Whole30: It’s not your average diet

Some people have criticized the Whole30 Program diet for being overly restrictive.  They say that it cuts out so much that it becomes difficult for the average person to follow it.  I get what they are saying, but it has to be that way.  The Whole30 diet is not just a diet plan to help you lose weight.  It is, in a sense, an elimination diet as well, which means that you cut out a range of typical problem foods for an extended period so that you can get them out of your system.  Then you reintroduce each type of food one by one to see if your body reacts negatively to it.  Can you see how important this is?  Some people suffer unnecessarily from the negative effects of the foods they are eating but don’t even know it.  Following the Whole30 diet can help them identify the offending foods and enjoy freedom from the debilitating effects once and for all, if the individual chooses to ban the food from their diet forever.

So yes, the Whole30 diet is restrictive, but that’s what sets it apart from other healthy eating programs.  You have to go all the way with it or you haven’t done it at all – in other words, you can’t do the Whole30 during the week and relax on the weekends.  You don’t allot for cheat days.  You have to pretty much eat whole foods, for the whole 30 days, and you have to follow the whole program.  If you modify the program in any way, you’re not doing the Whole 30 – you’re doing something else.

That’s why we believe that it’s so important that you thoroughly review the program rules and pray about your decision before you commit to the program.  It will take some work, but it doesn’t have to be hard.  With adequate preparation, you’ll be good to go.  That’s why we’ve set the challenge to begin more than two weeks after we first announced it.  We wanted to make sure that you had plenty of time to get your mind right and prepare.  Rest assured that Shawn and I are here to support you all the way.  We’ve already started eating in line with the Whole30 Program so that we would have already faced some of the challenges that you may encounter and can better help you through them.

You can do this!  You can do the Whole30 Program and you can do it all the way.  The next post will offer tips on preparing for the challenge both mentally and practically.

Let us know in the comments if there are other topics that you’d like us to cover in future posts to help you successfully complete the challenge.