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Aaaaand for those who getting up several times a night to pee:

Yeah! We can have a mini-Whole30 meetup & cook for each other!

Also: @Vic22, @ShannonM68, @Chelsea Cooper & anyone else who is having food dreams? You're definitely not alone. They are specifically mentioned on the Whole30 timeline!

Hi all! Yesterday I had a major temptation. I helped a friend make an IKEA run & after he was done shopping, he & his son got pizza & cinnamon rolls at the IKEA bistro. I managed to hang tight with them & make it back to my truck, where I had a compliant snack waiting. But it was kinda tough. However, that evening my wife came through for me LIKE A BOSS. She made a Costco run & bought ALL THE VEGGIES, & she also bought a ton of good meat. She used our backyard smoker to smoke two whole chickens & four pork chops! And then she carved the chickens, stripped their carcasses, & saved the skin & bones so I can make bone broth! I have delicious meat for days, smoked chicken to make into chicken salad, & just tons of veggies to choose from. A supportive partner makes all the difference.

Heya @Stackgrl! So far my Whole30 is going pretty well. I had a challenge yesterday - I was helping a friend make an IKEA run by driving them there in my truck. After they finished shopping, he & his son ate pizza & cinnamon rolls at the IKEA bistro. I just hung out & chatted with them while they ate, & then had my compliant snack in the truck on the drive back into Denver. But my awesome wife made my day yesterday - she did a Costco run & bought ALL THE VEGGIES, & also used our backyard smoker to smoke two whole chickens & four pork chops! I have meat for DAYS & lots of bones for my next batch of bone broth. Ski days can be tough! I have usually relied on Larabars & Epic bars to get me through Whole30 days on the mountain. Also I eat an enormous breakfast before heading out. Hey @Goal is -40lbs - I see your location is 10,000 feet - do you live in Leadville by any chance?

Hey there @Stackgrl! I started my Whole30 on February 14th & I live in in Harvey Park, just east of Lakewood. I'd be happy to be your accountability buddy! How did your first day go?

You can try potatoes or sweet potatoes in the morning to start. Most Americans are familiar with breakfast potatoes at least. Sweet potatoes hit that sweet note that many people associate with breakfast as well. Both bell peppers & tomatoes are slightly sweet too. Also, you can hide a surprising amount of baby spinach in an omelette without having to taste greens at all. Don't be nervous, you've got this!

NSV to report: I slept long & deeply for the last two nights. I am a chronic insomniac, so this is a big deal for me. I slept nine hours last night & didn't wake up until the alarm went off! It feels really, really good. @Allis, you've helped me pick my pork chop recipe - I'm going to make Mel Joulwan's walnut-crusted pork chops with baked apples. I think a side salad sounds perfect with chops & apples.

I have also been leaning on potatoes. I'm trying to replace them with turnips or cauli-rice. Day 8 went well - ate lots of leftovers, didn't cook anything new, had a good workout at the gym. I'm going to have to have another good prep weekend though, because... I'm running out of leftovers. I think I'm going to make this butternut squash & sausage casserole for breakfasts & maybe a batch of Nom Nom Paleo's prosciutto-wrapped fritatta muffins. I need to make a fish dish - I have some salmon fillets in the freezer, as well as a package of pork chops. Anyone have any salmon or pork chop recipes to recommend?

@Allis, if you post the details of your meals, the mods often swoop in with some specific advice. In general though, lots of first-timers get hungry because they aren't eating enough fat &/or protein. When you eliminate all the calories that come from carbs (like sweeteners & grains) you've got to replace them with other calories. Eating healthy fats satiates hunger the best.

Hey everyone! Snow day here in Denver - I opted to take a vacation day & stay home rather than go play bumper cars out on I-25. I got my exercise in first thing by shoveling the sidewalks. On Sunday, I cooked a whole chicken in our smoker & yesterday I started a pot of bone broth with the skin & carcass. Today I'm going to try a new soup recipe - Mel Joulwan's Persian-spiced winter vegetable soup. It sounds perfect for cold weather. I've been eating the smoked chicken with the Whole30-compliant BBQ sauce I made last week, which turned out really well - smoky & tangy & just spicy enough. Overall, I've been feeling pretty good. I went climbing yesterday & had a much better day at the gym than I did on Saturday. My cravings haven't been too bad, compared to my previous Whole30 attempts. That's not to say I haven't had occasional roars from the Sugar Dragon... but I haven't had any truly maddening moments of wanting to eat a sack of donuts. How's everyone else doing?

You can eat anything for breakfast. If you're looking for specific recipes, I posted a breakfast casserole recipe that has four eggs in a 9 x 13 baking dish but it doesn't taste eggy at all. Sometimes I like to eat soups for breakfast (warm, filling). One I really like is Mel Joulwan's gingered zucchini soup.

Hey everyone! Welcome to Day 5. So far I'm pretty happy with my progress. I made it through Day 4 without wanting to kill anything! I did notice that my performance at the gym yesterday was lackluster, to say the least. But that should pass. Last night was also a bit of a challenge - my wife & I had a good friend visiting & he's an amazing chef. He cooked an absolutely delicious dinner for us AND he made it almost entirely Whole30! It was hard to abstain from the cheese sauce, the wine, & the dessert. But I can't really complain - he made a tri-tip steak marinated in garlic, ginger, coconut aminos, & olive oil (SO GOOD), garlic -flavored mashed cauliflower, Brussels sprouts roasted with ghee & prosciutto, & asparagus with a compliant mayonnaise sauce! I ate like a Queen! Today I had a bacon & veggie omelette for breakfast. I've got a whole chicken in the smoker & I'm planning to make @Tom Denham's turnip salad as a side. I've stick got spaghetti sauce & zoodles left, so that will be lunch.

https://whole30.com/2016/05/whole30-fresh-breath/ My personal strategies are to always have floss picks, drink lots of water, & chew on fennel seeds.

Sweet potato/bacon/spinach/egg casserole Ingredients: 2 lb. sweet potatoes 4 slices of compliant bacon 3-5 green onions 12-14 eggs 1 cup frozen chopped greens (spinach, kale, whatever) 1 Tbsp. coconut oil 1/2-1 tsp. salt (to taste) 1 tsp. nutmeg Preheat oven to 425 degF. Peel the sweet potatoes & dice them into little pieces (1/4" size). Melt some (~ 1 Tbsp.?) coconut oil in a bowl, add the sweet potato pieces, salt to taste & toss to coat the pieces with oil & salt. Place them in a single layer on a baking tray & roast for 20-22 minutes. While the sweet potatoes are roasting, fry up the bacon until crispy. Remove the bacon from the pan & pat the oil off it with paper towels. Use the bacon grease-coated paper towels to grease a 9x13 glass baking dish. Leave a little bit of grease in the pan. Chop up the bacon into bacon bits. Dice the green onions & give them a quick saute in the bacon grease. Break the eggs into a large bowl (I re-use the bowl I used to oil the sweet potato pieces without cleaning it in between). Whisk them until they are uniform. Whisk in 1 tsp. of nutmeg (or more if you like nutmeg). Once the sweet potatoes are done roasting, turn the oven down to 350 degF. Scrape the sweet potatoes cubes into the greased baking dish, layering in the sweet potatoes, green onions, & frozen chopped spinach. Don't get fancy here - by "layer" I mean "spread each ingredient around in the baking tray, avoiding large clumps". Pour the egg/nutmeg mixture over everything, making sure the egg mixture covers all the other ingredients. Sprinkle the bacon bits on top. Bake at 350 degF for approximately 40 minutes, until the top is golden brown. Also, if you're sick of eggs for breakfast, you can try this breakfast casserole: Sausage & Spinach Breakfast Casserole. I've made this one many times & it's delicious.