If you are not familiar with the program, Whole 30 is a thirty day program in which you eat whole foods. Period. Excluded from the program are the following: dairy, gluten, sweeteners (natural or artificial), legumes (beans, peanuts, etc.), grains of any sort, and alcohol. HERE is more information about it!
When you put it in terms of exclusions, the Whole 30 seems rather restrictive. But, when you put it in terms of inclusion, it's not so bad. The basis for the Whole 30 meal is animal protein + vegetable + fat + seasoning. That's not so bad. Plus, fruit, items sweetened with fruit juice, and COFFEE are still allowed, so I won't die.
I'm doing a Whole 30 because I feel like I need to refresh my system. I just can't seem to get out of that need to eat junk, whether it's dessert at a restaurant, pizza and more pizza when watching sports, or other stuff I eat that doesn't make me feel good. In this past week before starting my Whole 30, I had a few moments of eating things that are decidedly noncompliant with the Whole 30, like a chocolate croissant and lowfat latte for breakfast, or a bunch of tootsie rolls that someone left out at work. This got me thinking - what's the point? the chocolate croissant was pretty good, admittedly, but this stuff just doesn't make me feel good. And I've been starting to not see the appeal of a lot of foods, like store-bought cookies and super cheesy pizza. I see these things and it's starting to feel excessive, or chemically, or maybe all the research on what is put into foods like this to make people want to consume them is FINALLY getting to me.
And now I'm trying a Whole 30! I am not expecting this to remedy my issues with food entirely, not at all. I am just looking for a fresh start, and to get back in the mindset of eating food that makes me feel good. Once I decided, okay! I'm going to do it! I went through a few steps to start to get ready:
1. PLAN.
Normally, on weekends that I'm home, I look up a few recipes (often ones I've saved on my Pinterest), and get a shopping list ready to make those items. However, this time, I got a little plan-happy, since I knew that following the plan, especially some staples I'd buy in the first week, could get a bit pricey. So I made an excel spreadsheet. Excellent idea if you're interested in procrastinating while trying to write reports. I settled on a few recipes for the week, and listed their ingredients. I then transferred the items I wanted to the Whole 30's shopping list. Check! Ready to go.
2. SHOP.
Luckily, this weekend, I was around and had minimal plans on Saturday, so after meeting up with my run group Saturday morning, I got to shopping.
My first stop was Trader Joe's. Although I'm not always crazy about their produce selection, Trader Joe's does have some excellent options on the (relative) cheap, for instance, bags of organic Sweet Potatoes and lemons, Organic free-range chicken tenders, almond butter with no added sugar, raw nuts, ground beef and turkey, compliant light coconut milk, ghee, Larabars (some types are Whole 30 compliant), unsweetened/unsulfured dried fruit, and tahini. Whew!
Since there were some produce and specialty items I couldn't find at TJ's, my next stop was Sprouts. Sprouts is an awesome Whole Foods-like store, but you can generally find things a little cheaper. Some of my finds there were chicken sausage (with no additives like sugar!), turkey jerky (again, no sugar - I found some that was fruit juice sweetened), some produce items, and kombucha. Sadly, I couldn't find bacon that did not have added sugar there, even, so I opted to get some ground turkey and make my own "turkey sausage" patties.
Overall, I was happy with how much I had planned, since it gave my trip direction, and stopped me from spending $200+ on groceries, which I am SURE I could do.
Then, I got to prepping!
3. PREP.
I love days when I can hang out in the kitchen, making a giant mess prepping various recipes. I definitely did that Saturday. Some of the items I prepped were:
- Shepherd's Pie
- Hard Boiled Eggs
- Roasted Green Beans
- Pureed Butternut Squash
- Baked Almond and Coconut-Coated Chicken Tenders
- Turkey "Sausage" Patties
- Cashew "Hummus" (made mine with no roasted red peppers)
And later in the week, I plan to make Against All Grain's Banana Nut Porridge, which has a coconut milk and raw nut base. YUM!
(Update: Made it! So delicious!!!)
By Saturday night, I had a fridge that I was really excited about!
4. EAT
Now, I'm finally ready for this! I plan to follow my meal plan as much as possible this week, while allowing for some flexibility. You never know when you'll get hungry! I'm super excited about all of this right now, but I'm sure as the excitement starts to wear off, I'll feel the challenge a bit more.
Another thing I will NOT do for the next 30 days is weigh myself. I want to completely get out of the mindset of weight loss. Since I am at a healthy weight (even if it is not necessarily my exact ideal weight - that does NOT matter), I want to let my body do what it wants when I eat things that are good for me!
Here are a few things I'm currently eating, and I'll update on how it's going in the coming days :)
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