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In January we explored Whole30, the 30-day reset and refocus on whole foods. Whole30 isn’t a diet or a judgment of foods as “good and bad.” It’s actually a short-term reset that has helped many of our readers cook more and figure out the foods that make them feel their best. Here’s a final takeaway from Ariel, one of our editors, who went through the whole program — and cooked a lot more.

Before I embarked on Whole30 this past January, the only thing I could focus on were the things I wasn’t allowed to eat. No added sugar, no booze, no cheese, no bread — that will be the hard part, I thought. But after completing the program a couple weeks ago, I can say the biggest challenge (and also the biggest reward) was cooking every single meal.

What the books and the Whole30 website don’t emphasize for first-timers is just how much cooking is actually required for a successful 30 days. If you want to be super strict about the program — and I mean no added sugar or any trace of soy — then you really have to cook almost everything from scratch. I knew meal planning was important to the program, but I wasn’t quite prepared for the amount of work it would take.

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