When I talk to people about changes to their squats, I’m usually met with reception. I start talking changes to diet, and all of a sudden I’m met with resistance. That’s not entirely true, I’ve talked to several of you who are eager to try out this Whole30 thing… So I hope this article doesn’t deter you to anything less than doing the Whole30 as Rx’d. But, for those of you are shaking your heads saying “no way” (Kyle), I want to offer up this post to help you find yourself into an option that works best for you and the step you might be comfortable with.
1. Suck it up buttercup… Whole30 as Rx… Why? Because there’s never a “good” time (although this time in the training year is way better than many others); Because you’ve got some things to learn (committing to this will help make you better at food preparation that is compatible with better food choices…. you can really only learn about your food intolerances if you leave them out of your diet for 4 weeks… ); Because once you’ve done it, you can say you did.
2. Whole30 warm-up and then the real thing… Maybe you’re not ready to do it before Easter (or some other occassion)… Well, one way you can get started with the group is to do weekdays on the plan and weekends off the plan until a predetermined date where you commit to going all in. So for example, you might do the next 3 weeks as Sun – Thur “practicing” Whole30 and then starting Easter Monday, do the real thing.
3. Whole30 weeks with a weekly treat night…. Why would you do this? Maybe you aren’t convinced that you really care about food intolerances, but you want to reap the benefits to health, body composition and performance that come with eating whole foods. This is usually what we recommend as the lifestyle plan. Just keep in mind that if you’re taking in sugar, gluten, dairy, etc. on those treat nights you won’t be reaping the same benefits of revealing food intolerances that you would on a true Whole30… At some point in time you should really consider doing a full 30 days, but this is better than being more “free” with your treats.
4. 3/1/2/1…. Why would you do this? You are in a brutal training phase and you need to carb up/get in some bigtime calories… Or, even #3 is beyond what you’re ready for. So here you follow the plan for 3 days, take a 1 day break, then 2 days, and then another 1 day break. This is not a bad plan for athletes or those who are going to eat extra low carb on their 3 and 2 days and then use cleaner carb sources like white rice and white potatos to ramp up the calories and especially carbs on their days “off”. There is really nothing wrong with cycling like this – especially if you’re training hard – but at some point you might want to try doing this with whole foods only… the best time is when the training is going to drop off in volume for a little while.
5. Dabbling with days… Pick out 1,2,3 days per week where you are committed to trying an entire day “Paleo”. This is beneficial for those of you who are concerned that you won’t know WHAT to eat in a day, or are afraid that you’re going to starve. Use this strategy to test out recipes and quantities of food. Those of you who are very “carb-adapted” are going to have a rough time with this because you’ll never get past the switch to “fat-adapted” until you’ve run at this for a week or so consecutively… So, in terms of long-term health, this is a fantastic first step so long as it is viewed as PRACTICE for moving toward one of the strategies above.
6. Dabbling with meals… Choose a single meal and learn to make it Whole30. Try it once a day, a few times per week, whatever. This is an even more basic version than #5, of course, but is obviously the most friendly step in the right direction. All you need is a recipe book and a sense of adventure.
Those taking part in the Whole30 as Rx’d are making a big commitment. A hard commitment. So the only thing I’m going to ask of you considering any option other than #1, is to make the same kind of commitment. Write it down. What is the commitment exactly? When does it start? When does it end?
Hope to see you Saturday where we can talk about some of these options and a few other details regarding the challenge.
Brendan
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