Thursday, September 25, 2014

What I Ate During My Whole30

There have been some friends who have expressed interest in doing a Whole30 so I thought it would be helpful to write a post about what some of our meals looked like while Danny and I completed our first Whole30…

It is important to be mentally and physically prepared to complete a Whole30.  Days will be busy, temptations will be strong, and willpower may get weak!  

This is where meal prep comes in handy. 

My friend Emily who also completed a Whole30, was really good at meal prepping.  I did not meal prep as much, which meant I was in the kitchen more.  

If you set aside some time at the beginning of the week to put together some meals for you to grab for those times when you know you will be busy, it will help you out tremendously.  

One important tip that I recommend is that you plan a menu…for all three meals of the day.  I've always been good at menu planning, but before my Whole30, I would only plan our dinners.  During our Whole30, I would plan all three meals of the day for a week at a time.  Sometimes we would stick to it exactly as planned, other times we would just have leftovers for lunch.  But having a menu plan, and then shopping for the ingredients based on your menu will help you to stick with it, as you will have a stocked fridge and pantry with Whole30 compliant ingredients.  

Here are what some of our breakfasts consisted of:


I never tired of scrambled eggs.  I would always throw in whatever veggies I had on hand…usually any combination of spinach, tomatoes, sautéed sweet potatoes, zucchini, and/or mushrooms.  I'd usually pair it with some fruit and some almond or sunflower seed butter.  


Coconut Chia Pudding is something that was new to me, but has become one of our favorite breakfasts.  This is a good one to prep the night before a busy morning, when you know you won't have time to make a breakfast.  You take 1/2 cup of coconut milk (from a can, not the carton), and add 2 tablespoons of chia seeds to it.  I would also add whatever fruit I had (strawberries and blueberries were my favorite combo).  You stir it around and cover it, and let it sit in the fridge overnight.  While it sits in the fridge overnight, it firms up because the chia seeds turn the whole thing into a pudding-like consistency.  I left one of them unmixed to show you what it looks like.  In the morning, I would just throw some unsweetened coconut flakes to the top and eat it with a side of almonds.  


These frozen bags of pineapple from Trader Joe's are helpful to have on hand in the freezer because they can easily be thrown into things like the Coconut Chia Pudding.  And they are less than $2 a bag!!!


Another yummy breakfast is an omelet topped with any veggies! It's simple and doesn't take too long to prepare. Just make sure you also add a healthy fat as well.


Egg/Veggie muffins with sliced fruit and almonds on the side.  I love tossing chia seeds onto my fruit for extra nutrition.  You can read all about how amazing chia seeds are here.  


Having hard boiled eggs ready to go is also helpful for busy mornings.  I recall a few Sundays where I literally ate them in the car on my way to church.  

Sometimes we would also have bacon or breakfast sausage as our protein in the morning when we needed a break from eggs.  It's very important to check ingredient labels to make sure no sugar is added to those meats, because almost all of the bacon and sausage at conventional grocery stores do contain sugar.  We are fortunate enough to have bacon and sausage that we bought from a nearby farmer that we had the butcher prepare for us that does not contain any added sugar.  

It's important to try and include vegetables somewhere into your breakfasts as well.  Try and sneak it in somewhere, whether it's in your eggs, or even just plain!  Sometimes we would also have celery with almond butter alongside our protein.

One tip I learned while researching the Whole30 prior to starting was to make sure you get enough healthy fat with your breakfast in the mornings.  This really effects you throughout the day.  When you have enough healthy fat in the morning, you stay fuller longer.  It's a tip that really worked for us.  Healthy fats for us in the morning usually included avocados or almond or sunflower seed butter.

Now, onto lunches:



I always tried to make enough at dinner so that Danny and I could eat the leftovers at lunch.  It's just easier that way.  I know there are some people who don't like to eat leftovers, but I actually like to.  

When we didn't have leftovers, I would sometimes make a compliant tuna or egg salad and have it with lettuce in place of the bread, or a chicken burger like pictured above.  That particular day, I roasted a pepper and threw it on my burger, along with some guacamole and used lettuce as the "bun." I paired it with some organic pre-cooked, sliced beets that I got from Costco.  

Sometimes I would make soup for lunch.  Chicken and Vegetable soups are easy to throw together, and I also recall making a Tomato Basil Soup one day when I was craving it.  It is very important to check ingredient labels when buying chicken broth.  Even the organic chicken broth from Safeway has added sugar in it!  The only compliant chicken broth I found was the organic Kirkland brand found at Costco, sold in the cartons (you can see a carton of it sitting behind my almond jar in the picture below).

I have never been a big salad person, but there were a few times when I made us Chicken Salads.  Whenever we did have a salad, I would make a simple dressing of Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar.  

Lastly, onto dinners:


These Chipotle Chicken Sweet Potatoes were so good!  It was probably one of my favorite dinners!  I always try to fill half of our plates with steamed or roasted veggies.


Another night we had these Bahn Mi Meatballs with Califlower Rice, Zucchini, and Pineapple.  


Spicy Tuna Cakes, Asparagus, and Mango.  These tuna cakes are a good thing to make ahead of time, and would also make a good lunch!


One night I made Zucchini Boats, and I used this compliant Marinara sauce from Costco.  It has real ingredients, with no additives.  It's good stuff!


Roasted veggies are something you can prep ahead of time and just keep in the fridge until you need to add them to your meal.  Above is some roasted zucchini, cauliflower, and onion.  

Here are some additional things that really helped our Whole30 experience…


Organic Baby Spinach is something we just always buy, because you can add it to many things, including eggs, smoothies, and even ground meats.  


I discovered these Flavor God seasonings from other people in the Instagram community that were also doing the Whole30.  What's nice about these Flavor God seasonings is that they don't contain any anti-caking agents, and contain only clean ingredients. There are 4 different flavors you can buy, but I ordered the spicy one because I love spicy food.  It added great flavor overall to so many of our meals!  You can find the website to order them here.  


Raw almonds!  Even prior to the Whole30, we munched on almonds everyday.  I keep them in a big jar in our fridge to keep them from going stale.  I like to buy them from Costco because that is where I have found them to be the best price.  These are a good source of healthy fat that you can add to your plate if your plate is lacking.  


Larabars are so good!  Every once in awhile, Danny and I would split one when we were getting "hangry." But, not all Larabars are Whole30 compliant, so you have to check ingredient labels! Our favorites are Carrot Cake, Blueberry Muffin, Key Lime Pie, and Lemon Bar.  None of our favorites are pictured here because our local health food store was sold out.  These other flavors are also really good.  Obviously, the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough is not compliant (but it is so good for when you are not on the Whole30)!


Here are some of my favorite items from Trader Joe's that are Whole30 compliant...  

Coconut Oil - it is the best price at Trader Joe's! 

Plantain Chips, which I have not actually tried yet, but we just bought some for our next round that we are starting soon.  I saw some people that have used them in taco salads because it adds a nice crunch! 

These Chili Chicken Lime Burgers you can find in the freezer section at Trader Joe's.  They are $2.99 for a box of 4 - really great price!  They only have a handful of clean ingredients, and quickly became a favorite.  

I also love buying their diced green chiles.  I love the flavor of green chiles, and you can add them to soups or scrambled eggs.  

Their Almond Butter and Apple Sauce is also great to buy there, because each of them only contain 1 ingredient.  

You can always check out my Pinterest board, where I found many of our recipes. You can view it here.  

Just remember to make sure you have a plan for yourself everyday, and you will be successful!

Keep your end results in mind whenever you get tempted or discouraged because there are so many wonderful benefits from completing a Whole30!

Good luck!

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