whole 30 // week 2 review

Well, two weeks down, a little over two weeks to go, and today marks the official halfway point of our Whole 30 journey!! Woot woot! This past week definitely had its ups and downs for me. I started off the week totally pumped and ready to go. But as the week went on, my cravings came back with a vengeance and made me very cranky (sorry Zach!). Anything and everything that wasn't Whole 30 approved sounded amazing and I was ready to just quit. A little part of me might have been whispering "you're 8 months pregnant... you deserve that piece of cake." And while I definitely feel like I deserve to eat whatever I want at this stage in my pregnancy, I also believe that I owe it to myself to finish what I started. I know I would have been really disappointed in myself if I had let myself indulge. It took me a few days to get past the massive cravings, but I got through it and am feeling super motivated and great again! Zach, meanwhile, had like no problems at all this week! He struggled a bit with it during week one, but he's really gotten used to it and has started enjoying it a lot! And he's been losing weight too, which is making him very happy. 

All in all, I'm super happy we're doing this. I think it's been a great reset for us to really think about what we're putting into our bodies and hopefully it will help us to make better, healthier choices on a regular basis in the future. 

Here's what we've been eating this past week:

Breakfasts: We're still pretty much sticking to eggs every morning. We've started a little tradition of making nice big, hearty omelets and paleo bacon on Saturday mornings when we have the time to cook together. One day this week I really was sick of eggs and wanted something different so I made this chia pudding (pictured above). The recipe called for honey which is not Whole 30 approved, but I thought it would be okay without it. Let me tell you. This stuff looks mighty pretty, but tasted like pure nasty crap. It DEFINITELY needed the honey. I couldn't even finish half a bowl of it haha. Zach tried it and spit his one spoonful out. So I don't think that's something we'll be having again...

Lunches: I said last week that we needed to get a bit more creative in the lunch department and I guess we kind of did that this week. We still had a lot of fruit salads and a lot of left overs too. And I just couldn't help myself from making more sweet potato fries one day. But one day I kind of threw together this salad made of spinach, tomato, avocado, and bacon and it was so good. Seriously, thank heavens for paleo bacon. 

Dinners: I'm still having a lot of fun trying out new recipes for dinners. I feel like I'm constantly looking at the instagram @whole30recipes for new ideas! Some of the dinners this week were duds, but most of them turned out great! Here's what we had this week:

Day 8: Sweet Potato Nachos + Steamed Zucchini (SO GOOD. The recipe for the meat is something I might be using a lot in the future...)

Day 9: Avocado Turkey Burgers + Sweet Potato Fries (Zach wasn't a huge fan of these, but I thought they tasted great!! Definitely took me out of my comfort zone in the kitchen since I've never made burgers before.)

Day 10: Spinach Artichoke Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms + Grilled Lemon Basil Chicken (Dud. Dud. Dud. Neither of us liked these. It just had a weird texture. Might have been good with some cheese on it... Okay A LOT of cheese on it. At least the chicken turned out really good!)

Day 11: Teriyaki Chicken + Baked Potato + Steamed Zucchini (I used Coconut Secret's Teriyaki Sauce and it was definitely different from the normal stuff we've used, but it still turned out pretty great!)

Day 12: Buffalo Chicken Sliders + Steamed Broccoli (Like I said last week, we could eat these all day everyday. STILL the best thing we've eaten on Whole 30!!!)

Day 13: Chipotle Salad w/ Lettuce, Chicken, Pico, + Guacamole (I just love that we can still eat out while on Whole 30. It's SO nice to have a break from cooking. And because these salads are huge, it filled us both way up!)

Day 14: Crockpot Pulled Pork Salads w/ Lettuce, Pico, + Guacamole (I didn't realize this would be pretty much the same thing as Chipotle haha. Whoops! The pork wasn't the most flavorful meat I've ever eaten--it definitely was no Cafe Rio--but it was still a nice change from our usual chicken and beef!)

I just can't believe we've made it this far. At this point, I have no doubt in my mind that we'll be able to finish. We've already put so much time and energy (and money) into it, it would be such a waste to not see this thing through. Only 15 more days to go! 

On to week three.