Starting Tomorrow....Yikes!

[Girl55]

Hi, all. I am starting Whole30 tomorrow and have some anxiety about keeping the food interesting for myself and my hubby. Just a few months ago, when some family members did this, I swore I would/could never even consider trying it. But my identical twin asked me to do it with her now, so here I am. Need some encouragement and some recipe ideas! I have a couple of Whole30 cookbooks and ordered some Whole30-approved items online.

I am a middle-aged lady who used to be fit and have a healthy diet, and for some reason I've fallen down the rabbit hole in the last year. Really want to reset, find out what foods don't agree with me, and then return to my beloved whole grains and low-fat dairy -- if indicated -- being selective about them, and keeping portions quite a bit smaller. Also want to limit sweets to special occasions.

Has anyone found that breakfast has been toughest for them on Whole30? It seems like it might be.

Thanks a lot to all on this journey. Look forward to staying in touch. What am I going to do without my milk LOL?

[ShannonM816]

For breakfast, many people do find it to be difficult. It's best if you can get past the idea of "breakfast foods" and just think of your meals as Meal 1, Meal 2, and Meal 3, with the food completely interchangeable between any of them. Here's a post with some actual non-egg breakfasts people really ate:  https://forum.whole30.com/topic/28832-lets-talk-non-traditional-breakfasts/  If it's that you don't have a lot of time in the morning, find things you can make ahead -- frittatas or egg muffins, soups, meatballs, grilled chicken, leftover roasted veggies -- in general I find I do best when I spend an afternoon on the weekend cooking several things ahead, so I have plenty of food on hand during the week that mostly needs reheating. Even if you don't like things pre-cooked, you can have things prepped the night before so you can cook breakfast quickly -- keep chopped veggies in the fridge so you can quickly saute or roast them, have chicken already marinated you can throw in the oven to cook.

For recipes, I love Mel Joulwan's Well Fed site -- she uses lots of spices and sauces, and most of her recipes are either Whole30 compliant or easily modified to be, and they mostly tend to be clearly labeled when they're not: https://meljoulwan.com/recipes-index/  Nom Nom Paleo has a lot of good options too: https://nomnompaleo.com/ And if you're on Facebook or Instagram you can follow the official Whole30 Recipes feed for a guest blogger posting recipes each week. Instagram feed here: http://www.instagram.com/whole30recipes/ or Facebook feed here: http://www.facebook.com/OfficialWhole30Recipes/?ref=br_rs  There's also an official Whole30 Pinterest account with many recipes: http://www.pinterest.com/whole30/?eq=whole30&etslf=8190  

Definitely check out the meal template if you haven't already, you can find it and other downloads here:  https://whole30.com/pdf-downloads/ -- I mention this because you mentioned smaller portions and low fat dairy, and Whole30 is definitely not a low fat diet, nor is it one of those diets where you eat tiny portions and white knuckle your way through until the next meal, and you will not have a good experience if you try to do it that way. You may already know that, but we do sometimes get people in the forum who haven't really read all the information and try to apply their previous thoughts on calorie restriction to their Whole30 and don't understand why they don't get very good results.

[mmesarahf]

Hey, just wanted to say hello and that I also started my first W30 on Monday 6/11. I'm a 35 year old lady. How are you doing on day #4? 

When I first read about the "rules" of the W30, I also thought I could never do it. What do they eat?! I thought. But here I am! It took a few months of thinking about it and prep to get here though. Sugar and dairy are definitely my hardest to give up. I keep thinking I should add sugar or cheese to things, but nope! 

Breakfast seems to be the hardest meal, just because everything I used to eat is either noncompliant or not recommended (like smoothies). What's been most helpful for me is having veggies (like potatoes and cabbage, salsa, and brussel sprout hash) already cooked that I can just reheat in the morning with some fresh made eggs and a piece of fruit and avocado. The days where I've had to spend an hour+ cooking before I can eat breakfast have made me quite hangry, so I think prep is the key! 

I spent a lot of time last weekend meal planning and shopping and yesterday I spent some time making clarified butter and bone broth to keep on hand, which I think will be helpful to just grab and use when needed. 

I purchased the Whole Smiths cookbook that just came out, and it has been delicious so far. https://www.thewholesmiths.com 

I've also purchased tons of new compliant foods for me to try to keep it interesting for myself. I tried pecan butter for the first time the other day and it was delicious! 

Cheers!