anyone can do it. You can gain so much insight and that is reason enough. Sorry for such the long post, brevity is not my thing.

[EmilyGray]

Thank you to everyone for your thoughtful replies! This is my first time writing on the forum and I just want to say how nice it is to hear from others who are participating in this Whole 30. I watched a TED talks video last night about a doctor who healed her MS symptoms using a paleo diet and this has helped me appreciate the nutrition found in meat.  I just always thought that meat and eggs were a heavy food that taxed the liver. When the liver is taxed, hormones go way out of balance. So it seems odd to have so much meat and eggs in a diet intended to balance hormones. Interestingly I'm not concerned about the fat content since the type of fats in this program are excellent.  I do feel more motivated however with a more experimental approach to the Whole 30. Thanks again to everyone