Struggling in my first whole30

[Stephania]

I'm really struggling here. I'm a 31 year old mom of 4 and this is my first whole 30. I'm doing it to get healthy and shed the 60 lbs I've gained in my pregnancies. I desperately need a reset. I'm so the very typical sugar to sugar energy person described in the book. 

My problem is I should be day 17 now. I started strong, but on day 14 I went on a sushi date with my 11 year old and made every excuse in the book why I should count this as a "special occasion" and cheat. All in one meal I had rice, soy, wheat and dairy. Then went for dairy queen after. That was Saturday night. Felt like CRAP for the last four days, even after starting back strictly whole30 Sunday morning. My tongue was swollen and patchy, I was moody, stomachaches and so sluggish. I was feeling better today, then my MIL (who lives with our family right now) sprung for pizza and it couldn't have been worse timing. My 2yo is sick and my 4 month old has been nursing all day, so I did no meal prep and was STARVING. So gone are my four days of progress since after a great day i just ate three slices of cheese pizza, two breadsticks and a tootsie roll to seal the deal. 

My main issue is meal planning. We are on a tight budget and I'm still falling behind on planning family meals - that is for my husband, 11 yo, 4yo, 2yo and me. My MIL rarely eats with us as she works alot. So now I have to meal plan for everyone and separately for me? Some days I've got it, then I get a day behind and bam, here I am. Scarfing pizza and guilt, guilt, guilt. 

I've also been weighing myself. Bad, I know. Moderator edit to remove scale discussion. My NSV include crazy energy, stamina, no afternoon crash...I've been feeling so great.

Can anyone help me with the meal planning? WHY does it feel so impossibly daunting? Just thinking about it stresses me out.

I really want to start fresh in the morning but I keep thinking of the book when it says that not having a plan is a recipe for failure. Should I just plan for a few days and then start when I'm feeling confident? I just don't want to awaken my sugar/carb/everythinglooksgoodtoeat dragon in the meantime. I've been feeling so goood! 

I just can't keep doing eggs eggs and more eggs all the time. And I've failed homemade mayo three times and can't afford the premade paleo kind. I'm so discouraged but I WON'T let myself quit!!! I just need help. 

[hmg1993]

Don't quit and you're doing great!  I find what works best for me is to plan my menus on Saturday before I grocery shop.  On Sunday I prep (i.e. chop veggies, measure herbs and spices) or pre-cook all of my food for the week plus "emergency" food like hard boiled eggs.  I always have an extra veggie and avocados on hand too.  As for Mayo.  Really easy.  Crack an egg into small bowl and add tablespoon of lemon juice.  Let sit for an hour.  Then put in blender with salt and 1/2 teaspoon of dried mustard.  add in 1/4 cup of lite olive oil and blend until mixed.  Then very slowly add in a cup of olive oil and it's done.  So good!

Also don't  beat yourself up for slips.  Life happens.  It's how you react that matters!

[ultrarunnergirl]

I cannot recommend Well Fed cookbook highly enough. Check it out at your library or buy yourself a copy as a treat. She shows you how to cook up a TON of food for the week in just one hour. Her recipes are almost all quick and easy. Or glean what you can from her website.

If you're on a budget, there are many threads here on the forum that give ideas for that.

Remember, your meals just need to meet the Meal Template, they don't have to be fancy. Tuna or Salmon over salad greens, baby carrots, olives ... it can be crazy simple and still work.

[Karen_Suep]

My meal planning looks like this:

"hey, dh! What to you want for dinner this week?"

"uhhhhh... tacos, tikka, burgers, curry.... sausages? Oh! Casserole! Annddddd..... uhhhh.... zoodles."

"ok!"

then I write down the list for the foods I need and shop the next morning. Dinner is the only "complicated" meal of the day. Breakfast is often egg casserole (dump eggs meat and veggies in a casserole pan and bake. voila!) lunch is often leftovers or compliant sandwich meat with some form of vegetables and fat or often protein salad (I bought the mayo at natural grocers as it was cheaper than online or Whole Foods but I've also used compliant sauces) and veggies. And I'd have to make extra because my toddler likes to steal my food. 

[Stephania]

Thank you all so much. As with most things, I've concluded I've been over-analyzing and making it all harder than it really is.I also totally skipped over the meal planning thread, and going through the topics there has been super helpful.  Fortunately my husband will pretty much eat whatever I cook and doesn't complain, so I plan to make the same dinner for all of us and just throw in bread or whatever for them as extra, like with burgers. Thank you for the recommendation for Well Fed! Just added to my Amazon wish list. I bought The Whole30 Kindle edition and wish I would have bought paperback. 

Anyhow I know at this point I need to just suck it up and tired or not make the plan and stick to it!

Thanks again for the encouragment. I started back today, day 1, and thank God for his mercy, I'm not feeling too  bad from my pizza binge last night!

[Tinoch]

I tried to make the homemade mayo twice, once with a blender and once with a vitamix and both times it didn't work.  I don't know how much slower I could add the oil so I feel your pain.  My friend who is on her 2nd whole30 told me that she had better luck with the hand blender thingy but I don't need another appliance in my kitchen so I swung by my local health food store and bought the primal mayo and it was only  $6.   I am only on day 6 and I am struggling with the meal planning......I feel like I have spent the entire week cooking and cleaning up the kitchen.    Good Luck!

[missnikka28]

I want to prep some mayo and I used to have a small food processor for this but I lost it along the way and now I only have a 6 cup food processor. Does anyone know if the mayo will work in a container this big, or should I get something smaller?

As for meal planning, did you see that Whole30 has partnered with Real Plans? https://realplans.com/Whole30/

It is a relatively small expense and if it saves you wasting money on one thing that spoils, it pays for itself. I have been using it for two weeks so far and have found it really helpful. You can even import compliant recipes you find online and it will add the ingredients to your shopping list. Pretty handy!

 

[ShannonM816]

3 hours ago, missnikka28 said:

I want to prep some mayo and I used to have a small food processor for this but I lost it along the way and now I only have a 6 cup food processor. Does anyone know if the mayo will work in a container this big, or should I get something smaller?

As for meal planning, did you see that Whole30 has partnered with Real Plans? https://realplans.com/Whole30/

It is a relatively small expense and if it saves you wasting money on one thing that spoils, it pays for itself. I have been using it for two weeks so far and have found it really helpful. You can even import compliant recipes you find online and it will add the ingredients to your shopping list. Pretty handy!

 

It might work, or it might not. You could double the recipe to make it more likely to be enough ingredients for it to work, but if you're worried you won't eat it all before it goes bad, you could just make the mayo another way. If you have an immersion (stick) blender, that definitely works, and you don't have to worry about pouring the oil slowly. That's my personal preferred method, but if you don't have a stick blender, you could try a hand mixer, a blender, or even whisking by hand.

[shodack]

8 hours ago, missnikka28 said:

I want to prep some mayo and I used to have a small food processor for this but I lost it along the way and now I only have a 6 cup food processor. Does anyone know if the mayo will work in a container this big, or should I get something smaller?

As for meal planning, did you see that Whole30 has partnered with Real Plans? https://realplans.com/Whole30/

It is a relatively small expense and if it saves you wasting money on one thing that spoils, it pays for itself. I have been using it for two weeks so far and have found it really helpful. You can even import compliant recipes you find online and it will add the ingredients to your shopping list. Pretty handy!

 

My big one works after I start adding the oil- I have to hand mix the egg, 1/4 cup oil and salt first, as the lowest blade wont reach it. 

 

@Stephania, don't be too hard on yourself- this is HARD!! You made it 14 days, which is awesome- so you can totally do the 30! I've avoided the temptation of cheating as much as humanly possible. Haven't been to a restaurant in 20 days. Go through the drive through at the coffee shop instead of going in. Eat right before going shopping, and make sure to have a drink and snack waiting for me in the car.

The meal planning was the hardest hurdle for me too, but I've had a great time finding recipes by googling Whole30 recipes. Lots of blogs have great recipe collections that are compliant. I usually plan about 4 days out, as I find trying to figure out a whole week to be very intimidating. And for the inevitable day I didn't make a plan and am starving, I keep a dozen hard boiled eggs and some compliant mayo in my fridge at all times, as well as cans of olives, avocados, tuna, and frozen mixed veggies. They aren't the most exciting dinners, but I'm not panicking over what to eat (I had a meltdown like that in the first few days and quickly realized I wouldn't make it if that happened often). Keep reaching out for support, and most of all, have faith in your strength!

[missnikka28]

22 hours ago, ShannonM816 said:

It might work, or it might not. You could double the recipe to make it more likely to be enough ingredients for it to work, but if you're worried you won't eat it all before it goes bad, you could just make the mayo another way. If you have an immersion (stick) blender, that definitely works, and you don't have to worry about pouring the oil slowly. That's my personal preferred method, but if you don't have a stick blender, you could try a hand mixer, a blender, or even whisking by hand.

18 hours ago, shodack said:

My big one works after I start adding the oil- I have to hand mix the egg, 1/4 cup oil and salt first, as the lowest blade wont reach it. 

@ShannonM816 @shodack

Thank you both! I don't have any of those other gadgets so I decided what the heck, I'll just try it and see what happens. The recipe calls for "medium" speed, and my processor only has "low" and "high" - I blended the initial ingredients together on low and started to add the oil. About 1/4 of the way through, I didn't think it was looking quite right so I bumped it up to high and IT WORKED!! I have creamy dreamy mayo that was so yummy I made some tuna salad immediately so I could eat it  

In the past when I have made it I didn't especially like the olive oil flavour, so this time I used 1/4 cup avocado oil to start and then added in 1 cup of high-oleic safflower oil. I highly recommend this combo as it didn't come out with an oily flavour, just creamy deliciousness. I also added the lemon at the end as per something I read on here somewhere, and only added a little - DELISH SUCCESS!! 

[SMB2003]

I'm not currently doing a Whole30, but prep my meals regardless.  What I like to do is check the sales ads and prep larger items.  I just purchased a whole chicken at $0.59 cents per lb and plan to grill it (can also toss in a crockpot).  A few weeks ago pork shoulder was on sale and I made crockpot kahula pork.  These are really easy to do, and then you have food for several days or can freeze some for future use.  And by checking the sales you will save money as well.