Happy New Year! If you follow me on Instagram you know that my husband and I expecting our first child this spring. We are beyond excited to meet our little peanut. I have decided to take on the whole30 while pregnant. I am in my third trimester and have been feeling good. The only thing I randomly crave is cottage cheese.
I have done crossfit on and off since 2009 and learned about the paleo diet and the whole30 through the crossfit community. I am anemic and would find myself so exhausted and lethargic all the time. On certain days it would take everything out of me just to get out of bed. I had been talking to one of my crossfit coaches about it and she suggested I join in on a whole30 challenge that the box was doing. I was skeptical but she convinced me “Try it for just 30 days” she said. I was amazed at how much what I ate actually affected how I felt. After the 30 days I learned that bread and pasta made me lethargic. I also realized how much soda and sugar I was consuming. I used to put 4 teaspoons of sugar in my coffee, and now I drink it black with no sugar. CRAZY!
What is Whole30
The Whole30 program is a 30-day reset where one eliminates certain food groups from their diet that could be having a negative impact on their body. Those include dairy, added sugar, alcohol, grains, legumes, carrageenan, MSG, and sulfites.
In the preface of their first book “It starts with food”, Melissa and Dallas Hartwig write, “The Whole30 is designed to change your life.”
How To Stay On Track During Whole30
One of the things I have learned during the successful and the failed attempts at the whole30 is that I have to plan my meals in advance or I revert back to my old eating habits. I will scoff down a big bowl of past knowing that I will be tired afterwards. In the past I have found it easy to stick to when I do not travel or when I do not go out to eat.
Meals at home – I keep a notepad that I write what meals we are going to have each night for dinner and then the grocery list. I also go through our freezer and fridge to make sure we use up what we already have. I hate wasting food. My lunches are pretty simple because I usually just pack whatever we had the night before. Breakfast I usually just make boiled eggs using our egg genie, poached eggs, or a veggie egg scramble. Eggs can get boring after a while so you make have to think outside of the box.
Eating Out – I always look up the menu of a restaurant prior to going so I know what I plan on having. I try to stick to salads if they have oil and vinegar dressing. I also will find myself ordering some form of grilled meat and a double helping of a vegetable. Chipotle is another great place to eat, just don’t order any of the non compliant items.
Resources
I created a few Pinterest boards that you can follow. I have one with whole30/paleo cookbooks that I turn to often. Breakfast is one of the meals a lot of people struggle with, I created a whole30 breakfast board and a general whole30 meals board. Be sure to follow these boards. Be mindful of some of the recipes tagged as whole30 on Pinterest. I have been finding that people just tag whole30 and then when you look at the ingredients list you notice that some of the ingredients are not whole30.
If you are not sure of what you can or cannot have on the whole30, the whole30 forum is another great resource.
It’s not easy but its also only for 30 days. I plan on sticking to a strict whole30 diet during the next 30 days. I hope you guys can join me down this path of being healthier in 2017.
Be sure to check out the other bloggers doing Whole30 with me to see their favorite Whole30 recipes, hacks, and shopping lists.
Have any of you done the whole30? Be sure to comment with any resources and recipes that you have to share.
How have I never heard of this egg genie before?? Brilliant!!!
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It’s the best thing that ever happened to me.