Sarah's Rules

Our "Whole120" will be concluding at the end of this month, and if past Whole30 experiences have taught me anything, it's that I need to have a plan in place. Always. For me, a plan is Food Freedom; in that food freedom I'll be including a few "non-compliant" foods, but the goal is to include them in a careful and controlled way.

NEW RULES

• The Perfect Health Diet guidelines ALWAYS
• "Moderate amount" foods on Saturdays only
• Supplements and supplemental foods (seaweed, liver, fermented vegetables, etc.)
• 30 day accountability (I'll continue to do my measurements and progress pics every 30 days with a summary of what my rules for the next 30 days are)

The Perfect Health Diet

The Perfect Health Diet was developed by the Jaminets, a brainiac husband and wife team who wanted to resolve their personal health issues and figure out what foods promoted optimal health and longevity. Being hard science people, they delved into PubMed and read a stunning number of research papers which are cited in their book. The book is very research driven but I felt that it was pretty accessible. If you're into that kind of thing. What I find particularly compelling is that the Jaminets were not beholden to any particular interest group, nor have they been remotely "gimmicky" about their diet. Sometimes I think they should market it harder!

The primary differences between this and Whole30 (which is only meant to be done as a personal experiment to discover how YOU feel eating certain foods) is that you can have rice, dark chocolate, occasional alcohol, full-fat and cultured dairy. HOWEVER, all those things are expected to be kept in moderation.

I actually did PHD before Whole30. I felt fabulous when I was strictly adhering to the guidelines but I struggled with making the "enjoyment foods" in the stem and leaves bigger than the apple...

This is my second's first birthday when I was strictly PHD. Not the greatest pic, but I can tell from the angles of my face that my weight and inflammation were down.

I can't remember how I first heard of Whole30 but I immediately noticed that there was a lot of crossover between The Perfect Health Diet and Whole30, and that Whole30 pretty much cut out the stuff I struggle with. I did two Whole30s just based on what I found online, but then I decided to read the book, and I was pleasantly surprised to find an endorsement on the back from Paul Jaminet. My nutrition guru! A lot of the concepts are similar, though Melissa Hartwig has a way of phrasing things that sticks in your head (Food Without Brakes, SWYPO). And while Perfect Health Diet is SOLID on the science, It Starts with Food addressed some of the emotional and habit issues I was having with consistently eating well. (Though they aimed to figure out the best diet for health, the Jaminets themselves weren't actually doing this for weight loss. I always picture them, when faced with temptation, being horrified at the thought of ruining their health experiment. That is pure fan fiction based on nothing but my own issues.)

Anyway, if you're big into reading about diet philosophies like I am, you'll know that moderation is difficult to define for most people and pretty much impossible for an abstainer. We'll see how this goes, but right now I'm confining those foods (rice, dark chocolate, alcohol, dairy) to Saturday. The rest of the week will look like Whole30.

Thing is, I really thought I was going to correct my brain through Whole30. But while other Instagrammers who had started at the same time as me started declaring their food freedom, I just wasn't feeling it.

So I've been doing A LOT of research as we near the end of this. I've read Food Freedom Forever. I've been checking out recommended practices for food addicts. I've pondered over various research articles, some with science that was a little over my head. A couple concepts have been coming up repeatedly to the point where I think I really need to pay attention.  First is this idea that a subset of the population responds more strongly to food and is more likely to become "addicted" to certain types of foods FOR WHATEVER REASON (I've read several different explanations for why this might be). The second thing is that the most effective way to deal with this--I'm going to go ahead and call it an affliction--is to develop firm guidelines for yourself based on what you identify as your triggers through HONEST ASSESSMENT. Third thing is that you need accountability.

So that is why I'm going to continue to do 30 day assessments. If I realize that my Saturday thing is sabotaging me, that guideline will get changed for 30 days, at which point I'll reassess again. As much as I'd like to just not think about food that much, I know from experience that that only makes my weight go up.

Another principle I've come across multiple times that is speaking to me is only eating three meals a day. My nursling is nearly 8 months and starting to eat more solids, so I'm going to work toward that. But for the first 30 days I'm not committing to it yet because I'm still having episodes of real hunger--though it's usually when I haven't eaten enough at my three meals. I allowed for a fourth meal during our Whole120 to help meet the demands for milk production, but I allowed that to slip and started snacking more, so I'm going to work on curbing that again.

I feel like I have a lot more to say, but it's taken me five days to write this much, so I'll just try to do more quick snippets on Instagram.

Wish me luck!

P.S. I should mention that I've done reintroductions in the past, so I'm not worried about doing them this time. I do know that dairy makes me breakout, so if my face starts annoying me with once a week dairy, I'll cut back. I also know that flour=heroin for me, so Imma stay far away from that ish.