Whole30 Challenge!

After hearing about how well my sister Brandi has been doing since starting Cross Fit and eating the Paleo diet, Cody and I decided to try it out for ourselves!

We bought a book called It Starts With Food by Dallas and Melissa Hartwig, and I've been reading through it for the past couple of days. Cody's going to peruse it this weekend. The book talks about a lot of the science behind the Paleo diet, and it gives a challenge to follow their own version of the diet, which is actually more strict than the Paleo diet, for 30 days. Once the 30 days are up, a plan is laid out for you to reintroduce different food groups back into your diet so that you can see for yourself how different food groups impact your day to day.

The book has a lot of good information and it explains how different foods can mess with your hormones, causing your brain to think that your body is starving, and as a result tell your cells to burn sugar instead of fat for energy.

It also talks about your gut health and how certain food groups can lead to a leaky gut, allowing things that shouldn't be in your body to pass through your intestinal wall, causing your immune system to go haywire, leading to chronic inflammation which is not good.

It then goes on to tell you which food groups to avoid and why, and which ones to enjoy and why, and it includes a meal planning template and several Paleo recipes to mix and match.

Here are the basics of the diet:

Avoid:
   - ALL forms of added sugar, sweeteners, and alcohol
   - Seed oils
   - Grains and Legume (this includes PEANUTS!!)
   - Dairy (with the exception of clarified butter)

Enjoy:
   - Meat, seafood, and eggs
   - Vegetables and fruits
   - The right fats (cooking fats and oils, nuts and seeds)

The website Whole9 Life has lots of good references including a few different shopping lists. There is a link on the website to their shopping list which includes all the foods that you can have on this eating program, along with other helpful guides to get started with.

SO, here's to day 1 of our challenge!