My Whole30 Journey

It’s often complicated to explain to people the “why” of my Whole30. It is an experience that 5 years ago if you were telling me about it, I too, would have tilted my head in wonder. What? You aren’t going to eat sugar, any grains, legumes or dairy. You know that means no late night peanut butter and banana toast, right? No lasagna. No yogurt. No pizza. No, No, NO. Seriously that's just weird. There is nothing left. No food, no family dinners, no love. Food and family are my life. It’s not in the 5 Love Languages book, but should be. Food, preparing it, serving it, gathering around the table - my love language. 

Let me take you a little further down the path of the last few years. Just a little over 4 years ago, I met my husband Troy. We had a delightful coffee date that quickly led to more dinners as we dug deep into the knowledge of each other. Strange thing - Troy always ordered taco salad. Seriously people, always. When you are falling deeply and quickly in love, you don’t really think about things like, he always orders taco salad. But one day it came out - the truth that made me think - can this work? He informed me he was gluten intolerant. WHAT? What does that even mean? What did he eat? Could I live a life of taco salad upon taco salad?

I’m no quitter. So I quickly dug into this gluten free lifestyle. I got books. I read blogs. I even attempted his favorite dessert, lemon bars, gluten free of course, for our wedding rehearsal dinner. They were, in fact, disgusting but it was too late for him to back out. This was not going to be easy.

Soon after we wed, on one of our regular pilgrimages to Costco, I saw a book by Danielle Walker called “Against All Grain”. It was pretty and the food looked delicious. I bought it. I wish I could tell you that everything changed on that day. But when I took the book home, read the ingredients, tried to make sense of it all, I struggled. People! I am in my 50’s. This is a lot of re-training. I bought every type of alternate flour that was out there. Every kind. At that point, I wasn’t even thinking about gut health or sugar addiction. I was thinking, how do I keep creating food the way I always have without gluten. That’s all. Danielle Walker didn’t use sugar. She didn’t use dairy. Honestly, it just was too much for my brain. I tried a few gluten free recipes, hoping to recreate the food I knew and loved without the gluten that made my husband sick. I was very unsuccessful. The food was hard. Dry. Gross.

So we ate Taco Salad.

Then, one day, I ran across the book, “It Starts With Food”, by Melissa Hartwig. My interest was peaked. You see, even though I considered myself a healthy individual, I had the normal issues of everyone my age it seemed. I was tired. Easy to explain, I had a stressful job, a big family, I volunteered. Of course I was tired. My knees hurt.  A lot. Well, my knees had hurt for years. No big deal. Most likely arthritis. That’s normal for people my age, right? I had what I later understood as afternoon brain fog. Who doesn’t? Restless Leg Syndrome, lifelong problem. I learned to cope. 30 extra pounds - whatever. I’m a grandma. I look just fine. I ran a half marathon with these extra 30 pounds, I must need them :)

But this book, it intrigued me. Could cutting out certain foods really eliminate these issues? Were they really not the normal progression of age and a life well lived? I read it and I was excited. I researched. I read testimonials. I needed to try this 30 day food elimination plan and see for myself.

I harangued my family into doing our first Whole30 together. It took some bribery and not everyone was on board, but we started the journey - 5 of us.  It wasn’t easy. Different eliminations held different challenges for each of us. But, we were committed. We cleaned out the cabinets, emptied the fridge and journeyed through it.

This is what I will tell you now. Things have never been the same. In thirty days, my knees quit hurting, I had crazy energy, my RLS all but went away and I lost 14 pounds. It was not easy. I had no idea how much sugar I consumed and how hard eliminating it would be. I didn’t know how to eat out (which I love), so we basically didn’t. I felt sad sometimes, like I was giving up who I was; a baker and a cheesy casserole maker. I’ll also share that after our first Whole30 was completed, even with those amazing results, I did not do a proper reintroduction. I fell back into my old eating habits within 6 months. But for me, I think that was an important part of the journey because old symptoms of a life not well lived began to return. This time there was no denying why.

Today, I live a mostly paleo lifestyle with white potatoes thrown in because, well come on people… I’m learning to bake again and share my love of food in a new way. A better way. 

On May 1st, we will start another Whole30. It will be my 4th. I hope you will join in. Together we can do this. Change the way we understand food. Be better. Do better. Food is the best medicine friends. Let’s live this life well, together!

~Tami