The Whole30

I am super happy to announce that the "Change your life in 30 days" program now has an official name! The 30 day program will hereafter be known as the "Whole30".

When I wrote that original post back in July, I never dreamed the program would take off the way it did. With hundreds of participants (and even entire gyms!) joining up every month since, I've realized that this thing has a real place in our affiliate future, and Dallas and I are happy to promote and support it on a permanent, go-forward basis. I'm also especially excited because this ties in beautifully with the training, coaching and consulting practice that we are developing. While those changes are still under wraps, our concepts, business practices, list of services and "manifesto" have been finalized... and the Whole30 program is an integral part of everything we are trying to do for our community.

The "whole" concept also tie in with many of the recent posts from veteran 30 day'ers. For example:

Oh, what have I done? wrote, "I did the 30 day thing and at the end of 30 days went to a 80% paleo daily effort. I continue to feel pretty good, and continue to do well in my WODs... The 30 days was easy to follow and I was super dedicated, but after that length of time and no weight loss, I decided the effort was not worth it. What kind of advice do you give to people like me who want to optimize health, but don't really see or feel any big changes when being really strict with diet? It is a confusing position to be in when the advantages are not glaringly obvious."

And Angie wrote, "It (the 30 day program) has changed me for the better. I have stuck with the Paleo lifestyle of eating since July. I felt better, more energetic, etc... I had a lot of inflammation in my back and that has greatly improved. I will say though that I haven't really noticed a weight or fat loss. Its just that I would have expected to see some sort of change after giving up all the junk and I haven't."

And this is where the "Whole" part of the Whole30 comes in. See, optimal health and fitness requires more than just a perfect diet. Sure, most people experience positive changes in how they look, feel and perform just by following the plan as outlined. But there are a whole host of other factors that contribute, and often compete with one another. As I've mentioned before, it doesn't matter how hard you train if you're not getting adequate sleep, and as some of you have recently commented on "Derailed", even a 100% Paleo diet isn't powerful enough to overcome the negative physical and mental effects of high stress.

These factors must be evaluated and triaged as a WHOLE. They all relate, and they're all an integral part of your current level of health and fitness. Which is exactly where we're taking our CrossFit training and coaching program - with the Whole30 acting as the foundation of the nutritional piece of the puzzle. Start there and you'll experience the same positive results that others posting here have seen. But when cleaning up your food quality isn't enough to get you where you want to be - looking, feeling and performing your best - that's where we come in.

Stay tuned for more details, but in the meantime... the Friday afternoon Whole30 check-in is live and direct, so let's hear what you've got to say.

Special thanks to Adam Kayce, web designer and creative genius, who actually came up with the new "30 day" name.