Dear bloggers, friends, family, fellow health nuts, future health nuts, and citizens of the world...
I have been thoroughly looking forward to writing this particular blog post as it marks the end of my Whole 30 journey.
My Story:
I should start at the beginning. My beginning starts a little over 2 years ago. I was half of a year into my first year teaching when some teaching colleagues and I decided to do "Biggest Loser." At the time I was the biggest I'd ever been... granted I was not overweight. Just overweight enough for me to feel less comfortable in my own skin- and I was ready to do something about it. My dad and sister had been doing low carb, Atkins-style dieting for years, so I figured I would jump on that band wagon. Being a macaroni and cheese and penne vodka lover (notice the pasta trend... I love pasta!!), it was not easy, but feeling the pounds come off and hearing the comments from people was motivation enough to keep it up. Between February and June of 2013, I lost 10.4 pounds. That summer, I lost another ~8ish pounds bringing me to the lightest I'd been in YEARS! For me, being a 5.7 tall, I got to 126.something. I felt great! And I kept saying to myself, "I will never go back"... But then life happens! Ha! For me, low carb eating was a total game-changer and I've been living that lifestyle for the last two years.
That brings me to now... A little over a month ago, I had the rude wake up call that I didn't fit into a pair of shorts I bought at the end of last summer. Granted they were the only pair of shorts I didn't fit in, but still, it was enough to motivate me to do something about it. I was still doing low carb, but I definitely had more "cheat meals" and "cheat days" than the months and year prior. I didn't look bad, and people even commented on my thin figure often. I would often get the "You? Dieting? Why?" and I often wanted to shake them and say "because I can look and feel better than this!!" {There's my type A, I-need-everything-to-be-just-right personality coming out!} but I would refrain and smile politely. I had been working out maybe 2-3 times a week if I was lucky, but my workouts were just okay, nothing extraordinary. I was mainly going to say I went. I knew I needed some major change if I wanted to get ready for summer (and fit back into that one pair of shorts!!)
Then the fabulous world of Instagram opened my eyes. {Side note: I love having a teaching Insta account and learning all the fabulous things teachers all over the world are doing. From eating habits, to teacher fashion, to teaching resources... I love it all!} So I had been going on Instagram enough to notice teachers across the country doing Whole 30. At first, I have to admit, I thought it was just a trendy diet. I was already "dieting" so I didn't need that. Then, I was at a bridal shower with a friend of mine who was on day 14 of whole 30. So, I did what any other health nut would do and picked her brain! "What can you have? What can't you have? Do you like it? Is it hard? Do you feel a difference?" Was it different than the diet I was used to? Yes. Was I a little apprehensive at first? Yes. But I knew it was worth a shot. It was a completely healthy way of eating so it wouldn't hurt. So I looked at my calendar and picked a start date. Now, if you are considering starting Whole 30, I definitely recommend looking at your calendar and finding a 30 day period that will work for you. If you have a crazy-busy month of parties, events, weddings, ect, you may want to find a different 30 days. My start date was the day after a friends wedding. So I ate and drank like a cow the night before, and the next morning I started Whole 30.
The day before Whole 30, I went food shopping because I wanted to make sure I had the house stocked with compliant foods for when I came back from the wedding. While I had a couple struggles throughout my Whole 30 adventure, this was struggle #1. I went to Shop Rite at noon on a Saturday with a limited amount of time to shop. Bad idea. I went in with a list of insane ingredients...coconut aminos (my first thought... what on earth is that?!), canned coconut milk (which is NOT by the other coconut milks in our grocery section), Larabars (huh?), Spaghetti Squash (heard good things but never tried it) and cashews (not in peanut or canola oil, hard to find). These were not apart of my low carb diet (meat, cheese, and eggs as I would often say) so I had no idea where to look. I didn't find everything I was looking for that day and I spent what seemed like an absurd amount of money. Note to new Whole 30ers... give yourself time to do your first shopping trip. It can be overwhelming and stressful so give yourself the time and resources you need to be successful from the get-go. Know that it will be more pricey then your normal grocery store trips, and don't go when the grocery store is packed!! I learned that the hard way.
The Journey:
So Day 1, I got on the scale: 133.1 pounds. I took some "before" pictures, then I just tried to hit the ground running! I got my Mom to join the Whole 30 journey with me, so it was nice to have someone to bounce ideas off of and help with the food shopping.
I took some pictures of my favorite meals, so scroll through and enjoy!
Day 1: I made some fruit salad of the best whole 30 compliant fruits: berries! Little did I know how fast it was going to go. Between my Mom and me (and my boyfriend who loves a good fruit salad), it was gone within 2 days.
Day 2: This was my common weekend breakfast meal. It consisted of eggs with veggies with avocado on top (yum!!) with a side of grapefruit<3. This was the first day of black coffee! I was an avid flavored coffee with half and half and splenda drinker. The black coffee was by far one of the hardest things to get used to!
Day 6: Almond flour crusted tilapia with sweet potatoes and green beans. If you have never cooked with almond flour, I love to use it and totally recommend it. Dip your fish/chicken in egg then almond flour, sauté on the stove, and VOILA!
Day 8: I tried to make coconut crusted chicken. Although it looks interesting, it was very tasty!! I dipped the chicken in egg then unsweetened coconut flakes. It didn't stick well, but I made it work. With a side of two kinds of sweet potatoes. I was told the purple sweet potatoes have a lot of nutritional value (don't quote me on that).
Day 9: This was my quick, "I-need-fast-and-tasty-food" meal. I chopped up chicken breast and sauteed it in some olive oil. Then I threw in some broccoli. Once they were both cooked, I poured a pasta sauce on top and that was my meal! I have a favorite whole 30 compliant red sauce from Shop Rite that I used, but I know Whole Foods and Trader Joe's sells some too. Just look at the ingredients at your local super market.
Day 11: MY FAVORITE MEAL! I had a friend contact me and ask to do dinner. Knowing eating out is really hard, I invited my friends over and cooked. This is where I have to give credit where credit is due. I downloaded an app called "Whole Eating" (no affiliation to the actual Whole 30 website, but it had a bunch of recipes and tips for people who were doing whole 30) and found a recipe for "Thai Basil Chicken." I marinated chicken in coconut aminos, garlic, chili powder, olive oil and ground ginger for about 8 hours. When I got home from work, I sauteed it on the stove with diced red peppers and basil. SO GOOD! My boyfriend loved it so that was an extra plus :)
Midway through my Whole 30 journey, my Mom and I went to Trader Joe's and Whole Foods- so fun!
Day 17: I called this day the medley night because we had a mix of so many foods. My boyfriend was grilling so I figured I would have steak (farm raised) and an organic hot dog (weird combo, I know). We also had a medley of veggies - brussel sprouts, zucchini, and broccoli, and a medley of sweet potatoes (white, orange and purple sweet potatoes). We also had a fruit salad for dessert. I told you it was medley night!
Day 21: Egg Casserole! Look up "Paleo Egg Casserole" for this recipe on Pinterest. That's where I got the idea. I didn't do exactly what that recipe said, but I used whatever veggies and meats I had in the house that day. I think it was: red/yellow peppers, zucchini, green onion, sweet potatoes with leftover burger meat with 6 eggs, 4 egg whites.
Day 24: I am SO mad I tried spaghetti squash so late into Whole 30. I was intimidated by it for some reason and have no idea why!! I was so easy. I also made meatballs (beef, almond meal and an egg) and put it overtop the squash with a favorite red sauce.
Day 28: Salad with chicken, peppers, almonds and O/V! Simple yet yummy! My sister bought my Mom this incredible balsamic vinegar and it made the whole salad :)
Day 30: This was an exciting day, as you can imagine. It also happened to be the last day of school (good timing on my part!). We had coconut crusted tilapia, sweet potatoes, and green beans (with almonds).
Post Whole 30:
Day 31, which also was my first day of summer vacation, I slept in :) and went immediately to the scale. I kept telling myself I didn't need to loose weight because I felt so good, but I'm guilty in saying I did want to loose a few pounds. Drum roll please..... I lost 6.9 pounds!!!! It felt so good. Being that 2 years ago, I lost 10 pounds in 5 months, and this time I lost ~7 pounds in 1 month, boy I felt proud of myself. It made all those difficult moments worth it!!! If you look at the picture below (sorry it's not the best picture), I know you can't notice a HUGE difference, but honestly, I notice a difference and that's what really matters to me :)
A lot of people have asked me what am I going to do after whole 30. If I could, I would absolutely continue doing Whole 30 everyday. But there are a couple reasons why I just can't do it 100% of the time. One reason being it's so hard to dine out. Is it possible, yes, but you have to do your homework. A big one is whether or not they have Olive oil. Believe it or not, I went to a restaurant and they didn't have it!!! Which meant evereything probably was cooked with veggie oil. It's also expensive to by all that organic! Since then, I would say 80% of my day is Whole 30. I have incorporated a little more cheese back in my diet, and I dine out more. But I love the way I feel so I want to keep it up!
The Hard Parts:
1. Like I said earlier, eating out. I ate out twice. Once when I had a fruit cup for dinner because they had no compliant oil, once on Father's Day I had eggs in olive oil and crossed my fingers it was compliant (it was day 29 so I was willing to go off a tiny bit for good ole dad!). I just avoided it at all costs because I just didn't want to deal with it.
2. Parties. Ughhhh. They were hard. Being around people eating chips, pizza, cookies, PASTA, was torture!!! I was sort of used to it being that I've been eating low carb for so long, but it was even trickier now because I really wanted to be good and not indulge.
3. Food prep. In the beginning, I think I went to the supermarket 7 out of 10 days. I was spending a lot of money and felt like I just kept running out of things. Then by the time I got home, and started cooking, I was eating at like 8:30 at night! That got better and easier with time. Buy foods in BULK!
Surprisingly, what was not hard was EATING- which is what I thought would be hard! The food was delicious and I had no problems eating it.
My Tips:
- Do your research. I did NOT buy the whole 30 book. While I'm sure it's very helpful, I just didn't need it. The Whole 30 website has a TON of information!
- Give yourself enough time to do your first food shopping trip. It can be overwhelming so it's easier if you have the time and patience to do it.
- Buy food in bulk! If you like dry roasted cashews (I lived off them), buy like 4 packages of them. You will go through fruit, salad, and sweet potatoes fast. At least I did
- If you're willing, get the "Whole Eating" app. It's $3.99 but it is helpful. What's nice, too, is that you can plan your meals for the week, press "Add to Shopping List" and literally the ingredients go to one shopping list! Kinda cool.
Find someone to do it with you. By the end of my Whole 30, I got 4 people to do it with me. It was nice to have someone to bounce ideas off of and relate to!
Figure out what you want to have for dinner the next day, the night before. Too many times I came home and said, "what am I going to eat tonight?" While I occasionally had some easy meals to make, it was better when I preplanned. I am infamous for leaving the meats in the freezer and not taking it out in time for dinner! It's the worst!
LARABARS - Great for a midday snack. Be careful, they range from 200-250 calories, and not all of the bars are whole 30 compliant, but they were a perfect after school snack for me! I also found "That's It" bars and Trader Joe's sells compliant fruit bars too! My favorites are the Carrot Cake, Cherry Pie, Apple Pie, and Banana Bread!
WORK OUT!!!!!!!!!!
WORK OUT!!!!!!!!!!
WORK OUT!!!!!!!!!! It was not always easy to go to the gym being a teacher in June (and as a NJ teacher, we get out in late June). I felt good when I ate well, I felt GREAT when I worked out on top of it! I made sure I went at least 3 days a week. And there were days when all I had time for was a quick run or T25, but I made sure I got my cardio in weekly!
Portion. Don't Overeat. My mom will admit she was guilty of overeating these past 30 days. Although she was eating all Whole 30 compliant foods, she was eating all day long. My typical work day consisted of: coffee with canned coconut milk in the morning, small fruit cup for a morning snack, Salad or leftovers for lunch with a closed handful of cashews, fruit bar (like Larabar) for a mid-day snack, and dinner. Because I often had a sweet tooth after dinner, I usually had some watermelon or fruit salad for dessert.
I tell people that if they are considering Whole 30 to absolutely go for it! It changed my life! Happy healthy eating!! :)
#2 was Meet More NJ Bloggers. Well, dream and I shall receive!! Maria from Everyone Deserves to Learn reached out to me on my Instagram post and we are officially hosting Blogger Beach Bash in LBI on August 4th. I'M SO EXCITED! I'M SO EXCITED. Have I mentioned I'm so excited!! :) 
