Given that I’d already cut out most of the foods that aren’t allowed in the Whole 30, this should be an easy month. The problem is that I have a thing for Tacos. Actually, giving up the “added sugar” is an easier part of the Whole 30 for me than giving up corn.
Here’s the list of what you are supposed to cut out when doing the Whole 30. See those items that are in BOLD? Those are the ones I’d already given up.
- Added Sugar (in all forms, natural and unnatural)
- Alcohol
- 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.)
- Legumes (beans, peanuts, etc)
- Dairy
- carrageenan, MSG or sulfites.
White Potatoes
Wow. When I lay it out like that I realize that I haven’t given up nearly as many of the foods in the Whole 30 as I thought I had… some of those I’ve mostly given up but not completely. Then I also gave up Eggs (again). I’d been letting them back in, so while they are officially ok on the Whole 30 I had to give them up. I had mostly given up grains with the exception of corn and the occasional pseudo-grain Quinoa. I eat beans occasionally (probably half as often as I eat corn, or less). Carrageenan I do try to avoid, as I do MSG and sulfites. Sulfites are hard (and I realize I completely missed this one in the last week thanks to a few pieces of bacon). I manage to avoid MSG unless I eat out, in which case I can’t control it as much. And, white potatoes I don’t eat often but if I end up at Five Guys I will get fries (cuz they are awesome and it’s the only place -around here- that has fries that are absolutely for sure gluten-free).
So, that brings us back to tacos. There’s just something about the crunch of a taco that isn’t replicated in anything else. I love crunch. There’s not enough crunchy foods in the world. If I could live off of Mexican food (chips, salsa, guacamole, tacos), I would happily do so. It’s a rare day when someone would ask if I was up for Mexican and I would say no or something silly like “we had that yesterday”. I’m seriously missing tacos right now.
To make matters worse, I can’t say that cutting out everything I’ve cut out in the last week has made me feel any different/ better than I have felt with those foods. I have been wanting to try cutting out corn/beans (specifically) for a while, just to see if they may be contributing to any of my issues. And, I’ve let many of those other items creep in to be too significant a part of my diet, so I wanted to do the Whole 30 mainly to reset my cravings and diet as a whole. That last reason, alone, is why I’m sticking to this. The reset portion. I think I can say that the foods I’d already cut (the gluten, rice, dairy, eggs, yeast, whey) are the foods that have had the primary contribution to my feeling bad. Corn and beans will likely return to their previous status in my diet once I’m done with this 30 day challenge. And a challenge it certainly is. photo credit: stevendepolo via photopin cc
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