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I’ve just learned about a way of eating that may help me with inflammation. It’s called Whole30, and Elena (for her own separate reasons) and I are planning to start in earnest on June 1st.
That means that by then, our kitchen will be cleared of all things gluten, beans, dairy, certain chemicals in many foods, and every known permutation of sweetener (sugar, stevia, honey, agave, sweet & low, everything).
It’s a wild oversimplification to just list those foods without saying more, but this post is not about the diet. It’s about how I’m going to use it as dharma practice, AND how I will measure its success.
Diet as Dharma Practice
One of the biggest attachments we have as humans is to the foods we turn to for comfort. I’m not talking about staying alive here. I’m talking about the extras — ice cream, toast with your eggs, mozzarella cherries in the salad, milk in your coffee, hell milk and sugar in your coffee (for some of us), and while we’re at it — sugar in practically everything.
I’m deeply attached to some of it. Not dairy, because I let go of that a long time ago. (I’ll be doing this diet as a vegan.) I make my own almond milk and use that in my coffee. But sugar is a whole different story. Sugar in coffee, the sugar in ginger ale, cookies, Snickers bars (a weakness of mine), and…
