Kendall's First Whole30!!!!!!

[Kendall2017]

It's day 7!!!! I can't believe it. This has been a really great challenge thus far and I'm loving it. Luckily, many of my typical meals included protein and veggies, making the transition to the Whole30 a bit easier. However, it was pretty obvious that this is a commitment when I was at a client site for work and had to explain why I wasn't eating with the rest of the team as they had pizza! Instead, when we returned from the restaurant, I heated up my chicken with green beans and carrots! I felt a little embarrassed at first for not joining in, but it felt great to look back on the day without feeling the regret of throwing off my Whole30 just to avoid explaining why I couldn't eat the pizza. At the end of the day, my body was thanking me and I felt more invigorated than ever to keep at this.

 

As far as meal planning is concerned, I have really just purchased fruits, proteins, and vegetables that I enjoy and used Pinterest to come up with new things to try that are available at Trader Joe's or Publix, where I do my shopping! When I return home, I open the Whole30 cookbook and try to find things I have the ingredients for, or will use it as inspiration for the meal I am going to create. I am hoping to pick my favorite recipes to try for week 2, I have just allowed myself to be more creative with what I know for the first week due to my busy work schedule!

 

I have attached the meals I have eaten over the past week!! More than willing to attach ingredients/recipes if anyone is interested

 

Week 1 Timeline:

Day 1 - 2: Not too bad, not having too many cravings (glad it was the weekend so I could go to the grocery store as needed and spend as much time cooking as I wanted). Was busy on Thursday for lunchtime so grabbed an RX bar... It was YUM! Haven't had any "on-the-go" foods since, but ordered the Whole30 pack from the RX website just to have some on hand moving forward. Went out with friends and didn't have a sip of alcohol... definitely was a little strange at first but I felt amazing on Saturday when I was able to wake up at 9 for my exercise class without feeling hungover or groggy.

Day  3-4: Cookbook came in and got me excited! Feeling very sleepy... definitely took a couple of naps. Was able to hangout with friends and not drink once again. I think that forcing myself to go out and avoid the temptation to drink, snack late, etc. was actually the best thing for me. I showed myself just how committed I could be and was resigned to be to the Whole30 challenge. I also started putting a big "X" on my hanging calendar for each day that I made it through as "whole30 compliant". Giving myself the opportunity to check off the day and visualize it helped mentally push me to continue. I was very tired getting up for my workout class Sunday morning! Definitely had some ups and downs with the meals I made. Some looked good but failed to satisfy; that was more on me for not meal planning as much as I should have.

Day 5: Rough morning... I woke up late and was running low on groceries with no food prepped for lunch. While making breakfast, I had one egg left that my cat decided to push onto the floor and splatter so instead I just had some leftover beef and a banana. Not a great combination but I was satisfied and compliant all the same. I made a quick lunch with chicken, roasted sweet potatoes (from T.J.'s- SO YUM- highly recommend) and another veggie side. I nibbled on a side of blueberries as well. For dinner, I finished off the chicken with a mixture of kale/broccoli slaw and riced broccoli with balsamic and Italian seasoning. Using a meat thermometer has been amazing. Meat was perfectly cooked!

Day 6: Should have gone to the store the night before but was too busy with work and spent the previous night starting my first bullet journal and got carried away (so fun though if you are looking for a creative way to journal). For breakfast, I had a chicken burger with strawberries and half a banana. Was at a client for lunch but still made sure to pack something and avoid the pizza as mentioned above. Finally ran to the store and for dinner made a YUMMY meal. Chicken with sautéed red peppers and onions with a fried egg on top and guac on the side! I was SO satisfied by this meal. Tasted as good as a taco without being a taco and was just spicy enough. I have the spicy jalapeno salsa from T.J's and have added it to almost every meal. It's delicious.

Today is day 7!!!!!!!!!! Lunch is packed- Steamed broccoli and carrots with the chicken cooked to perfection thanks to the Whole30 cookbook and a side of the Romesco sauce that I made a couple of days ago to eat with shrimp. I can't wait to eat it Today, I also put a little compliant almond milk in my coffee which was another win that was very satisfying. ENERGY is finally up and today I feel great. It wasn't easy getting up for my 6:30 am workout but that's due to the fact I should be going to bed earlier then I currently am. That is definitely a potential area for improvement moving forward. Also want to make sure next week I don't get into the habit of looking to almond butter to satisfy my cravings/sweet tooth. Not having an issue with it just yet but want to keep an eye on how I am using it. Funny enough, my biggest temptation this week was wanting to throw a piece of gum in my mouth. It's the small things that are the most relevant temptations for me bc I tell myself something like gum is no big deal! Luckily, I didn't cave in. Exited for week 2 to begin tomorrow.