This wasn’t my idea. But my friends convinced me to try this new diet called Whole 30.

So for those who don’t know 30 what Whole is, you can find information on the whole program here .

In short, for 30 days

• no sugar of any kind
• no alcohol
• no grains
• no legumes (beans and peanuts)
• no dairy
• no carrageenan, MSG or sulfites
• no junk food or treats
• no measuring – no weighing myself

I know, it sounds really restrictive. Honestly, it’s pretty terrifying. But I’m trying really hard to concentrate on the things I can have. I’m allowed to eat all the meat, fish, and vegetables and fruit that I want. I’ll look forward to lots of grilled fish with cauliflower rice and breakfast frittatas full of sweet potato and pork!

Where I’m coming from

I definitely have what the program refers to as a “sugar dragon”. I’ve always loved sweets and my go-to comfort foods have always been ice cream and tea with lots of sugar. I’m one of those people who always have room for dessert. Though since I’ve graduated from college my sugar tolerance has actually gone down. A candy bar is often too sweet for me. But if I can cut my dependency on sugar that would be wonderful.

My specialization in cooking has been French and Northern Italian food. My basic culinary training was all in French cooking technique. I’m super thankful that Whole 30 actually allows clarified butter but letting go of other dairy products will be difficult for me. I love cheese and I like to cook with a lot of it. But I do know that dairy often upsets my stomach, so it will be interesting to see if cutting it out will drastically affect me.

It didn’t occur to me until I started meal planning how much I depend on rice and soy in my cooking. I’m ethnically Singaporean Chinese. I knew rice would be hard to give up as it’s a main component of most Asian dishes, but I totally underestimated the use of soy sauce for marinating and flavoring dishes. The same goes for fish sauce, oyster sauce, cooking wine, and curry paste. I know that I’m allergic to legumes so I naturally avoid most kinds of beans, but soy sauce has been difficult for me to give up.

The Scary Part

Ok now, here is the embarrassing and definitely mortifying part of this post for me. I’ve debated internally whether I wanted to share this information or not. But I’ve decided it would be good to share my measurements pre-diet for the following reasons

1. to keep track of my progress before and after this diet
2. to have accountability on my program
3. to counter a disproportionate view of my body

I use to be skinny in high school, like unhealthy skinny. I hit my height of 5’2″ by my freshmen year of high school and stopped growing, but I never broke 100 pounds until my senior year of high school. I ate a lot, but I just couldn’t put on the weight. I was pretty active, I did dance and I ran around a lot like high school students do. But in my junior year of high school I was hit by a car, injuring my knee so that it was painful to put weight on it for long periods of time. I started gaining weight, and at first I was mortified. Then I was happy, because I could tell that I was filling out in a healthful way. And then into my college years I kept putting on weight.  And post-grad the trend hasn’t stopped.

So now, I’m 137 pounds. This is the heaviest I’ve ever been and I’m not happy about it. It’s not just the number though, I’m pretty disappointed that I’m not as strong as I used to be. I’ve been trying to get back into being active but it’s still pretty hard as my knee still bothers me. Pounds aren’t a great indicator of health or of body type. I tend to like measurements more as an indicator. Currently, I’m 34-28-38.

What I want from Whole 30

I know just cutting out sugar will definitely have an effect on me.  I would like to lose 10 pounds or more. And I want to cut 2 inches from my waist and hip measurements. I expect my waist measurements will go down with or without Whole 30 as I corset to maintain my posture at my office job and I’ve been waist training. I honestly don’t expect these to happen but I want to set my goals high. Just fitting into my skinny jeans without having to jump would be a victory. 🙂

I’ll be logging my progress here as I go. And I’ll also include some of my meal prep and recipes. Look forward to a post tomorrow about my meal planning and preparation process tomorrow as it will be my first day out of 30!

Thanks for reading lovelies!