Whole 30 challenge

Over at the forum, people are all gung ho about doing a whole 30 challenge in May.
Looking at the rules, to me, that would make a big challenge for several reasons, while other parts might even be easy.
I've copied the rules (www.notnormajean.freeforums.net/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=79&page=2) and interspersed them with my personal thoughts on them.Paragraphs with bullet points are from the forum.

•Do not consume added sugar of any kind, real or artificial. No maple syrup, honey, agave nectar, Splenda, Equal, Nutrasweet, xylitol, stevia, etc. Read your labels (and your Success Guide FAQ), because companies sneak sugar into products in ways you might not recognize.

That should be relatively easy, as I barely ever use sugar anyway.

•Do not consume alcohol, in any form, not even for cooking. (And it should go without saying, but no tobacco products of any sort, either.)

The two red flags... if the thought of giving up my single after-work glass of beer makes me balk like that perhaps I'd better get out of the habit.... And tobacco? I still smoke about a pack a day, and the last time I quit for a longer period of time I gained those thirty kilos I just got rid of. So, going smokeless is scary stuff to me. More so if I should cut down on other things at the same time, too.

•Do not eat grains. This includes (but is not limited to) wheat, rye, barley, oats, corn, rice, millet, bulgur, sorghum, amaranth, buckwheat, sprouted grains and all of those gluten-free pseudo-grains like quinoa. Yes, we said corn… for the purposes of this program, corn is a grain! This also includes all the ways we add wheat, corn and rice into our foods in the form of bran, germ, starch and so on. Again, read your labels.

Going without rice and pasta? Not what I am used to but doable. The other stuff has mostly gone from my shopping list anyway.

•Do not eat legumes. This includes beans of all kinds (black, red, pinto, navy, white, kidney, lima, fava, etc.), peas, chickpeas, lentils, and peanuts. No peanut butter, either. This also includes all forms of soy – soy sauce, miso, tofu, tempeh, edamame, and all the ways we sneak soy into foods (like lecithin).

No peanuts? Oy vey! If there is any one food that I never allow myself to run out of it's peanuts. But perhaps almonds would serve as well?

•Do not eat dairy. This includes cow, goat or sheep’s milk products such as cream, cheese (hard or soft), kefir, yogurt (even Greek), and sour cream… with the exception of clarified butter or ghee. (See below for details.)

That one would be hard. I use milk in my coffee, eat greek yoghurt and use cheese when cooking or as a snack food. And the protein powder I use has milk protein, too, so it would probably come under this as well as under the soybean interdiction above.

•Do not consume carrageenan, MSG or sulfites. If these ingredients appear in any form on the label of your processed food or beverage, it’s out for the Whole30.

Doable if one watches out for ingredients.

•Do not eat white potatoes. This is somewhat arbitrary, but if we are trying to change your habits and improve the hormonal impact of your food choices, it’s best to leave white, red, purple, Yukon gold and fingerling potatoes off your plate. (Refer to your Success Guide FAQ for details).

I rarely ever buy potatoes anyway, so this one is easy.


So, the things I'd find hard to give up completely are peanuts, milk, alcohol and cigarettes.
Among the forum crowd, the latter two problems would probably earn me a good dressing-down.
Actually, the milk and peanuts part is as scary.
Then again, what I mostly use them for is snacking. Eating them, not as part of a meal, but as something to grab on the go and snarf down, all too often while doing something else.

Giving up all of those at once? What would I do/ eat instead?

Especially, what would I do if nicotine withdrawal were driving me up the walls? I could not even take peppermint drops or chewing gum to fight those cravings. Chewing on a stalk of celery instead?

Just thinking about all of this makes me realize how many things I have allowed to become habits which probably aren't good for me. Giving them up for thirty days might thus be a good idea.
There I go again, sitting on the fence.
Maybe I should rather jump.


Julia