I stopped eating food that comes in a package. I’ve never felt better.
I have, on more than one occasion, eaten an entire pizza by myself. Like, recently. These moments are not my proudest, but here we are.
Between May and August this year, I ordered pizza delivery for dinner an average of seven times per month. I ordered Italian an average of three times monthly, and healthy (?) helpings of noodles another three.
Lunch burritos were a ritual. My fridge was packed with flavored yogurt, beer, greasy leftovers and half-empty bottles of ranch dressing and Frank’s RedHot. My afternoon snack was a handful of fun-size candy on sale (using the honor system) at my office; breakfast, if I ate it, was usually a bowl of yogurt laced with honey.
So I was more than interested when a co-worker told me she was about to go on Whole30, a 30-day "food cleanse" in which you eat nothing but unprocessed, unrefined, sugar-free food, while also cutting out entire food groups such as dairy and grains (and booze).
My relationship with food has never been what one would call healthy, so a chance to hit the reset button? I’m listening.
The point of Whole30, which was founded by Melissa Hartwig in 2009, is to “end to unhealthy cravings and habits, restore a healthy metabolism, heal your digestive tract, and balance your immune system,” its promotional materials say. Whether that's what actually happens physiologically, who knows. Everyone's selling something.
But after completing a 30-day run -- without cheating, for the record -- I can say it’s a life-changing, body-changing wonder of experimental trendy dieting. (With maybe a dash of Placebo effect thrown in there.)
