I have many delicious whole food memories of December 2012 …

• My first time trying chicken, mango and avocado salad.
• Making my own bliss balls with raw cacao (oh stawp!).
• Creating an 100% wholefoods christmas pudding.

Despite my life-long dependence on dairy, my recent experience of lactose (or casien … not exactly sure whether it was one or the other or both) intolerence wasn’t hassling me.

I’d learned to swap cheese toasties for avo toast, and yoghurt with trail mix to tahini, honey, berries and chia seeds. Whilst I tried raw goats milk for a little while, it was hard to source, effing expensive, and I was happier just sticking to water and saving the richness for edible, rather than drinkable treats.

I was naturally and effortlessly making modifications to recipes, swapping x for y, and choosing to be adventurous with new foods.

I loved this part of my (for lack of a better word) food “journey”, because at this point, I was just wheat, refined sugar/starch, vegetable oil, GMO, additive, preservative, chemical and dairy-free. I was still eating fruit, honey, coconut sugar, raw cacao, gluten-free whole grains and sprouted legumes. I was still having reactions to some of the foods (particularly the legumes), however I wasn’t 100% certain of what was causing these problems.

I still felt so much better than I had, even a few months beforehand in comparison, so for now, I just cruised through, enjoying, for the most part, feeling thriving and energetic.

A typical day in December (food wise) looked a little like this …

Breakfast: banana pancakes (made from banana and eggs and fried in coconut oil)

Morning Tea: celery sticks filled with natural peanut butter and blueberries

Lunch: 2 slices organic chia spelt bread with mashed avocado and chilli flakes

Afternoon Tea: strawberries with tahini, honey and chia seeds

Dinner: chicken, mango, avocado (and about a dozen other veggies) salad with a dressing of lime juice

Dessert: 3 homemade chocolate bliss balls made from dates, raw cacao, almond meal, walnuts, coconut oil, shredded coconut and goji berries

Tip #12 for transitioning to a whole foods diet …

Notice and appreciate the difference in how you feel now, in comparison to even a few months ago. At this stage, you might start to take obvious triggers out of your diet, like dairy, gluten etc. however if you’re still just adjusting to the whole foods life, give yourself the final month of the year to just enjoy whole foods. That way you still get Christmas pudding (just make sure it has whole food ingredients) and some special holidays treats. I look back now, and even though I know that the spelt bread wouldn’t have been doing my gut any favours and the amount of fruit-based sugars was a tad excessive, I don’t regret how my diet looked at this time. It was high quality and I continued to tweak and change things in the new year.

I believe that the most seductive thing about transitioning to whole foods is knowing that you can eat delicious things like bliss balls and fruity salads, that taste 10 zillion times better than their processed, refined counterparts, and on top of that, they don’t cause bloating or fatigue. If you were to go from your SAD (standard Australian diet) to a strict, low-carb, sugar, gluten, everything-short-of-proteins/fats/non-starchy veggies free protocol straight away, you’d probably go stir-crazy. So long as you’re moving forward and making nutrient-dense decisions 1 year in to your resolve to ‘Just Eat Real Food’, you’re doing exceptionally and you should be proud of your committment to yourself.