WHOLE30: Eliminating Triggers
I keep hearing about the Whole30 diet and wanted to learn more about it. I interviewed my dear friend Allison Davis, founder of the artisan collective Create. Heal. Repeat., teacher, mother, & henna artist extraordinaire who started Whole30 this month with her partner, Mykey Bellow.
Whole30 is a 30-day elimination diet that cuts out trigger foods that can potentially make you feel like crap: that includes dairy, grains, alcohol, processed foods, sugar and legumes. After 30 days you slowly add these foods back into your diet to see how they’re really affecting your mind & body.
Allison opened up about her food journey and how she’s forming a happy relationship with food for what feels like the first time. Here’s day #5:
Let me start with some background. As a full-time working mother with two active and growing boys food has never been easy. My biggest downfall has always been that I hate cooking, can’t cook and will choose cheese and crackers or chips and dip over making dinner any day. I have an extremely addictive relationship with coffee and if i’m being honest, an unhealthy amount of alcohol consumption.
A few years ago now I left a ten year abusive relationship and it took its toll on me physically and emotionally. With the help of an excellent therapist and a supportive new partner I worked hard to heal my internal turmoil and am proud to report that i’m making great progress addressing the patterns in my life and where they stem from.
~*With this success, I am now ready to work on my physical self as I realize body, mind & spirit are all strongly connected*~
At first, I thought a cleanse was what I needed. I don’t know much about the topic so I reached out online, WNY Holistic Families Facebook page, and a few people mentioned Whole30. My friend Lexi offered the most useful comment of all... she suggested figuring out what my intentions were before choosing a cleanse so that I could keep my goals in mind and hopefully experience even more success.
I had to stop and think, ‘What was my intention?’ Yes, I wanted to be healthier and feel better but what does that really mean and how do I get there?
When I began researching Whole30 it clicked- it eliminates all inflammatory foods from your diet for 30 days and then provides a script for adding them back in. After 30 days of whole, healthy foods their literature explains how you will be able to see the effects each food has on you and then be armed with the info you need to decide if you want to consume it.
I never thought about eating as a relationship with food but it really is! My intentions in life are to have healthy and happy relationships so “ding”, I’d like to have a healthy relationship with food, too.
I want clearer skin, balanced blood sugar levels and a life and a wallet free from Tim Hortons too, but what it all comes down to is that I want to be happy and healthy to live my best life. Cliche, right? So Whole30 it is. As I’ve reflected on all the other relationships in my life and benefited, it’s time to do the same for my relationship with food.
Hope you'll join me on this Whole30 journey to see what I discover!