My Whole30 Experience

Well, I made it the whole 30 days peeps and I feel great.  I wanted to share my experience, as well as share some tips and resources.  So here goes…

I started Whole30 with my mom.  I had asked her if she wanted to do it with me.  It was important for me to have someone else who was doing it with me, good accountability.  I wanted to do it for many reasons.  One I wanted to say I’ve done it.  Two, I thought it would be a good discipline to instill.  Three, I just love a challenge, and thought it would be fun to share my experience with all of you.

It actually isn’t that different then how I normally eat.  I always prepare for the week and meal plan.  The biggest thing for me was not snacking and just eating 3 solid meals.  Not that I don’t eat 3 meals but usually lunch would tend to be a big green protein smoothie.  But smoothies are out on Whole30.  So it did seem like a little more prep with lunch thrown in there.  Plus, before I would have grabbed something healthy that was packaged or a bar if I was in a pinch, but on Whole30 that’s a no, no.  The first week I felt pretty good.  The first couple days I had a little fogginess, my guess is from no sugar.  Not that I was having a ton before honestly, but even my smoothie has natural sugar.  Oh and my after dinner dark chocolate wasn’t happening and my body I’m sure was thinking what’s up?!  Anyways, the first week was good, but the second week was the hardest.  I felt so low on energy.  I realized I wasn’t having enough carbs, and fruit.  They don’t recommend noshing on fruit like crazy, and sometimes I can be pretty literal with things and so I wasn’t really having any.  Once I added in some berries and apples, I felt my energy pick up instantly.

Something that helped me throughout was reading the book It Starts With Food throughout the 30 days.  I had already looked over it before I started, but rereading it throughout helped to keep me focused.  I also had a couple other people on social media that were doing it at the same time, and we encouraged each other.  It’s amazing the emotional connection food has on us!  I feel it really helped me stop and evaluate a craving.  I’m not saying you should be crazy, and never give in to cravings, but I think for a time it’s good to abstain and not always give your body whatever it wants.  The big premise of Whole30 is to starve the sugar dragon within you.  Sugar is lurking in so many things, it’s pretty crazy once you start to look!

Improvements I noticed from doing the Whole30:

-I lost 3 pounds (wasn’t trying to lose weight but hey I’ll take it)

-My skin seemed less congested (I took a before and after pic)

-I didn’t ever feel bloated

-I started to crave meals and tried new veggies I hadn’t before

-I slept very well

I would recommend Whole30 for anyone!  It’s a great way to get back to the basics.  For some people it may be quite extreme from what they’re used too and for others not so much.  Either way it’s a great way to reset your body and focus on just real food.

Resources/Tips:

-Read the book It Starts with Food by Melissa and Dallas Hartwig (It outlines the Whole30 eating plan)

-Get the Whole30 cookbook (Just came out, they have it at Costco)

-Take a day, grocery shop and prep food for the week

–Coconut milk (from a can) is great in coffee (I would refrigerate it and scoop the cream out in my coffee, not the liquid)

-Have a buddy do it with you for accountability

-Follow Whole30recipes on Instagram

-Check out Whole30.com for recipes, support, and tons of tips

-Check out paleo blogs, they have a lot of recipes that are Whole30 compliant (againstallgrain.com was a great resource I used)

-Buy Ghee(clarified butter) or make it yourself (I used this all the time)

-I always carried a container of almonds and cashews with me just in case I needed something

-Buy Lemon and Lime Juice (a lot of recipes call for them and they’re nice in water)

-Buy some Almond Butter (I always have this on hand, but it especially came in handy for emergencies. An apple and almond butter is great carbs and protein)

-Buy some tea you like for at night to sip on (This helped me if I wanted to eat something else, I would just sip on my tea)

-Buy some avocado oil(they have it at Costco, best deal), since you can’t have Vegenaise.  I made homemade mayo a lot.  I had chicken salad nearly every week for lunch, and would just switch up the flavors.  It was easy to have one meal that was already pre-made, and not have to assemble too much.

-I would dice up all my sweet potatoes/yams for the week, and then toss them in coconut oil, and bake them at 400 for 30 minutes.  I would turn them over at 15 minutes.  Helped save time during the week, because all I would need to do is re-heat.

-Spaghetti squash is probably the quickest and easiest meal.  Throw some ground beef in a pan and add spices and veggies, while the squash cooks in the oven for an hour.  Voila, you’ve got dinner!

-Buy Coconut oil if you don’t have some already

Here are some meals I made throughout my Whole30:

Breakfast-

Diced Sweet Potatoes, tossed in coconut oil, and some over easy eggs with avocado.

Diced yams tossed in coconut oil, with some grass-fed organic beef, peppers, over easy eggs and some avocado.

Mashed yams with some ghee, over easy eggs, diced red pepper and spinach.

Lunch:

Chicken salad with homemade mayo, cashews, fuji apple, celery, pepitas, on a bed of romaine leafs.

Stuffed yams with grass-fed organic beef, diced sweet potato, orange and red pepper, and some spinach.  Cooked in ghee.

Dinner:

Spaghetti squash with diced tomatoes, mushrooms, spinach, and grass-fed organic beef.