Where to begin! The #Whole30 made its way into my life via friends and Pinterest. I finally decided to join the challenge as a support partner for my manfriend. If you don’t know, the Whole 30 is defined by Wikipedia as “a 30-day fad diet that emphasizes whole foods and during which participants eliminate sugar, alcohol, grains, legumes, soy, and dairy from their diets.”¹
The creators of the program despise the word diet and seek for the Whole30 to be a catalyst to change your life. It aims to change your relationship with food, body weight, and unexplained chronic ailments. The Whole30 is a 30-day eating plan centered around eliminating “all the psychologically unhealthy, hormone-unbalancing, gut-disrupting, inflammatory food groups for a full 30 days”² to allow the body to reset. (More Info)
- What’s Out? Sugar, Alcohol, Grains, Legumes (Beans, Peas, Lentils, Soy, Peanuts), and Dairy. Additionally, you’re not allowed to weigh or measure yourself, recreate baked goods, or consume most additives in processed foods.
- What’s In? Meat, Seafood, Eggs, vegetables, Fruit, and Natural Fats (including Ghee).
This sounded extreme but I thought could handle it. Last September I undertook a 30-day raw vegan diet for my own personal reasons. My eating habits were permanently changed as I learned first hand the profound transformation your mind + body is capable of undertaking during a one month period. I never readded meat of dairy to my diet. However, I def enjoy cookies, chips, and chocolate!
Week 1 Deets
Grocery: I did not plan ahead so I wasted a ton of money. I made a big Sunday grocery trip and went back mid-week. Additionally, I was out of food/tired of making my meals by the weekend so I ate out Friday/Saturday (Oh hey Whole Foods salad bar!). Week 1 grocery will always be more expensive as you have to get seasonings and stock ingredients like Olive Oil, Ghee, etc. I def want to do a better job planning for next week!
Meals: I ate mostly raw/vegan this week as it was easy and quick. No matter how much coaching and pumping up I do, I just don’t like to cook lol.
- Breakfast: Typically an avocado or grapefruit. I’m not super hungry in the mornings and also haven’t figured out a Whole30 breakfast that sounds good. Next week I plan to try sweet potato hash or kale + potato scrambles. This week was a breakfast fail lol.
- Lunch: Salad with a mixed base of various greens (Green Kale, Purple Kale, Bok Choy, etc). My salad formula consists of greens + texture + kick + dressing massaged in. I use purple cabbage or nuts for texture and for kick I use fruits (grapefruits, blueberries) or veggies like radishes. I made my own dressing this week! It was an Avocado Sesame dressing (Avocado + Sesame Oil + Lime + Salt/Pepper). FULL DISCLOSURE: I was using Bragg’s Liquid Aminos at the beginning of the week because I didn’t realize it was contraband. Whoops!
- Dinner: Same salad as lunch or Rosemary Sweet Potatoes and salad (similar preparation here).
- Snacks: Kombucha, Seaweed snacks, Nuts, Blueberries, Grapefruit, or Strawberries
Energy Levels: I was very slugglish Week 1. I felt lighter but also didn’t feel like I had a ton of energy after work. I’ve been getting a good amount of rest (~7.5 hours) and waking up around 6:30am. The sluggishness could potentially be due to the after effects of Daylight Savings Time.
Other: MY FOREHEAD!! lol that was dramatic but my forehead has so many pimples. Is this the sugar leaving my system? Your body detoxes when on an elimination diet and the skin is your largest organ of elimination. I’m thinking my skin should clear in a week or two but man I miss sugar. I found myself craving cookies and chocolate all the time. I didn’t realize how much sugar I was consuming!
Week 2 Goals:
- Have a plan when I go to the grocery store! Make specific meals.
- Increase water intake and more rest.
- Decrease Snacking (Whole30 recommends no snacking and eating larger meals).
- Beat my manfriend to the kitchen in the mornings and start making breakfast.
