Pre-release copies of our book, It Starts With Food, have arrived! We’ve got 100 books looking hot on our living room floor right now, and special review copies are arriving on East Coast Paleo bloggers’, Whole9 Nutrition Partners‘ and Whole9 Envoys‘ doorsteps as we speak. (Reviewers not on the East Coast, don’t worry… they’ll be there soon.)

Holding our actual book in our actual hands was a surreal moment, bringing to mind all the hard work that went into the project, and all of our hopes for the future. Which brings us to today’s post – and a heartfelt request for your help.

Our Wildest-Dreams Confession

We’ve got something to confess. Our wildest dream is to see It Starts With Food on the mainstream bestseller lists.

First, why should Forks Over Knives and (shudder) The China Study continue to hog all the nutrition limelight?!? We believe our nutrition program, based on a healthy balance of high-quality animal foods and copious amounts of nutrient-dense plant matter, is infinitely more healthy than any program they’re featuring on the current Top Ten lists. Paleo a fad?!? We know better – and the world needs to hear it, too.

Two, we’ll be honest… it would be totally rad to be able to say we are New York Times bestselling authors. No Paleo nutrition book has been able to do this since Robb Wolf’s groundbreaking The Paleo Solution – and if our book reaches and changes a tenth of as many lives as his, we’ll consider our efforts a smashing success.

So today, we’re sharing a few strategies for making It Starts With Food a success, and getting the message of Paleo nutrition and the life-changing results of our Whole30^® program to as many people as we can.*

*Also, you should know that it feels really weird to be asking for your help in such a direct and public fashion. But we poured our hearts and souls into this project, and hope to reach thousands of new people with our Good Food Word – and we really need your help to do that!

ETA to It Starts With Food official release: 20 days

Strategy #1: Buy the book

Pre-order via Barnes & Noble or Amazon at a reduced price (just over $17). Pre-sales via these outlets count towards the New York Times bestseller list – we suspect perhaps B&N will make more of an impact than Amazon, in fact.

If you’re buying multiple copies to give as gifts or stock your gym’s library, it’s extremely helpful if you purchase each copy in a separate transaction. Even if you buy it in a bookstore, this is the only way to make ten copies of the book count as ten and not one.

If you are considering using the book as a holiday gift, purchasing the book during the first few days of sales (June 12^th – 17^th) is the most important time. (Just think – less gift-buying hassle during the busy month of December!)

Strategy #2: Post reviews on Barnes & Noble and Amazon!

Please, please, please… write reviews for It Starts With Food on Barnes & Noble and Amazon. Your honest reviews will inspire others to read It Starts With Food like nothing else.

We’d love to see 250 reviews on each of these sites within the first week the book is out! (Which means you’ll have to read fast… but we hope the book is so good, you won’t be able to put it down.)

Strategy #3: Blog, Post to Facebook, or Tweet!

If you have a website or blog, please write a review, and link to online purchase options. (And make sure to send us your review – email melissa@whole9life.com so we can share your review with our readers, too!)

Don’t forget about Facebook or Twitter, either! When you receive your copy of the book (or find it in your local bookstore) take a photo of you with the book, and tag yourself and Whole9 in the photo. You can do the same in Twitter, tweeting @whole9life.

Our sincere gratitude and thanks.

We wrote this book for you, and could not have done it without your stories, and your support throughout the years. 

As a small token of our thanks, over the next three weeks we’ll be offering you sneak peeks of the book, and some amazing give-aways from U.S. Wellness Meats, Stronger Faster Healthier, TX Bar Organics, Pure Indian Foods, and more. Plus, we’ll be announcing book signing events in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Salt Lake City; along with podcast, print, and radio interviews we’ve got scheduled around the book release.

Thank you, thank you, thank you – from the bottom of our hearts.

Best in health,
Dallas & Melissa

A special interview with Sarah Fragoso, by Whole9′s own Robin Strathdee

If you’ve spent much time in the Paleosphere, you’ve likely come across at least one arm of the Everyday Paleo empire which includes a wildly popular website and blog; a lifestyle and cookbook; the EP Life Fit fitness community; and the new children’s book Paleo Pals: Jimmy and the Carrot Rocket Ship.

Raising Paleo Kiddos

In Paleo Pals, super heroes Piper, Phoenix and Parker pay a visit to a boy named Jimmy who’s not quite sure how he feels about making the dietary shift.  The super siblings take Jimmy on an adventure – in their carrot-shaped rocket ship – and show him just how delicious real food can be. This book gives parents a tool they can use when transitioning their family to a diet of Good Food, and it captures kids attention with colorful illustrations and kid-centered recipes.

As a mom myself, I love to hear other parents tips’ and tricks for transitioning to, and maintaining, a diet of real food. And, what better mom to sit down with than Sarah?! During our Q&A, I asked what I thought potentially paleo parents would want to know. Here’s what Sarah had to say:

Robin: You’ve successfully transitioned a houseful of boys, of various ages, to the paleo lifestyle.  What would you consider the keys to your success?

Sarah: By making the transition FUN!  Try to focus on the positive, rather than making it obvious that you are taking away some familiar foods.  I encouraged my kids to help me in the kitchen, brought them with me to the farmer’s markets and grocery stores, and let them help me pick out paleo meals that we would make throughout the week.  We talked honestly about how eating paleo foods would help us all feel better and answered questions that would come up along the way.  I think modeling a positive attitude and as parents making healthy lifestyle choices that your kids can see is imperative in having a successful transition to living a paleo lifestyle.  Finally, getting rid of all the food that caused food battles was huge. My kids can pick whatever they want to eat in our house because they only have good choices. When children can choose what they want, there is no struggle – and that’s so empowering for both parents and kiddos!

Robin: How did you work to incorporate those principles into your new book, Paleo Pals?

Sarah: In Paleo Pals the superheroes take a little boy named Jimmy on a journey, showing him where real food comes from, how eating paleo can make you feel great, and how Jimmy can help prepare delicious food and be a big help to his parents!  I tried to not be too serious while getting kids excited about living a healthier lifestyle.  In reality, kids just want to have fun and play (and that’s how they learn), so the point of the story was so simply provide a fun outlet for little ones to relate to. Most literature out there for kids and nutrition is based on the food pyramid, so my hope was that kids already eating paleo would have a book that they could relate to – and for kids starting to eat paleo, they would have a reason to feel connected and excited about the changes their family might be making.

Frequently Asked Kiddo Questions

We have a lot of first (and second, and third) time Whole30‘ers who would like to involve their entire family in the switch to paleo, but they generally have a few concerns.  How would you answer these common questions from potentially paleo parents:

Robin: My kid loves pb & j sandwiches and hates vegetables. How can I be sure they’re getting enough to eat if I take away their staple foods?

Sarah: Your kid loves sandwiches and hates vegetables simply because he or she hasn’t had the opportunity to try anything different!  As parents we get so wrapped in how much our kids are eating that we forget the importance of WHAT they are eating.  When you clear out the house of gut irritating grains, dairy and legumes, your child is sure to get more nutrition gram for gram from the paleo foods he or she does like to eat!  Robb Wolf has a great article about nutrient density of paleo foods as compared to neolithic foods. If your child eats a plate of chicken, sweet potatoes roasted in coconut oil, and some broccoli or kale chips, he or she is getting way more nutrients, and will be able to better absorb those nutrients than if he or she ate a bowl of fortified sugary cereal that irritates the gut lining and inhibits nutrient absorption.

Robin: And what do I do when they throw a fit and refuse to eat what I cook?

Sarah: When your kids throw a fit and refuse to eat what you cook, IGNORE IT!!  Kids will not starve themselves. If you try to make it fun, ask your kids to get involved, focus less on the foods you are taking away and focus more on other aspects of life, you will be successful – it just doesn’t always happen overnight.  Kids, especially younger ones, are easily distracted.  Plan a fun activity to do together after dinner and keep that the focus of conversation. Sit down to dinner and do not comment on how much OR how little your child eats. The less you pay attention, the more normal your new routine will become.

Your kids WILL eat, I promise, but it’s super important to be consistent.  Do not give in to temper tantrums over food! Kids are smart – and every time you cave, this reinforces their behavior. They’ll keep up the whining because they know it works! Have only healthy foods in your house and for snacks, let them choose what they want. To this day I am amazed when I see my kids chowing down on carrots, jicama, guacamole, and beef jerky or taking big bites of cabbage and chicken.  Kids will eat real food if we are patient, consistent, and let things unravel naturally.

Robin: Just for the fun of it, could you tell us a story of a “food tantrum” one of your kids has had? 

Sarah: I’m going to be honest, my kids have never had a full blown tantrum over food POST-paleo.  Since we started paleo, I have let my kids make their own choices outside of our house, and the baby (who is now 4) has grown up eating paleo. (He has known to ask since he could talk, “Does this have gluten in it?”)  My kids used to choose the non-paleo items outside of our home, but now, for the most part stay away from the foods that they know are not good for us.  Not to say that we never have treats or go out for ice cream… but they all know to make sure whatever we eat when eating out does not have gluten and they ask for what they need and what they know makes them feel good.

My kids USED to throw more tantrums when we were not eating paleo because they would beg for ice cream when we had it in the house and would freak out when I wouldn’t let them have more of it. Now that we no longer have those food options, the tantrums over food have stopped.

Robin: What about school – how do you and your (older) kids address the differences between their school lunches and what other kids bring/what the cafeteria serves?  Do/did your kids ever struggle with feeling like the odd ones out? How do you handle the treats and food-based rewards (like candy) that come into the kids’ classrooms – do you discuss that before hand with the teacher or are your kids free to choose whether they have them or not?

Sarah: My oldest who is 16 wrote an amazing blog post about his own personal experience which you can read here.  With Jaden, my 8 year old, he packs his lunch in a cool Planet Box lunch box and he is proud of what he brings to school. In fact, he often tells me that his friends always want to try his “exotic” lunches.

Teach your children to be confident in who they are and not ashamed of the choices that they make. We do not want to raise kids who are neurotic about food, so I trust my kids to make their own choices about what they eat outside of my house just like I trust them to make other decisions. When we give our kids the confidence and ability to make their own decisions based on what we teach them at home, you’ll be amazed at the end result.  It might not happen overnight but kids, if we let them be, are naturally in tune with their bodies and will honor what does and does not feel good!  Today, the majority of the time, my kids say no to foods that give them tummy aches or that make them cranky. Jaden’s teacher this year told me how amazed she was at Jaden’s ability to evaluate what’s offered to him and decide if he wants to eat it or not.

Robin: For those parents hoping to transition older kids, how would you explain the reasoning for the switch to paleo?

Sarah: For older kids, I would be honest with them about why you are switching to paleo.  Kids are smart and they pay attention.  My kids were able to visibly notice that mom and dad were getting healthier, that mom was able to be more active, was more cheerful, no longer sick, and full of energy – and that sort of thing is contagious!  Approach this journey with joy and your kids will follow suit no matter what the age.  So much of making a successful positive change has to do with attitude and how you approach the transition.

Eating healthier is a good thing, so explain it in such a way that sheds light on all the wonderful things that you will be accomplishing together as a family. Make the focus more on overall lifestyle and not just food.  Start being more active together, exercise together, take walks, start a new hobby as a family, go hiking, watch less TV; all positive changes that create good memories and promote family bonding and make it less about “no more pasta!”

Robin: We know that making the switch to paleo is easier (and easier to maintain) if the entire family is on board.  What are some of the ways you suggest getting the entire family involved in the process?

Sarah: Focus on yourself if no one else is interested, and do not nag.  Once your significant other sees you becoming healthier, he or she will usually want to get involved too.  Suggest to the family that you want to do this thing together, but be positive about it. Create a family challenge – 30 days of eating paleo – and take a fun trip at the end of those 30 days to celebrate and plan for the next 30. Chronicle your journey together and make it a family project rather than something you all HAVE to do. Giving kids responsibilities makes them feel needed and important, so designate older kids jobs such as planning dinner one night a week or setting the table, helping to clean up, or cooking- and praise them for helping and let them know how much their help is appreciated!

Make Your Kids Paleo Pals

Thanks so much to Sarah for taking time out of her incredibly busy schedule to share her passion with us and for her commitment to furthering the idea of a real food diet within the context of a busy family.

For more from Sarah, check out the blog that started it all: EverydayPaleo.com.  If you’ve got kids in your life (or just like reading books with great pictures), you can preview and purchase Paleo Pals on Amazon.com. You can also look forward to the Everyday Paleo Family Cookbook , due out in July!

A very special guest post by Mary Boudreau Conover, BSNed – for those of you who like to know the behind-the-scenes on how your body works during exercise.

Every single system in the body is involved in satisfying the needs of working muscles.  Your heart rate speeds up along with your respirations; blood vessels to your stomach, gut, liver, and kidneys constrict in order to send more blood to the working muscles; you sweat and your muscles let you know they are there.  This article is about one of those systems, the one that generates and produces energy.

Adenosine Triphosphate 

The food we eat is converted into adenosine triphosphate (ATP) before our muscles can use it for a source of energy.  ATP, Once used and depleted, becomes adenosine diphosphate (ADP) and must be restored to ATP before it can function again as an energy source.  Necessarily, but also remarkably, this ATP breakdown uses some of the energy it produces to immediately restore and ready itself again and again to provide energy, not only for the muscle contractions that we are all interested in, but also for numerous and eloquent microcellular processes, such as enzyme-catalyzed metabolism and the life-supporting Na⁺/K⁺ATPase pump, which transports and exchanges critical ions across cellular membranes.  There are so many chemical reactions, negative closed loops, and organ functions in our body that we can’t live without, but when we talk about energy, ATP is the bank, the reserve, and our life-support.

Three  Backup Systems

There are three backup systems in sequence that take care of the resynthesis of ATP and see the body through grueling, intense, lengthy and sometimes, in some professions, life-saving high-alert demands on muscles that are being spurred on by the dominance of the sympathetic nervous system. 

1. The Phosphagen System (aka the ATP-PC system).  The first few seconds of ATP energy release takes care of short powerful movements, but what about the 100 meter sprinter or the weightlifter?  There is a backup with a high energy bond right there ready and waiting in the cell.  It is phosphagen creatine (PC).   When the muscle contracts the bond between the two is broken and energy is released to resynthesize ATP for a short time.[1] [2]

2.  The Glycogen-Lactic Acid System (aka the Glycolytic or the Anaerobic Systems). Energy for the sprinter and the weightlifter has been taken care of by the phosphagen system, but what about the 100 meter swim or the 200 to 400 meter run?  Ten-seconds isn’t going to do it.  At this point, the athlete’s body taps into stored glycogen.  The process of glycolysis breaks the glycogen into glucose, releasing enough energy for 1-3 minutes when the glucose is split into two pyruvic acid molecules.  The energy released from this reaction resynthesizes ATP.  But what happens to the loose pyruvic acid?

There are two possibilities for the fate of the pyruvic acid. They are glycolysis with and without oxygen.

1)    With oxygen, the pyruvic acid is essentially recycled, entering into the mitochondria to generate more energy through the oxidative stage of glycolysis, which in turn produces ATP.

2)    Without oxygen, the pyruvic acid becomes lactic acid, which can diffuse out of the muscle cells into the blood stream, and on to the liver to be reconverted to glycogen, once again a source of fuel.

3.  The Aerobic System. We have the energy for the short-lap runner and swimmer taken care of, but what about the marathon runner, rower, and the cross-country skier who’s using every muscle group in his body?  And there’s still the swimmer who’s doing his usual mile (1.6 km) every full moon.  What?  Well, yes. Just ask a swimmer.  These guys need oxygen!⁴  About two-minutes into the exercise, the athlete’s body responds by a process called “aerobic respiration” or “oxidation,” during which, through a complex series of chemical reactions, glycogen is transformed into ATP and made available to the “time unlimited” guy as long the fuel supply lasts.

Active Cool-down for Painful Burning Muscles

Dr. Mackenzie[3]  explains the muscle burn as a result of low pH secondary to a build-up of hydrogen ions, which diffuse into the blood stream along with the lactate.  The low pH stimulates the free nerve endings in the muscle, resulting in burning pain.  The break-down and removal of lactic acid may take 30 minutes or up to 2 hours, but can be hurried along by an active cool-down, which should obviously be below the intensity of the workout.  A more detailed description can be found in the reference.

References

Spices make the food world go ‘round. No, literally – changing one spice can turn an Indian curry into a savory Spanish stew. Each jar is like a postcard, bringing to mind far off places or warm memories. The right spices can make or break a dish, turning everyday ingredients into authentic ethnic cuisine. Switching up the spices in your rack can even help you fight the food boredom that sometimes creeps up.

That’s why we sent Whole9′s very own Robin Strathdee to welcome (and interview) our newest Whole30® Approved partner – Tammy Tan of Spice Hound.

Spice Hound

Tammy Tan, owner of Spice Hound

San Francisco-based Spice Hound offers customers more than 100 high quality spices, salts, and blends sourced both locally and from around the world. Company founder Tammy Tan gave me a little insight into what drives her passion for spices:

“First and foremost, I love food.  I love where food comes from, how cultures are built on food and how our society is formed around food. I love helping or teaching people about spices and I love that spices can be part of their memories.  It is a necessity to eat, but a majority of people view a meal as a pleasurable event, not just another thing we have to do.  That appreciation of where your food comes from, and how people remember an amazing meal, is why I started Spice Hound.  I wanted to provide people the basic building blocks for creating a fantastic meal.”

Tammy’s also committed to ethically sourced and produced spices.

“I want to make sure that our customers get the kind of products that my mom or my grandmother would use in their cooking.  That is why the quality of our suppliers is important to me.  If we bring in a product that doesn’t meet our standards, we won’t sell it.  It is that simple.”

Since many of us are a little out of our element when it comes to spices, I asked Tammy to give us a little Spice 101.

Spice 101

Question #1: How can the average consumer tell if their spices are fresh?  How long should we store them in our cupboards?

Most spices that are bought in a grocery store can be sitting on their shelves for 1-2 years before you bring them home.  So, most spices aren’t even fresh before you buy them.  When you purchase from a spice purveyor like Spice Hound, you can smell the difference.  We tell people to change out their spices once a year on average for most spices, but we know you keep them around much longer.  The best thing to do is to smell your spices.  If they don’t smell like they did when you bought them or if they don’t smell at all, throw them away.  They won’t add much flavor to your cooking, no matter how much you add.

Question #2: What are 5 basic spices you think everyone should keep in their spice cabinet and why?

It is always so hard to advise people on what people should have in their spice cabinets because everyone comes from different cultures.  Here is my stab at it:

1.  Salt – We need salt to live and it’s the only mineral that we eat.  So, it’s pretty important.  Plus a good natural sea salt enhances the flavor of most foods.  Try to have at least one good natural sea salt in your cabinet.  One of my favorites is the French sea salt, Sel Gris or Grey Sea Salt.  It isn’t fancy, but it sure makes everything taste incredible.

2.  Pepper – There is a reason why it’s one of the best selling spices in the world.  Pepper is used to liven up a meal.   A lot of people have black pepper at the table, but there are many other options to choose from as well.  For example, many Asian dishes incorporate white pepper.   I love our Black Tellicherry Peppercorns because of their strong and slightly smoky flavor.

3.  Cinnamon – It is warm, aromatic, and simply delicious.  My favorite is our Vietnamese Ground Cinnamon.  It has a high oil content, giving it a strong flavor.

4.  Cumin - This is an amazing spice because it is used in so many cuisines like Middle Eastern, Indian and Mexican cooking.  Great curries and guacamole wouldn’t be the same without cumin.

5.  Crushed Red Pepper - I love heat so I like being able to sprinkle this on my soups, stews or anything I want to give some spiciness.

Honorable mentions:  Bay Leaves, Cayenne, Chili Powder Blend, Cloves, Curry Powder, Garlic Powder, Nutmeg, Oregano, Paprika (especially Smoked Paprika), Rosemary, Sesame Seeds, Thyme and Turmeric

Question #3: While I was perusing your site, I came across something called Epazote. What is Epazote and how the heck do you use it?

Epazote is an herb primarily used in Mexican cooking.  Some people think of it as a weed since it can grow pretty wild in your backyard, and it can give off a pungent aroma when its fresh. It has the special medicinal property of helping prevent…flatulence…. so it’s often used in bean dishes.  Use it sparingly because it can be quite strong and overwhelm a dish.

Question #4: Which of your spice blends are Whole30 approved (meaning they contain no sugar or other off-plan ingredients)?

Nom Nom Paleo is also a big Spice Hound fan! Click here for her favorite spice blends.

There are so many! All (100%) of our salts and spices meet Whole30 criteria, with no sugar added. In addition, 20 of my spice blends are also Whole30-approved. Here is a complete list of all approved blends:

• Adobo Seasoning (Mexican)
• Cajun Rub
• Chili Powder Blend
• Chinese Five Spice Powder
• Curry Powder
• Dukka (Egyptian)
• Fines Herbes
• Four Peppercorn Blend
• Garam Masala
• Garlic Sea Salt
• Herbes de Provence
• Italian Seasoning
• La Kama (Moroccan)
• Panch Phora (Bengali)
• Poultry
• Pumpkin Pie Spice
• Seasoning Sea Salt
• Tabil
• Turkey Brine
• Za’atar

 Special Discount for Whole9 Readers

From now through May 6, 2012, Whole9 readers can save 10% off your entire order at Spice Hound’s online store. Just visit http://spicehound.com and use the code “10WHOLE9“.

And be sure to check out our other fantastic Whole30 Approved partners at http://whole9life.com/whole30-approved.

Probiotics. We’re betting you’ve heard of them, have a vague idea that they’re good, and wonder if you should be taking them. But this is one area where we also see a lot of confusion. Supplementation of healthy bacteria willy-nilly, without knowing what or why you’re doing what you’re doing, can be just as detrimental to your health as doing nothing at all. So before you stock up on pills or start mainlining sauerkraut, let’s get the complete low-down on all things probiotic from today’s guest expert, Dr. Tim Gerstmar of Aspire Natural Health.

What are probiotics, and what role do they play in the body? 

Let’s back up a second before talking about probiotics and talk about gut flora.  Inside our digestive tract we have somewhere around 100 trillion bacteria happily living in us.  We’re like a giant high-rise building, and the bacteria are our tenants.  About 7 lbs of “you” is really bacteria that live in your intestines, from your mouth to the other end.

Our understanding of gut flora has advanced by quantum leaps in the past decade or so but we’re still just scratching the tip of the iceberg here.  We now know that our gut flora helps us properly digest our food, protects us from pathogens (harmful microorganisms), helps us detoxify harmful compounds, produces vitamins and other nutrients, keeps our guts healthy, and balances our immune systems.

Probiotics are a culture of “good” bacteria.  Most often when we say the word probiotics we are talking about a supplement (a pill or powder) of beneficial bacteria, but we also use the word probiotics when talking about fermented foods.

What gets your gut bacteria out of whack in the first place? 

There are a number of things that will disrupt our balance of gut bacteria, but two of the biggest things for most people are stress and antibiotics.

There was a nifty study I saw on rats a while ago.  These rats are genetically identical, living in the same controlled environment, and eating the same standardized food.  One group (the control) was left alone, while the other group was regularly stressed.  Examination of their poop (there is a fun job!) showed marked differences in their gut flora – which means stress alone is enough to derange your gut bacterial balance.  Personally I think chronic stress is at least on par with diet (if not more significant) a factor in causing disease.

The other big thing that will destroy your gut flora faster than you can say lickety-split are antibiotics.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of antibiotics when used appropriately.  But we’ve way overused and abused antibiotics – taking them for viral infections (antibiotics do nothing for viral infections), not completing courses (leading to antibiotic resistance), and using them wholesale in all of the animals in the factory-farming system. Studies have shown that the good flora is decimated by antibiotics – and in some people, never recovers back to baseline without intervention.  If you take one thing away from this article, please always use probiotics with antibiotics! (Don’t take the two types of pills at the exact same time, but do take probiotics at an alternate time of day while you’re taking your antibiotics).

Some other things that get our gut flora out of whack are: C-section birth, bottle feeding, early introduction of food (some controversy here), low soluble fiber diet (not enough fruits and veggies), toxic exposures, and poor digestion (low stomach acid, poor pancreatic output of enzymes, issues with bile secretion).

What are some symptoms of gut dysbiosis?

Symptoms of gut dysbiosis fall into two broad categories. First, almost any major disease or dysfunction.  I know this sounds a bit glib, but knowing how tied up the gut flora is in the function of the human body, I believe that almost any major disease or dysfunction is going to involve dysbiosis either as a cause (primary or one factor among many) or as a result of the disease.  If your health is “messed up,” you probably have a gut dysbiosis.

Second, gut dysbiosis manifests itself commonly as digestive symptoms, including (but not limited to) gas, bloating, heartburn /GERD, constipation, diarrhea, IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), and IBD (Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis, among others).

Where do probiotics come from? 

Probiotics are bacteria, and bacteria are on everything – so in a sense, our bacteria come from everywhere.  Most of our probiotics historically are coming from two places though: dirt and food.

First, hygiene wasn’t such a big issue back in the day – people ate a lot more dirt, and didn’t run around squirting Purell on every exposed surface, human or otherwise. Our ancestors had exposure to far more soil based sources of bacteria.

In addition, historically probiotics were a regular part of our daily diet.  Before refrigeration, fermenting foods was one key way we preserved them.  Most of the Neolithic “traditional” cuisines around the world served fermented foods daily, if not at every meal – so there’s our food based sources of probiotics.

Today, food-based sources of probiotics include anything fermented and not pasteurized, as pasteurization will kill the bacteria. These foods include sauerkraut, kimchi, lacto-fermented fruits and vegetables, non-pasteurized yogurt, kefir and cheese, non-pasteurized meats like salami and some sausages.

Nowadays we also have supplements of probiotics, in pill or powder form.

Does a Paleo diet typically reduce the need for probiotics? Does healing the gut help restore a healthy balance of gut flora and fauna?

Gut health and gut flora are a very chicken and egg type of thing.  Bad gut flora causes poor gut health.  Poor gut health causes poor gut flora.  Depending on how severe the dysfunction, sometimes we have to address both in order to get things working properly, sometimes not.

There are a variety of reasons that a gut can be messed up.  If the main reason is food-based (i.e., if the person is having food reactions), then a program like the Whole30® is superb for helping.  However, if the dysfunction includes a hefty gut flora component, I haven’t found a standard Paleo diet by itself (without specifically including food-based sources of probiotics) is enough to make the gut healthy.

However, a generally Paleo lifestyle (which includes such thing as adequate sleep, appropriate exercise, and stress management) along with fermented foods would reduce the need for probiotics.

Do you see any issues with the Paleo diet in terms of gut bacteria balance?

Yes. A general Paleo diet doesn’t emphasize probiotic sources like fermented foods or probiotic supplements, which I think is a problem.  Also, occasionally you’ll see people on a “Paleo” diet who aren’t eating much in the way of fruits and veggies. Not enough soluble fiber in the diet can also be detrimental to the gut flora.

How does someone know if they need probiotics, and what kind is the best?

I think everyone needs “probiotics” on a regular basis, but I’m super picky about my probiotic supplements.  With a lot of other supplements you can get good brands over the counter (OTC), but not so much with probiotics.  There hasn’t been a lot of testing that I’m aware of in this area, but what little I know of was pretty damning to the OTC probiotic market.  Most were contaminated with pathogenic bacteria (“bad” stuff), or did not meet their potency/strength claims, or failed to grow (were non-viable).  Meaning at best you wasted your money, at worst you hurt yourself more by taking the supplement.

In my practice, I use the high end stuff you get from the better supplement companies. Most aren’t easily available to the general public. Here are a couple of suggestions:

• Don’t go to the bargain bin for your probiotics.  If you can buy 4 for $1, you’re getting what you paid for.

• Use a reputable brand – I’ve seen good results with the Jarrow brand (which is available OTC), and one brand I use I’ve seen pretty available on the Internet is the Klaire Labs line.

• Look for potency/strength. We’re not exactly sure how strong probiotics need to be, but in general stronger seems better.  An 8 billion/dose is the minimum I’ll use, and often I’m using stronger doses than that.  A lot of OTC brands are down in the 2 billion/dose range, which most of the time just isn’t going to cut it.  And if they don’t list the dose (some probiotics have secret proprietary formulas or some such) don’t bother with it.

• Be suspicious of the kitchen sink. This isn’t as hard and fast a rule as the others, but I’ve seen a lot of crappy brands try and look impressive by putting a lot of strains in their formulas.  Most of the high grade probiotic supplements we use have around 1-6 strains in them.  Is that ideal?  Probably not, but if you see a brand with 10+ ( especially if it’s vague on the counts), there’s a reasonable chance they’re padding out the product to try and make it look more impressive than it is.

So what, specifically, can people look for in a probiotic supplement?

In general, right now, you’re looking for strains of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium.  Let’s illustrate this with the label off of the Jarrow product I linked to above.

You can see this product contains six strains.  The three on the left and top one on the right are labeled “L. something” are the Lactobacillus strains.  The two on the right labeled “B. something” are the Bifidobacterium strains.

You can tell this is a good product by the letters and numbers after the names.  For example, “L. acidophilus LA-02”: the LA-02 is the pedigree of this strain.  This strain of acidophilus has been purified, genetically characterized and then registered.  The company (Jarrow) then bought the right to use that strain, took a pure sample and grew it to put in this product.  Do you have to have those numbers to have a good product? No.  But the presence of those letters is the sign of a quality product, as the company spent the extra dollars to get a pure, genetically characterized strain.

Anything else you think would be helpful for our community?

Probiotics are critically important, and the data just keeps piling up.  I honestly think our understanding of gut flora is going to revolutionize our understanding of health and disease, and you’re just going to see it growing in importance over the next few years.

I believe everyone needs a baseline probiotic intake.  If you’re healthy and you make or buy non-pasteurized fermented foods and eat them at least a few times a week, I doubt you need probiotic supplements.  If you’re sick, you’re probably going to need to do a lot more than just that.

One last thing.  If you think you’re very dysbiotic – you have a very disordered gut, or serious health problems – you’re going to want to start slowly with this stuff.  Taking tons of probiotics or gobbling up tons of fermented foods is probably going to make you feel bad, bad, bad.  The changing gut ecology brought on by an “overdose” of probiotics is going to send your system topsy-turvy and can lead to many issues, including diarrhea or constipation, fatigue and/or brain fog, body aches and flu like symptoms, skin “stuff” including rashes, and possibly a worsening of the symptoms you already have.  So start slow.  If using fermented foods, start with a teaspoon once a day and build up from there.  If using probiotics, go with one of the lower potency probiotics to start with, possibly as low as 1-2 billion/dose, and gradually increase from there.  (And, as always, it’s best if you can work with a naturopath or a functional medicine practitioner.)

Dr. Tim Gerstmar is a Seattle-based Naturopath who specializes in treating complex chronic diseases – those issues that leave most other doctors stumped. His area of expertise is in digestive health. He uses clinical nutrition (primarily Paleo, Weston A. Price and GAPS) and lifestyle counseling, botanical medicine (herbs), functional medicine, homeopathy in his practice. You can learn more about Dr. Gerstmar and Aspire Natural Health at http://aspirenaturalhealth.com, or contact him via Facebook (http://facebook.com/AspireNaturalHealth) or Twitter, @DrTimGerstmarND.

 “I can resist everything except temptation.” –Oscar Wilde

Willpower (or “self-control”) is what people use to restrain their desires and impulses. More precisely, Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney, authors of Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength, define willpower as “the capacity to override one response (and substitute another).”

You may think of willpower as an extraordinary force to be summoned to deal with emergencies, but studies show that desires – specifically, those you are trying to resist – are often the norm, not the exception. When Dr. Baumeister monitored a group of more than 200 men and women in Germany, he was surprised to find that people spent between 3-4 hours per day resisting desires, the most common of which were urges to eat, drink and sleep.

Lesson: Much of the average day is spent trying to control one’s wants and needs.

Building on our last post on habits, we’ll use what researchers know about temptation and willpower to help us identify strategies to control our unhealthy food habits – most specifically relating to (a) resisting the call of sugar and sweets, and (b) resisting the call of the pantry or freezer after dinner.

How Rich Is Your Willpower Bank?

According to Baumeister and Tierney, your willpower “bank” is limited, and begins to deplete after just a few minutes of exerting self-control.  A 2010 meta-analysis confirmed the idea that willpower is an exhaustible resource, and that if it is used up, your ability to self-control is impaired. In addition, many researchers have observed that self-control tends to break down late in the day, especially if you’ve been under stress – and consumption of alcohol makes things even worse.

An important fact: all self-control tasks draw on the same reserve of willpower. Holding back a biting retort, saying “no thank you” to your co-worker’s cookies, forcing yourself to be calm when your kids are deliberately disobeying, “holding it” until you find a cleaner bathroom, or resisting the urge to check Facebook before diving into your work project all tap into your willpower reserve – and leave you with less willpower to handle the next challenge.

Lesson: If you encounter too many temptations during the day (which depletes your willpower “bank”), your ability to resist raiding the pantry at night is compromised*.

*This is further compounded by hormonal dysregulation, specifically cortisol and leptin.

The good news, however, is that it you can actively work on strengthening your willpower. Baumeister says to think of willpower like a muscle; the more you use it, the more it becomes fatigued – but it can also be strengthened over the long term through “exercise.”

Three Tales of Willpower

So how do we apply these concepts to our own bad habits – specifically, those related to food? Let’s see what we can learn from kids, marshmallows, Facebook and goal setting.

One group of researchers studied how four-year-old children learned to resist immediate gratification. They would bring the children one at a time into a room, show them a marshmallow, and offer them a deal before leaving them alone in the room. The children could eat the marshmallow whenever they wanted, but if they held off until the experimenter returned, they would get a second marshmallow to eat along with it.  Some children gobbled the marshmallow right away; others tried resisting but couldn’t hold out; but some managed to resist the whole 15 minutes for the bigger reward.

Lesson: The creative kids who discovered techniques* to avoid temptation (and succeeded) strengthened their willpower muscles.

*We outline their genius strategies for you below.

Let’s look at another experiment. In the same German study reference above, researchers identified how successful participants were in resisting each of their urges. How successful were they?

Not very.

They reported being able to resist only 2 out of every 5 desires related to temptations like eating, drinking, sleeping, and sex. In particular, media-related desires (resisting the urge to watch TV, surf the web, check email, or jump on a social network) and work-related desires (resisting the urge to do anything but work) were particularly hard to resist, with a higher-than-average failure rate.

Lesson: Resisting all of these modern day temptations – and failing almost half the time – may consume a considerable portion of your willpower throughout your day.

Finally, one last research project (this time, from Baumeister’s Social Psychology and Human Nature) brings us to the concept of “goal shielding.” Everyone has multiple goals they are working on at any given time. Did you make a long list of New Year’s Resolutions? If so, this is about to sound familiar.

Baumeister argues these different goals compete inside your mind for time and attention. A process called “goal shielding” happens automatically, as a way to preserve your efforts towards the goal you are working on at any given time. The more committed you are to this goal, the more the mind shields you from considering other goals. Which means setting multiple goals of equal “importance” in your mind, and attempting to work on them all at once, pretty much guarantees that none will be accomplished effectively. Which will probably make you feel quite discouraged, and will tempt you to give up on your goal(s) altogether.

Lesson: As willpower is also depleted during times when you feel discouraged and want to quit, taking on too many goals at once is a recipe for willpower failure.

Putting The Willpower Pieces Together

What do these seemingly unrelated concepts mean for our efforts to improve the one bad habit we identified two weeks ago? Allow us to pull this all together for you, in reverse order.

1. We asked you to set one goal for a reason. If you’re currently working on fixing 7 bad habits at once, stop immediately, choose your top priority, and let the rest go until another day.
2. Creating a scenario in which you are exposed to the least amount of other temptations sets you up to have stronger willpower when it comes to resisting your one bad habit.
3. There are proven techniques to help you fight the craving for your one bad habit, even when your willpower is weak. (If four-year-olds can resist marshmallows, so can you.)

Two weeks ago, we asked you to identify some of the cues that precede your craving. We hope that exercise has helped you to identify some of the circumstances around your habits. (Awareness is golden here, people.) This week, we’ll ask you to work on strengthening your willpower, so you can use these exercises and the cues you’ve already identified to be better prepared to resist temptation.

So, what’s our action plan?

A wide variety of acts tap into the same willpower “bank.” Media-related desires are harder to resist than other forms of temptation. So, reduce your temptations.

• Deliberately go out of your way to avoid tempting foods or beverages. If you still have that crap in your house, get rid of it. Go throw it out right now. We’ll wait.
• Avoid co-workers who are junk food pushers, friends who attempt to sabotage your healthy food habits, and places where you know you’ll be tempted. (Heading to the bar after work, when you’re tired, cranky and hungry, may be a bad idea. Just sayin’.)
• Knowing that media-related temptations are even harder to resist than others (and sap tons of your willpower “bank” throughout the day), unplug as much as you can. Don’t pull the Facebook window up. Put your phone on airplane mode. Tell your email program to stop binging at you every 30 seconds. The same willpower you use to resist the call of Twitter is the same stuff that you need to stay out of the cookie jar at 9 PM, so conserve it as if it were a precious resource. Because it is.

If you can accomplish this, your willpower stores will be higher when cues for your One Bad Habit pop up – and you’ll be more ready to resist. But just for good measure, let’s throw in one more tool. Remember the marshmallows? We’re talking about distraction. That’s right, the four-year-olds in the marshmallow study avoided the temptation by removing or obscuring the treat, placing it out of sight and pretending like it wasn’t there. (Some actually covered their eyes until the researchers returned. Brilliant in it’s simplicity, no?)

When those cravings come up, do what the 4-year-olds did: distract yourself until the craving passes.

• Physically remove or obscuring the temptation in question, placing it out of sight or ignoring it. If you can’t remove the temptation, physically remove yourself from the temptation.
• Make a list of five distraction techniques you can use the next time your craving hits. Really, make a list. Keep it handy. When your cue(s) pop up, refer to your list, and then do one of those things.
• Your list might include: going for a 5 minute walk, calling a friend, reading 10 pages in your book, writing a thank you card, filing your nails, eating something healthy, chatting with a co-worker, cleaning something, organizing something, or planning tonight’s dinner.

Got it? We use the cues we learned from our two-week experiment to help us predict when our One Bad Habit is going to pop up. We arrange our environment so we’re tapping into our willpower “bank” as little as possible throughout the course of the day. And then, when the cravings to give into our One Bad Habit do pop up – we pretend they’re marshmallows, and we distract until the craving passes.

The good news is that according to a variety of studies on drug, cigarette and alcohol addiction, the average craving lasts only 3-5 minutes.

We can keep ourselves busy for that long, can’t we?

What’s Next?

What’s next for you is that you practice this stuff, in an effort to continue to rid yourself to your One Bad Habit. What’s next for us is more writing and researching. The next article in our habit series is coming soon – we’ll identify the back end of your One Bad Habit (the reward you get from acting on that behavior). The key to finding a new routine to satisfy that reward is knowing that sometimes, what you think you want and what you actually get are two different things.

To read other posts in our Coming Clean series, related to addiction, eating disorders and food-related compulsions, click here.

References

Baumeister Roy F, Tierney John. “Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength.”  New York: Pengiun Press, 2011

Hagger, M.S., Wood, C., Stiff, C.,  Chatzisarantis, N.L.D. (2010). Ego depletion and the strength model of self-control: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 136:495–525

Hofmann, W., Baumeister, R.F., Foerster, G. Vohs, K.D. (in press). Seven thousand desires: Desire, conflict, and control in everyday life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Mischel, W., Baker, N. (1975). Cognitive appraisals and transformations in delay behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 31(2):254-261

Baumeister, R. F. “Self-Control: The Moral Muscle.” The Psychologist, thepsychologist.org.uk. February 2012.

Baumeister Roy F, Bushman Brad J. “Social Psychology and Human Nature.” Independence: Wadsworth, 2010.

We recently received a note from Kim LaPlante, of Detroit, MI.   Kim married Seth Arbogast in July 2011, and used the Whole30® to help her prepare for her wedding.  Wait – are you rolling your eyes, thinking, “Not another pre-wedding weight loss story?”  Given how we feel about focusing on weight loss during your Whole30 (not the point of the program) and “quick fix” diets (unhealthy and unsustainable), do you really think today’s feature is going to be a weight loss story?  So read on, and see how Kim used the Whole30 to manage her stress, her energy levels and her overall mood with a pre-wedding Whole30.

Kim’s Story

“I just wanted to send a note of appreciation. Your program stands above the others in its ability to actually better people’s health and lives in measurable and immeasurable ways. Also, it promotes lifestyle change in a way that many other “diets” do not.

I noticed in the Whole30 comments that you asked a woman who was using the Whole30 to prepare for her wedding to write in. I did a Whole30 in June 2011, and was married in July of last year, so I wanted to take this opportunity to share my reflections on the process.

I had a lot on my plate that summer. I was writing my PhD qualifying exam, which was due June 15th – the middle of my Whole30. I was teaching a college course, running my dissertation studies and planning for a wedding. I had been toying with Paleo principles for a few months – but never strictly. I didn’t really intend to lose much weight for the wedding, but could benefit from tightening things up. A friend and I started the Whole30 in June – and it was the best decision I could have made! Here are some of the benefits I noticed:

A clear head for writing.

Writing is my least favorite part of science/academia, but is a necessary evil. In the past, I would give myself permission to eat/drink whatever I want while I was writing – it was my “treat” for doing a loathed task. My qualifying exam was an extensive literature review on my research area that I had 3 months to write. I procrastinated and had the bulk for the writing left to do in the last month.

After starting my Whole30 (and closing in of the deadline), my writing went shockingly smoothly. I attribute this to the lack of garbage in my diet. I no longer had the sugar crashes that had accompanied my junk-food laden writing sessions. My head was clear. My energy was steady. I was sleeping well. I could think! For me, this was the best, unexpected result of doing the Whole30. I now strongly recommend this program to everyone writing their quals!

Energy, Sleep, Mood & Stress

As I mentioned, I had a busy summer. While on the Whole30 I slept well, had stable energy and low-ish stress. I have always known what I ate and my mood are tightly linked. Too much sugar makes me crabby. This has been the case since I was a child. The stress of feeling overwhelmed by too many tasks also makes me crabby. My now-husband usually bears the brunt of those moods. 

The Whole30 made me a happier person independently, but also gave me the mental and emotional reserves deal with stress more effectively. I wasn’t nagging and nitpicking my partner, one of the ways I externalize stress. Obviously that was helpful to our relationship going into our wedding.

Appearance

I didn’t do the Whole30 for the superficial benefits, but those were an added bonus. I lost about 5 lbs and my husband, who didn’t fully commit but ate the dinners I cooked, lost about 15 lbs. My skin was the clearest it has ever been. This was great going into wedding photos!

After the Whole30

One of the things I worried about during the Whole30 was how I would feel on my wedding weekend. We had four days of festivities planned, which included copious amounts of non-complaint food and drinks. The first day off the Whole30, I failed to take your advice and had beer and pizza. Afterward, I felt terrible. I was then worried that my options were to a) not be able to drink alcohol or eat my wedding cake or b) feel terrible the entire wedding weekend.

In the next two weeks leading up to the wedding, I experimented with what my body handled well. I found out that beer and sugar are out, but vodka and dairy are kind of okay. When the wedding weekend rolled around, I was able to find a balance and start my days with W30 compliant foods and have a reasonable amount of “treats” so I didn’t feel deprived and felt wonderful all weekend.

This experience has changed the way I cook and what I view as healthy. My husband is more on board than ever before. I am doing another Whole30 starting today to clean things back up. It was really a wonderful way to start our marriage. Thanks for all you do, Kim.”

The Bride30?

Kim’s experience got us thinking… could this be the start of a new subset of our program – the Bride30? Unlike every other “pre-wedding” diet out there, we would not cater to unsustainable, unhealthy weight loss expectations – but what we can offer is so much more! Clear, glowing skin; improved mood and attention span; better sleep; rockin’ energy levels; the ability to better manage stress;  fewer aches, pains and symptoms from your medical condition; and yes… probably some effortless weight loss.

If you’re a bride (or groom) who wants to use the Whole30 to prepare for your big event, we are ready for you! Join our Whole30 Forum and let us help you make your wedding day (and the weeks leading up) as happy and healthy as possible.

We are thrilled to roll out the official Whole30^® forum – your one-stop shop for Whole30-related questions, answers, resources and motivation. You’ll find the forum (and registration screen) here:

http://forum.whole9life.com

We’d also like to introduce (and thank) our amazing team of moderators, including: Carie Green, Jeanye Mercer, Johnny Malangone, Matt Mecham, Megan Claydon, Renée Lee, Robin Strathdee, Suzanne Hill and Tom Denham.

Our Forum

Our forum is designed to help you expertly navigate your Whole30 program. It’s a place to ask questions (and easily find answers), share your experiences, get help and advice from “experts” and provide each other with motivation and accountability.

Please note, we’re only opening up topics related to the Whole30 program, and life after your Whole30. We simply don’t have the resources to address our other 9 Factors, like exercise, stress and sleep at this time. (We do hope, however, to expand our forum to topics outside of the Whole30 at some point in the future.)

Why Should You Participate?

First, you’ve got questions – and our Whole30 Facebook page or web site comments is a poor format to find answers. The forum will organize topics and questions in an easily searchable format, so you’ll never again wonder if you’re allowed to drink kombucha (yes) or where to get your calcium (read this).

More importantly, the forum provides you with a sense of Whole30 community, which many of you don’t have at home. It’s always easier to work through a big life-change when you have the support of others who have been there – or are right there with you. But if you or your family is going it alone, the Whole30 forum can give you all the support you need to keep you on track.

In fact (now we’re gonna get all science-y on you), studies show public information sharing has far more impact than private information. Which means publicly sharing your intention to complete the Whole30, your daily progress, and the hardships you experience along the way goes a long way towards you actually accomplishing your goals.

First, an outsider can point out signs of progress that you’ve taken for granted, keeping you motivated to continue with your efforts. In addition, a “slip-up” is pretty easy to rationalize when you’re the only one who knows about it – but if other people know, it’s harder to dismiss. (Which makes you think twice about taking that bite of cake “just this once.”) Finally, when things aren’t going well, letting others help you along the way often makes the difference between abandoning your efforts, or pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and continuing forward.

Register Now

So register for our forum through Facebook, or create your own user account – and then dive right in! (And note, we’ll be responding to all Whole30-related questions here in the forums from now on, so move your Whole30 Facebook discussions on over.)

Happy Whole30 – and welcome to all of you starting our program today!

Last month on the Whole30 page, our most famous tough-love phrase was taken to task by two Whole30 participants. Today, we’d like to address their concerns, and share our thoughts on taking on the Whole30 while battling an eating disorder or food addiction.

 The Quote

 “It is not hard. Don’t you dare tell us this is hard. Quitting heroin is hard. Beating cancer is hard. Drinking your coffee black. Is. Not. Hard. You won’t get any coddling, and you won’t get any sympathy for your ‘struggles’.”

This is by far the most famous line of the Whole30, often cited as the main motivator for getting folks on board. But for two Whole30 participants, this line very much rubbed them the wrong way.

From HillyRu: “Actually, you could not be more wrong. Especially if you understood the complexities of those of us who battle an eating disorder every day. If you look around and notice those with weight problems and consider what the food industry has done to mess with our minds, you might have a little more compassion. You’d think it wouldn’t be that hard to try something new for 30 days, but when sugar cravings come on, I can assure you they’re every bit as ridiculously real as a craving for heroin or cocaine or tobacco.”

From Casey: “To a point, I agree with HilaryRu. I’ve quit meth before, but I’ve also had an eating disorder. Quitting meth took four weeks of withdrawals, including a stroke. Recovering from an eating disorder took many more months and was much harder, even though I didn’t have the extreme physical symptoms. Saying “this isn’t hard” is supposed to be meant as tough love, and for some who don’t have true food addictions, it works. But I also see how to some, it is like telling the alcoholic that quitting isn’t hard – that would not work to motivate.”

The Intention

First, we’d like to point out that the Whole30 was not designed to help those recover from eating disorders or food addictions. Despite the fact that many have reported it’s been the only program that has helped them kick their addictions and disorders, we designed the Whole30 language to reach and appeal to a broad population. We were targeting everyday folks (athletes to office workers, teenagers to grandmothers), and that population has responded amazingly well to our tough love approach. In general, participants appear to have taken the message as intended – a well-meaning kick in the pants to put our program into perspective, stop complaining, stop making excuses, and start owning the changes you want to make in your life.

However, this language is not right for everyone. We understand why those of you who are battling eating disorders or food addictions would bristle at the idea that it’s really just that easy. We’re sorry if the program’s language offended you, or made you feel even worse about an already difficult and painful situation. But we didn’t write this program specifically for you. If we did, we’d have taken a much different approach.

Everybody Eats

For those of you with disordered eating histories, this is hard. In fact, it’s even harder for you than it was for Melissa or Casey to kick their drug habits. You know why?

Because we can’t go into 7-11 and buy heroin. We don’t see television commercials of happy families laughing, having fun and snorting lines. We don’t have to use drugs three times a day in a moderate fashion just to survive. But everybody eats.

So for you, the anorexic, bulimic, binge-eater, sugar or carb-addict, this is hard. We’re asking you to do what no alcohol or drug rehab center would ever think to ask their addicts to do – to use in moderation. And yet, you have no choice. You must find a way to come to terms with your drug of choice – hunger, fullness, control, sugar – and make peace. And none of that is easy.

Your Language

So today, for you, we re-write the tough-love portion of the Whole30, in the hopes that this language will resonate, and encourage at least one of you to give our program a try.

This will be hard. You will not be perfect. Don’t even try to be perfect. No one is judging, no one is keeping score, and there are no penalties for acknowledging that you are struggling. Be kind to yourself, be patient with yourself, and remember that it’s not 30 days – it’s just one day. One meal. One bite. Do this one bite at a time, if you have to, because it’s for the most important and worthwhile cause on earth –  you.

Don’t even consider the possibility of “failure.” Right now, you aren’t sure you even want to try to do this program, because you’re not sure if you can succeed. And you would rather not try at all than suffer yet another disappointment – actually trying, allowing yourself to be hopeful, and then failing yet again. But this is not a pass/fail endeavor. This is not a test. It’s just a framework for change. Stop putting so much pressure on yourself, and just try it, for a month, a day, a meal. And if you need to relax the “rules” to get yourself there, do that.

You never, ever, ever HAVE to do something just because we told you to. You know your context better than we do, so if scrutinizing every single label is going to make you obsessive, then don’t. If eating the same healthy foods every day makes things easier, do it. If writing down your meals gives you a sense of pride and accomplishment, keep a journal. But the one rule you must stick to – do not weigh yourself. What the scale says is not important right now. This is not about weight loss, this is about health, sanity, grace. Do not allow the scale to determine your self-worth during this time period. You deserve better.

This does require a bit of effort. Treat this program like you would any rehab program for addiction. We highly recommend seeking professional counseling during this time period; we are not doctors or addiction counselors, and our program was not designed by one of those professionals. Joining a community, whether it’s ours or one in your local town or school, can help, too. And you’ll have to pay attention to other areas of your life – devote time and energy to sleep, stress management, and regular exercise or movement, to better support your efforts to recover and rebuild. Improved health and recovery doesn’t happen overnight – but starting requires just one step forward. Take that step here, today, now.

Share Kind Words

Have you used the Whole30 to help you recover from an eating disorder or food addiction? Are you in the middle of an unhealthy cycle right now, and are looking for a support system to help you through your Whole30? Post to comments, share your words, offer encouragement. We’ll help as much as we can, whether you require tough-love or not.

For other posts in our “Coming Clean” series on addiction, eating disorders and changing your habits, click here.

Today’s post is the result of a specific demand within our community – and we’re all about fulfilling our reader’s demands. But this one was a bit tricky, because of the nature of what you’ve been asking us for.

You. Want. Bacon.

Specifically, you want Whole30-approved bacon, with no added sugar in any form. This form of (pork-derived) bacon has historically been really darned hard to find, even on the internet – but that didn’t preclude hordes of you from asking! Over the last year, we’ve receive at least two posts a week on our Whole9 and Whole30 Facebook pages, Twitter feed and blog comments asking, “Where can I find Whole30-approved bacon?” And unless you happened to have a local farm who supplied such a thing, most of you found that you were just plain out of luck – and out of bacon for the duration of your Whole30 program.

Our Bacon Dilemma

Normally, when there’s a cry for a specific Whole30 Approved product, we jump through hoops to help you find what you’re looking for. But bacon… well, you know how we feel about bacon. First, bacon must be pastured and responsibly raised – factory-farmed bacon is extraordinarily unhealthy and unethically produced, and no one should eat it, ever. Two, context matters, and using bacon as your primary protein source isn’t a great idea in general. Three, bacon may prove all too easy to overconsume, and overconsumption (even with a “technically Paleo” food) is never healthy – so think before you eat.

So, we don’t want to encourage you to eat more bacon… but we do want you to have access to responsibly produced pastured bacon without any unhealthy additives, because it’s not our place to dictate what you can and can’t eat. We provide recommendations and guidance, because that’s our job, but ultimately you’re all big boys and girls, and are more than qualified to make your own food choices.

Enter U.S. Wellness Meats.

Pastured Pork, Sugar-Free Bacon

We’ve been working with U.S. Wellness Meats for nearly a year now, and after careful research of their pork sourcing, believe that their products meet our highest standard for conscientious omnivores. It was only natural that we contact them first, to see if they could help us meet our community’s demand in a way that we could feel good about endorsing.

The pork carried by U.S. Wellness Meats is Compassionate Certified Pork, and undergoes third party verified to ensure accuracy. Among numerous requirements, the animals are not allowed to be given any growth stimulants, hormones or antibiotics. Animals are allowed outside as often as they want, and have full bedding available at all times; slot floors and gestating crates are not allowed.

Russ Kremer, co-founder of Ozark Mountain Pork Cooperative

Ozark Mountain Pork Cooperative, co-founded by Russ Kremer, raise the pigs that produce U.S. Wellness Meat’s bacon. Mr. Kremer and Ozark Mountain have a stellar reputation in the industry, and are dedicated to raising their pigs in an ethical, responsible, healthy manner. Kremer allows his pigs to be pigs, expressing normal social behaviors (including wallowing, rooting and mating). Kremer calls his farm a “mini-resort,” saying, “the biggest thing here is space… If the pigs get cramped and confined, they get irritated. You want them to be active.”

For more information on Russ Kremer and Ozark Mountain Pork Cooperative, read this 2008 RiverFront Times article, or watch this Farm Aid video clip from the documentary Fresh.

In addition, U.S. Wellness Meats agreed to revise their current pork bacon recipe to remove the honey powder (which is not Whole30-compliant), and create a new version that fit the requirements of our program.

Squeals of Joy

We are pleased to report that sugar-free pork bacon is now available to all in the 50 United States, courtesy of U.S. Wellness Meats. (And yes, it’s delicious – we got to try a sample a few weeks back.)

If you want to enjoy some pastured, ethically-raised, sugar-free bacon during your Whole30 program, thanks to U.S. Wellness Meats, now you can.  (And remember, U.S. Wellness Meats ships free to all 50 United States, too, provided you meet their minimum required order.) In fact, the product is being featured on their web site home page for the next few weeks!

Please join us in thanking U.S. Wellness Meats for working with us to make our readers’ bacon-dreams come true (in moderation). Post questions, comments or squeals of joy below.

On this site, and with all of our business dealings, we strive for 100% transparency. Since 2011, we have been a U.S. Wellness Meats affiliate. We personally use their products, and we honestly believe they are of the highest quality. We just wanted to make sure you knew that, in the interest of full disclosure.