Progress on the "Whole30", needing to scope out next steps

[gwendally]

In September I did a 21 day challenge called "Eat Fit, Get Fat" that I'll let you google. It was successful enough that I'm trying it again, only slightly less restrictive. (On that one you avoid all beans, grains, sugar, alcohol and most fruit and a few vegetables.)

This time I'm doing a 30 day challenge where I avoid all beans, grains, sugar and alcohol but get all fruits and vegetables back. It's called "The Whole30" and there's a book and a website and varous Facebook groups and apparently a guru who has initiated accolytes who are called "moderators" in Facebook groups.

It is *heavily* rules-based, and the culture is punishing if you don't follow it correctly. Have some "raw" sugar in your coffee? You FAILED and have to START OVER. There is no moderation in this, it's 30 days of eating exactly and only what Melissa Hartwig says is legal. Which includes some processed food bars that she appears to own stock in, of course. But not plantain chips! Or banana-almond-flour pancakes, because that is Against The Rules.

So I find myself hanging out with a bunch of people who, at best, suffer from orothorexia, and quite a lot of them seem to struggle with anorexia. Not my idea of a fun group. (Oh, just noticed that the Guru is a recovering heroin and ecstasy addict. Yeah, I could see the addictive personality at its core.)

But I'm finding that my energy levels have evened out - no more blood sugar dips. I'm finding my bowel issues are fixed - no more needing Dairy-Ease tablets. I'm finding that fat is falling off me - not muscle, fat - and I'm not exercising particulary. My skin is clearer, by nails are strong and shiny.

I'll continue on this for October, but I am rebelliously making small exceptions. Because I'll be damned if some guru is going to control every thing I eat!

• I mindfully ate one of the chocolate chip cookies Small Boy baked (he came home this week-end, partly to bake things to bring back to college.) The cookie wasn't that great to me - I can skip having any more.
• I am also eating an occasional Trader Joe's chocolate-covered cherry.  The chocolate-covered cherries, however, really *are* that great.
• I put a can of chickpeas in my ratatouille last night. (I tend to make this every week when eggplants and tomatoes are in season. The last couple of weeks I left out the beans, but Small Boy was home and that's the recipe he's used to and I was wondering if I could add them back. I rather regret it today, though. I've gotten used to not having bad gas, and the rebound from a few beans seems particularly brutal at the moment.

I'd like to be able to eat grains and sugars again in small amounts. Turkey pot pies or fruit pies. (My birthday is this month and I usually have a pumpkin pie for it.) I'd like to be able to eat rice and beans in pre-packaged frozen meals. I'd like to eat sourdough bread and pizza again. I'm thinking that I may go back to having "cheat days" that are once a week, preferably planned in advance. That will work for my London trip, too: I can save up weeks without cheat days to use in London, perhaps.

Anyway, just trying to figure out next steps. Anyone have any good tips for diets that are sugar and dairy free but maybe allowing beans and the occasional grains?