It’s officially been 6 days since I completed Whole30! It was an interesting month, but I’m glad I decided to take on the challenge and try something new. If your not familiar, Whole30 is 30-day dietary program – basically a ‘reset’ – that eliminates foods that commonly cause sensitivities and inflammation in some people. For 30 days you avoid: refined sugar, dairy, bread, pasta, gluten, grains, alcohol and legumes (like beans, soy and chickpeas.) This in turn makes the diet mostly meat, eggs, vegetables, fruits and nuts.
Why would one ever put themselves through this sort of punishment? The idea of a strong reset was attractive to me. Reducing inflammation and bloat, while feeling more energized, was my goal. But why choose such a specific regime? I’ll be the first to admit I’m not the most disciplined person. Had I just told myself I wanted to “eat healthy for a month” – I knew I would’ve easily gotten persuaded to make tiny exceptions along the way. This is so black and white, so disciplined, it’s easy to stay the course. Kind of.
Let me be clear that I’m no nutritionist, physician or health food expert (obviously, lol). I’m simply sharing my experience with this, where I messed up and what I think might be helpful for anyone considering it. Starting with what shocked me the most: It wasn’t that hard.
What Helped
I’ve heard people say Whole30 is that hardest thing they’ve ever done, that they were miserable and would never do it again. Of course, I also heard opposing opinions, too. Don’t get me wrong, it does take a lot of discipline and work, in terms of preparation. But, I guess I was anticipating the worst. I believe a few things had a huge impact in making the process easier than I anticipated.
- Deciding to commit to this one month before it began (just enough time to get into the right mindset and mental prep)
- Giving up sweets for Lent, which ended about two weeks before I started Whole30
- Choosing a month with no social obligations, no major events and really shitty Chicago weather
- Staying in on the weekends – I went out with friend twice at the end of my last week, but I purposefully avoided making any plans that included eating or drinking
- Keeping coffee a part of my morning ritual by incorporating Califia Farms Betterhalf Unseweetened Creamer
- Keeping a Trader Joe’s compliant salad dressing in the fridge at work, in case I wanted to run out and grab a salad
- Doing a big meal prep day on Sunday, to ensure most meals for the week were covered – and having a rotisserie chicken on hand, always
- My love for cooking, the fact that I do it often and my normal habit of bringing my lunch to work
- Buying this book and getting excited to choose a couple of recipes to try the first week (anytime I invest $, I’m usually more committed)
What I Messed Up
When I started this, I knew there would likely be a time when I made a mistake – unbenounced to me. Or, that I might get into a situation where I look the other way and do the best I can. As long as I wasn’t caving and giving in – like stopping at Chipotle or reaching for an office donut, I’d be okay with that. Here’s where – according to the rules – I screwed up:
- Eating a lot of fruit – it’s supposed to be “limited,” but I ate it often (berries and pineapple with breakfast, banana mid-morning, an apple in the afternoon)
- Snacking on dried fruit almost every night, which is also supposed to be limited – a few raisins and a couple of dried apricots daily
- Relying on too many RXBARs – which are fully compliant, but are not meant to serve as a crutch or 3 p.m. crash saver – I kept them in my purse to curb hunger if I was out and about and often had one before an evening workout, holding me until a post-gym dinner
- Buying ready-grilled chicken breast twice from the Marino’s deli – having no clue if sugar or other additives were added to seasoning
- Dipping two carrots into these Here dips (because I could never post anything without trying it first!)
- Drinking half of an iced coffee I ordered specifically with unsweetened cocount and almond milk – even thought I’m pretty sure it was sweetened milk
- Ordering a salad at a restaurant (the one time I went out) and not questioning the ingredients of the “lemon vinegratte”
- Realizing on day 29, while eating a modified version of this chicken tortilla soup recipe, that corn wasn’t allowed and that point, I wasn’t even phased
You could argue that these are the reasons why I thought it wasn’t terribly difficult. And maybe that’s the case! Either way, I still was proud of myself for being able to stay true to the mightiest and understanding I set. You can’t quit a 30-day goal just because someone may have made your coffee order wrong…but I did learn I needed to pack my own creamer.
What I Plan To Continue
After 30 days, it’s recommended that you slowly start incorporating other foods into your diet, one by one, evaluating your body’s reaction to each. Once it was over, I was shocked that I was actually craving Whole30 meals, versus the food I’d been deprived of. Since, I’ve had one sandwich and immediately felt fatigued after. I’m not doing the best at strategically incorporating “new” foods, but I certainly picked up some great habits that I’m already continuing and hope to for the long run:
- Waking up earlier and making breakfast at home – Eggs, sweet potatoes and fruit (I really thought I’d get sick of eggs, but I look forward to this home-cooked breakfast before I leave for work)
- Eliminating dairy coffee creamer – When I started this, I hated the Califia Farmers Creamer, and now it’s all I’ve used since
- Cooking pork chops – I ate my first pork chop ever during Whole30 (a recipe from the book!) and loved them
- Switching to almond butter – another thing I hated when I started, and now I’m obsessed and will likely stop buying peanut butter (Trader Joe’s makes my favorite!)
- Drinking less during the week (this one might be a stretch with summer, but I’ll try to keep it minimal)
- Buying RXBARs – they’re just so. damn. good. and I’ve never liked protein bars with powders, so these are perfect
Last Thoughts
I felt really good after 30 days. That can’t be denied. And now that I’ve eaten a few crummy things since, I definitely notice the different in energy levels. For me, I’m confident no drinking and sugar led me to feel less anxious… like a lot less anxious, which in turn made me feel very confident and content with the habits I was forming. And I lost about 10 pounds, which I’m sure I’ll eventually put back on – more importantly, I was rarely bloated. If I had to get out a few last things to recap the process:
- The hardest thing about this whole process? Not drinking or going out – every Friday night I wanted a glass of wine, and I had to settle for LaCroix – that was rough, but a healthy change to learn to not always turn to alcohol
- If you’re not going to prep food regularly, it probably won’t be possible – unless you dish out a ton of $ for a meal subscription service that’s compliant
- I didn’t notice a huge difference in spending – probably because I wasn’t spending anything on going out to eat or drinking
- The first grocery bill was pricey, simply because I was terrified and felt like I needed to stock up on everything compliant, including three unnecessary, expensive things I bought and rarely used. So FYI, don’t feel like they’re necessities unless you absolutely need them:
- Ghee – I used this once while roasting a chicken
- Almond flour – I used this one in a turkey meatball recipe that turned out crummy
- Primal Kitchens mayo – I never used this to make a salad dressing as anticipated, but I did use it to make deviled eggs once – it tasted funky and I never used it again
Would I do this again? Honestly, absolutely! I loved being able tis tick to a goal and completely reset my system. I’m thinking maybe January is a good time every year? Never in summer. We suffer way too long to give up patio season… like way too long. Have you completed Whole30? What did you think was the most difficult part? If you did it twice, was the second round harder? I’d love to know how to prepare for my second round!