In May 2011, we received a note from Dr. Matt Mechtenberg, Hospitalist and President of the Medical Staff of Parkview Medical Center in Brunswick, ME.  Dr. Mechtenberg wrote, “Just wanted to share that I recently ran my first marathon in 10 years and without carb- loading, no Gatorade and a near-perfect Whole9-inspired diet.  I PR’ed my marathon time by 18 minutes -  the last of which I ran 16 years ago. All I can say is thanks for your info!”

This inspired us to contact Dr. Mechtenberg to ask him more about his Whole30 experience, and how the program has influenced his view as a medical professional.  Here is his response, as sent in a series of email exchanges.

Dr. Matt Mechtenberg

“Because of our Whole30 experience, my wife Sunshine and I have become converts to eating real protein.  (Your articles and links helped a lot in our dietary transition.)  Sun had been a vegetarian for 22 years, I was for 15, but after our Whole30 and continued dedication to good dietary habits, we have more energy and our workouts are better.  I won’t claim some amazing improvement, but I did PR my recent marathon, I recover faster from exercise, and have leaned out quite a bit, dropping two pant sizes.  Sunshine also credits the Whole 30 and your nutrition advice with keeping her healthy, as we struggled with her dosing following her thyroid surgery.  I know that I feel better at 40 than I can ever remember, and a lot has be do with your dietary recommendations.

Both you and Melissa present your information in an easy to understand and thoughtful manner.  I am still working on ways to promote better diets and dietary suggestions to my patients in the hospital, but on average most people want me to give them another pill rather than change their diet.  I will continue to try to promote the Good Food Word as much as I can.  It really makes sense to me now that the stuff we put into our mouths and bodies on a daily basis is the biggest source of medicine, and could likely eliminate a lot of people’s need for meds if they were truly thoughtful about their dietary intake.

It’s crazy to think I received virtually no education in seven years of medical training on what a “good diet” should entail, but I am doubtful that any pharmaceutical company or agricultural firm would sponsor a study showing how clean eating can help you get off medications, lose weight, have more energy, eliminate allergies and make you feel ten years younger.

I have gotten my sister-in-law, father-in-law, my brother and his wife all on the Whole9 plan, as well as numerous friends – and the changes in their health are truly remarkable.”

Is the Whole30 Program Safe and Healthy?

Dr. Mechtenberg: “First of all, in my professional opinion, I do believe that the Whole30 program is completely safe and healthy. How much healthier do you get than eating real food? 

I have shared my Whole30 experiences with some patients, and the results they have seen have been equally amazing. My role as a hospitalist exposes me to patients that are usually acutely ill, and it has been difficult to suggest drastic dietary changes, but I have promoted a “cleaner” diet to many of them.  What I have learned from the Whole30 is that diet can make some drastic changes in people’s health – sounds simple, but in all of my medical training that fact was never stressed.  The changes I have experienced have led me to promote dietary changes to many of my patients as the first step in medical treatment.

So in summary, I believe that the Whole30 is safe, effective and overall makes good common sense.  The results for me have been life altering and very exciting.  I really look at food as medicine now, and using diet changes as first line treatment for many disease processes makes much more sense to me after completing the Whole30 and trying to follow your dietary plan on a daily basis. “

Matthew Mechtenberg, D.O.
Hospitalist
Parkview Adventist Medical Center, Brunswick, ME

Congratulations! Your Whole30 is officially over – not that you have to run right out and dive into a box of donuts, of course. Whether it’s your first, second or tenth Whole30, today’s post is for you – part homework and part sound-off.

Homework #1: Take a Picture

First, our newest initiative. They say a picture is worth 1,000 words, so we’re gathering photos to document your Whole30 achievements. It’s simple:

• Write your accomplishment(s) on a 8-1/2 x 11 piece of paper (held horizontally) with a bright, bold marker.

• Keep it short (and legible). Statements like “I lost 16 pounds,” “No more seasonal allergies!” or “I’m off my diabetes medication” work well.

• Take a photo of you holding your sign, from the waist up. (Don’t forget to SMILE!)

• Email your photo to us (whole30@whole9life.com) – and feel free to post it to our Whole30 Facebook page (http://facebook.com/whole30).

If we receive your photo by February 28, 2012, you’ll be entered to win our drawing for a FREE iPad2!

So get to snappin’, because you never know who YOU will inspire with your Whole30 Success Story.

Homework #2: Share Your Story

Additional assignments… because we’d REALLY like to hear about your Whole30 results. Please take a few minutes to contribute your story to:

• Our ONE QUESTION Whole30 weight loss survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/whole30weightloss

• Our Whole30 A-Z testimonial post: http://whole9life.com/2011/06/the-whole30-a-z-real-life-testimonials/

• Link to your own wrap-up blog post here in comments, so we can ALL read about your Whole30 experience – lessons learned, results achieved, and “go-forward” plans.

Homework #3: Prepare For Your Whole9 Life

Next assignment – please read these articles to help you prepare a plan to reintroduce some of those foods you think you’ve been missing. These resources (along with the Reintroduction Schedule and Life After Your Whole30 sections of your Whole30 Success Guide) will help you make the most of your 30 days, and figure out once and for all how the foods you used to eat are actually affecting you.

• Ride Your Own Bike. When should your Whole30 program come to an end?

• Life After Your Whole30.Whole30 participants offer tips and tricks for YOUR Day 31.

• It’s Our Own Darn Program. Melissa and Dallas analyze one of their Whole30 experiences.

• The Whole9 Guide to Eating Dirty, Part I. Is there really a valid scientific reason to “cheat”?

• The Whole9 Guide to Eating Dirty, Part II. How to “cheat smart”, and not go off the rails.

• The Whole9 Guide to Nutritional Off-Roading. We’ll help you determine when it’s really worth it.

Homework #4: Show Off!

Finally, fly your Whole30 flag high and proud with these awesome graphics.

You’ve earned it! Copy and paste this code to display our Whole30 graphic on your page:

<a href=http://whole9life.com/category/whole-30/><img src=http://whole9life.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/finishedwhole30.jpg border =0 alt=The Whole30 Program, created by Whole9></a>

And if you want a large size graphic for your new Facebook layout, you can download it right HERE!

So congratulations on a Whole30 well done from Dallas, Melissa and the Whole9 team. (And be sure to stick around, because we’ve got tons of good lifestyle information to share on the 9Blog.)

Today’s post is dedicated to the thousands of people who officially end their Whole30 programs today. You may be asking yourself, “Am I really ready for this to be over?” You may be thinking, “I’m a little afraid of what Day 31 looks like.” Or maybe you’re just thinking, “I cannot wait to have my chocolate/wine/pizza/bread.” Either way, this post is for you.

The Whole30 Training Wheels

A universal truth: making good food choices is easy when you’re following the Whole30 “rules”, but much harder out there in the real world. We’ve talked to many a workshop attendee about this very topic (usually after they’ve fallen face-first into a box of doughnuts post-Whole30).

The rules of the Whole30 program are very specific, and completely non-negotiable. They narrow your (food) world, and remove some of the stress of making your own food choices. The program also gives you an easy fall-back when faced with social or peer pressures. For many, the rules of the Whole30 function much like training wheels on a bike, giving you all the support and back-up you need while allowing you to complete the program under your own power. But are you prepared to ride your big-kid cycle when your 30 days are up?

Let Us Run Your Life…

For many – especially those who have bounced in and out of different dietary plans in the past – the strict confines of the Whole30 program is comforting. It takes all the guesswork out of our expectations and your goals, and gives you clear objectives to achieve along the way. (“Start eating healthy” is a far more difficult challenge to wrap your arms around than, “Eat no added sugar, alcohol, grains, legumes or dairy in any form for 30 days.”)

Your buy-in to the program also affords you a sense of community on our site and Facebook, even if it is virtual. You feel stronger, braver, more committed to your efforts when you know there are thousands of people doing the program with you, overcoming the same challenges you face. In addition, you’ve got a built-in excuse for why you don’t want that piece of cake or a glass of wine. “I can’t, I’m on the Whole30″ is your quick-draw response, your get-out-of-jail-free card when faced with social pressures. Yes, for 30 whole days, you get to give up the responsibility of making good food choices to us, and the rules we’ve set for you during your program. And for some, that feels wonderfully freeing.

Now Let Us Give It Back

But what happens when your 30 days are up? All the comforts of our rules, your built-in excuses, your sense of being a part of something bigger than yourself disappear with the end of your Whole30. Which leaves you with the desire to continue to eat healthfully, but no clear plan to make that happen. In many cases, nervous about re-entry into the “real world”, people decide to extend their program to a Whole60 or Whole90 – we’ve even heard of a few Whole100′s or more. But we’d ask you to think twice before making that decision.

Sometimes, extending your Whole30 is the right thing to do. For those who haven’t yet banished serious cravings, or who are coming out of serious metabolic derangement, injury or illness, we often encourage them to take their Whole30 just a bit further, to allow ample time for the body to right itself again. We hear many, many reports that participants didn’t really feel the “magic” until day 45, or even day 60. So if you’re still battling sugar and carb cravings or addictions, if you still have an unhealthy relationship with food, if you are still suffering from a disease or condition that will require more than just a month to improve, we encourage you to stick with the program as long as you need to see the results you are looking for. After all, what’s another two weeks, if it gives you a lifetime’s worth of health?

However, extending your program is NOT the right choice for those who are simply nervous about handling real life all by themselves. You can’t – and shouldn’t – live within the strict parameters of the Whole30 forever. Yep, at some point… you’ve gotta take the training wheels off the bike.

Ditch Those Wheels

The point of the Whole30 is to gain awareness – figure out how foods you used to eat are actually affecting you; create new habits, patterns and relationships with food; and learn to apply that knowledge in everyday, real-life scenarios for the rest of your life. The program isn’t meant to continue forever – it’s a tool to give you the knowledge and confidence to make good choices on your own. Think of the Whole30 like your dietary training wheels, giving you the support and structure you need while learning. And despite the fact that it’s scary to lose the structure and comfort of our “rules” and take on the big, bad, sugar-laden world all on your own – at some point for each of you, it’s simply gotta happen.

It’s Okay To Be Not Perfect

Here’s what most of you Whole30’ers can expect after your program is over. (Note, this is generalization, but also based on feedback from hundreds of people.) You’ll perhaps wait a day or two before reintroducing anything off-plan, nervous about taking that first step. Eventually, you’ll reintroduce some not-so-healthy foods, feel like crap and easily set them aside in favor of the usual Whole30-ish foods for your everyday meals and snacks. But slowly, eventually, inevitably, old habits and poor choices will start to creep back in. It might take a month, or two, or three… but eventually you will wake up and realize that (a) you’ve somehow slipped back into so-so eating habits, (b) you don’t feel very fantastic any more, and (c) it’s really time to clean things up.

Does that mean you’ve failed your post-Whole30 test? Not at all! Habits are hard to break, pressures are hard to resist and the temptation of delicious, unhealthy foods are everywhere. In the real world, it’s easy for things to backslide from “awesome” to “so-so”, and it happens to everyone – even us. And it will, at some point, happen to you.

Just Jump Back On

So there you have it – the worst thing that could happen post-Whole30. You eat some crappy food for a while, and feel not so hot. Big deal! All you have to do to regain that awareness, reset those good habits and remind yourself how amazing clean eating makes you look, feel and perform is to jump back on the Whole30. And contrary to popular sentiment, you don’t always have to do the progam in full! There’s no reason why you can’t jump back on for a weekend, a week, two weeks… just long enough for your body and your brain to remember how good you feel, how delicious healthy food tastes, and how easy it is to feed yourself well. Once you’re back on solid ground, kick off your training wheels again. See? Easy.

It Gets Easier

One of the best parts of our program is that each one of your Whole30′s build on top of the last one. This means as you stay connected with our program, your awareness and your food choices, your periods of slipping back into bad habits will grow shorter and less frequent, and your clean-eating adventures will grow longer in duration (and easier). Your “cheats” will become more benign (think hummus and white rice instead of pizza and beer), your everyday meals and snacks will be effortlessly clean, and when you do choose to go off the rails, it will be easy to immediately right yourself and get back on track. And of course, should some special occasion, vacation or stressful event push you right off your bike, the Whole30 will always be there to give you some support and get you riding again.

So for all you Whole30′ers, be prepared for us to push your bike on down the road. You can always come back and see us if you should happen to fall down. For those of you who have done a Whole30 program, does this resonate with you? Can you testify to your progress from one Whole30 to the next, and offer some advice to those who are doing their first program now? Post thoughts to comments.

We are thrilled to welcome Megan Dudley Claydon, CrossFit trainer, Lululemon educator and author of the blog “Feed the Dud” – as our newest Whole9 Envoy Extraordinaire.

Megan has been a leader within our community for the last two years, spreading the Good Food Word at her home gym (Cannon CrossFit in Houston, TX), through her blog and through her position as a Lululemon educator.

Megan was hand-picked for this position due to her significant contributions to the Whole9 community, enthusiastic participation in (and success with!) our Whole30 program, and her embodiment of the spirit of our mission and values. Megan’s experience as a competitive athlete, and her understanding of the psychological factors that play a large role in our choices related to diet, training programs and overall health makes her the ideal Envoy, especially as we continue to branch outside of nutrition and address all of our 9 Factors on the site and in our events.

You can read more about Megan in her Whole9 EE profile (www.whole9life.com/megan-claydon/). We encourage you to reach out to Megan through her blog, Facebook, Twitter and email (found in her profile), and get familiar with our other Envoys by visiting our Envoy page (under “About Us”).

You can rely on Megan – and all of our Envoys – to provide support, encouragement and advice during your Whole30 and beyond. And as always, thank you to everyone who reads, follows, comments and contributes to the Whole9. We look forward to further educating, sharing and growing our community… with the help of our specially designated Envoy Extraordinaires.

A guest post by Robin Strathdee, the newest Whole9 team member

This Spring, I discovered the ridiculous connection between refined sugar and seasonal allergies and, let’s be honest for a minute, it really ticked me off.  I mean, come on!  A couple of swigs of (albeit waaaay too sweet) organic strawberry lemonade and poof!  I’m ALL of the seven Spring dwarves – itchy, sneezy, scratchy, stuffy, puffy, drippy and whiny.

As I was loudly and enthusiastically complaining to my patient husband, I realized that (for me, and maybe you too) switching to a Whole9 eating style required the loss (pretty much death) of my old eating patterns.  And whenever there is a loss you encounter the five stages of grief.  Sure, I’ve joked about mourning the loss of cupcakes…maybe more than once… but I never really gave it much thought. Then, as I really contemplated it, I realized that every stage of grief was (and still is, as things adapt and change) identifiable in our lifestyle transition.

This is especially applicable to those of who have are just beginning a Whole30 program.  Switching up your eating habits, even for 30 days, takes major adjustment.  You’ll notice that every area of your life begins to change, and some changes are easier than others.  Take heart knowing that the rest of us are right there with you, no matter how many times we’ve done this.

The first stage of grief is denial – denial of the loss and isolation from usual social contacts.

I’m sure we all remember the day we stumbled across that magic piece of information, the proverbial straw, that convinced us once and for all to go full throttle into this diet-style. Chances are that the information was so novel, and so impactful, that in a single moment it trumped our old habits and made this healthier eating plan a priority. We cleared out our cupboards and cleaned out our fridges. We replaced our usual BYO work lunches of frozen Healthy Choice meals and leftover spaghetti with grilled organic pasture raised chicken and steamed broccoli with coconut oil and gluten-free soy-free tamari.

I’m willing to bet all your friends noticed the change. I’m also willing to bet that you fielded way too much, “Don’t you miss bread?” and, “I could never give up pasta!”  There were probably even a few, “All that saturated fat will give you a heart attack!” and “Eating so much meat will give you cancer.” folks in the mix. But we would hear none of that. Oh, no! We had found the light and it had overtaken the darkness of cupcakes and chocolate pudding in our hearts.  So we answered their comments with our vehement reassurances of, “Oh I wouldn’t change a thing! This is so easy. I don’t even miss my afternoon half-caff, all skim, no foam caramel macchiato with extra whip. Really! I’m fine! This is awesome!”

Eventually, though, that enthusiasm becomes hard to maintain.  As much as we have convinced ourselves that giving up all the food we’ve ever known and loved is no biggie, it’s hard to withstand the constant ogling and questioning.  It’s no fun to be the girl eating the salad with no dressing while everyone else stuffs themselves with the pasta of their choice.  And so we start to pull away a little.  Soon, we’re not going out for drinks after work and we only put in an appearance at the monthly office birthday party.  We’re looking and feeling better than ever, but we’ve distanced ourselves from all but our closest (and maybe even those) friends and family.

Next, we get angry.

I don’t know about you, but this stage was pretty intense for me. Here’s how it usually went down:

1. Get stressed out by something. I have two preschoolers, a new business, a house, a husband, a dinosaur of a dog… pick one, any one.
2. Convince yourself that you deserve a treat. Can you say, “coping mechanism”? I’m trying to do this less, but it’s always a hard fight.
3. Eat something you know you shouldn’t. In the early days it was usually pizza, but now that I can’t tolerate ANY gluten (insert curse word), it’s usually candy of some sort.
4. Have terrible, horrible reaction.
5. Get really ticked off because all you want is to eat like a normal person for one stinkin’ day, crapdangit!

Now, for me this is kind of a rinse and repeat process with each new food group I grieve.  Cupcakes were pretty hard to let go of. The holidays were a fairly continuous cycle of the above steps. I know some people who do this as a whole, for their entire diet, and then are done. It works differently for everyone, but everyone feels the rage now and again.

Next up is bargaining. This is where we begin to compromise our standards.

Okay, so we’ve moved from complete denial through complete ticked-off-ity and now we’re ready to bargain. In my house, this bargaining took the form of compromise.  “Okay, so I know I can’t eat real donuts without serious consequences, but what about coconut flour donuts?” You Google every food you’ve lost, only adding the prefix “paleo,” and try to resurrect the ones you love in more acceptable form.

This is where the little cracks slip in and before you know it you’re having Gluten-Free Friday – everything is game-on as long as it’s gluten free (I may have done that once or twice).  You waste half your budget on mysterious flours said to have magical properties that, if combined in just the right way, cooperate to produce a slightly more glutinous reaction and some black magic juju.

This leads to three things a) bags under your eyes from late night muffin-baking sessions; 2) bags on your porch filled with the failed results of said sessions and, c) the stark realization that no matter how hard you try you will never be able to achieve the same double mondo chocolate chunk cookie you made before.

Whole30ers: Watch it with this phase. Use the food lists in your Success Guide and online to help you fight the urge to compromise on the rules.  No matter how much you want to compromise during this stage, it’s not worth bailing on your Whole30. And don’t think no one sees you standing in the kitchen late at night, sneaking a little honey into your Super Paleo Crunch Granola. You see you and the guilt will eat you alive.

And so you cry. Enter the sadness phase.

No matter how much healthier you feel eating this way, it really is sobering to know that you can’t go back to what you used to do without serious consequences – physical, mental, emotional. When everyone at work goes out for cupcakes, I can get a cup of coffee. While everyone dives into the pizza at lunch, I eat my leftover pot roast.  Sometimes it is lonely, and sometimes it is depressing.

At one point, I stopped cooking, stopped caring about food at all. I didn’t eat enough of anything, I couldn’t work out the way I had before. I didn’t even want to. My kiddos survived on grass-fed hamburgers, steamed broccoli and frozen peas. But they survived. At this point, it’s okay to cry and to actually mourn the death of your old lifestyle. Change – especially such a big lifestyle change – is not something to be undertaken lightly. In fact, I don’t trust those types who just fly through the transition. It’s not natural.  But eventually, fairly quickly actually, this phase passes and normalcy returns.

And finally, you accept and you adjust.

Once you’re done feeling sorry for yourself, you begin the phase of actually adjusting to your new lifestyle. This is where you learn what does and doesn’t work for your family and where you’re willing to make compromises (ahem…peanut butter). You learn how to become more efficient with tools like the crockpot and meal plans. And, you begin to make the connection between your ability to control what you eat and your ability to control how you feel.  This is where you feel fully comfortable in your new skin. You’re able to explain your diet decisions without too much science or shameless proselytizing. You can simply answer “yep” when someone asks if that’s a Tupperware container full whipped cream, and if you are indeed going to eat it. All.  With a spoon.  This is acceptance. This is comfortable. And this? This is good.

Robin Strathdee, our Whole9 Director of Communications, has a B.S. in Print Journalism from Missouri State University.  She has used her education and training everywhere from corporate conference rooms to her own kitchen table – where she authors the blog Confessions of a Paleolithic Drama Queen – and is currently pursuing her entrepreneurial dreams as owner of a freelance communications company.

A few months ago, we received a note from Jenn L., a friend and unofficial “client” of Lauren Guibert, one of our original Whole9 Envoy Extraordinaires.  Jenn wrote:

“You’ve heard it a million times, but – you changed my life.  I was lucky to have worked with Lauren Guibert – we worked in the same building, but had never really talked.  She offered her expertise to me, and I will forever be grateful.  I was an instant convert as soon as I did one week of your Whole30 program, and my husband was too.  The friends of mine that have chosen to get on board with this for at least 30 days – give your program a shot, do it for 2 to 3 months at least.  They see and feel results instantly, as I did.”

We were moved by Jenn’s story, and we think you will be too.  Read it in her own, unedited words.

Jenn’s Story – Then

I remember pushing 230 lbs on the scale just 4 months ago.

I remember pushing a 40 in waistline.

I remember running mile after mile and never getting anywhere.

I remember climbing hill after hill on the elliptical.

I remember trying any diet I could and never feeling satisfied or successful.

I remember crying a lot – out of hopelessness and despair because I couldn’t make my body respond the way I wanted it to.

I remember beginning to research other job possibilities because I was about to lose my job in the USAF.

I remember begging the doctors to run more tests to tell me why I can’t lose weight.

I decided, I was going to just stop eating (SLIMFAST was a prepacked meal that I didn’t have to worry about calories) and then I was going to try to run more, even though I tore a ligament in my ankle.  Maybe climb more elliptical hills.

Then, I was told to go talk to someone – Lauren Guibert – who knew about fitness and nutrition.  Honestly (I hate that she is going to read this), I thought, “Wow.  Another person who is naturally thin and fit, who is just going to tell me to run more and to stop eating cake.”  I don’t even like cake, but that’s what all “nutrition experts” had told me before, as they stared at me with pity.  So, there I go walking to her office to tell her how I struggle, how I diet, how nothing works for me and, and, and (breathe)…she talked about food.

She looked me in my eyes, told me she had answers.  She said, “Just don’t bullshit me.”  Then she made me a workout plan and a diet plan.  She integrated me for about a week and a half, then sent me the Whole30 link and said, “Anybody I train has to do this for 30 days.  Read it.  Ask me questions.  Start Monday.”

I remember how good I felt after one week on the Whole30.

I remember the weight literally FALLING off of me.

I remember fitting my clothes again.

I remember moving the notches on my belt.

My spare tire turned to a muffin top, which turned into a waistline.

People started making statements like, “How long are you going to do this for?”  or “you shouldn’t punish yourself like this”.  They were upset that I didn’t want bread, or dessert, or alcohol.

I remember when the statements turned from that, to “Tell me how you eat.  I want to lose weight too.”  “Help me find something healthy to eat so I can drop a few pounds.”

Jenn’s Story – Now

My husband completed his first Whole45.  He lost about 20 pounds.  He used to have high blood pressure, which almost completely regulated itself after that 45 days.

Now, I am 180lbs and have a 32 in. waist – gaining more muscle and getting more lean every day.

Now, I am satisfied when I eat.

Now, I’m not embarrassed to walk in my uniform in front of my bosses.

Now, people actually don’t recognize me.  They have “welcomed” me, as if I was new.

Now, I can try on jeans without thinking, “Which of these looks the LEAST terrible on me?”

Now, I am happy, confident, continuing to learn too – I’m still a beginner, but I am eager to become an expert.

Finally, I became pregnant shortly after I sent in my testimonial.  The first three months of my pregnancy were entirely Whole30.  My baby is healthy at every appointment, and my weight gain has been perfect.  I’ve also done a few Whole15′s purely to make sure that I don’t spoil myself on treats! And as of November 2nd, our beautiful baby girl, Magdalena, was born.

So, that’s my success story.  This was life changing for me, just like you say it will be in the introduction.

I’m horribly embarrassed to send this BEFORE picture.  It was taken in October of 2010.  And this is me this summer, after my Whole30 – I went from a size 18 to a size 12 in a matter of months.

This is as much my story as it is Lauren Guibert’s, because she is the one who introduced it to me, provided guidance and even support. She taught me about the Whole30, who answered every stupid sugary question, and only cringed a little when I said SLIMFAST.  She was great and listened to me and gave me guidance non-stop.  Oh, and of course, THANKS TO YOU TWO, whose blog I reference daily.

Sincerely,

Jenn L.

Today’s post is dedicated to those of you stuck in Good Food Jail – permanently chained to your cutting boards, knives, ovens and dishwashers. Preparing and cooking three meals a day, seven days a week can be a daunting task, and eat up all the time you’d like to take actually appreciating your culinary creations. So we’ve brought in the experts – a team of top Paleo chefs, to help you break out of jail, and enter the New Year well fed and stress-free.

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Melissa “Melicious” Joulwan, Well Fed

A Whole9 Envoy Extraordinaire, author of the blog The Clothes Make The Girl, and the cookbook Well Fed: Paleo Recipes For People Who Love To Eat (packed with more than 115 Whole30-approved recipes).

From frozen to feasting. When I just can’t bear to pack one more work lunch, and I’m feeling really lazy, I don’t even bother to cook my food. Just put two big servings of frozen vegetables in a microwaveable container then drizzle them with olive oil and a good shake of garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Add a microwaveable protein (grilled chicken, frozen cooked shrimp), cram on the lid, and shove the container your bag. At lunchtime, microwave the whole shebang for three minutes, and voila! instant lunch with no real cooking time. It’s not a 4-star Michelin experience, but we all need to eat, like, 28 times a week, so a few of those meals can be “good enough.” It’s nutritious, it’s tastes good, and it’s ready fast.

 Declare “Fish Day.” Declare an Official Fish Day and eat no-cook fish for all your meals with raw veggies on the side: tuna salad for lunch, sardines or kippers for a snack, and (defrosted) frozen, already cooked shrimp for dinner. With plenty of fresh veggies, homemade mayo or homemade salad dressing, and a little fruit on the side, it’s a fresh, light meal that requires just a little chopping and no cooking. Bonus if you add a hard-boiled egg or two to the plate. 

Get multiple pans going at once! When I’m doing a big cookup for the week, I always have two pans going on the stove at once: one for meat and one for veggies. I clean and chop all the veggies I want to steam-sauté, and I set up an assembly line so I can move stuff in and out of the pans without needing to wash in between. Start with the fattiest meat and sauté ’til browned in the “meat” pan, then remove it from the pan and use the same pan, conveniently greased, to cook the next, etc. While the meat is cooking, fire up your “veggie” pan and steam-sauté one veggie after another, using the same water. Just cook one veg, remove it with a slotted spoon to a storage container, keeping the water in the pan hot, so you can add the next veg to the steam bath. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Bonus points: On a third burner, hard boil a dozen eggs for high-quality, grab-and-go protein. I guarantee that with this method, you can make enough food for 3-4 days in about an hour.

 Make freezer “pellets.” This is such a Helpful Hints From Heloise kind of thing, it’s kind of embarrassing., but… when you have sorry-looking oranges, lemons, and limes lying around, squeeze the juice out of them and pour it into ice cube trays. When they’re frozen, I pop them out into a Ziplock and store them in the freezer. Anytime you need fresh juice for cooking, just pop one into the pot. This trick also works with leftover tomato paste (because every recipe in the world needs 1 stinkin’ tablespoon of tomato paste, so there’s always leftovers).  And when you’re not doing a Whole30, this is good for old red and white wine, too.

Patty Strilaeff, Chowstalker

Runs the website Chowstalker, blogs at followingmynose and has a bizarre obsession with offal.

Fat double-duty. If you fry (pastured, organic) bacon or cook (grass-fed, organic) ground beef, instead of pouring off the grease and washing the pan, put a lid on it and reuse it for your next meal. It will not go bad and it’s great for tossing in some veggies or some salmon (but you’ll definitely want to wash the pan after the fish).

Dirty dish distress. Sometimes following a recipe as written will result in a ridiculous amount of dirty dishes. Do I really need to cook something in a skillet and then transfer to a baking dish, or mix in one bowl and then pour into another bowl?  Read the recipe all the way through before you begin and look for short cuts that reduce the kitchen clean-up chores. For example: Lots of salad recipes have you make the salad dressing and pour over the salad.  But it works way better to make the dressing in the bottom of the serving bowl, then add the other ingredients and mix.  Then you have one less dish to wash.

Karen and Casey Puyleart, Purely Primal

The creators of Purely Primal enjoy cooking and eating fresh home-cooked meals with their two daughters, talking about food, photography, working on projects around their home, and exercising, both in the gym and out.

Organized shopping. Everything – from shopping to cooking – gets done faster and better when well organized.  We use a custom-made shopping check list (available on our web site), sorted by the sections of the stores we shop at and inclusive of about 90% of the things we buy on a regular basis.  A detailed list gets you into the store, looking for what you need, cuts impulse buying.  Print the list ahead of time and post it in the kitchen.  When an ingredient is running low, check it on the list immediately.  When putting together a weekly menu keep the list at hand and make sure to include any ingredients not currently “in stock.”

Go back to (prep) school. Mise en place – everything in its place.  Before you start, have everything you need ready.  The recipe should be printed (even if it’s shorthand notes on a napkin) and placed within an easy glance of where you are working.  The ingredients (including all spices and herbs) should be rounded up and roughly measured out.  The pots, pans, knives and any other utensils should also be assembled and ready to go.  Have the sink empty, the dishwasher put away, and the countertops clear.  Keep the garbage can and compost buckets within an arm’s reach.  Get all of your prep work done at one time – chopping the veggies or fruits first, and then the meat last.

Family time. More help means less time spent overall – but don’t limit the kids’ efforts to just doing the dishes.  It’s an opportunity for the next generation to learn, and it gets them excited to try new things when they have helped make it.  Involve the kids in getting all of the ingredients rounded up, even finding things at the grocery store.  Make a game of guessing the spice (close your eyes and take a gentle sniff).  Let them ask lots of questions, and even experiment a little (within reason).  As they are old enough and have the dexterity, let them graduate to some of the prep tasks – measuring dry ingredients, stirring, even chopping.  And eventually, relax at the counter and let them take the helm!

Charles and Julie Mayfield, Paleo Comfort Foods  

Authors of the fabulous new cookbook, Paleo Comfort Foods, which bridges the gap between traditional cookbooks and the paleo diet in a seamless and beautiful way. (They wanted to describe themselves as, “Moderately well-adjusted human beings who wrote some silly book,” but we overrode their suggestion.)

Be (food) swingers. Coordinate a meal-swap with friends from your gym/area. Get 5 or so couples (about 10 people) and agree that on a given day each week, you’ll do a meal swap. So instead of making a batch of Chili that you’re stuck eating for 10 meals, you farm out most of those meals, and in exchange, get other meals. You’ve just minimized your time in the kitchen, and have some SERIOUS return on investment.

Choppity chop. Anytime you’re chopping veggies, chop extra. So, if you have the cutting board out and you’re chopping onions, peppers, broccoli, etc., chop up extra, and store the extra in the fridge for future use. That way, when you want to create a quick dish, you already have things chopped and ready to go.

Protein double-duty. Plan with “recycling” in mind. Try to plan your meals in such a way that lends itself to repurposing some of the protein for something else. Take chicken breasts. We might grill up 3-4 pounds on a given day. Some we’ll probably vacuum seal for future use, whereas maybe 2 days later we’ll use some of the leftovers for chicken salad, or use some of the chicken in Chicken Tomatillo Stew, or do a quick stir fry with some veggies, fresh ginger, and coconut aminos, or do chicken fajitas. That way, the protein is ready to go, and you’re not slaving that much more!

Jessica Meyers, Mastering the Art of Paleo Cooking

A Physician Assistant student on a mission to show others the diversity and quality of meals possible within the scope of the ‘Paleo diet,’ and enable readers to succeed with an arsenal of new recipes on her site, Mastering the Art of Paleo Cooking.

Spice in bulk. The right sauces and spices can turn any boring meal into a masterpiece. I periodically spend an afternoon making large batches of sauces and spice blends. I freeze the sauces in smaller portions to defrost and use when I’m short on time.

Remix your meals. Simply making large quantities of the same meal to last the week can quickly lead to ‘food burn-out.’ No matter how tasty that beef stew is on Monday, you will probably be beyond sick of it by Friday. Instead, spend your time making meals that can be easily “remixed” throughout the week. Recipes like my Crock-Pot Jalapeno Roast can be dinner with some cauliflower rice and avocado, thrown over some lettuce and veggies for an easy salad, mixed into scrambled eggs for delicious Machaca, or wrapped in large lettuce leaves for tacos.

Tom Denham, Whole Life Eating

A Whole 9 Envoy Extraordinaire and the creator of more than 200 free Whole30 compliant recipes at Whole Life Eating.

Don’t be a garlic snob. Use garlic powder to add garlic flavor instead of taking the time to work with fresh garlic. Maybe my taste buds are inferior, but I have not found fresh garlic clearly superior to garlic powder in my cooking.

Carrots, easy. Buy already peeled, baby-cut carrots from the grocery store so that all you have to do is rinse and use them. I add “whole” baby-cut carrots to most recipes. Cut 2 or 3 at a time into halves or thirds if you want smaller carrot pieces.

Onion prep like a pro. Pre- prep your onions. Cut off the top, cut off the bottom, cut the onion in half from top to bottom, and then peel the skin off each half. Lay the onion flat side down and create half-moon slices by cutting down the half from top to bottom. You can use half-moon slices in most recipes. If you need smaller onion pieces, create them by cutting down the half-moon slices from right to left (or left to right if you are a leftie). Throw your cut onions into an air-tight container and shake them to separate all the onion pieces. As your cooking calls for onion, grab what you need from the container. I’ve never had cut onions spoil in the refrigerator, but I’ve probably never had 1 cut onion last more than a few days before cutting a new one.

Chicken smarts. Boil a whole bird to make “pulled chicken” and a pot of tasty chicken broth. Rinse and add the whole bird and giblets to cooking pot. Dust generously with salt, garlic powder, coriander powder, ground cumin, turmeric, and red chili powder. Add enough water to submerge the chicken. Bring the water to a boil and then reduce heat to a busy simmer and let cook covered 50 minutes to an hour. Use a pressure cooker to reduce the cooking time to 30 minutes. When done, the water has become chicken broth. Leave it in the pot while moving chicken to a large mixing bowl. The chicken will fall apart, so move the pieces as best you can with tongs and scoop the rest out with a slotted spoon. Use a pair of tongs to separate the chicken from the bones and skin and transfer it to another large bowl. Once you have the chicken separated, pull the chicken apart with a pair of forks and save it in an air-tight container. Discard the bones and skin. Let the broth cool 30 minutes to an hour and then pour it into an air-tight container. Use the broth to make a tasty soup or a cup at a time in recipes that need a little chicken flavor and moisture.

Bill Staley and Hayley Mason, Make It Paleo

Authors of the new cookbook Make It Paleo and the popular blog, The Food Lovers Primal Palate.

Knife smarts. Invest in a good set of knives, as well as a knife skills class. (YouTube or a few nights of watching Food Network can help with the knife skills, as well as a healthy amount of practice). Having good, sharp knives, and knowing how to use them will make cooking prep a lot faster and more efficient.

Storage space. Stock your cupboard with a variety of reusable food containers. Your fridge will be filled with leftovers, chopped veggies for salads or omelets, fresh herbs, dressings, and lunches to take to school or work. Having the right containers to keep everything fresh and organized really helps! We recommend glass containers or BPA-free plastics.

Easy spices. Spice blends make gourmet cooking effortless. Buying ready-made mixes of herb salts, or spice blends will take the stress out of creative cooking. Seasonello is our favorite herb salt which is delicious on roasted, grilled, or sauteed vegetables, meat, fish, or poultry, as well as eggs, and salads. When purchasing pre-made spice blends, be sure to check the ingredients for gluten or sugars (you do not want either).

Extra, extra. Purchase extra pieces of key kitchen equipment to make cooking a streamlined affair. For us, that means having a few high-heat silicone utensils, several sets of measuring cups and spoons, tongs, and several cutting boards. When we’re both in the kitchen and cooking, this makes life easy as we do not have to share tools or stop to wash things frequently. We’re not saying you need 10 hand mixers, but having duplicates of key tools can come in handy and make cooking a bit more painless.

Michelle Tam, Nom Nom Paleo

The sardonic working mom and foodie behind the popular blog Nom Nom Paleo shows you how to shave time in the kitchen and still end up with healthy, flavor-packed meals that your brood will devour while murmuring “nomnomnom.” You can check out her awesome Nom Nom gear in the Nom Nom Paleo Spreadshirt store.

SousVide Supreme. The one thing that allows me to get Whole30-compliant nosh in my belly without spending too much time cooking and cleaning is my SousVide Supreme.This kitchen appliance is my absolute FAVORITE because it (1) saves me money; (2) tricks people into thinking I’ve got mad kitchen skillz; and (3) offers me the gift of time.

Although most people think the SousVide Supreme is an indulgent luxury item, it has saved me money in more ways than one. We rarely go out to eat nowadays because it’s so easy to crank out delicious meals at home. I’ve also saved on my grocery bills because, when cooked sous vide, tough, cheaper cuts of meat (e.g. grass fed beef tongue, oxtail, short ribs, etc.) are magically transformed into tender, succulent entrees. On the rare occasion when I buy an expensive steak, I don’t need to worry about spending money on a back-up dinner plan because it always turns out fantastic.

Cooking sous vide is so dang easy. All I do is season the meat, vacuum-seal, and drop the packets in the water oven for the specified time and temp. Prep and clean-up take 10 minutes, tops. With the SousVide Supreme, I can pre-cook a bunch of meat once a week so it’s ready to reheat when I want to eat it. The trick to meal planning with the water oven is finding and grouping items that can cook at the same temperature. For example, if you like all your red meat cooked to 130º F (medium rare), just plan to make all of them at the same time and remove each individual item as they finish cooking.

The beauty of sous vide is that you can cook lots of things ahead and then you’ve got tons of ready-to-eat meat in your fridge (where it’s good for ~4 days) or freezer (where it’s good for 6+ months). You can eat the meat cold (e.g. chicken breast) or just reheat it for 30 minutes in the water bath set to the final serving temp, dry it off, and sear. Plus, clean-up is a breeze.

I know I sound like a shill for SousVide Supreme but sous vide cooking is awesome. If you don’t want to shell out the money for one, I’ve written a post about how to hack one for cheap. Just try it — you’ll like it! (Unless you’re worried about plastics, but I’ve addressed that here.)

Michelle Norris, Caveman Cuisine

The Executive Chef of Caveman Cuisine, a paleo-friendly meal prep and delivery service, and a founding member of Paleo(fx) Austin Partners. She blogs at Ancestral Momentum with her husband, Keith Norris of Efficient Exercise.

Prep your peppers.  No need enter into a knife-wrestle with these bad boys (you’ll lose, as they’re very accomplished).  No, simply cut the tops and bottoms of the pepper off first, which allows the seed pod to be easy removed as a whole piece. Next, cut the pepper lengthwise down a single side, then roll the entire pepper out flat.  This will allow for a much easier removal of those pesky membranes.  Finally, cut the pepper into whatever shape you need, whether it be julienne strips or any of the various fashions of dice.

Pay now, not later. Think of it this way:  would you rather clean up from prep work once or multiple times per week?  Yeah, yeah, I hear ya.  It is a drag at the time, but you’ll thank yourself later in the week.   One reason chefs can produce incredible dishes in record time is because all of the ingredients for that dish were prepped for them ahead of time. You can do this, too. Wash and cut all vegetables to the specifications you will need them for the dishes you plan to make. Prep all meats to the extent that you can do so safely. Make sure to seal and store these all properly in the refrigerator. Fruits should be washed and prepped at the time you are ready to use them to keep them fresher longer.

Sharpest knife in the drawer. One additional tip as it relates to prep work: always be sure your knives are properly sharpened.  A dull knife not only wastes your time, it creates more work and it can damage foods.  Last but not least, a dull knife is a safety hazard in that it is more likely to injure you than its sharper drawer mate.

Dallas & Melissa Hartwig, Whole9

Founders of Whole9 and the original Whole30 program. We couldn’t let this post go without contributing our own kitchen tricks, even though we’re not “top Paleo chefs” by any means.

Own these gadgets.  A few simple (and inexpensive) gadgets will make your kitchen life 74.3% easier. In no particular order, make sure your kitchen comes stocked with (a) a lemon/lime squeezer, (b) a garlic press, (c) a chopper (we like this one from Williams Sonoma), (d) multiple sizes of lightweight, fast-drying cutting boards (we love these from Epicurian), (e) a meat tenderizer (no more unevenly cooked chicken breasts!) and (f) cheesecloth (for clarified butter, soup stock and more).

Store smart. We have about 20 vacuum-sealed stoarge containers, to keep everything from nuts and seeds to coffee beans as fresh as the day we bought them. (We like these, from Bodum.) They look pretty lined up on your countertop, too.

5 minute meals. Keep a list of three “go-t0″ meals on your fridge – quick and easy fixings made with ingredients you always have on hand. (Eggs and frozen spinach, canned salmon and sweet potato patties and frozen scallops and Imagine brand butternut squash soup are our go-to meals.) This way, when you’re home late, hungry and tired, you’ll have no excuse not to make a healthy, nourishing meal.

Your Turn!

You don’t have to be a top Paleo chef to share your own kitchen tips and tricks. So share your favorite time-saving skills, and let us know which of our “expert” tips you found the most helpful.

A special guest post by Khaled Allen, of Farm to Table Online.

As I was starting to get more into Paleo, one of the glaring inconsistencies was the heavy reliance on foods that are only available because of a global food system. Surely, it would have made zero sense for humans to rely on a foods from around the world to get sufficient nutrients for optimal health.

How would you get them all in one place?

Besides that, it was becoming clear very quickly that the principles behind eating grass-fed meat applied equally to vegetables, namely, only eat what was grown and fed in the way it was meant to be. Eating Ecuadorian bananas in the dead of a New England winter was just as messed up as eating cornfed cows or soyfed chickens.

Local, seasonal eating was the obvious answer.

Why Eat Local

Local, seasonal vegetables have a much higher nutrient density than supermarket veggies shipped across the country. They aren’t bred just for durability and shelf-life, so you see a huge variety of strange and colorful items, a literal cornucopia of exotic minerals, nutrients, vitamins, and tastes. Small farmers often meet organic standards, even if they’re not officially certified. They do a hard job with meager financial rewards, so they generally farm out of love and take good care of their animals and land.

Christy Colasurdo is the co-founder of Graze, a company which delivers organic and sustainably produced foods from local farms to folks in Fairfield County, CT and Massachusetts. Christy says, “A lot of our small farmers and local suppliers are aware of the Paleo community’s preferences, and work hard to make getting grass-fed and pasture-raised beef as convenient as possible for communities and individuals seeking to eat clean. The farmers are very careful about what they will and won’t feed to their animals. They take pains to avoid feeds that contain hormones, antibiotics, pesticides and corn products.”

So you know you’re getting the best possible food in terms of health, and it’s really nice to get your meats and poultry from someone who understands why it’s important to you to know what the animals were fed before they feed you. And for me, the enjoyment I get out of my local food makes it worth the effort. The taste and flavors are mind-blowing (tomatoes that actually contribute to a salad!) and I feel even better now than I did while eating Paleo before going local.

The hardest part was figuring out where and how to get all my food; you can’t just stop at the supermarket. For those of you interested in searching out local, sustainable food in your community, read on for some how-to advice on making the transition.

Hunting and Gathering

Eating locally is a little like being a hunter-gatherer: you have to learn your food landscape, time your hunt just right, and get comfortable with improvising.

1. Farmers Markets. The most straightforward way to get your food is to visit your local farmers market. Check out localharvest.com for a nationwide listing. You can often find grassfed meats, eggs, handmade salsas, and grassfed dairy (if you’re into that sort of thing). Occasionally, you’ll even find seafood if you live near a coast. However, markets are usually the most expensive option.

Once you find a farm you like at the market, you can usually arrange to get food from them directly if they are close enough or do direct-shipping. This ends up being cheaper, but adds a bit of hassle and is usually limited to meat and eggs.

2. CSAs. Many vegetable farms do CSAs instead (community supported agriculture). Because of the economics of small farming, it is difficult to coordinate planting with market demand, so farmers offer crop shares, which you buy before the planting starts. The farmer is assured of buyers, and you are guaranteed fresh, local vegetables delivered to a collection point or your doorstep every week. CSA shares are cheaper than shopping at the farmers’ market, and you get a lot of food (and a wide variety of offerings) with your deliveries. I usually have trouble finishing my share by week’s end.

3. Cowpool. For meats, you have two reliable options if you can’t find meat at your market. The first is to join a buying club, or cowshare, like this one. These clubs pool funds to purchase animals, and then ‘hire’ a farmer to raise and slaughter those animals. The economics of this arrangement allow you to get a section of a grassfed cow for sometimes as low as $4/lb, paying a set price for various cuts ranging from low- to high-grade.

4. Delivery services. If you’re lucky enough to live in certain states, you can also get reasonably priced, local meats from a farm-to-consumer delivery service, like Graze (Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York), Spud (West Coast), or Greenling (Austin, TX). These services aggregate the products of select small farms, with very high quality standards, and deliver to your doorstep on a weekly schedule.

Christy Colasurdo, co-founder of Graze, explains, “What we do is different from a meat CSA. Our customers like to order exactly the cuts they want, when they want them, so they don’t have unwanted cuts of meat crowding their freezer or going to waste. Our model offers the best of both worlds: sustainably raised meats and customer choice. Another advantage to our model is that we provide more than just the meats, so customers can order the seasonal produce and prepared Paleo sides to plan full meals that work with a Paleo diet.”

5. Mix and match. The best solution will be a combination of these – maybe a CSA or delivery service for staples, with occasional trips to the market for fresh vegetables, and a cowshare for your years’ supply of meat. (A freezer is a necessary investment if you want to really leverage the economics of local eating).

Navigating the Obstacles

I know what you’re thinking: “It was hard enough getting over all that bread and pasta, and now you want me to only eat things I can find within 200 miles, and in season?!” So let’s be realistic about your foray into local, sustainable eating.

1. Not everything can be local. First of all, you won’t get everything locally. Some things (like oils, nuts, chocolate, coffee and other delicious things you shouldn’t be eating much of anyway) can be considered specialties. You probably won’t find these items locally, so accept that you’re going to have to make some accommodations.

2. Start with meat and veggies. Staples, such as meat and vegetables, put a higher burden on the food system, and they make up the bulk of your calories, so if you make those local (which is luckily much easier), you’ll be making huge progress, and a solid contribution to your local economy.

3. Eat seasonal. You’ll have to get used to missing berries in the spring and fall, and gorging on them in summer. Squash is out of season in the spring and summer, but you’ll get lots of succulent leafy greens to make up for it. When the fall comes around, you’ll be ready for the deep, satisfying flavor of the gourds, when their unique nutrient profile is most needed by the body (like any animal, we too have seasons when certain foods serve us better than others). Whole9’s Seasonal Produce Guide can help you set appropriate expectations.

4. Get creative with fats. The biggest problem for Paleo-types will be finding local fats and oils. Local olives and coconuts are rare. You can ask your local meat farmer if they can spare you the lard or tallow from their butchering process, or you can settle for buying your cooking oils at the grocery store as usual. Nut farms are limited to the South and California. You could mail-order nuts from small farms; it’s not local, but it still supports sustainable farming, and you’ll get fresher, more nutritious nuts and seeds than anything you’ve ever tasted before. (You’ll be amazed at the difference: check out pastureraised.net if you want to go this route).

Ready to start?

The best way to start eating locally is replacing some foods with local ones. Vegetables are the easiest option. Start in the summer, and get to know your farmers at the market. Browse local health food stores and co-ops, and talk to the owners and vendors. And check the labels before buying produce in your normal grocery store, avoiding items imported from other countries.

Once you’re comfortable with the sourcing options, try branching out to meats (often, via the same sources as above), and then specialty items.

Before you know it, you’ll look down at your dinner plate and realize you know exactly where everything on it came from. It’s a good feeling. And once you get a taste for local, you won’t ever want to go back.

Khaled Allen runs the local food blog, Farm to Table Online, and is an active CrossFitter. He is currently teaching English in South Korea while training to be a ninja.

If you live in Fairfield County, CT; Weston, MA; or Wellesley, MA; or visit Stratton, Stowe, Sugarbush and Okemo mountains during ski season, Graze is offering a free entree (up to a $20 value). Visit http://www.grazedelivered.com/ and use the code Whole9 at checkout.

by Melissa Hartwig

“We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves.” -Edith Lovejoy Pierce

Today’s post was both terrifying to write, and a gigantic relief.  I’ve been wanting to talk about some of my personal experiences and history on the blog for years now, but was afraid to be judged. Afraid that my past would hurt my credibility. Afraid that people would look at me differently.

But I’ve swallowed my fear, and Dallas and I are both ready to handle any repercussions, because we both think this is an important step for me to take.  So here goes…  You know that now-famous line in the Whole30 that says, “Quitting heroin is hard. Beating cancer is hard. Drinking your coffee black. Is. Not. Hard?”  I know this to be true firsthand.

My name is Melissa, and I am an addict.

In 2012, I will have been clean for 12 years.  I spent six years in my early 20’s hustling for every powder, pill and chemical substance I could get my hands on.  I lied. I stole. I was fired from my job. I broke family members’ hearts several times a week. I was a terrible person, because when you are an addict, being a terrible person is your full-time job.

I’ve discovered that it’s hard for most people to reconcile this person (Addict Melissa) with the person you know today (Whole9 Melissa).  It’s even hard for Dallas, who knows all my secrets, but did not know me back then.  (For that, I am eternally grateful.) It’s okay if you find it hard to believe, or think perhaps I am exaggerating.  I’ll take that as a compliment.  I have come a very long way.

The day I got out of rehab was the day I first set foot in a gym.  For a while, exercise was my new addiction, because trading one for another is all too easy.  Eventually, I settled into a healthy, reasonable training routine.  I quit smoking.  I started eating better.  The rest is history.

Why am I sharing this with you now?  A few reasons.  First, I’ve never tried to keep it a secret.  When appropriate, I’ve always been open with gym owners, workshop attendees and consulting clients about my addiction and recovery.  At some point, I figured my history might make its way to the public eye, and I didn’t want it to come from someone else. I am not ashamed of my past, nor have I ever tried to cover this up.

But more importantly, I’ve learned (and taught myself) a lot about addiction and recovery in the last 12 years.  Thanks to my rehabilitation center and years of addiction counseling, I discovered and created recovery and maintenance strategies that worked very well. I also tried more than a few that backfired.

Why does this matter?

Because theoretically, food addiction isn’t that different from drug addiction.

I’m not saying it’s the same, because technically, it’s not.  According to the The American Psychiatric Association’s DSM-IV, addiction is classified by three factors:

1. Desire, even in the face of negative consequences
2. Tolerance to the effect of the substance
3. Withdrawal symptoms when use is reduced or stopped

Food – particularly sugar – clearly satisfies the first two conditions.  The jury is still out as to the third, and I’m simply not comfortable putting sugar or bread in the same category as heroin.

But the term is also applied to behaviors that are not substance-related, such as shopping, gambling or overeating. In this common usage, “addiction” describes a recurring compulsion to engage in some specific activity, despite harmful consequences (as deemed by the user themselves) to their individual health, mental state, or social life.

We will use the term “addiction” in this context going forward, because we think it’s a fair description.  We suspect that those of you who consider your behaviors around food “compulsive,” whose use food (or lack of food) as a coping mechanism, who are locked in an endless cycle of insatiable desire and crippling self-hatred, would agree.

So while our addictions may not be exactly the same, the recovery strategies are, in my opinion, strikingly similar. Conceptually, hopefully, the things I’ve learned in the last 12 years would prove useful to those of you who struggle with giving up certain foods; who use healthy programs like “Paleo” or “CrossFit” to mask their disordered behaviors; who eat compulsively, despite the negative consequences to your body, your self-esteem and your relationships.

But it would be hard for me to draw those parallels in any credible fashion without first sharing my history with you.

If I heard it once, I heard it a hundred times in rehab – “It takes one to know one.”  When I was struggling to get clean, the best advice came from other addicts. Unless you’ve been there, you really just don’t know.  So I wasn’t about to start sharing my “recovery” strategies with you without letting you know that yes, I’ve been there too.

I know your struggle. I know the cycle of relentless hunger, fleeting satisfaction and long-term guilt, shame and remorse. I know what it’s like to disgust yourself with your behaviors, but to be stuck in this pattern because at this point, you simply cannot stop.  I know what it’s like to use the very behaviors that caused you pain to numb that pain.  I know how much it hurts, and I know how heavy a burden you carry.

Please, take note: I’m not a psychologist, an addiction specialist, or a social worker.  I’m just an addict who got clean – and who has managed to stay clean for the last 12 years without relapsing. And I am grateful on a daily basis for the support, guidance and teachings of every single person who has helped me get to and stay in this place.

So I’ll be writing a series of posts – strategies and concepts I learned while getting (and staying) clean – that you may find helpful in changing your own relationship with food.  

As I have a close and intimate relationship with addiction, I sincerely hope the lessons I’ve learned will prove useful to those of you currently struggling with your own food-related issues.  You don’t have to be a sugar or carb “addict” to struggle with cravings, so I hope those of you who simply have a hard time saying no from time to time can develop strategies from these lessons, too.

If you are struggling with true food addiction, I encourage you first and foremost to seek professional help.  Nothing I could tell you will prove as valuable as the guidance of a trained mental health counselor or experienced support group, and ultimately those are the resources that will help you maintain your new habits long-term.  But perhaps as you work hard with your chosen professional to overcome your own addictions, some of the techniques I learned and developed along the way will prove just as helpful to you as they were to me.

So there you have it.  I’m the same person I was yesterday, you just know a little more about me.  If this makes me less credible in your eyes, Dallas and I are both prepared to handle the fallout.  But every saint has a past, and every sinner a future – and without my past, I’d never be where I am today.

And I am very, very blessed to be exactly where I am today.

I invite your comments and polite discussion. And as always, we thank you for reading.

We’re preparing for the promotional video for our upcoming book, It Starts With Food… and we need your help to bring our video concept to reality. (And you may even score a sweet iPad in the process.)

We want our promotional video to excite, to inspire, to motivate people. We want people to watch it, jump out of their chairs and say, “Yes! I want that too!” And there is no better way to do that than with real-life testimonials, featuring real people – from athletes to gardening enthusiasts, from grandparents to teenagers, from active duty military to kindergarten teachers – sharing their experiences with Whole9′s philosophies, programs and community.

We need people just like you.

You have lost weight.

You no longer take medications.

You have eliminated the symptoms of any number of diseases and conditions.

You feel better.

You are happier.

You have changed your life.

And we want you to share your success with the world, in the It Starts With Food promotional video.

Share Your Story

All you have to do is video yourself using whatever handy recording device you like (iPhone, flip cam, camera, etc.), sharing your experience with Whole9 and our programs.

Your testimonial must be in this format:

• Your symptoms
• How you found Whole9 and/or the Whole30
• How it has improved your life

Examples include:

• “I was 20 pounds overweight, tired all the time, and had high blood pressure. A friend told me about Whole9′s web site. Thanks to their articles, I lost 25 pounds, dropped my blood pressure medication, and have the energy of a teenager.”
• “I have rheumatoid arthritis, and my joints constantly hurt. My brother gave me the Whole30 Success Guide. Thanks to my dietary changes, I was able to come off all my arthritis medication, and my joints are no longer swollen or stiff.”
• “I’ve had migraines for 15 years, at least once a week. I found the Whole30 through my gym. Since my Whole30, I haven’t had a single migraine.”

You don’t have to be a Whole30 graduate to participate. If our information has helped you “go Paleo” and change your life, we want your story. You don’t have to have some miraculous recovery from a disease or medical condition to participate, either – we’re looking for weight loss testimonials as much as anything else. (Because, as much as our program is not focused on weight loss, people do care about their weight.)

The Fine Print

 We need to make sure the videos are in the proper format, so when we compile them, they “fit” together nicely.  So, please keep the following video guidelines in mind:

• Make sure there is a light on your face. If there is too much backlighting, you’ll just look like dark silhouettes.
• Shoot in a widescreen (sideways) format rather than portrait (tall) format, if your recorders have the option to tilt that way.
• Frame your shot from your belly-button up. (And don’t cut off your head!)
• Ideally, shoot in front of a plain white (or a plain colored) background, so you stand out.
• Speak clearly and project a bit.
• No need to edit or trim – we’ll take care of that. Just make sure you capture the first word to last word clearly.
• Keep clips to 20 seconds, 30 at most.
• Smile! This is going to be fun.

Ready?  Set? Action!

Filming this clip should take you all of five minutes, including the time it takes to email it to us. And the more amazing testimonials we get, the awesome-r our promotional video will be, and the more people we’ll be able to inspire.

So please, if Whole9′s programs, philosophies or community has changed your life, take five minutes to send us your story, and allow us to share your success with others.

Email your video clips to whole30@whole9life.com.  Deadline for submission is January 31, 2012.  And as a thank you for your assistance, everyone who sends us a video will be entered to win a free iPad 2. We’ll draw one lucky winner from all the video submissions during the first week in February. (As if sharing your story with the world and being famous Whole9 rock stars wasn’t enough?)

Legal Stuff

By submitting your video clip, you hereby   grant   to   Whole9 Life, LLC  the  absolute  and  irrevocable  right  and  unrestricted permission in respect of photographs, written testimonials or video clips (“media”), to copyright the same; to re-use, publish and republish the same in whole or in part, individually or in conjunction with other photographs or videos, and in conjunction with any printed or animated matter, in any and all media now or hereafter known, and for any other purpose whatsoever, for illustration, promotion, art, editorial, advertising and trade, or any other purpose whatsoever with restriction as to alteration; from time to time, or reproductions thereof in color, black and white or otherwise made through any media, without compensation or approval rights.

By submitting your video, you hereby   release,   discharge   and   agree   to   save   harmless   Whole9Life, LLC,   its   legal representatives or assigns and all persons acting under its permission or authority, from any liability in connection with the use of the media as aforesaid or by virtue of any alteration, processing or use thereof in composite form, whether intentional or  otherwise, as well as any publication thereof.