The Whole30 Round Table

Do you know how the aging process just seems to hurt? Well, I found a way for you to age without all the pain in your knees, shoulders or other joints. Imagine feeling 25 again with all the wisdom that you have now. Ok, it is time to get your life back. This week we caught up with two members of the Keep Calm and Run To The Best You program, Tina Ellis and Christine Burke who eliminated 6 problematic food groups for the month of January. In our podcast, they share their experience of feeling like they were on an emotional rollercoaster. They both expressed how challenging it was, yet they both said their results outweighed the challenges. 

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What Is Whole30? 

Let us start off by telling you what the Whole30 process is before we dive into Tina and Christy’s experiences. It starts off with the elimination of the following foods: 

All Grains (rice, wheat, oatmeal, corn, maltodextrin) 

All forms of Sugar (No sugar substitutes)  

Legumes (beans and peanuts) 

Alcohol

Dairy

Soy 

Keep your nutrition real by eating freshly made food from home not processed. Make real cooked meats and seafood. Make fresh fruit, vegetables, and potatoes. If you must purchase food with a label on it like tomato sauce, turn it over and read the ingredients. The ingredients should only be 2-3 items and only ingredients that you can pronounce. 

The Whole30 Round Table

Tina Ellis started her Whole30 journey in January 2020. What made Tina want to take these drastic measures to help her with her running and overall health?

Tina started our beginner's running program in June 2019 to train for a 5k. Tina at the time could barely run for 30 seconds without issues. Tina over the last 6 months has had her share of setbacks. Shin splints, troublesome knee pain, and addiction to sugar. Tina has continued to keep showing up for herself and was determined to navigate her way through the challenges. Tina has built up endurance for herself. In October 2019 Tina achieved her best 5k time in 6 years. Tina decided to start a round of Whole30 in the month of January to recover from some end of the year indulgences. This time Tina was for real, she purchased the day by day journal, looked up whole food meals to make and went food shopping. Tina had her days where she wanted to give up. With the support of our accountability group, she was able to get words of encouragement to keep pushing through. 

We caught up with Tina and asked her a few questions.

Coach Tadris: “Why did you decide to try a round of Whole30?”

Tina: “I just wanted to feel better, and reset some things. We also had some positive peer pressure of other members taking it on, and that would make it easier for me to complete.” 

Coach Tadris : “What was the hardest part?”

Tina: “Not having a Friday night cocktail with my husband.” 

Coach: “What did you do?”

Tina: “I actually reached out to our accountability group and they encouraged me to hang in there. So instead of club soda, Tito’s and lime, I just had club soda and lime. It worked. It was a mind hack.”

Coach: “What is your final takeaway?”

Tina: “I proved to myself that I could do it. In the past, I would give up very early in the process. It felt great to finish. When I returned to running after a few weeks off, I didn’t miss a beat. I sleep more soundly. As a bonus, I even lost 5lbs, I’m a small woman so 5lbs is big for me. I encourage anyone to try this process and get an accountability partner to help you through the tough days.” 

Next, I caught up with Christy Burke.

Christy was inspired to join our walking community in June 2019 after seeing her daughters Jen and Jamie having so much fun. Christy also joined the program with a goal to lose some weight. However, Christy never really took her nutrition seriously. Christy would lose a pound and gain two pounds the following week. She even took some time away from the walking program. From time to time, I would check in on Christy to see how she was doing. Christy expressed in November she would like to give our Free 7 Day Challenge another try. After a successful challenge, Christy subscribed to our Accountability Group again. As the new year was approaching, Christy hopped on the Whole30 bandwagon to resultsville. I was able to ask Christy a few questions about her experience. 

Coach: “Why did you decide to try a round of Whole30?”

Christy: “I will be turning 50 in the spring of 2020 and I do not want to feel like a sloth anymore. I went skiing and had a hard time carrying my skis, and would get out of breath walking around. I figured that if I’m going to continue to enjoy skiing then I need to get into better shape. I have a lot of life to live, so I better act like it.” 

Coach: “What was it like during the month of January?”

Christy: “It was an emotional roller coaster! One moment during the day I had felt that I could do it. Other parts of the same day, I would feel like, I can’t do this anymore.” 

Coach: “What did you do during those days?”

Christy: “I referred to the Whole30 Day by Day Journal that you recommended. Each day it said exactly how I was feeling. I leaned heavily on our Run To The Best You Accountability Group as well. So many of our members reached out and told me that I can do this. Tina Ellis posted about her healthy meals that she was planning to make that evening, help me so much. After about two weeks, things got easier. I was feeling fantastic. My hot flashes subsided, I was sleeping better, and I realized my food choices of the past were not serving me well.” 

Coach Tadris: “Give us a few words of encouragement for anyone ready to start their journey today.”

Christy: “Especially for those of us that are aging, we owe it to ourselves to give this 100%” 

Coach Tadris: “What is THIS, exactly?”

Christy: “Eating only real foods, the exercise, and surrounding yourself with support. I lost 15lbs in January, I attended Zumba classes, and I feel like I have my life back!”

 Coach Tadris: “WOW, Thank you both for sharing your awesome experiences. 

Becoming A Better Runner/Walker:

    As you can imagine, bringing down the inflammation in your body is a huge factor in how your body feels age-wise. Everyone responds to certain food groups differently. What may be a huge issue for me, you may do well with it. You may feel as though that you are doing well currently with grains in your diet, however, you will never know for sure until you eliminate them for 30 days. Once you reintroduce grains back into your life, you may notice symptoms that you have not noticed before. Or you may not experience anything. How does any of this make you a better runner or walker? Ask yourself, If I lost 5,10, or 15lbs would that help me with my form and my breathing? Would taking out inflammation from my body help my knees cooperate with my overall goal to stay active? Have you ever eaten something and felt guilty or depressed afterward? Foods have that effect on us as well, and grains and sugar primarily have that effect on us. So ask yourself, if I didn’t have grains or sugar and was able to run with a clear mind, how would that feel? 

    I know that it seems as if I am only picking on grains. That’s because I am. Grains today are so addictive and are not made as God intended them to be. Therefore we overeat them, it inflames our system and causes us to believe we have a knee issue.  Sugar has the same effect. Is that to say you can never have these two food groups again? Some have been able to reintroduce these back into their lifestyle, while others avoid them at all cost. The Paleo diet to me is the closest diet that I have found that is very close to living Whole30 lifestyle on a day to day basis. Even then, they will tell you there is no perfect Paleo approach. It is all on an individual basis. So I recommend trying this style out for 30 days and keep a running journal throughout this process of grain and sugar elimination. Write down how you feel in practices. Your first two weeks may be difficult being that you were used to running off of the glucose from the sugars and grains. After two weeks however you would become fat adapted and start to feel that mental clarity and crush your workouts and races. Every good race that I have been able to achieve a good time in, came during a month of Whole30. In December I achieved a 6:55 mile as I was on day 29 of the process. I started out as a consistent 9 minute per mile person a few years ago. By matching my nutrition with my desired running goals I have been getting better with age and with no pain. 

To learn more about the reintroduction phase, pick up a copy of Whole30 Day by Day Journal and Food Freedom from our Morning Motivation (Read List)

Do us a favor, If you have a loved one that you think can benefit from this information, please share this article with them. To hear Tina and Christy explain their experience themselves, scroll back to the top and press play of this week’s podcast.

What do you think? 

Have you ever tried running without sugar or grains?

Please leave your thoughts in the comments.

Feel free to share your story and I may use it in our next podcast. - Coach Tadris