The Whole30 Experience…
Looks good and it’s all Whole30 approved!
Congratulations to the Titan Team for completing the Whole30 diet. For those of you wondering what it is all about, you can find our intro to it here as well as our progress report here. Alternatively, you can check out the Whole30 website here which is a great resource to find out everything you would need to know.
“Let food be thy medicine, and let medicine be thy food”
In quick summary, the Whole30 diet consists of a 30-day challenge in which individuals are restricted to certain (generally “clean” foods) that also aims to identify problem foods (i.e. those foods you may have a tendency to overindulge on, even if it is healthy). Foods you cannot eat include grains (all breads, rice), milk products, alcohol, added sugars, as well as MSG/Sulphites/Carageenans; you also are not supposed to take any body measurements over the 30 days period. You can find more detailed rules here.
Each of our team members has their own unique experiences over the 30-day period. Here is a summary of their pros, cons, and general thoughts on the experience.
Mark LeGear
My feelings about the Whole30 plan are mixed.
So let’s start with what I like about the Whole30 plan:
I like that the main focus of the plan is not about weight loss or body image. Too often we focus on outward results for weight loss. This has many disadvantages that I won't get into here but to sum it up succinctly: it doesn't work for long term change.
The plan helps educate you on the nutritional and ingredient breakdown of food. By needing to closely read ingredient lists you become much more aware of what is in the food you eat. Knowing what you eat is a very important part of healthy eating.
Helps you to identify foods that may be consumed too frequently. By cutting out some of your regular foods, you can learn to appreciate how much you may rely on certain foods for your daily eating.
“...the main focus of the plan is not about weight loss or body image.”
Now for the more negative parts:
It is easy to learn to play the game. I found it was easy to find foods that were Whole30 approved that could be really tasty and high calorie as well. For example, potatoes can become a staple in this plan very easily—this can limit the overall benefit of the plan.
Short term-it is only 30 days so that long term sustainability is not the goal of the plan. In my opinion, long term change is where you will have long term success.
To follow point two: The plan requires a high level of reflection to get any long term benefit. Not everyone wants to write an essay about how certain foods affect themselves and their emotions. If you complete the plan without much effort in the reflection piece, I feel it will be a waste of time for any long-term result.
Potatoes are a go so you may find you needs lots of ‘em…
In terms of my personal results, I lost some weight and a couple inches around my waist. Now while these results can be seen as impressive from a pure numbers stand point, I feel the numbers are altogether not all that helpful for any long term results unless you make long-term change. I think the Whole30 diet can be useful for some people but I think that for the majority I expect limited long-term change. It was an interesting challenge and I plan on reading the longer book version of the plan (see the book here) to review it in more depth. Good work on completing the challenge Titan Project!
Alex Gerwing
Pros:
1. You can mindlessly snack, care free- The ability to eat as much as you want as long as it was Whole30 approved led me to gorge myself on veggies during meal prep and feel totally fine about it after.
2. No more odour- My sweat stopped smelling and I had zero gas, 'nuff said!
3. Brings more mindfulness to what you're putting in your body- I have always thought of myself as a pretty mindful eater but Whole30 forced me to read every food label in the grocery store and brought attention to how much additional sugar and soy is in food. I will be reading a lot more labels going forward.
For endless snacking snap peas are a great option…
“My sweat stopped smelling and I had zero gas, ‘nuff said!”
Cons:
1. Social Awkwardness- While there are lots of things you can still eat on Whole30, there are way more things you can't and it is very firm about that. The rigidness of the diet made eating out or eating at other people's places close to impossible.
2. Meal Prep- Unless you want to spend the entire 30 days eating celery and almonds, meal prep is incredibly important and can take up quite a bit of time.
3. Low Energy- I spent the first 3.5 weeks with lower energy levels and found exercise to be very difficult. As someone who has a 90% vegetarian diet, I struggled to find the extra calories I cut out with dairy, legumes and soy.
Cameron Chow
My personal experience with the Whole30 diet was certainly a unique one. As someone who has no previous sensitivity to any of the food groups eliminated in this diet, I found myself struggling to adjust to how I now needed to eat. Personally I started off rather strong and around the second week I struggled on the dietary adjustments. Closer to the end of the experiment I really started noticing major changes both physically and mentally. Here are a few pros and cons from my experience:
Pros
Craving Control: As a person with a major sweet tooth and snacking habits, I found it useful to have some restriction to what I was allowed to eat on a daily basis. I eat a lot of cereal otherwise and this experiment cut those cravings down and even made me crave them less afterwards.
Willpower Improvement: Setting goals is a great way of challenging yourself to become stronger willed. I found myself struggling heavily with cravings at times but knowing I would be done with the diet and able to say I completed it was a huge motivator!
Mindfulness Eating: Again touching on craving control but also knowing what your body needs over wants became super evident half way through the diet. I found myself thinking more about what my body needed rather than wanted.
We found out how much Cam loves cereal… He definitely ate the first bowl and is preparing for his second serving in this picture.
Cons
Restrictions: As someone without any sensitivities to any of the Whole30 focused foods, it felt unnecessarily strict at times.
Major Shock to the System: The human body is certainly adaptive to its environment as well as its dietary conditioning, but cutting out key food groups could have an adverse effect on your physical and mental health. I personally felt my body and mind struggling to adapt to the massive shift.
Calorie Intake: Cutting out sugar, alcohol, and grains is certainly not an abnormality in this day and age; however, cutting out legumes takes out a large group of foods that can be in high in caloric density (and is quite nutritious). This left me eating a large influx of nuts and other proteins to try and fill the requirements for my body; as it progressed, this became more and more difficult (see closing remarks below).
“This left me eating a large influx of nuts and other proteins to try and fill the requirements for my body.”
Now with all of those things being said I had the most notable body changes out of our group in terms of physical results. In the 30 days of this experiment I lost a total of 20lbs: a substantial amount of weight loss that would fall outside of healthy ranges. In terms of general health I felt rather weak, tired, irritable and just not my usual self. My results were obviously in the extreme and was quite a shock to the system; with that said, it is an experience that I won’t forget but also one that I won’t likely try again.
A lot of delicious Whole30 approved food…
Tyler LeGear
I always like a challenge and am a huge advocate for voluntary discomforts (see my blog post on Voluntary Discomforts) so was naturally drawn to giving the Whole30 diet a go. Here is a list of what I liked about the diet:
Focus on behavioral change- the diet doesn’t aim for a short term change (i.e. weight loss), but rather on longer term behavioral change. When we think of “diet” it inherently suggests that the change is short-term which is why so many of these proposed miracle diets fail. And while the Whole30 diet is short-term, it is for a very specific time frame that looks at changing behavior (for the long term).
Restrictive on food, not calories- while some may struggle with the food restrictions, it is not a starvation diet. I ate well over the course of the 30-days and put on 1-lb without any changes in body measurements (i.e. overall there were no significant changes in my body composition)
Highlights your habits- we all have habits when it comes to food and there were a few I had that were worth reflecting on. Eating a cookie in the morning and afternoon with my coffee wasn’t necessary; similarly, having popcorn each night probably isn’t the best choice and is better served as a treat (or at the very least, with less oil!)
“When we think of ‘diet’ it inherently suggests that the change is short-term which is why so many of these proposed miracle diets fail.”
And what I didn’t like:
Too restrictive- during the 30-days there were times where it felt selfish as opposed to being about “good health.” Turning down people’s thoughtful food they’ve prepared that is healthy but doesn’t conform to the Whole30 rules didn’t feel right. I don’t feel that it is something that is sustainable in a social world without putting yourself first in the wrong way too often.
In some ways it’s not restrictive enough- while it is super restrictive, certain things are allowed which don’t make a ton of sense. Juice, for example, is okay, but I would hardly call it healthy or nutritionally dense. Potatoes are also okay: so, most us, consumed vast amounts of potatoes over the 30 days to make up for a lot of the other foods we couldn’t have (like rice or quinoa). Having that much potatoes doesn’t feel “healthy” to me (and I feel it is actually a problematic food for a lot of people, especially when consumed as hashbrowns or fries).
Work hard for…? While I highlighted above that there was no change in body composition as a “positive” at the same time, why bother? On a similar note, there was not measurable change in my physical performance with my workouts. Why work hard on restricting things when there is no meaningful impact? In fairness, I was eating well before starting the Whole30; but, for someone like myself, there seems to be little benefit to continuing such a way of eating for the long-term.
I did enjoy the experience of doing the Whole30 and it made each meal seem more purposeful. I will, too, make some changes long-term, including eating less grains, baked goods, and popcorn. So, ultimately, it helped me eat cleaner food and identify habits that could use some improvement. If someone were asking if they should try it, I would definitely give it a green light.
A job well done by the Titan team!
Overall it was a great accomplishment for our team as we all continue to grow and challenge ourselves on a daily basis. If you have any questions or comments, please let us know below. Thanks for reading!
-Tyler