Gwyneth J.N.

Great day today. I had to go in for some blood work and ended up taking the whole day off (if I have to get a substitute teacher I might as well take the whole day - subs hate working half days). I had kale, sausage, and potatoes for breakfast, then went to the gym and had a killer workout. Lunch was a big salad with steak and a poached egg at my favorite diner. Supper was leftover shepherd's pie. I hear you, Moe -- So. Much. Meat. I find that eating lots and lots of veggies helps with that. Winifreddie, thanks for the link! Will definitely check that out. Understanding how my brain works and how to use it to achieve my goals can be life-changing.

Welcome, Michelle! Glad to hear everybody's rocking it still. I am having a tougher day 3 than I would have expected but again, knowing I would be checking in here made a big difference. I love podcasts, too. I really like one called "Balanced Bites" for when I am not doing a Whole30 -- they take a balanced approach to Paleo/ancestral eating, beauty care, etc. That one is Liz Wolfe of Eat The Yolks fame and Diane Sanfilippo who wrote Practical Paleo. The only problem is that they will say things like, "It's OK to have nachos once in a while," which to me means I can eat nachos every day forever. So I sometimes don't want to listen to them when I am in hard-core abstaining mode. The other one I like is called "Harder To Kill" which is Steph Gaudreau from the website Stupid Easy Paleo. She's a W30 fan, strength trainer, and all-around bad-ass. Enjoy your fancy kombucha! My food today is on-point but too boring to post about, so until tomorrow!!

Love Nom Nom's Asian meatballs! A favorite recipe. I nearly stopped at The Holy Donut on the way home. Hugely stressful day, hard to keep things in perspective given the mass shooting and it's easy to get a case of the "F-its" when I'm feeling upset. But I knew I'd be logging in as soon as I got home so I kept on driving. Breakfast was kale sauteed in bacon with 2 eggs. For lunch, I had leftover beef stew and carrot & celery sticks. When I got home I had two dates and a cup of tea. Dinner will be shepherd's pie. First, though, I'm off for a walk in the woods to ease my mind and center myself. No Facebook for me tonight!

Day 1 is off to a great start for me! First I made one of my favorite W30 breakfasts - chicken apple sausage roasted with sweet potatoes, parsnips, and rosemary. It's even better with onion and apple slices, but I am watching out for FODMAPs right now to try and soothe my gut. I made beef stew in the crockpot yesterday and had that for lunch along with some late summer strawberries. For supper, I'll be making pork chops with mashed potatoes (I make them with chicken stock and ghee instead of cream and they're really good) and broccoli. Then with the leftover mashed potatoes, I'll make up a shepherd's pie for tomorrow's supper. During the week I focus mainly on leftovers from the weekend and sheet pan suppers, the easier the better. I never know how tuckered out I'm going to be at the end of the day, so I never plan for a complicated meal. Hope day 1 is going well for all of you, too!

Hello, De & Moe! Yes, I think it will work well to just check in here. We can share how it's going, ask questions, share resources, etc. I am excited for tomorrow and I look forward to 30 days of Whole 30 awesomeness!

You are doing it right! I teach 8th-grade Humanities which is a combination of English and social studies. One nice thing about being a teacher is that everyone brings a lunch so I don't have to deal with eating out during the day. I mostly just like to know I'm in it with someone else, that if I mess up or fail to check in that I'm not just hurting myself, I'm disappointing my friend. For example, over and over again I would set an exercise goal and join a gym thinking that paying that monthly fee would be motivation to get me there. But money doesn't motivate me, people do. Now that I go to a gym where a training partner and coach are counting on me, I haven't missed a single workout in three months. So I'm looking for someone to commit to doing the full 30 days and check in with each other either daily or every other day, even if it's just, "Hi, I made it through the day! How about you?"

Hello! I will be starting a W30 tomorrow and would love to connect with one or two others. I've been eating way too much sugar and chips for the past few months and need a reset. I completed my last successful W30 in February and since then have remained wheat/gluten/legume/alcohol - free while everything else has crept back in. I especially want to regain my sanity around chips (those damn Lays call out to me!) and sugar. Other goals include getting my gut issues back under control (I stay pretty low FODMAP) and losing the bloat. I've learned over the years that I am an obliger, someone who needs to be accountable to someone else in order to achieve my goals (see Gretchen Rubin's quiz to find out if you, too, are an obliger!) , so I'm looking for an online friend with whom I can be 100% honest and who will support and challenge me as needed. And of course, I would be the same for you. A bit about me...I live in Portland, ME with two teens and a husband who do not eat the same way I do. I work as an 8th-grade teacher and I direct the after-school Drama Club, which is wonderful but surprisingly time-consuming and stressful. I have had three or four complete W30s over the years and many, many, many partial ones ranging from two days to twenty. I also lift heavy weights 2X/week at a strength training gym and walk as often as I can. I look forward to lots of hearty W30 stews, soups, shepherd's pies, etc. and zero candy corn!

Just sent you a message

I feel best when I get lots of starchy veggies, especially at breakfast. And yes, there's something very satisfying about kale sauteed in lovely bacon!

Count me in on the Whole Lent as well! March is a tough month here in Maine. Spring still feels so far away and we all have cabin fever. I appreciate having a mindset geared towards healing and happiness during this time, preparing for the symbolic and literal new life that will be coming in April. My last W30 ended not too long ago (Feb. 20) but I feel like I still have some disordered eating tendencies. For example, this week I bought a bag of potato chips cooked in avocado oil and ate the ENTIRE BAG on autopilot! That's six servings! I'm not beating myself up over it but I do intend to really look at bringing more mindfulness into my relationship with food. I haven't found anything that works as well as W30 at bringing me some peace around food.

Day 2 is done! I'm toast. Very tired but feeling proud of myself. I had really fallen into some terrible habits -- WAY too much sugar and junky foods. It feels great to be taking care of myself. Thanks for getting this going, Cristina!

Cristina, that sounds great!

Starting tomorrow, hopeful that I can get my chronic candida under control. Today I'm going out for lunch with my mom and daughter, then a big W30 shopping trip. Feeling hopeful and committed!