One of the assignments wrapping up our nutrition program was to write on convincing someone (or swaying them away from) to do a Whole30. I've had the discussion about good food with a couple of my friends, coworkers, and family members, and sometimes it really burns me up inside.
This is the first thing I have to say, right: if I can do it, anybody can do it. I am stubborn as hell but that doesn't always translate in to will power. And I, of all people, haven't touched cheese for 2 months or even fruit for 30 days. It sounds so ridiculous and restrictive when you hear it from the context of the person with the standard American diet. It blew my mind because I'd spent 10 years thinking the only was I was going to lose weight was eating fat-free Yoplait with wheat germ and pounding diet coke.
It frustrates me, and it makes me legitimately sad, to see so many people around me struggling with their weight and their health and making really permanent, invasive choices like weight loss surgery when the answer is right here. It is so powerful, and simultaneously so controversial, that it's scary. I have eaten more food, and more FAT, than I ever have in my life, and I have never felt so good. I no longer take any anxiety medication, and I have drastically reduced the dosage on my blood sugar medication. Actually, as I write this post, I am not taking any. (I also lost 40 pounds)
It is so deceptively easy. Don't eat any sugar (ANY sugar), grains, dairy, legumes, or alcohol for at least 30 days. Instead, eat real, good, whole foods. That's it. You don't even need a book.
If you want to make a powerful change in your life, this is for you. If you are curious to know how good you could really feel, this is for you. If you are sick and tired of living life from caffiene hit to sugar fix to glass of wine to stumble out of bed to do it all over again, this is for you.
But this is also not necessarily for you. I am not talking about people who are ignorant because they don't know better (start here)-- I am talking about people who willfully refuse to take control of their own lives. If you won't eat healthy food because "you don't like it", this isn't for you. (Guess what, I don't like paying taxes.) If you won't take control of your own kitchen, your own pantry, your own grocery store trips -- this isn't for you. Yeah, it requires a lot of time and it requires work and it will probably require some botched attempts in the kitchen But don't tell me it's too much time (I did it while working full-time, taking 2 grad school classes, freelancing, and training about 10 hours a week). Don't tell me it's too expensive. You will find an excuse around every corner and under every rock if you look for one, and excuses are useless.
I will be your biggest cheerleader, your resource, your rock, but only if you want it. I can't want it for you -- nobody can want it for you. Nobody wanted it for me besides me. No matter how deeply in love I am with my new lifestyle and no matter how desperately I want to share it with you, I cannot make you try and I cannot make you believe if you're not ready to.
This is the only body you will get in your entire life. If you aren't willing to fight for it, who is? If you're not willing to try 30 days of something, a drop in the bucket of the scheme of your entire life, what are you willing to try?
No, it's not going to be easy.
It's going to be worth it
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