My Whole30 Paleo Diet Experience
In 2 months, I went from 85kg to 78kg. And I wasn’t even trying! I couldn’t believe how simple it was. I also felt better than ever had before.
In the fall of 2018, I began a Paleo elimination diet program called Whole30. This diet cuts out all processed foods and some common allergenic foods. I am writing this blog post in the spring of 2022. I’ve probably forgotten some details. But I still have the data I tracked during my diet. Hopefully, they’ll help spark my memory.
Some things that this diet did to me:
- It reset my taste buds, I don’t crave processed food anymore
- I stopped craving new tastes or food experiences
- Put me in tune with my body, I started craving the right foods when I am deficient
- I lost a lot of weight without trying
- My mental clarity and energy increased
- My digestion and throat problems decreased
- I naturally started eating 2 meals a day, then 1 meal a day
- I naturally started eating more meat, fats, and animal products
- I naturally transitioned into a ketogenic/low carb diet
By the end of the diet, all my craving for processed foods was gone, I just wanted to eat paleo foods every day.
I wasn’t even trying to lose weight but I reached my lowest weight of 78kg. After the diet, my weight stayed about the same, between 78–81kg. However, I did gain this weight back when I fell back to bad eating habits from my environment. So I don’t recommend this diet to lose weight, but I do recommend it as a way of life. If you want to keep getting the benefits, you have to keep doing it.
After doing the Whole30 diet, I felt so amazing and learnt so much about myself that I continued Paleo/Keto for 4 years. I still consume the meals and recipes I learnt throughout this phase.
During the end of elimination and reintroduction processes, I kept track of 24 biofeedback. I monitored: Poop, Bloating, Bad Breath, Throat, Cough, Hunger, Food Craving, Gas, Stomach Cramp, Stomach Ache, Stomach Burning, Stomach Gastric, Headache, Migraine, Mental Clarity, Willpower, Depression, Anxiety, Skin Feeling, Energy, Workout Quality, Sleep Quality, Sickness, Happiness. Spreadsheet Source
I’ve learned a few things about myself:
- Black pepper irritates my throat
- Too many potatoes upset my stomach
- Whey, lentils and citrus causes gas
- Processed sugar messes up my brain, sleep, willpower, mental clarity, and energy
- Desserts like cupcakes and chocolate cause a lot of problems right away
- Tofu messed me up while soy milk only caused gas
- Milk triggered mucus, made my throat feel slimy, it also upset my stomach and made me cough for 2 days
- Even almond, coconut and soy milk trigger throat problems and mucus
- My stomach is pretty strong and can tolerate a lot compared to my diet partner
- All grains cause gas
- Gluten grains cause stomach problems like cramps, aches, burning, and gastric
- Grains might make workouts and sleep better up to a certain point
- Gluten-free grains have fewer adverse effects than gluten grains
Some difficulties:
- Socializing was hard, I realized that any type of social activity includes eating or drinking. 90% of restaurants and 95% of the menu are out for me. But there is a good thing about this. It’s 20x easier to decide what to eat, but sometimes that is nothing
- Hard explaining to people why I don’t eat that food
- Shopping is hard. I had to buy food that would spoil in a few days instead of processed, dead, dry, frozen food. I had to spend much more time shopping for food
- No more microwave meals, simple snacks, or grains. I had to do real work to get the food ready and cook it. But during this time, I did get a chance to listen to a lot of audiobooks
What I’d do differently if I had to do it all over again:
- Reintroducing 1 food for 1 day isn’t enough, need to try 3 days to see solid results
- I would’ve continued the reintroduction phase even longer. Unfortunately, this phase got cut short due to the environment
- Instead of testing compound foods, I would reintroduce more paleo or pure foods
- I would do Autoimmune Protocol which is stricter version, that also takes out eggs, dairy, nuts, and seeds (I am now doing an extremely strict zero carb version, will write about it soon)
- I would eat more meat and protein rather than fruit and carbs
Extras
What my average day looked like:
Bananas and potatoes dominated those carbs. Remove those and the diet becomes ketogenic. I did slowly transition towards that direction:
