We survived Week One of the Whole30 program! It wasn't nearly as bad physically for me as I expected it to be. Hubby Mike, on the other hand, went through "all the things" people typically experience in the first week, to the day (which I found highly amusing). So what is Whole30? and why are we doing it? If you missed last week's intro article, read that first HERE. Lots of pictures on Instagram HERE.
What happened? What did we eat? What were our struggles? What wasn't so bad? What was? Read on, my friends!
My first attempt at a frittata! I think it turned out beautifully and was delicious! Recipe came from The Whole30: The 30-day Guide to Total Health and Food Freedom
Day 1 (New Years Day) - Time to get started. For simplification's sake, and because I *hate* meal planning and grocery shopping, we decided to go by the book for at least the first few days. We already had everything in stock and ready to go. Because it was a holiday, we had no plans and the kids were occupied, I had no problems with meal prep on this day.
Here's what we ate (Mike's menu was slightly different, but mostly the same):
Breakfast - spinach frittata and avocado (for me, Mike hates avocado)
Lunch - spinach and tuna salad with homemade mayo and homemade ranch dressing
Dinner - roasted spaghetti squash and homemade meat tomato sauce.
Snacks - raw almonds, ginger tea
For all these, I just followed the recipes in the book. The only one that gave me trouble at first was making homemade mayonaise. I didn't follow the directions and messed it up the first time. But thank goodness for google, I just searched "save failed mayo" and followed the directions I found from that!
How we felt: We both felt just fine today physically. Emotionally though... I was overwhelmed a little by the amount of cooking I had to do and both of us didn't really like the homemade mayo or ranch. Mike does not like canned tuna and though he ate all of it, he looked like he was going to throw up the whole time. I felt so bad, but I couldn't find approved canned chicken as I had intended. Suck it up, buttercup.
Slowcooker beanless meat chili made overnight for lunches. This was surprisingly good even without the beans! Prepping as many meals as you can ahead of time seems to be key for a successful Whole30.
Days 2 - 3 "The Hangover Days"
Here's what we ate:
Breakfast - leftover spinach frittata and avocado, coffee with ghee and coconut cream
Lunch - stuffed pepper (using leftover meat sauce) and apples with cashew butter, oranges and watermelon
Dinner - seared chicken and roasted potatoes with homemade red pepper sauce and red pepper mayo, and salad with homemade ranch.
Snacks - fruit, pickles, almonds
Breakfast - scrambled eggs with avocado and salsa, coffee with ghee and coconut cream
Lunch - leftover spaghetti squash and tomato-meat sauce, apples, pickles, potatoes, red pepper mayo. Almonds.
Dinner - slowcooker beef brisket and sweet potatoes,onions, kombucha to drink
How we felt: Today Mike had to go back to work. He started to experience withdrawal from not consuming his morning Diet Mountain Dew. He was headachey and hungry. I knew it was also partly because he wasn't eating enough fat (refuses to eat avocado). I still felt ok, although I did experience some GI issues. So did the kids, so I chalked it up to that and unrelated to Whole30. I did decide to try unsweetened coffee to avoid caffeine withdrawal. It was pretty gross. I can tell I'm going to miss my morning cup of sweetened coffee more than anything. For me, feeling ok these two days was a huge surprise. The first time I gave up sugar, I was so sick on day 2, I could barely function and wanted to kill everyone. I wondered if my body was still adapted to eating low sugar. But a facebook friends inquiry resulted in mixed experiences. It seems people experience different things every time they cut out sugar. Weird.
I learned how to make unsweetened blonde coffee with almond milk, ghee and coconut cream. Not very appetizing (before) until you mix with immersion blender. It is an acquired taste, nothing like what I'm used to, but nice for cold, winter mornings. Using blonde coffee was key for me, otherwise I did not like it.
Days 4 - 5 "Kill All the Things"
Breakfast - scrambled eggs with avocado and approved bacon, two mandarin oranges and ginger tea.
Lunch - salad with olives and approved salad dressing, kombucha, approved deli turkey, avocado, mandarin orange.
Dinner - crockpot chicken, stir fried mushrooms and squash and steamed broccoli with red pepper sauce and primal kitchen chipotle lime mayo
Snacks - fruit, cashew butter, hot chicken stock to drink
Breakfast - sweet potato breakfast hash with homemade sausage (both made night before and reheated). Blonde coffee with almond milk, coconut cream and ghee.
Lunch - chili with avocado (made overnight in the crockpot).
Dinner - Morroccan lamb stew with plantain chips
Snacks - the usual, plus apple chips with almond butter
How we felt: Mike continued to follow right along the typical Whole30 journey (emotionally) for these two days. Even the kids noticed he was unusually cranky at dinner time. Making suggestions to him on how to help improve his mood was not a good idea on my part. There were definitely some Queen of Hearts moments for sure (OFF with your head!). Lucky for me, I'm still feeling normal. How boring, right?
The kids went back to school on day 4, and I did freak out a little about having to make a hot breakfast, in addition to our usually cray-cray morning routine. So I decided some binge meal prep was in order for that night. The result was pre-made breakfast and lunch for the next couple of days. Mike also made a special trip to Whole Foods to find some approved items for our menu, like bacon, salad dressing and mayo (since we didn't like the homemade ones and I didn't enjoy the extra work of making them, though it *was* pretty easy after the first fail).
On Day 5 though, my sugar dragon appeared. After dinner, the kids were eating chocolate and my dragon could *SMELL* it. In an attempt to shut it up, I eat (immediately after a very filling dinner, mind you) celery and apples with almond butter. Still feeling unsatisfied. Try a pickle. Now I’m overfull, but spot the Cayennade kombucha on the counter and have a little of that. Ultimately, I collapse on the couch feeling overstuffed, and the brain is pissed. Where the eff is some chocolate dammit?
hi
This has been our favorite breakfast. Sweet potato hash with homemade pork sausage (easy!) and a fried egg on top. The egg yolk makes a kind of sauce for everything... so good!
Days 6 - 7 "I Just Want to Nap"
Breakfast - leftover breakfast hash, sausage, with fried egg on top. Coffee.
Lunch - chicken salad (made night before) with romaine lettuce.
Dinner - slow cooker chicken tikka masala with riced cauliflower.
Snacks - the usual
Breakfast - scrambled eggs, sausage, coffee
Lunch - plantain chips and chicken salad (brought with me to Monster Jam)
Dinner leftover lamb stew, plantain chips, kombucha.
How we felt: Mike had to take a nap on day 6 (totally on schedule with the Whole30 predicted timeline!). Our friend Susan is over from Atlanta with her son to go to Monster Jam with us. She introduces Mike to cinnamon tea (he doesn't like kombucha and is getting super bored with plain water). He also starts drinking lemon water. On day 7, I almost get into trouble trying to bring outside food into Monster Jam, but a claim of dietary restrictions gets it in (thank goodness!). We fed the kids chicken fingers, soda and cotton candy while we were there, and Mike's sugar dragon came to life. He was *dying* from lack of cotton candy. Funny he ended up trying to kill it in almost the same way I did (overfeeding other things). Upon getting home, he ate almost an entire carton of shelled sunflower seeds in an attempt to feed his dragon. This resulted in an overnight stomache ache. I wanted some cotton candy, but it was easier to resist today. Woot!
Takeaways so far: It seems the key to Whole30 without going insane is planning ahead! By this time, I've also discovered an online Whole30 meal planning service. Due to my extreme hatred of meal planning and grocery shopping, I happily pay the membership fee. So far, it has been well worth it! There are several options out there, check them out and see which fits your life and budget best. I have used and loved Emeals, but switched to Real Plans for the month, because they have Whole30 approved recipes! Emeals is much cheaper though, and they do have a paleo plan, so you might be able to adapt it for Whole30 or switch to it later.
Tips for the things you will miss: By day 4, we were already sick of eggs for breakfast, so the hash was a nice alternative. Also sick of water to drink. I've got ginger tea, kombucha and even hot chicken stock to keep my taste buds happy! None of these were appealing to Mike though. I also remembered hearing that "blonde" coffee was good to try if you don't like unsweetened coffee. I added some almond milk, along with the coconut cream and ghee and it was actually pretty good! Definitely an entirely different drink, but a taste I found I could acquire. Finally, crunchy things! We missed crackers and chips to go along with our meals. We discovered plantain chips, found in the produce section of the grocery store. A great alternative to crackers and chips.
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