I spent close to 2 years on the 4 Hour Body plan wth good results. I lost a ton of fat and was able to keep it off by following the simple plan. My weight loss had plateaued but it was as at okay number and I felt good. During Thanksgiving week last year I was bored and hungry so I took a week off and promptly gained 10 pounds. I wasn’t worried because I’d been able to drop weight easily by getting back on the plan. Only it didn’t work this time. I never got “strict” about being back on the plan and I was stuck with that 10 pounds until this month. A friend of ours posted on Facebook that she’d just finished something called a #Whole30 and she was excited to get back to eating food again. I did some reading on it and figured I could probably use the reset and a tight ruleset to kick my self back into gear when it comes to paying attention to food.

So I am spending the month of May working on a new “diet challenge” (what a weird expression. is that the gamification of food?). The Whole 30 program is a “nutritional reset” that uses the paleo diet as a foundation. The gist is that you cut the most common problem-causing foods out of your diet and get to where you’re just eating eggs, meat, vegetables, fruit, fish and nuts. That means no grains, no sugar, no dairy, no alcohol(!), no legumes, no white potatoes, and no MSG (or other sulfites). It’s strict.

Cut out all the psychologically unhealthy, hormone-unbalancing, gut-disrupting, inflammatory food groups for a full 30 days. Let your body heal and recover from whatever effects those foods may be causing. Push the “reset” button with your metabolism, systemic inflammation, and the downstream effects of the food choices you’ve been making.

I don’t come to this from a place of where I’m looking for answers to why I feel bad. I don’t have gut trouble or joint pain that might be the result of some gluten or dairy incompatibility. I felt bad because I was eating like garbage, not exercising enough, and probably having too many drinks. In Whole 30 I found a framework I could sit in for a month and get back to right.

The initial adjustment wasn’t so bad. The carb and beer quitting pains were way worse when I started the 4HB so the feelings weren’t anything new or unexpected. A big positive for us was Michelle discovering the joy of a juicer so we’ve been having lots of our vegetables by the glass. The trickiest part has been getting enough calories in a day. I still feel kind of run down even after a meal.

I miss drinks, too. May was not a great choice for this plan. Craft beer week is this month, the (beer friendly) pool opens, and the warm weather means it’s time for dusk beers on the back porch. I’ve been sticking to the plan well enough and I’m halfway through.