Whole 30 - Week 1

Warning: If you have no desire to read about Whole 30 and my thoughts, skip this post. {grin}

Today is officially day 8 of Whole 30 which means I finished my first week! If you haven't heard of Whole 30, it's essentially a chance to reset your body. Kick cravings, find out if you have any food sensitivities, lose some weight, gain some energy...and then start fresh! I mainly wanted to do this for 3 reasons. 1) To try again to kick my sugar habit. 2) To eat cleaner. 3) To lose weight. We'll see in 23 days how successful I've been!

I feel like a million bucks after completing week 1. In some ways it was easier {way easier} than I thought it would be, but some stuff was a challenge.

So the basic guidelines for Whole 30 are as below...

This graphic doesn't include fat and nuts in the yes column. Essentially at every meal, you should have a protein, a healthy fat, veggies, and fruits. It sounds simple, but man, it takes some planning and some habit-changing! Also, there's no weighing during the 30 days. I weighed and took some measurements on day 1, but since then I haven't done anything. I wish I'd taken some before and after pics, so I might still do that as a comparison from week 2 until the end...

I bought the book, but I also spent a ton of time looking at the website, and honestly much of the information is repeated, so you can certainly use their website and Pinterest to get all the information you need - and especially all the recipes you need!

One of the things that I love that the authors did was put together a timeline to explain a little bit of 'what to expect' with your moods and how you might feel physically. Here's week 1:

I definitely had the hangover on days 2-3 {and even a little on day 1} - just a headache that wouldn't quit. Not sure if it was lack of sugar, carbs, caffeine or what, but I definitely felt foggy and tired and achey.

Other than that, I have for the most part felt really good. {It probably helped that on Day 4, I was at the spa!} When I have enough food, I feel full for HOURS. I can always tell if I didn't eat enough if 10-30 minutes later, I'm hungry again. If that happens, I just eat another {smaller} portion of what I just had. Or I grab a handful of nuts and some fruit.

I think the hardest part for me has been the planning. I have an awesome meal template where I can plan out my meals and then there's a section for grocery shopping. I just print out the whole list before I go to the store. {And then I leave it in the kitchen and ask Brent to take pictures of it and text it to me. But still...USING the template was great!} But it has stressed me out trying to think of enough Whole 30 meals each week and not repeat too many so that I won't get bored blah blah blah. Breakfast is such a challenge for me {and why I end up at Starbucks so often}, but I'm looking at it as just another meal so if I eat a porkchop and a salad, so be it! I am trying to make food everyone will eat - I've had some wins and some losses there as well.

When I realized this had us eating pork 3 days in a row, I switched it around!

I really think the only times I've gotten truly frustrated {and maybe a little irrationally angry} were when I couldn't think of meals to eat {and I just got on Pinterest} and when I was really hungry and didn't have a meal ready and was annoyed I needed to cook something rather than just grabbing something {a carb} out of the pantry. 

But I think the best parts of this are that you don't count calories, you don't measure food, you just eat until you're full and listen to your body. I've wanted to eat many times and have stopped and asked myself 'Am I really hungry or do I just want to eat?' If the answer is yes, I get a snack. If not, I try to drink some water and maybe take a 5 minute break from what I'm doing. The same thing goes for a craving. Obviously I'm not going to get a chai latte, but eating grapes when I want something sweet is not really going to help me. So I try to figure out if I'm really hungry {and then eat something NOT sweet} or just wanting something I am choosing not to have.

Here are some meals I made this week. Some were really thought out and some were thrown together with what I could find {like the day before grocery shopping when there was almost NOTHING to eat}.

Grilled chicken w/ potatoes and grapes / 

turkey pepperoni w/ apples and nut butter and carrots {the thrown together meal} / 

sweet potato stuffed w/ chicken and sauteed zucchini {this was breakfast!}

And this is what Brent ate Friday night.

This might be another time I was irrationally angry. #canyoublameme?

Random tidbits from Week 1:

• I already have more energy. I don't notice an afternoon slump and I feel better all day long.
• My hands and feet have hurt for a long time when I first wake up. It reminds me of being at the end of a pregnancy. The last few days that has stopped.
• I used to hate zucchini, but when I saute it with olive oil and put salt and pepper on it - yum! I ate spaghetti sauce on it twice and ate it as a side once.
• Malk is not too bad! {Clean almond milk...which is super hard to find!}

Down the hatch!

• I am eating more fruits than veggies even though it should be the other way around. The book talks a lot about how there is no 'perfect' Whole 30. The foods I am eating are 100% compliant, and I'm being very conscious about listening to my body before deciding to snack {snacking isn't a no-no but it's frowned upon if you are using it as a crutch}.
• I watched another sugar documentary, That Sugar Film. It was fascinating and again infuriating. Did you know that if all the foods from the grocery store that had added sugar were removed, only 20% of the store would be left. I believe it after trying to find certain items without added sugar!
• Drumroll please...I ATE SOME TOMATOES IN A SALAD!!! When my mother-in-law and I ate at the spa dining room, I ate a salad {and had to ask how the vinaigrette was prepared and how the chicken was grilled...fun times} and purposefully chose to leave the tomatoes on it. I didn't eat them all, but I ate quite a few!
• That plus me eating zucchinis are why I think the Whole 30 world would support me in eating more fruit. {grin}
• How cute is this bell pepper? Even nature knows how this girl loves a good heart!

• I have had 2 food dreams where I accidentally ate something non-compliant. I felt so guilty when I woke up! {Apparently this is really common.}
• My sleep has been hit-or-miss. I read this is common too as my body is adjusting in many ways to the changes in my diet. Luckily I feel really good during the day, but I hope to get this back on track soon!
• I have used ghee for cooking instead of butter, and it is awesome! I also made my own mayo that is out of this world phenomenal -and I don't even like mayonnaise!
• Food already tastes different and better. Fruit is sweet, the contrast in sweet/salty is more intense...it's awesome!

If you made it this far, you are a saint! I promise next week's post won't be nearly as long, but if you can't tell I'm super excited about Whole 30 and just can't stop talking about it. {Just ask my family and friends!}