If you’re tired of watching your weight go up and down, it’s time to make a real change. The Whole30 diet is a jump start to choosing a healthy eating lifestyle. It’s easy to stick to it when you find a whole foods meal plan that agrees with your body and your taste!

What Do You Eat on the Whole30 Diet?

If you want weight loss results that last, you’ve got to commit to whole food eating (real food- no diet shakes or chemical-filled supplements!) for the long haul. The Whole30 diet is an elimination diet which limits you to eating whole foods for a month, and completely eliminates six food groups known to cause inflammation: sugar, dairy, soy, grains, legumes, and alcohol.

After 30 days, start reintroducing these foods one at a time, spaced by a few days to give your body a chance to respond. This allows you to figure out which specific foods are making you bloated and causing weight gain so you can avoid eating those foods indefinitely.

Coach Tadris bases his Keeping It Real Health Challenge on the Whole30 diet plan. There are many delicious things you can eat on Whole30 but it takes planning and a solid commitment from you. You can’t “cheat” this process because it will hinder your ability to narrow down the source of your weight retention.

Once you’ve gone through the Whole30 process, you’ll know how to shop, cook, and eat better. You can adopt a whole foods lifestyle that keeps you happy and healthy. Eat whole foods, avoid the ones that don’t agree with you, and get into the best shape of your life!

Coach Tadris-Approved Whole Food Diets

While Coach Tadris recommends starting with the Whole30 diet and taking the challenge, there are a handful of whole foods diets that he recommends to specific people. Depending on your taste and your body’s response to the foods you reintroduce after Whole30, you can choose a healthy eating plan that you’ll love enough to stick with for the long haul.

Here’s the secret to making a real change for life: find a diet that you love and it will love you back. Or, as Coach Tadris says, “Everything works - but you have to work it!”

Here are the five whole foods diets that Coach Tadris recommends:

• Whole 30

• Paleo

• Keto

• Mediterranean Diet

• Carnivore

Happy Mood and Healthy Meals on Whole30 - Create an Atmosphere for Mealtime

On a recent Health Connection Call, Tadris Parker shared an audio clip from Dr. Kate McMillan’s podcast called Gutfull, explaining how the Mediterranen Diet works extremely well as seen in countries like Spain, Morocco, and Greece. Not only is the Mediterranean diet a whole foods lifestyle that avoids inflammation-causing foods, but there’s a valuable cultural element factoring into overall health and contentment. 

“Give priority to your mealtimes” says Dr. Kate McMillan, the famous nutritionist based in Australia. She believes we have better success with healthy eating when we are cooking and enjoying our meals at the table with our loved ones. At your table, if stress levels are low and you’re eating slowly and enjoying your food, you’ll feel content and be less likely to overindulge. Give priority and set a positive mood for your most important meal. This will do wonders in lifting your mood and creating the right mindset for healthy eating. It will benefit your whole family!

Compare this philosophy with the convenience-driven fast food and frozen meal routine that we’ve adopted here in America. It’s obvious that we tend to overeat, and we fill our plates with  low quality foods that don’t satisfy us. Why not adopt the Mediterranean method- at least for one meal a day?

If you want a healthy lifestyle that you and your family can stick with, start by making mealtime a priority and create a happy and healthy atmosphere around your dining room table!

Beware of Emotional Eating

Did you know that your emotions impact your eating? When you’re stressed, you’re likely to consume more calories. It’s easy to prove. Pay attention the next time your family is watching a football game in front of a table full of snacks. When your team is losing, people will be shoving down the food, as opposed to when your team is winning and you show more restraint. It’s amazing - of all the feelings that drive us to eat too much, hunger is not even the main one! It can be stress, boredom, self-loathing, or sadness that’s causing you to overeat or consume the wrong foods. Once you understand this, you’ll be prepared to resist the temptation to pig out and find a better coping mechanism instead.

When to Eat on the Whole30 Diet - Intermittent Fasting for Health

Intermittent fasting is a proven technique for weight loss and it works best when you’re keeping to a whole foods diet. Whether you’re looking for the best diet for a runner or you want to find a delicious meal plan for weight loss, you should adopt an intermittent fasting schedule ASAP!

Harvard Medical School recently published an update on intermittent fasting. According to metabolic expert Dr. Deborah Wexler, Director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Diabetes Center and associate professor at Harvard Medical School, intermittent fasting is especially helpful for people who are at risk of diabetes. “There is evidence to suggest that the circadian rhythm fasting approach, where meals are restricted to an eight to 10-hour period of the daytime, is effective,” she confirmed. However, she stressed the importance of finding “an eating approach that works for them and is sustainable to them.” That’s why a whole foods diet works best when paired with intermittent fasting.

Intermittent fasting while on the Whole30 diet

• After dinner, stop eating and give your body 13 hours straight without food, gum, or anything to break your fast. Only consume water, black coffee, or plain tea - no sugar!

• Open your eating window for breakfast. If dinner was at 7pm, plan to eat at 8am or later.

• Exercise in a fasted state. Before having breakfast, take a quick 30-minute walk or run to target belly fat and maximize the results of your intermittent fast

• If you are motivated to lose 30 to 40 pounds, start to add an hour of fasting per week and work your way up to 16 hours. We call this intermittent fasting schedule a 16/8.

Take the Keeping It Real Health Challenge - and Keep Going!

Coach Tadris can help jumpstart your health with the Whole30 diet. You’ll eliminate inflammation-causing foods and slowly reintroduce them to monitor your body for weight gain. Together, you can narrow down and replace foods that your body doesn’t agree with. After you take this challenge, Coach Tadris will help you to adopt a healthy eating lifestyle using whole foods to keep that weight off - forever! You will love eating the right way because you’ll look and feel amazing - and you might even enjoy cooking now that you’re making mealtimes a priority!

Take the Keeping It Real Health Challenge and make a real change right now.