The Whole30's Food Freedom Forever: Letting Go of Bad Habits, Guilt, and Anxiety Around Food

This book happened to come out just as I was finishing a round of the Whole30. I ordered it to help me with life after I had reintroduced the off-plan foods and bottom line: I am glad that I did. However, don't be dissuaded if you have not completed the Whole30. This is a great book to read in preparation for a Whole30 or another type of dietary reset. The Author, Ms. Hartwig, does encourage you to try the Whole30 in this book but also gives several other options if the Whole30 doesn't seem right for you. What I like most about this book is her approach to the "psychology of food". What I mean by that is in our society we tend to shame junk food or "bad eating", yet we also tend to eat for psychological comfort (guilty!) which leads to a pattern of self-deprecation when you eat a "bad food" and shame yourself for it. Ms. Hartwig's goal is to help you find a way of thinking about food in a more cyclical manner instead of a black and white manner. This book teaches you that you will overeat, make poor choices, and essentially slip into more bad than good eating habits....and this is OKAY. It is part of the process. Learning what works for you is cyclical. You'll go through times where you eat really well consistently and other times where you don't and it's all part of the process. The goal is to let go of the guilt, forgive yourself, and periodically reset your diet. It's a very healthy approach, in my opinion. It's a fresh way of looking at your diet that I haven't come across before.

So I am overweight...by almost 100 lbs and have been this way for most of my life. I have tried every program under the sun, with varied results. I was initially turned off by this program, especially since it seems so restrictive and the author has never had a weight problem so how could she possibly know what goes through my head...at EVERY meal. Short answer, is she gets it. The book made me laugh, cry (just a little), and finally find a balance that has literally made the pounds melt off. Which is cool, don't get me wrong, but I am also in a better mind set emotionally and feel amazing. I am nourished, both inside and out. And I have tools that will help me for the rest of my life. If I could meet Melissa today, I would hug her, probably excessively, hard and thank her from the bottom of my heart! And...this is for YEW, another reviewer, the authors battle with addiction is VERY pertinent, the brain responds the same way to anything that makes it happy...this program will re-wire you in a way that will improve every area in your life. All it takes is 30 days and some hard work.

This really is a great book to either start a truly healthy lifestyle or to refine a program that you may have already been pursuing for decades. While many of us don't agree with some of the advice, like adding back in all milk products, and definitely not grains/lectins (check out Dr. Gundry's book The Plant paradox, and dig into the scientific studies on my lectins are long-term toxic), the book itself has a great program that many people should be confortable following as a lifestyle. I'd also found Dave Asprey's "Head Strong" and Darin Olien's "Superlife" to fill in some gaps in Whole30, adding some useful improvements. Pretty much all modern research recognizes that spiritual, mental, emotional, social, and physical health all need to be strong. Some additional critical points for me have been: 1. SLEEP: I was diet and exercise controlled on Type 1.5 diabetes (yes, Insulin-dependent due to lowered pancreatic output can be managed!) with chronic kidney disease and Hasimoto's Thyroiditis ... but then I went through a year-plus period of very little sleep due to travel schedules and new train routes past the house that woke me up all night long. Diabetes sky-rocketed, and I learned that sleep is JUST as critical as diet, exercise and general stress management. 2. Type of exercise: "aerobics" actually hurts your body when overdone; emphasizing weight training and augmenting with movement/flexibility lends to better health-span. Tim Ferris' books "4 Hour Body" and "4 Hour Chef" can give some insights, but as a 50+er I have struggled to find a really great program for my health and goals. Almost everything is outdated or aimed to the 20-30 crowd (and often contain advice that will have long-term negative impacts.) I've use Ben Pakulski's weight and diet programs for years, but always need to modify it for my dominant type-II muscle fibers and diabetic/thyroid/kidney management. For flexibility, Dr. Stuart McGill's "Beck Mechanic" and work by a student of his, Eric Wong, on flexibility and functional movement, have been life-changing for me. All of these people have multiple YouTube videos for learning more. 3. Home-grown foods: farmers' markets and locally sources healthy stores help, but there's nothing like picking your own food as it's ripe, year round, as the main part of diet. Canning that harvest-ripe food takes time, but what is your health and life worth? 4. Finally, and again, these are my personal experiences, comes bio-hacking. Dave Asprey and Time Ferris are several of my go-to bloggers, but there are dozens of informal and scientific publications are very important. What we know changes as research discovers new things about the genome, epigenetics, gut health / holobiome, exercise and more. Some big items that have made improvements for me personally include reducing or filtering blue light in the evenings, advanced energy/brain supplements, sauna sweating, sleeping using sound (the Pzizz app, for example) and "hobby time" to relax. A final comment to several other reviews: yes, having the original book(s) helps, but almost all the really import information is free on blog posts. Deep reading is a good thing! Wishing you the best of health and life!

Love this book, have gifted several to friends. It is simply written in layman's terms, easy to grasp the concepts. It provides a vehicle to help your body reset from all the abuse we have done to it, knowingly and unknowingly.. I have learned to read labels, once you know what sorts of things to look for its extremely easy. I actually finished 30 days without added sugar of any kind, dairy and gluten. I feel a new freedom and now I have the tools to fight weight gain and bloat. I enjoyed the cooking and extra prep, made time for it because I knew there was a purpose to it. It opened up a whole new world of deliciousness. On the days that I was weak I would have a little extra dried fruit or banana and that helped me not to give up. I think it is a lot easier to follow than Paleo and once you are done with 30 days you can introduce some fancier paleo recipes as you have the time and inclination. I will use this information and recipes for the rest of my life. I just feel more emotionally and physically stable all around.

I never read the Whole30 book prior to completing my first Whole30, but I fell in love with Melissa's approach to food. I struggled with anorexia for years, and some days I battle the urge to restrict, count calories, and place my self-worth in my food choices. After reading Food Freedom Forever, I feel so empowered to ride my own Sarah-driven bicycle through life. Melissa not only deals with our emotional ties to food but also confronts us with tools to help us manage other areas of our life that can manifest in our behaviors around food. She is very thorough in her breakdown of broad categories of life that can affect our emotional ties to food such as family events/holidays, stress, work events, and the people we surround ourselves with. This helps the reader figure out where their triggers are and provides them with the tools to handle those situations. The one I found particularly helpful was how to talk to your family about your food choices. Melissa outlines polite, yet effective, ways to talk to other about your new freedom without demonizing their choices. It inspired me to do another Whole30 to solidify my first steps to Food Freedom. I seriously encourage you to read this book if you feel like you're ready to improve your energy, understand your cravings, and then use the tools provided to create your own freedom plan.

Not easy but get good resilts

I'm a HUGE fan of Melissa Hartwig and the Whole30 program in general, so was very excited to read this book! I do believe it had some great tips on how critical a nutritional reset is, and how to pause/stop, then determine if a particular food is really "worth it". However, where it was lacking for me is related to the psychological dependency I have on comfort eating and soothing with poor food & beverage choices. Looks like I just need to explore further authors on this topic. However, if you want an easy read, and to learn a simple process for breaking a bad cycle with food, this book may be just for you! Good luck!

This has been the best experience with food I have had in a long time. I am always willing to try new things because I feel we are constantly learning. I once thought I should go vegan and that would cure my aillements such as constipation, poor sleeping, acne, losing those last stubvurn pounds, irritability. I found it's extremely difficult for a working woman and athletes to become a vegetarian. This book actually steered me in the complete opposite direction and I couldn't feel better. Well actually I hope to feel even better as time goes on since my gut is now constantly healing. This book is a no-nonsense, tough love, guide to feeling your best. I have two friends who did it with me and both also have made huge gains in their health. If you want to find out how to sleep better, have more clarity, have more energy, have a sunnier disposition in general, have better workouts, clear skin and several other non scale victories try this program. Kudos to Melissa and Dallas.. thank you thank you thank you!

Along with her first book, "It Starts With Food" this is the only resource you need to understand how food is THE source to all healing (or pain) of the body, and happiness in your life. Well written and easily understood. I run a residential holistic and recovery program and every client, and their families begin with the Whole 30 education. Our long term client success is beyond 90%...the families that continue with this lifestyle are the ones that thrive!! We couldn't do what we do to help people recover from physical or emotional trauma without this teaching. Thank you Melissa!

This book was a great and insightful read - definitely recommend to anyone working through the whole 30 and their food freedom reset. Practical guidance and interesting perspectives

Amazing, has really helped me kick some habits to the curb. Still some way to go but with the other two books really really useful.

If you want to read a book that will change your life, read The Whole30 (same author). If you want to read a book that will change your life for good, read Food Freedom Forever. Melissa's engaging writing style and personal-with-scientific-backup advice on how to discover what foods settle well with your system, and how to maintain a realistic, sustainable relationship with these foods, FINALLY provides the steps you need to not only achieve optimal health and food freedom, but stay there (while enjoying the occasional WORTH IT cupcake)!!!

Me resultó aburrido, me sentí como si intentasen comerme el coco. Muy a mi pesar, no me gustó, soy seguidora de Melissa desde que leí "it start's with food", y este libro me decepcionó bastante. Solo hice la Whole30 una vez, y no me gustó nada, prefiero una dieta paleo baja en carbohidratos, pero el concepto general de la Whole 30 me gusta, gracias a ella descubrí alimentos que me daban alergia en la piel.