Wow. I can't believe we actually made it through our entire first week of the Whole 30 and neither of us cracked! I honestly didn't know if I could even make it an entire week without sugar or grains, so I'm just so proud of myself for getting this far! Thank goodness for sweet potatoes and avocados!! (Seriously, we eat them everyday.) It's definitely been a roller coaster of a week, but we've stuck with it, and our fridge and pantry are stocked again and we're ready for week 2!
For breakfasts we've pretty much been sticking to scrambled eggs or omelets with maybe some paleo bacon or a banana on the side. It's quick and easy and tastes great! Before starting Whole 30, I'd already been weaning myself off my normal bowl of cereal each morning and switching to eggs. So this hasn't been a big deal.
Lunches have been the hardest for both Zach and me to figure out. Like I said, breakfasts are quick and easy to whip up, and I plan out all of our dinners each week so those are taken care of. But lunches are usually where we have a hard time knowing what to eat. I like having things that don't take too much preparation since I spend A LOT of time preparing our dinners (chopping up so many veggies takes forever!!) So our lunch time staples have become one of four things: left overs (if we have them), fruit salads, simple spinach and strawberry salads, or baked sweet potato fries w/ avocado. Definitely need to get a bit more creative in the lunch department.
I feel like I'm constantly finding new Whole 30 recipes to try out for dinners either on pinterest, facebook, or instagram. Everything looks so good! Like I said, most of these meals take a bit more preparation than I'm used to, but they taste great and make us feel great too. Here's what we had for dinner this past week (sorry, no pictures of days 1 or 2! I was too hungry to stop and take pictures haha).
Day 1 // Chicken "Burrito Bowls" (chicken, lettuce, homemade pico de gallo, guacamole)
Day 2 // Grilled Lemon Rosemary Chicken, Baked Potatoes, + Peas
Day 3 // Buffalo Chicken Sliders w/ Sweet Potato buns + Steamed Broccoli (Okay... BEST MEAL OF THE WEEK. Zach and I were completely dying over these. I would eat these any day whether on whole 30 or not. And it was super easy to make! We loved them so much, we're having them again this week!)
For breakfasts we've pretty much been sticking to scrambled eggs or omelets with maybe some paleo bacon or a banana on the side. It's quick and easy and tastes great! Before starting Whole 30, I'd already been weaning myself off my normal bowl of cereal each morning and switching to eggs. So this hasn't been a big deal.
Lunches have been the hardest for both Zach and me to figure out. Like I said, breakfasts are quick and easy to whip up, and I plan out all of our dinners each week so those are taken care of. But lunches are usually where we have a hard time knowing what to eat. I like having things that don't take too much preparation since I spend A LOT of time preparing our dinners (chopping up so many veggies takes forever!!) So our lunch time staples have become one of four things: left overs (if we have them), fruit salads, simple spinach and strawberry salads, or baked sweet potato fries w/ avocado. Definitely need to get a bit more creative in the lunch department.
I feel like I'm constantly finding new Whole 30 recipes to try out for dinners either on pinterest, facebook, or instagram. Everything looks so good! Like I said, most of these meals take a bit more preparation than I'm used to, but they taste great and make us feel great too. Here's what we had for dinner this past week (sorry, no pictures of days 1 or 2! I was too hungry to stop and take pictures haha).
Day 1 // Chicken "Burrito Bowls" (chicken, lettuce, homemade pico de gallo, guacamole)
Day 2 // Grilled Lemon Rosemary Chicken, Baked Potatoes, + Peas
Day 3 // Buffalo Chicken Sliders w/ Sweet Potato buns + Steamed Broccoli (Okay... BEST MEAL OF THE WEEK. Zach and I were completely dying over these. I would eat these any day whether on whole 30 or not. And it was super easy to make! We loved them so much, we're having them again this week!)
Day 4 // Cauliflower Sweet Potato Soup + Fresh Sliced Cucumber (This tasted great, but definitely needed some kind of roll for dipping!!)
Day 5 // Sweet Potato Chicken Hash + Fried Egg (A bit too spicy for us, but was super yummy with avocado and the runny egg yolk mixed in!)
Day 6 // Applebee's 7 oz. Sirloin, Mixed Veggies, + Baked Potato (We've had a tradition of eating out on Saturdays for a while now and we felt like we could still make it work while on Whole 30. And, boy, was it nice not having to cook!)
Day 7 // Pot Roast w/ Carrots and Potatoes + Leftover Pre-cut Veggies (I usually just tolerate Pot Roast. I like it, but it's not my favorite meal. But on Day 7 of Whole 30, I have never enjoyed Pot Roast more in my entire life!! It tasted like a gift from the heavens!)
As far as snacks go, we've mostly been sticking to raw cut up fruits and veggies. Our staples have been sugar snap peas, carrot sticks, apples w/ almond butter, cherries, bananas, and mangos. We also occasionally will have some cashews or a Larabar. Larabars are great because they're completely natural and most are 100% Whole 30 approved! I bought a few of them at Whole Foods last week and we've kind of been saving them for emergencies when we really just need to eat something quick and easy. Our favorites have been the Lemon Bar and the Apple Pie so far. Zach did not like the Carrot Cake one haha.
Overall, it hasn't been too bad! The worst day by far was Saturday when we went to go see Ant-Man. I never, ever go to the movies without getting popcorn or candy. Never. So this was extremely difficult for me. But we packed some Larabars and some cashews and they kept me satisfied (sort of). I've definitely noticed my cravings decreasing and my energy is finally starting to pick up a little bit. I had some headaches just from the withdrawals earlier on in the week and Zach and I were both super tired, missing our energy boosting sugar and carbs. So it can only get better from here right? I love that the Whole 30 website has a timeline of how you should be feeling on any given day throughout the program, so you can see if what you're feeling is normal or not. I guess we're on the bloated, pants feeling tighter phase right now, but I wouldn't know because being 33 weeks pregnant, my pants always feel tight!
Speaking of pregnancy, some things I've noticed already in the past week of Whole 30: My acid reflux is completely gone. My feet are no longer swollen at all! Yay!! They'd gotten pretty bad throughout our moving and unpacking. Finley seems to really enjoy these healthier foods because she always kicks like crazy whenever I'm eating! And I lost a lot of water weight, even in just 7 days, which brought my weight down quite a bit for being pregnant. I hadn't gained a lot of weight with this pregnancy in the first place (I was up 24 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight as of last Monday), so I was getting a little worried I was losing too much weight! I'd decided that if I lost more weight, I would start adding in some grains every day. But my weight loss has stopped and kind of plateaued, so as long as Finley continues to gain weight and I don't lose even more weight, I think I'll be okay to continue on with this program.
FYI: I am NOT doing the Whole 30 right now to lose weight. I genuinely just want to be a healthier, happier person and to do what's best for me and for my family.
Only 23 more days to go now! That still seems like a lot, but now that I know I can get through a whole week of the Whole 30, I know I can do it for another week. And then we'll be just about halfway done! Haha if I break it up into smaller amounts of time, it doesn't seem that bad. Like I said, I'm just really proud of myself and Zach that we're actually doing this! And I know that we can get through the next 23 days the same way we did the past 7.
With lots of sweet potatoes and avocados.
Come cook for me. (Homemade pico de gallo?!? You're my hero)
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