The Original Whole30 has two phases: 30 days of elimination and 10 (or more) days of reintroduction. During elimination, your meals will include meat, seafood, and eggs; lots of vegetables and fruit; natural, healthy fats; and fresh herbs, spices, and seasonings. You won’t have to count or restrict calories, track your food, or limit your portions. You’ll eat real, whole foods, inspired by hundreds of delicious, satisfying, and diverse recipes.

The list of foods you’ll eliminate in the first phase can seem intimidating. But there’s lots of resources to help you through this journey, like the Whole30 Timeline. And remember, it’s only 30 days.

Whole30 Elimination: 30 days

There's an official "Can I have..." list, and the "definite do not eat" list is much smaller. It's essentially all inflammatory foods:

• Do not eat added sugar (real or artificial).

• Do not consume alcohol (drinking or for cooking).

• Do not eat all grains (This includes (but is not limited to) wheat, rye, barley, oats, corn, rice, millet, bulgur, sorghum, sprouted grains, and all gluten-free pseudo-cereals like quinoa, amaranth, and buckwheat. This also includes all the ways we add wheat, corn, and rice into our foods in the form of bran, germ, starch, and so on. Read your labels.) 

• Do not eat most forms of legumes. This includes beans (black, red, pinto, navy, garbanzo/chickpeas, white, kidney, lima, fava, cannellini, lentils, adzuki, mung, cranberry, and black-eyes peas); peanuts (including peanut butter or peanut oil); and all forms of soy (soy sauce, miso, tofu, tempeh, edamame, soy protein, soy milk, or soy lecithin).

• Do not eat dairy. This includes cow, goat, or sheep’s milk products like milk, cream, cheese, kefir, yogurt, sour cream, ice cream, or frozen yogurt.

• Do not consume carrageenan or sulfites. If these ingredients appear in any form on the label, it’s out for the Whole30.

• Do not recreate or purchase baked goods or treats with Whole30 compatible ingredients.

These foods are exceptions to the rule, and are allowed during your Whole30:

• Ghee or clarified butter. These are the only source of dairy allowed during your Whole30. Plain old butter is NOT allowed, as you may be sensitive to the milk proteins found in non-clarified butter.

• Fruit juice. Some products or recipes will include fruit juice as a stand-alone ingredient or natural sweetener, which is fine for the purposes of the Whole30. (We have to draw the line somewhere.)

• Certain legumes. Green beans and most peas (including sugar snap peas, snow peas, green peas, yellow peas, and split peas) are allowed.

• Vinegar and botanical extracts. Most vinegar (including white, red wine, balsamic, apple cider, and rice) and alcohol-based botanical extracts (like vanilla, lemon, or lavender) are allowed during your Whole30 program. (Just not malt-based vinegar or extracts, which will be clearly labeled as such, as they contain gluten.)

• Coconut aminos. All brands of coconut aminos (a brewed and naturally fermented soy sauce substitute) are acceptable, even if you see the words “coconut nectar” or “coconut syrup” in their ingredient list.

• Salt. Did you know that all iodized table salt contains sugar? Sugar (often in the form of dextrose) is chemically essential to keep the potassium iodide from oxidizing and being lost. Because all restaurants and pre-packaged foods contain salt, salt is an exception to our “no added sugar” rule.

Whole30 Reintroduction: 10+ days

Immediately following elimination, you’ll reintroduce these food groups one at a time, returning to the elimination phase for 2-3 days between each reintroduction group. Foods are reintroduced in order of least likely to be. Reintroduction is mission-critical to your Whole30 experience. You’ll reintroduce the delicious foods you’ve been missing, paying attention to their impact on your health, habits, and relationship with food. Reintroducing food groups carefully and systematically one at a time will help you learn how each affects your energy, sleep, mood, cravings, digestion, allergies, or migraines. You’ll be able to compare how you felt without these foods to how you feel when you reintroduce them. This will give you critical information you need to create the perfect diet for you in your Food Freedom.

This isn't a program meant for forever. It's made to identify what exactly your body disagrees with after reintroduction. You body needs the full 30 days to give it a good restart. Added sugars are no joke. It's literally in everything, disguised with sneaky science-y names in the ingredient list. A cool thing I've experienced is my small one-shelf of packaged complaint foods (ie: Larabars, nuts, paleo chips...) in my pantry goes untouched most days when I’m on a round.

Check out my Whole30 recipes that easily carried us through a round. Lots of recipes can be modified to be Whole30 approved. Just be sure to read your labels and know the rules!