My Whole30 Recap

It’s been a busy four days. The timing for our Whole30 could not have been more perfect. We ate every meal at home for 30 days, with the exception of one meal at our sons house, and one lunch that I ate out, and we kept those meals whole30 compliant.

Day 30 was Tuesday, then I left on Wednesday afternoon to spend Wednesday and Thursday night with a few girlfriends. I took plenty of whole30 foods to keep myself whole30 as much as possible, but with plans to have wine. I made sure the fridge at home was stocked with whole30 foods for Mike.

The reintroduction of foods, post Whole30, is supposed to be gradual so you can tell how your body is reacting to foods that you haven’t been eating for 30 days. On Wednesday night I had wine. On Thursday morning, I had a little breakfast casserole that had sour cream and cheese in it, but it didn’t seem like enough that it would bother me much. Thursday night, I couldn’t resist the urge to roast a few marshmallows over the fire we were sitting around outside, and Friday I ate only whole30 foods. I will admit, I had a little belly ache on Friday and I’m not sure if it was the small amount of dairy or the sugar and alcohol, but it wasn’t terrible. 

Last night, Mike and I had a Dinner Party to go to, and we had all sorts of Whole30 items to choose from, and dinner was great! We each had two beers, and so far, we both feel fine.

Today through Saturday, we are eating whole30, then Saturday we are hosting a full Thanksgiving meal. I’m trying really hard to keep it as traditional as possible for the rest of the family, but have plenty of whole30 options for Mike and I too.

Our next challenge will be Thanksgiving Day at Mikes parents house.

Neither of us has a desire to reintroduce anything right now, so we’ll take that one day at a time.

 

Okay, here’s my recap. I think I’ve already said most of this, but I felt a recap was necessary.

What is the Whole30?

“Think of it as a short-term nutritional reset, designed to help you put an end to unhealthy cravings and habits, restore a healthy metabolism, heal your digestive tract, and balance your immune system.” The Whole30

The Whole30 is more about your head to toe health and wellness and your relationship with food than it is about weight loss, so if you are thinking about doing the Whole30 only to lose weight, rethink that thought.

During the Whole30, it became a habit to eat three meals a day, with little to no snacks (okay, minimal snacks for me….Mike had zero snacks). This is one of my largest hurdles, and I will continue to work on this and blog about it. It’s pretty amazing how successful you can be when you only fill your fridge and pantry with items for meals, and leave the snacking type foods at the grocery store (or out of sight if you have other people in your house that can responsibly snack).

If you are planning to do the Whole30, these are just a few things to know that might make your 30 day journey the best that it can be.

• Read the book

Read the book first. Before you decide, please read the book so you can properly understand the Why, and so you can properly prepare.

 

• Choose your start date

Look at your calendar, and decide on those 30 days wisely. Of course you can still have a social life, but decide what events on your social calendar will include food, and think about how you will handle those situations, Eat before you go? Take your own food? Find out what the menu is before you go? Decide how you will handle social situations that likely will have non compliant Whole30 food.

I would not suggest doing the Whole30 during the months of November and December, unless of course, you have the most amazing control of anyone in the whole entire universe, in which case, you probably have no need to even be considering the Whole30. Right?

 

• Housework

Remove non Whole30 items from your pantry and fridge (or at least remove them from your view if you don’t live alone) and stock your kitchen with Whole30 compliant items. Use those non whole30 foods up before your start date. Give them to family or friends. Donate them to a food bank. You never know, you may never want to eat some of those foods again, or….having some of those foods in sight, may be too much of a temptation for you.

 

• Meal Planning and Shopping

Make a meal plan for your first week, and do some grocery shopping. I suggest setting aside a little time at least once a week to meal plan and do a little prep work for the week. The first week for me was a little overwhelming, but once we were into week two, I knew what our favorite staple items were (egg salad, chicken salad, cooked chicken breast, cooked sweet potatoes, breakfast sausage, mayo) and meal prep became much easier.

 

• Support

Whether you are doing this alone, or with someone else, you will want support. You will need support. You can find some great support online. I love Social Media for Weight Watchers support, and it was also great for Whole30 too! Instagram was one of my favorite places for support and meal suggestions. You can even find support on the Whole30 website. Of course support from family and friends is awesome too! If you don’t live alone, but you are the only one doing the Whole30, make sure those living under the same roof as you are supportive of your goals. If you’re an empty nester, like us, maybe your spouse will jump on board with you and love everything about the Whole30! They may even begin a new breakfast routine of cooking at home and skipping the fast food drive thru, and packing their own lunch and skip eating lunch out all together!!!! (Okay, so happy that happened here and really hope that it continues!)

 

• Success

I hope that if you decide to do the Whole30, you will have the success that we did. We love that we are eating whole foods, and that we are more mindful of what we are eating. I love that we are both sleeping better. There’s a lot of pride that goes along with successfully completing 30 days of eating so different, and knowing that we both want to continue, feels pretty darned good too! Mike lost 18 pounds and I lost 6 pounds. We would both like to lose a few more pounds, and I’m assuming continuing to eat whole foods with little or minimum snacking, we will do just that!

I blogged a little about some tummy issues that I was having during the Whole30, and since starting a probiotic and reducing the amount of high fiber veggies that I was eating, my gut is much happier!

Please feel free to ask any questions, and if I don’t have the answer, I’ll try to find it for you!

Happy Whole30!

 

“love the life you live, live the life you love”