Gosh guys! Never knew we were soo on trend… jk! I spent last night searching on Youtube for some Whole30 videos to share with you and found a bunch of hits via American news channels. Seeing as I have not been back in the States for sometime… I figured one or two were worth watching. But was it really?
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVqIS5B4jIQ]
I can’t get “Whole30 Dieters” out of my brain! I feel so taken back by this title because not once during our Whole30 Challenge Team Meetings have my clients or myself said that we were doing the Whole30 to “shed extra pounds”, “lose baby weight”, or experience “rapid weight-loss”. Don’t believe me… just ask them! They will be the first to tell you why they are doing the Whole30 or read more here.
Our top two shared reasons for starting the Whole30 were…
- To quit sugar addictions or sugar cravings
- To see how the body feels & learn what the body really needs
And now… here at the end of our Whole30 with the worst behind us and the end in sight, weight-loss is still not our main focus and has never been. Just as Melissa Hartwig said in the film clip, and as described in the Whole30 Program Guidelines, the Whole30 is a nutritional reset not a raid weight-loss plan for #Beach2014. If weight-loss is your only motivation for doing the Whole30 you are going to find the 30 days long, extremely unpleasant, and risk a high chance of being unsuccessful.
How do I know… because I’ve been there! (cough cough) Yes. Here I am coming clean… I have attempted the Whole30 once before during a time in my life when I placed a greater emphasis on the external motivator of weight-loss vs. an internal motivator of feeling better on the inside and out. I did not plan ahead. I did not want to stop drinking. I did not want to give up dairy or sugar. And to be honest, I am not sure I knew that I wasn’t aloud to eat processed lunch meat – or perhaps I just didn’t care. I wanted to look fit and back then that was my only motivation. And I bet you know how this ends… it ended with me being frustrated, unhappy, and unsuccessful in making a change.
How do I feel looking back on that now… the feelings are mixed. Let’s just say that there often times when I am training a client and I say, “I know how you feel.” Well… I do. It’s why I do what I do… It’s what makes me a relatable personal trainer. I know because I’ve also made a change. And change is hard.
Telling yourself that doing the Whole30 will give you a six pack is a lie you want to believe. You have to be ready to make a change. You have to be ready for it to be hard at times. You have to want to make the change for yourself. Not for your spouse, not because your girlfriends are doing it, not because it’s the hottest trend diet… but because YOU actually want to make a change and are willing to set 30 days aside to practice building new habits and reflect on those which you did previously. The Whole30 is about learning how food affects us psychologically and physiologically. And on the other side of the Whole30 is the reward of feeling the best you have ever felt, and gaining a better understanding for what you as an individual need to be the best version of yourself.
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