July 17 start date

[Gr8twriter247]

Today starts Day #1 for me. I spent this past weekend cleaning out my kitchen cabinets and fridge & stocking up on approved foods from the grocery store. This first week is going to be difficult for me I think as I do work 5 12-hour days. I believe with enough prep work, I can make it work though. I addressed my complex work schedule in another thread so I wont go into too many details here. With 2-4 days off, I should have enough time to prep.

I decided for day one to keep it simple: Meal #1 was 4 eggs cooked with tomatoes, green peppers and mushrooms. Watermelon // Meal #2 is a salad with grilled chicken (cooked in olive oil) with tomatoes, carrots and Whole-30 approved dressing. Watermelon // Meal #3 is pork chops with mixed vegetables

[thedinardi]

I also started today!!  Like you cabinets are cleared and I spent all day yesterday doing food prep.  I decided to make some Prosciutto Wrapped Spinach and Mushroom fritattas because I don't have a lot of time in the morning and they worked perfectly.  I also made a Paleo chili that I will be eating for dinner a couple times this week.  With a busy schedule I wanted to take all of the thinking out of my meals and just premake most of my stuff for the week to prevent staring into my cupboards and fridge.  Good luck on the rest of your 30 days.

[SugarcubeOD]

@thedinardi - those egg muffins look amazing!  Make sure you're eating 3-4 of them per meal unless you're adding additional protein as eggs when they are your sole source of protein are as many as you can hold in one hand without dropping and the procuitto would be more fat than protein

[thedinardi]

@SugarcubeOD I added additional eggs to the recipe to make them a little bulkier.  The recipe called for 8 eggs for 12 muffins but I used 12 eggs.  I ate 2 this morning.  Is that enough or would you suggest knocking that up to 3?  Thanks for the feedback.  I'll take all the help I can get. 

[SugarcubeOD]

Just now, thedinardi said:

@SugarcubeOD I added additional eggs to the recipe to make them a little bulkier.  The recipe called for 8 eggs for 12 muffins but I used 12 eggs.  I ate 2 this morning.  Is that enough or would you suggest knocking that up to 3?  Thanks for the feedback.  I'll take all the help I can get. 

Ya, if there's one egg per muffin, then you'd want to bump up to three of them... see how you go with getting 4-5 hours between and you'd definitely need to add veggies to the plate

[thedinardi]

2 minutes ago, SugarcubeOD said:

Ya, if there's one egg per muffin, then you'd want to bump up to three of them... see how you go with getting 4-5 hours between and you'd definitely need to add veggies to the plate

Thanks so much.  I made it to lunch no problem but that also may be because I had some coffee (black of course) after breakfast.

[Gr8twriter247]

On Day #4. A little bummed cause I thought my bacon was whole 30 compliant but it turns out its cured with sodium erythorbate which after I googled, is made from corn and other sugars. So I did some research and found some whole 30 complaint bacon at Harris Teeter that I'm going to have to get instead. I don't think I'm going to start over cause I'm only on Day #4 and I only ate it as an additive to 3 meals total. Meals which also included eggs and sweet potatoes. Other than that, I've been staying on track. Even with the late night hours and surrounded by all the things I cant eat (especially when my coworkers go out for food runs. Lol)

[thedinardi]

That's unfortunate to hear.  While only being 4 days in can be looked at as not a big deal you can also look at it as "I'm only 4 days in and starting over wouldn't be too bad."  I know in they book they say that the reason it's 30 days is because scientifically that is how long it will take to actually start from scratch and safely say that the foods you have cut out of your diet are actually out of your system.  Also you made a commitment to go a full 30 days without these ingredients.  If I were in your shoes I would count those first 4 days as a warm up.  Just think of it like you were eating healthily anyways, you just got a jump start.  If you still feel it's not worth starting over, maybe consider adding 4 days to the end.  By then you will most likely be feeling great and adding 4 days won't seem as daunting then as it does now.  Anyways that's my 2 cents.  I hope it helps.

 

P.S.  While I realize prosciutto is not bacon, it is much easier to find Whole30 compliant.  I went and got some at Trader Joe's.  Good luck on your journey!

[AndieK]

On 7/21/2017 at 0:11 AM, Gr8twriter247 said:

On Day #4. A little bummed cause I thought my bacon was whole 30 compliant but it turns out its cured with sodium erythorbate which after I googled, is made from corn and other sugars. So I did some research and found some whole 30 complaint bacon at Harris Teeter that I'm going to have to get instead. I don't think I'm going to start over cause I'm only on Day #4 and I only ate it as an additive to 3 meals total. Meals which also included eggs and sweet potatoes. Other than that, I've been staying on track. Even with the late night hours and surrounded by all the things I cant eat (especially when my coworkers go out for food runs. Lol)

I too started on July 17th. High five! I also spent that weekend cleaning my kitchen out of anything that would taunt me and I spent Sunday just prepping and cooking. I made such a mess of my kitchen and I loved it. I followed the Fried Cauliflower recipe out of the Whole30 book and on Day 2, I was so excited to eat that for dinner as a side with my Walnut Crusted Pork Loin. Then, after I ate about a cup of it, I did research, and looked at the chicken bouillon cubes I used to make broth for it, oh my are they terrible. Not only added sugars, but MSG and some other bad bad stuff. I decided since I started on a Monday and I meal prep for the whole week, and my day 30 was on a Tuesday, that I would still keep counting the days as normal but I was already planning on eating healthy until that Friday, so my Whole30 turned into a Whole32! So maybe instead of starting over, you can extend like @thedinardi says and push yourself all the way to that Sunday and go for a Whole34. Sunday will be the perfect day to sit back and relax and pat yourself on the back for making it through and to celebrate! 

How has it been going for you thus far? 

[Gr8twriter247]

18 Days in (If I still count July 17th as my start date and not July 21st when I got the right bacon). I don't recognize my kitchen anymore and there's almost no more room in my fridge. I had to buy more Tupperware containers to keep everything fresh. I have cooked all my meals every single day so far with the exception of Outback twice and Chipotle once (I did the research on chipotle/outback and only ate what was compliant). I bought the Whole 30 cookbook which has helped me tremendously. I have been eating food and using ingredients I have never even heard of before. Because of  my work schedule, meal prep has been the hardest for me so far -- I realistically only get 2 days to do prep. What I mostly have been doing is prepping the more complicated meals on those days and still cooking in-between my work days.

I have not weighed myself. I do believe there has been some weight loss - evident in my clothing. I'm excited to see what the number is when I finally do get to stand on a scale. In the very beginning when my body was burning off the extra sugar, I had energy. I mostly drank Lattes pre-whole 30 so I gave them and all coffee products up completely cold turkey when I started. Around the 15th day in, I still maintained the energy to stay awake for 18+ hours but I was still a little sluggish. Sure this wasn't the fault of whole 30, just my body trying to adjust to life without caffeine.

Overall I actually feel really good about where I am in the program. Was even able to hang out with my friends at a bar the night before and never drank an ounce of alcohol (not an alcoholic but sometimes a beer with friends is needed). I do think I can just extended my Whole-30 by four days to just keep myself compliant. Its not like I'm actually counting down to adding something back into my diet. The 17th is my last day off and then I work for the next four days so it would be easy to just follow through for those four days....