A Day in the Whole30 Life

We have started another round of Whole30.  We started on Wednesday, and are now on Day 3.  I confess, I was not as prepared heading into this round as I was in our first! I think I was a wee bit overconfident.  We started on NO groceries on Wednesday, and I didn't get to do a full shopping trip until Thursday.  But, today, our fridge, freezer and pantry are STOCKED.  And I'm working on my prep.

I'm often asked what a day looks like in Whole30. If you haven't visited their website, yet, PLEASE DO SO.  ALSO, consider buying the book, cookbooks, and Day By Day guide.  Melissa & Dallas have outlined EVERYTHING you need to know.  I found them so helpful prior to starting our first round.  And going into this second round, it's been nice to reread everything and be fully versed on all the "rules".

The tennents of Whole30 are three meals a day, no snacking, and the template for meals should be very balanced.  A balanced plate is mostly vegetables, a little bit of fruit (not necessary at every meal), a plated fat (GOOD Fats!), and a protein.  IT IS NOT KETO or PALEO, no matter what someone's told you...it is neither of those things.

So, heres a day in my Whole30 Life.

Breakfast.  You've heard the tag line "the most important meal of the day". I admit, I never used to eat breakfast.  I used to drink my iced tea (okay, until about 8 months ago, I'd start my day with a nice large glass of Coke Zero), and probably wouldn't eat any real food until about 2:00 p.m.  And then I would continue eating almost hourly until 10 p.m.  Gee, now that I look back, sure have no clue how I packed on so many pounds (note sarcasm). Forcing breakfast in my body when I first started my first round was neither easy, nor pleasant.  But, I noticed after a couple days in that I started waking up hungry and actually WANTED to eat!  Here's my breakfast today, and this is fairly typical.  My plated fat was ghee (aka clarified butter) that my eggs were cooked in, I do normally love an avocado half in the morning with lime juice and a little salt.  Since I just went shopping yesterday, my avocados were not ripe enough, yet.  YES, by the way, you CAN have bacon on Whole30.  Please make sure that it is bacon that has no sugar or ingredients you're not supposed to have on round, this bacon was Wellshire's No Sugar Bacon that I got on sale at Whole Foods (I might have taken all they had, thanks to Amazon Prime, I got the sale price PLUS another 10%).  I always have Unsweetened Iced Tea with Lemon as my caffeine-of-choice-in-the-morning.   As you can see, I'm pairing this round with my "Made to Crave 60 Day Devotional".  Being "whole" means dealing with the "whole" self, physically, emotionally and spiritually.

Breakfast: Eggs in Ghee, Tomatoes, Strawberries & Bacon

Lunch.  Lunch was a quickie today...thankfully, I had some leftover (compliant) pulled pork in the fridge along with some (also compliant) homemade barbeque sauce.  Added lots of mixed greens and homemade Ranch dressing.  I know that you see the word "homemade" and get scared, believe me, these are EASY recipes and I have learned them well enough I can toss them together whenever I need them. I took a few minutes this lunch time to look over some recipes and get some ideas for the upcoming week. 

Lunch: Pulled Pork BBQ w/ Mixed Greens and Ranch

Dinner.  After running out with my youngest to see a movie with a few of her friends, I came home to cook up some dinner.  I decided to go simple and easy as well as adding in some of my prep for the upcoming week.  Each week I grill 5 lbs of Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast for quick grab lunches & dinners for the three of us who do Whole30 in the house.  Even though I'd be the only one eating dinner, I decided to have a good one.  I grilled the chicken, topped with Trader Joes Fresh Green Goddess Dressing, steamed broccoli with ghee and an amazing fried potato.  The potato was so easy, I had lots of bacon grease leftover from making bacon at breakfast, I steamed the potato in the microwave for 5 minutes while the grease was heating up in the pan.  When it was done steaming, I smashed it with a potato masher and placed in the hot grease and cooked it on both sides until crispy. It was amazing. I WILL be doing that again.  I also paired it with my daily kombucha.  I usually drink my home-brewed kombucha, but Aldi had the GT Synergy Watermelon Wonder on sale for super cheap, so I decided to give it a try.   I only drink about 8 oz of Kombucha a day, so I'm also having some flavored seltzer. 

Dinner: Grilled Chicken with Green Goddess, broccoli & fried potato

Yes.  This was enough food.  No.  I was not hungry in between.  I did pack a Larabar for the movie just in case I got hungry (this is truly only an emergency food during a round, and is discouraged, so I use only as an ABSOLUTE emergency food during a round).  I DID NOT EAT IT, I never got hungry!

This should hold me through the night, and yes, I will definitely be hungry for breakfast tomorrow...now to think about what I'm going to have tomorrow!