Whole 30 and the new grand experiment

So as we have established, keto was a bit of a bust. I did learn that bread/wheat/gluten might be a problem for me. The real problem is I don't know if I can cut it out of my diet completely.

The other day at BJs I ran across The Whole 30 - which is less of a 'diet' than it is an experiment with food and learning what causes you not to feel well. I was skeptical but I read the book and the things I like about it are these:

* Weight loss is not hyped - the book discourages before and after weighing and stepping on the scale at all

* It varies from keto in that the goal is to add foods back in after 30 days and see how they affect you.

* It is only for 30 days, and it's discouraged to make this a 365-eating plan

* There are no Whole30 prepackaged meals or bars that you 'should' buy. They're not selling chemicals packed as healthy foods like Atkins or Weight Watchers

* You're not encouraged to make cheater foods like faux brownies or eggless muffins, etc. The idea is not to 'trick' yourself into thinking you're eating something 'bad' when you're not

* Recipes and ingredients are simple

So I've decided to dedicate the 30 days of June 2015 to this new 'grand experiment' and see what happens. We're going down the shore in August, so by then I will have been able to add foods back in and see what that does for me.

The downsides: No chocolate.

This could be a deal breaker - but I'm willing to try it for 30 days. Chocolate will be the FIRST thing I add back in.

The rules are simple and yet impossibly difficult.

*No alcohol. [A cinch for someone who doesn't drink.]
*No dairy. [keto at least allowed cheese and heavy cream, but not Whole30]
*No sugar. [Yeah. Here's the kicker. If I can go no sugar I can pretty much fly.]
*No grains. [the bread thing]
*No soy, or legumes. [difficult but not impossible]

You can eat green beans and sugar snap peas though. Nuts and seeds are fine, but no almond milk that contains carrageenan which basically means no almond milk. No artificial sweeteners, but caffeine is ok. This means no coffee - another tough one for someone who went 46 years without coffee and now can't go for a weekend without it.

We'll see how it goes. I'm going to jump into it whole hog because for those few weeks on keto I actually felt great, and I'd like to feel great again. I'm also considering actually telling people about it. I know - I don't like involving other people in my dietary endeavors because A) it's none of their business, B) I'm not a walking advertisement for someone's diet plan C) I don't want to be accountable to anyone else for what I do or what I eat, but I think the key to this success will be not keeping it a secret. It won't be easy to eat like this, so I'm going to need help.

Wish me luck.

A shot of my jungle terrarium.