I did my first Whole30 many years ago, which made me feel amazing and reduced joint pain, bloating, PCOS symptoms, improved my lab work, lowered my resting heart rate, and helped me sleep better. That led me to proceed doing other rounds, thinking this was the way I needed to eat ALL the time, but in combination with unresolved past trauma and already-present body issues, the restrictive nature of Whole30 and my inability at the time to deal with heavy emotions without food at the time led me to binge after every round completed. I then realized I had developed Orthorexia with a side order of Binge Eating Disorder. I had thought that Whole30 was the reason. I proceeded to learn about Intuitive Eating and Anti-Dieting and completely stopped restricting for the following few years. I spent a lot of time healing old wounds, learning to be kind to my body, and developing new ways for me to process emotions without food. But for health reasons which I felt were food-related, I finally decided to give Whole30 another try this year (after 5 years of no W30 rounds). And it is COMPLETELY different this time. All the good things I remembered from the past, I’m feeling again, but the troublesome parts of wanting to binge are no longer there. In fact, this year I’ve done multiple rounds while navigating which foods are contributing to autoimmune issues, and I have found Whole30 more helpful than ever before. I decided to get this updated book and I was SO impressed with language there is about not attempting Whole30 with an eating disorder. Also mentions of ultimate goals being to have Food Freedom (aka intuitive eating), and a lot more kindness and empathy in the writing as a whole. I wish this was the FIRST Whole30 book I read all those years ago. Where I am at today, I fully support Whole30 and how much it’s helped me learn about myself (good and bad!). The program isn’t inherently bad and doesn’t cause eating disorders or body issues, but it can bring them to the forefront, so it truly is an experiment that you have to mentally/emotionally prepared for. If you’ve struggled with diets and restriction/binging in the past, Whole30 may not be for you YET, but the program DOES still work and can prove very helpful when you need it. I also want to point out that the recipes I’ve tried so far are so yummy! The updated Shepherd’s Pie is probably my favorite so far 🤤. Because of this book and its better acknowledgment of ED’s, I’ve been recommending it to my family all over again, because I really do believe it helps! Happy Eating folks!

Loving this new version of Whole 30. It's kinder, brighter and more inclusive in so many ways. Made the Turkey burgers with bacon, tomato jam (this was delicious btw) & portobello buns tonight for family dinner (my kids are all young adults and join us for Sunday dinner) and they were a HUGE HIT. I'm so excited about these recipes - I'm a nutritional therapist and I work with a lot of women working to balance their hormones, heal their gut and lose weight and one of the biggest things I work on is teaching women to shift to an anti-inflammatory and build their meals and snacks around veggies, complimented by good quality proteins. (yep, especially those on GLP-1s) Y'ALL This book is full of recipes and examples of how to do exactly that. I've already planned my meals around these gorgeous foods for the rest of the week. LOVE that there are updates on the originals and a full new plant based set of recipes. (we will be mixing and matching in this house) Love that there are recipes to make all the basics + that there are options you can pick up at at the supermarket that are Whole30 approved if you don't want to make all the things. Now, if all you've ever eaten is the standard american diet, I can see how this program would stretch you. Making changes to your diet is not easy, but if you are ready to feel better, love to eat a great variety of flavorful foods, then this is a spectacular place to start. The pictures are gorgeous. The instructions are thorough And these are recipes you can bring to a dinner party (or plan a dinner party with). I'm so excited to be able to recommend this book to all my clients, grab some extra copies for my kids and my friends. I'll update this review when I remember to take some pictures!

I'm really happy with my purchase of The New Whole30 book. My take on the "new" is that this book represents a fresh take on the philosophy of the Whole30 from when it was first launched - it's more inclusive, has updated science, and while still adhering to strict rules, is less hard-line than it was in the past. The references to "original" don't mean not new, but rather to differentiate the traditional omnivore-based program from the plant-based program (which is a big evolution from the past!) If you'd like to get a better understanding of what this all means, these changes are publicly posted on the Whole30 website. I did my first Whole30 back in 2017; that process resulted in some big, positive changes in my life, and I feel I know the program pretty well. Why did I buy the book? For one, as someone who bookmarks tons of recipes online and then forgets about them, what I like about having a physical copy of this book is having the information and the recipes fully at hand in one place. I won't be reserving the recipes only for the Whole30 program, but incorporating them into my everyday meals, anytime. The reader experience of The New Whole30 is top-notch: the book is a nice size, is quality materials, and the contents are structured in an easy to read, engaging format. I added a photo to my review to illustrate how the design/layout is so simple to navigate, whether you want to flip through the pages for the callouts, browse the subject lines, or read all of the text. The section guides in the lower right are helpful, especially if you're browsing through the book for inspiration or just to check things out. (Please note that my photo skewed the text a bit, everything lines up perfectly in the actual book). The food photographs are gorgeous - I'm motivated to try out so many different recipes! There's clearly been a lot of thought put into making a positive experience for the reader, and to reinforce concepts to promote learning. Whether your health goals include jumping into the 30 days of a formal Whole30 program or if you just want to learn about positive incremental changes you can make in the foods you eat and maybe try them on for size, you should be able to find plenty to value in this book!