Whole 30 Part 2: The How/Recipes

I, a vegetable hater (or at least I thought), had little to no confidence I would be able to complete 30 days of eating mostly vegetables, meat, and some fruit.  I was really nervous, which resulted in a higher than normal grocery bill the first week of this journey.  I was scared I was going to starve, go crazy, or worse…be bored.  So I thought I would put together a couple of things that helped me get through the logistics of Whole 30.

First, there is a book.  You can buy it here.  Honestly, I did not read the book.  I read up online and had a few good friends that shared some of the knowledge from the book.  I have been told there are some helpful hints and recipes.  Also if you are person that wants to know the why and how of everything, I’m sure it is beneficial to read how the chemicals in food affect our bodies.

Doing things alone can be daunting and alienating.  In response to that, I recruited around 10-12 people to walk this journey along with me.  People did it for various reasons and started and stopped at different times, but it was all so helpful to have a community of people to walk with and encourage each other. People that had started this journey before me helped by providing some sort of expectations. Hopefully the rest of this post will provide that for you.  FIND A FRIEND, SPOUSE, COWORKER, or STRANGER TO COME ALONGSIDE YOU!

**Warning** this might be a bit too much information but here is a rough schedule of what myself and my friends experienced.

• Days 1-4: Headaches, fatigue, sweating like CRAZY, and carrying a lot of anxiety and little confidence we could do this.
• Days 5-10: Lots of bathroom breaks, still sweating, starting to gain some momentum, sleeping better than we ever have, and feeling more awake during the day
• Days 11-15: Less sweating, hormones starting to level out with new diet (causing some strange displays of emotions), and beginning to see food as only something to fuel our bodies, we also started getting creative at this point…but more on that later
• Days 16-20: Feeling on top of the world, starting to see we could accomplish physical things we didn’t believe were possible and really falling into a good routine of getting meals ready
• Days 21-30: Seeing the end in sight, slightly fearful of what would happen when we started adding things back in, so incredibly proud of ourselves that we did it and shocked at the difference in our attitudes and bodies.

 

Things we used a lot of:

1. Minced Garlic

2. All kinds of spices we didn’t even know existed (there is a pumpkin pie spice and we used it A LOT in our breakfast smoothies)

3. Uncured/no sugar Bacon

4. Sweet Potatoes

5. Coconut and Olive Oil

6. Cashews and Almonds

7. Eggs

8. Avocados

9. Salsa

10. Frozen fruit/Coconut Milk/Spinach (these go together for smoothies)

It is helpful to make a plan.  We almost always had cashews or almonds available for a snack.  We also had peppers, onions, and chicken on hand in case one of our “incredible” plans went bad or we didn’t feel like making anything new, we could always stir fry.  The amount of eggs we consumed is too much to really explain properly.  I will just say, at one point we had three 18 egg cartons in our fridge because 18 were hard boiled and we needed the other two to get us through the week.

Something that really helped me about a week or so into this is deciding to actively try new foods/recipes. My roommate and I decided we would pick two foods to try each week (some we had never had and some we just wanted to make new recipes with). In this month we covered sweet potatoes, spaghetti squash, cauliflower, Brussels Sprouts, Kale, Jicama, Artichokes, Eggplant, and Okra. This was a fun way to make cooking entertaining. We would create and cook new things and some we loved, cauliflower rice and crust, and some we probably wouldn’t eat again, sorry kale chip lover

Here are a list of websites and recipes we found helpful:

Cauliflower Wraps

Spaghetti Squash with Meatballs

A Whole Lotta Whole 30

But quite honestly, you can google, pinterest, or ask your facebook friends for recipes for Whole 30, there are tons of resources.

As far as the food part goes, my biggest advice is TRY NEW THINGS…you might surprise yourself and find out you not only tolerate them but you might love them.  I went from being a self-proclaimed vegetable hater to someone who regularly ate mushrooms, zucchini, jicama, carrots, artichokes, Brussels sprouts, onions, and lots of other things I never dreamed I’d eat, let alone like/love.

I cannot stress enough how excited I am for the people who have gone through this journey and who are starting.  It is SO incredible to find out you can be a best version of yourself.

Looking forward to sharing some decisions about my results and the future in my next rambling.

 

Whole 30 Part 1: The Internal

First, I’d like to say I’ve written on and off for the last few years but this is my first public post.  I thought it only fitting that I do something I’ve never done before on the eve of finishing Whole 30.

For anyone who is not familiar with Whole 30 you can read up on it here.  The basic jist of it is to cleanse your body of all the processed foods you’ve been taking in.  More importantly, it helps you to view food in the way God intended it to be, fuel for your precious body that you have been entrusted.

I need to make a HUGE disclaimer.  I didn’t have any confidence that I could accomplish walking through Whole 30.  It IS hard, it does take planning, you will have to try new things, and learn to be able to say no sometimes.  I don’t want to take away from the struggle that some days were during the last 30 days.

So many people have been extremely supportive this last month and have wanted to know ALL the details of how I feel, what I’m eating, if I’ve lost weight, etc.  And I am more than happy to share with anyone who will listen but I thought it might be more convenient for people to read in parts. So this first part is the internal- the motivation, things I’ve learned, and my attitude.  I’ll be posting two additional parts, The How/Recipes and The Future.

So why do this? Lots of people do this for lots of different reasons.  For me, I have known I needed to have a healthier view of food for quite some time but let fear keep me from ever really following through with any plan.  What first is fear of one thing quickly starts spiraling into a fear of all sorts of things.  God has also been walking me through a time of stripping me of excess.  This last year has shown me I am in need of a lot less than I have been given.

What have I learned?  I am capable…only through Christ.  God has enabled me to us the food I eat as fuel for my body he gave me.  I often let the fear I just talked about keep me from trying- that way I would never fail.  This process has shown me I can do things that are uncomfortable.  God supplies my needs, physical and otherwise.  On a lighter note, I have discovered I don’t hate trying new things, I actually quite enjoy it.  I’ll talk more about this in The How/Recipes.  For now, a picture of our almost complete whiteboard where we kept our feelings, saying, anything entertaining from the 30 days…

 

My mood and attitude has done a complete turn around.  I have more energy and feel more awake during the day without caffeine or sugar being the reason.  Part of this I am sure is chemistry and science but I think the other part is plainly that I am more grateful for the things in front of me.  Being more thankful for the food on my plate has just seeped into other parts of my life and being excited about all that God has blessed me with.

More to come soon in Part 2: The How/Recipes.  And if I haven’t said it enough, thank you for all the support- it means the world to me.