Committing to a Diet – My First Steps in the Whole 30

Amelie, my friend I told you about in my previous post, managed to convince me to give her diet a chance. Turns out it wasn’t just any diet on which you stay hungry for a while and then binge as much as you like. Besides, I wasn’t supposed to lose a crazy amount of weight – like 30lb in a week.

In fact, her diet is a very sensible, healthy approach to food. It’s a programme called the Whole 30 and that just about sums up what it’s about – eat whole foods for 30 days. Easy-peasy! But when I kept reading, it turned out you’re supposed to have:

• NO sugar
• NO dairy
• NO grains
• NO legumes
• NO alcohol

Well, that was a list of everything I was eating! The 30 days didn’t seem like 30 days any more but more like forever. Not only that but there were tiny things that were also vital, as tiny as salt. On the programme website, I learnt that “all iodized table salt contains sugar”. Sugar? In salt?

Once I started, I was pleasantly surprised. It wasn’t half as bad as I’d expected. I could still have my coffee in the morning, though I could have neither sugar nor milk with it. And don’t even mention Bavarian cream doughnuts.

I normally get really temped by dairy and bread but that didn’t happen. I was full eating protein at every meal and lots of healthy fats, such as coconut oil and olive oil. I ate mostly roasted fish, pork, lamb or poultry with roasted vegetables – tomatoes, mushrooms, kale, broccoli, Brussels sprouts – with garlic or onions and a lot of fresh herbs.

I also made a clean-your-fridge stew – I took everything out, chopped it up, threw it in a pot, and simmered until tender. That not only tasted delish but gave me more time to rest as I didn’t need to cook that much. Talking about rest, I stayed home every night. I had my reasons. First, I didn’t dare eat out – who knows what oil they’d put in my salad or what preservatives would be in the dressing. Second, I needed to cook a lot – and not my usual “cooking” that involved opening a can of tuna and pouring me some wine. Finally, I needed to get enough sleep – at least 10 hours of sleep, sometimes more.

Oddly enough, I didn’t crave chocolate or sweets as much as I’d expected – maybe because I got plenty of berries from the farmers’ market to snack on. Did you know that a frozen banana in your smoothie makes it all creamy and you won’t even notice there’s no dairy in it?

As for online casino games, I’m thinking of quitting them… “Wait, what?” I hear you say. Haha, I got you! I’m just pulling your leg. Of course, I wouldn’t go back on my decision so soon. I’m just shifting the focus to dieting for a while but I’ll be back to writing about gambling shortly.