How to Have a Successful Whole 30

Are you thinking of doing Whole30? It can be challenging—but it is so worth it. Completing a Whole30 changed my life in 30 days. Here’s how you can have a successful Whole 30.

WHOLE30 is not a weight loss program and that’s a great thing. Think of it as a 30-day elimination diet. By the end you will know how many foods affect your body.

August 2024 UPDATE: It’s hard to believe that I did my first Whole30, 13 years ago. I’m not exaggerating when I say it changed my life. Many of the habits I developed, I follow to this day, not because I have to but because I feel so much better when I do!

This month the New WHOLE30 book came out and I am so excited.

Since that time I lost weight and maintained that loss for eight years. My skin looks great, I have energy, and best of all, food is not my enemy.

I’ve written two other articles about WHOLE30: How WHOLE30 Changed My Life and The Benefits of Doing a WHOLE30.

There are so many benefits from doing a Whole30. You get off sugar, minimize cravings, and learn to love real food? What’s not to love?

In addition, you will have better sleep, reduce inflammation, have more energy, and your skin will look better.

I don’t know how many people start but don’t complete their 30 days but I bet it’s fairly high.

However, I’ve got you. This was my roadmap for success and for 13 years, I’ve had a way healthier relationship with food. Achieving food freedom is amazing!

How Whole30 Can Change Your Life

I completed my first Whole 30 in June 2013 and I continue to eat primarily this way. It was a powerful experience that and I wrote about how it changed my life here.

I’m not going to lie–it was tough making it through those 30 days. Yet, to this day, I consider it one of the most important and life-changing things I’ve ever done.

Since doing my Whole 30, I’ve continued to make whole, real food the major component of my diet. I’m a real person with a real life, including a business, children and grandchildren, and lots of fun and creative activities.

If you are thinking about doing a Whole 30, it’s really helpful to have some strategies to get you through the month. Most of the people in your life simply won’t understand why you are doing this, so the support strategies are especially important.

WHOLE30 Gives You Food Freedom

For what it’s worth, it totally changed how I look at food. People can say all they want about moderation and that there is “no bad food.” But that’s not the whole story.

At first when you look at the allowed food list, it may seem like there are too many things you can’t have. But the beauty of this is it opens up a giant world of food that you can eat, but probably haven’t been.

Trust me, I know. Over the years, I have seen the food journals of women and most of you are not eating enough protein, vegetables, fruit, or healthy fats and oils. 

As a life coach who works with women who are struggling with food and eating issues, I know how absolutely addicting some foods can be. Food is the bane of many women’s existence. 

They can’t live with it and they can’t live without it. Many women feel kind of desperate by the time they reach out to me.

The stores are filled with foods designed to override your hunger so that you overeat and have strong cravings to eat even when you aren’t hungry. 

Those little serving sizes? They are just a gateway to overeating foods that will raise your blood sugar and cause you to gain weight.

The thing is, completing your first Whole30 is not easy. However, at some point you begin to feel really good. Really good. Mind-blowing good. 

While you may want to lose weight, this is not the time to concentrate on that. This is your time to rewire your brain around food so that you can truly enjoy eating for the rest of your life.

Even though I felt better than I had ever felt before or since, it still was hard to get through the 30 days. 

Not so much because it’s hard to eat this way but hard because most of my world doesn’t eat this way. So, it takes a real commitment to stick with it and I’m here to make it easier for you!

How did my life change?

I find that when I know in advance how something is going to be that is helpful to my mindset. I’m a mindset coach and I’m an expert on how to get in the right mindset for something.

So, first of all, I want to tell you some of the ways that my life has changed permanently. 

I completely quit using any artificial sweeteners, even the supposedly “healthy” ones. 

I lost my sweet tooth and rarely eat sugar or fake foods. Yes, sugar cravings totally went away.

I became fearless about eating healthy fats and add oils such as coconut oil, olive oil, or avocado oil to most of the foods I eat.

I quit snacking. I rarely crave junk or fast food. Cravings are mostly a thing of the past.

My digestion improved significantly. I can remember being out on a walk and being amazed that I couldn’t feel my gut. Feeling uncomfortable had been “normal” for me.

It wasn’t until I felt nothing in my gut that I realized how much discomfort I had been in for so long.

I still enjoy food but it doesn’t rule my life like it used to. In fact, I do eat treats and the occasional fast food. But mostly I stick to my real food.

To get those benefits, you have to first make it through your Whole 30. I encourage you to read up and go for it. Here are the strategies to help you through your Whole 30. This is how to have a successful Whole 30.

As a side note, I help women do all of the above things through life coaching without going on a Whole30, with no foods off-limits. 

If you want a gradual, gentler way, I can help with that too through one-on-one coaching.

Read the WHOLE30 Books

When I did my first WHOLE30, the book that was out was, It Starts With Food. 

This was the book that sold me on WHOLE30 and I thought it had the best information about why it’s worth doing. It tells you why you are doing what you are doing. 

Melissa Urban, the co-founder of WHOLE30, has released the New WHOLE30 and I absolutely love this new edition. 

The New WHOLE30 is completely updated, including a new vegan option. It is also filled with delicious looking recipes.

​While there isn’t a set meal plan, there is a meal template which is very helpful.

Understanding the WHY you are doing this is just as important as the how. It really helps with your mindset to understand how this is going to help you long-term.

You are reprogramming your brain and healing your body. Unfortunately, these can’t be shown on the scale. So knowing why you are doing what you are doing really helps with keeping you committed to your 30 days.

Don’t Fight the WHOLE30 Rules—Just do It!

The program may seem overly strict at first, but here is a reason for this. The purpose is to heal not only food-related damage to your body, but a lifetime of psychological damage. 

Creators of food products have designed foods so that we crave them and so that we will eat them well beyond when we are full. Many people think they have no willpower when in fact, there is an entire food industry dedicated to making them overeat!

Whole30 is your way out of that endless cycle of misery.

The rules I see people complaining about the most are: black coffee, no pancakes (it’s thing!), no alcohol and the elimination of whole food groups. 

I know people that haven’t done the program because of the no alcohol component. Don’t let that scare you. I promise you will feel so much better.

Join the WHOLE30 Forum

Your support will probably not come from friends and family. It’s not because they don’t love you. 

It’s because the majority of people just don’t understand the importance of eating real food. So you have to find another support system for Whole 30. It’s so worth it!

The Whole 30 Forum is an amazing resource. I was on there every day, before work and after work. There are categories for every situation and people of all levels of experience. 

The moderators are intelligent, sensitive, and knowledgeable. I learned so much from the forum and I can’t recommend it enough.

This is a link to a blog post from the Whole 30 website. It discusses following the rules and support in the official forums that I recommend vs. unofficial Facebook groups.

Get the WHOLE30 Newsletter

Whole 30 has a daily newsletter for the duration of the 30 days. Because every day brings new challenges, feelings, and physical challenges; it is extremely helpful to have a daily email to let you know what you can expect and strategies for dealing with it.

A Journal Helps with Your WHOLE30

I kept a journal through my Whole 30 journey and I’m so glad I did. I wrote everything I ate and how I felt. I loved seeing all the vegetables I was eating!

At one point in the middle, I started feeling lethargic. When I looked over my journal, I realized that I wasn’t eating starchy vegetables. I started adding sweet potatoes to at least one meal a day and that helped a lot!

You Can Eat Carbs on Your WHOLE30

It’s tempting to think of Whole 30 as a low carb diet because you aren’t eating grains or beans. But it’s not. You can eat plenty of carbs and I encourage you to. These carbs include sweet potatoes, winter squash, carrots, and fruit. 

I included a moderate amount with each meal and it made a huge difference in how I felt. Remember the journal? When I started feeling not-so-great, I tracked it to not eating enough carbs. When I started eating more potatoes, I began feeling better.

WHOLE30 is Not a Diet

Because you are giving up so many different foods; it is easy to think of Whole 30 as a diet and that you should have some weight loss. 

It’s not! I can’t emphasize that enough. And if you cut out fat and carbs or reduce serving sizes, you will not get the most out of your Whole 30.

You need to retrain your body to eat properly. To stay satiated between meals or at night, you need to eat enough at your meals. 

Whole 30 provides a template for creating your meals. If you follow this, you won’t get hungry. You may not lose weight initially but you won’t be putting on the pounds either.

As your body and mind adjust to Whole 30, you will also eat in line with what your body’s needs actually are. I lost about 3 pounds during my Whole 30 and that was okay.

Why You Need to Eat Your Fat and Oils

Eating fat is scary for many people. We have been brainwashed into thinking fat is bad. 

How often have your heard that butter, lard, beef, and other fats are bad for you. It’s just not true. Fats are essential for the proper functioning of our bodies and we need fats for proper fat burning.

What makes us fat are the kinds of foods that interfere with our food processing hormones. When we eat lots of sugar and processed foods, we keep enough ready energy in our bodies that our body does not need to access the fat in your body for energy the way it is designed to. 

The culprit is not too much fat in your diet—it’s too many sugars and foods that act like sugars. Too much of these and your body’s hormones are thrown out of whack and your body will be working against you. 

Whole 30 allows you to cook in healthy fats. In addition to that, it tells you to add additional fat to your meal. 

For people who have been trying to cut the fat out for years, this can be scary. But fat not only helps our bodies function better, it makes food taste better, and it keeps us comfortable for longer.

Eat Enough at Your Meals

I used to fear being hungry. I would not only eat all my meals but I would also carry around snacks. It seemed like I was hungry all the time. After my Whole 30, I didn’t need to snack—my meals kept me going from one meal to the next.

My hunger changed too. I would get hungry as meal time approached but it wasn’t a ravenous “I HAVE to eat!” kind of hunger. It was a gradual gentle hunger that gently built until it was time to eat. I could easily go 5 or 6 hours without eating.

Most of my clients do not eat enough at their meals when we first start working together. Depriving yourself at meals opens you up to cravings and hunger between meals.

This leads to over-snacking, binging, and overeating.

Learning to eat enough at a meal to feel satisfied will help you in so many ways. This is the foundation for the work I do with my clients. 

Once you are eating enough at your meals, everything else becomes easier.

Be Open to Being Surprised

Be open to all the discoveries you’ll make about your relationship with food. You will find out what foods are most addicting for you and what foods may be causing physical problems. 

Everyone is different. I learned that wheat really hurts my digestive system. I can tolerate dairy but I lost my desire to have it with every meal.

I learned to eat vegetables at all my meals and still do. I tried sardines and hated them no matter how hungry I was. 

Coffee was allowed but sweeteners and dairy are not. As soon as my 30 days were up, I went right back to my coffee with cream. 

I didn’t realize I was addicted to sweets in the form of artificial sweeteners. Giving those up was hard. However, after my 30 days, I couldn’t tolerate the artificial sweeteners anymore. Your tastes WILL change.

And those are my 10 strategies to help you through your first Whole30.

That’s it! That’s what got me through my 30 days on Whole 30. If you are curious go check out the Whole 30 website.