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So if you’ve seen some of my Instagram comments, you know that I’m doing my first Whole 30. After perusing through Instagram and seeing some delicious looking Whole 30 meals, I decided I would give it a go.
Now, I’m NOT doing Whole 30 in order to lose weight. I will probably take a couple of before and after pictures just to see if I had any body recomp, but these are the main reasons I decided to do Whole 30:
Identify my Food Intolerances – I have quite a few digestive and stomach issues that I’d like to avoid as much as possible. I do know that dairy is one of them (and I now know that soy is too), but I’d like to see if gluten, grains or other foods are causing my stomach to be upset.
Help set Healthy Habits – I already do eat a mostly paleo diet save for some grains and gluten-free products, but some of the stuff that I would gravitate towards in the grocery store weren’t all the best. Like the dairy-free creamer and the protein bars that I would eat almost every day – they were definitely not soy-free, and I never even realized they had soy in the ingredients because I only ever looked for gluten. Now that I know that I’m allergic to soy (and that it is in quite a few things), I need to start paying attention to labels a little better. I also don’t want to walk down the candy aisle salivating.
Healthy Reset – The main reason is just to give my body a healthy reset. Wipe out all the bad stuff and give myself a new, clean slate. My gut needs this.
The first week is down now, so here is my recap:
DAY 1
I started Whole30 on the 23rd. Monday is a good start day, right?
BREAKFAST: Egg, beef and sweet potato scramble from Snap Kitchen
LUNCH: Leftover Grilled Pineapple Burger (without the bbq sauce) and Sweet Potato Fries
DINNER: Salmon with Cucumber Dill Sauce
SNACKS: Raw almonds, jazz apple
DAY 2
BREAKFAST: Sweet Potato “Toast” with almond butter, mixed berries, and sausage.
LUNCH: Grilled chicken thigh, steamed asparagus, and a jazz apple.
DINNER: “Taco Tuesday,” Ground beef on lettuce with avocado, cilantro, salsa, and lime.
SNACKS: handful of blueberries and almonds, Cherry Larabar, and Epic Jerky.
DAY 3
BREAKFAST: Aidell’s Chicken-Apple sausage link with wilted spinach, sweet potato toast with almond butter.
LUNCH: Leftover taco salad with lettuce, spinach, ground beef, salsa, avocado, cilantro and lime. And a pear.
DINNER: Slow-cooker Chicken Tikka Masala (recipe here) with cauliflower rice
SNACKS: Handful of Wildway grain-free granola, Apple pie Larabar
DAY 4
BREAKFAST: Aidell’s Chicken-Apple sausage on wilted spinach, mixed berries and banana.
LUNCH: Leftover Chicken Tikka Masala with cauliflower rice, jazz apple
DINNER: Steak over spaghetti squash with spinach
SNACKS: Cherry Larabar, Wildway granola
DAY 5
BREAKFAST: Smoothie made of coconut milk, spinach, avocado, banana, blueberries, hemp seeds and collagen (I know smoothies aren’t recommended, but I had drill this weekend and this was the easiest option for an on-the-go breakfast).
LUNCH: Leftover steak with spaghetti squash and spinach, Epic beef jerky.
DINNER: First dinner out! We went to Outback. I asked for the ribeye dry, without butter or seasoning, steamed broccoli steamed without butter, and a plain sweet potato. It was pretty good.
SNACKS: Raw almonds
DAY 6
BREAKFAST: Another day of drill, so I had a smoothie with mashed sweet potato, banana, coconut milk. cinnamon and collagen.
LUNCH: Leftover Outback steak and steamed carrots
DINNER: Scramble with eggs, chorizo, bacon and potatoes
SNACKS: Epic jerky and raw almonds
DAY 7
BREAKFAST: Harvest Breakfast Hash and scrambled eggs
LUNCH: After riding we stopped by MadGreens. I got a big salad with roasted chicken, avocado, cucumbers, pears, pepitas, tomatoes and olive oil.
DINNER: Caramelized Pear Pork Chop, roasted taro and steamed broccoli
How I feel: The first week felt pretty great! I am already used to eating mostly clean, so I didn’t have any sugar headaches or anything. And I had already spent the week before quitting caffeine, so my body was already adjusted to surviving without it. The first couple of days I was getting hungry and wanting more carbs in between meals, which might be the fruit–the sugar in the fruit makes me crave more sugar– but towards the middle of the week I started to get a little less hungry in between meals and felt satiated. By the end of the first week, my stomach already felt a lot better and my energy was increasing. I’ve been eating the Larabars for pre-workout snacks, but think that if I eat them then I need to limit my fruit the rest of the day because they bring out my sugar dragon. But I’m waking up energized and stopped feeling tired in the middle of the day. My workouts felt fine, I didn’t feel any difference in performance. I’m enjoying what I’m eating and how I’m feeling, and I don’t feel like I’m missing anything.
I will try to give weekly updates on my Whole 30 meals, thoughts and feelings 🙂
