How to Plan for the Whole 30

With the New Year just around the corner, it’s time for me to get prepped for another Whole 30 Challenge.  Last January was my first go at it and I saw amazing results.  While I’ve stuck to a balance of about 80/20 true paleo, the Holidays have been a little gluttonous and I’m ready to clean up my diet!

In today’s post, I’ll be sharing how I prep my kitchen and create my grocery list to start the Whole 30 off on the right foot.

Let’s start with the basics.  A paleo/primal diet is based off what our paleolithic ancestors ate - whatever they could hunt or gather.  A modern approach includes more than just meat, fish, berries and nuts to include veggies, fruits, eggs and some fats.

A Simple Primer

There’s a bit of fine print to go along with it, so I suggest you read the full rundown of what you can and cannot eat from the experts. (Things like soy, peanuts, honey and white potatoes are not included as approved foods during the Whole 30).

You probably also want to check out It Starts with Food - a great book that explains why the list is created and the health detriments and benefits that each of these foods these foods have.  Trust me, I never thought I could give up a bagel and cream cheese breakfast until I read this book (and haven’t had one in over a year!) 

Cleaning Your Kitchen

First things first - you’ve gotta clear out the no-nos from your refrigerator and pantry. If there was ever a time to read labels - now is it!  Any condiment with added sugar (hello ketchup!) will have to either get tossed or be hidden for the next month. Speaking of hiding things - we don’t throw everything away (although this is also a good time to check your expiration dates). For things like craft beer or condiments we want to keep, we store those on the bottom shelf of our fridge, but covered up. Outta Sight, outta mind! 

Planning Your Meals

You’ll be spending a lot more time in the kitchen and the more prep work you do, the easier your 30 days will be.  I start my planning by writing down what I want to eat for each dinner and starting my grocery list from there. A few paleo cookbooks will show you there’s no shortage of delicious ideas! Well Fed and Primal Cravings (read ingredient lists to make sure they are Whole 30 compliant!) are two good ones! Plus there are tons of ideas online. 

Here’s what our first week’s dinners will look like:

• Turkey Meatballs with Steamed Broccoli and Roasted Sweet Potatoes

• Cuban Burgers with Plantain ‘Buns’ and Garlic Spinach

• Coconut Chicken Breast with Green Beans and Roasted Carrots

• Ground Beef Chili with Sweet Potato Chips

• Kale, Chicken and Mushroom Stir Fry

• Bacon Lattice BLT

• Nutty Shrimp and 'Noodles’

Plus breakfast foods and a few snacks (we always make four portions at dinner to eat as leftovers for lunch the following day). 

And here’s the grocery list to accompany it:

Meats: 

• 1 lb Ground Dark Turkey

• 1 lb Ground Light Turkey

• 1 lb Ground Pork

• 2 Steaks (filets)

• 16 Chicken Breasts

• Pork Belly (cut into strips like bacon)

• 2 Pork Chops

• Frozen Shrimp

Eggs:

• 2 Dozen Eggs (we get ours from a friend who raised them free range!)

Veggies: 

• Bag of Yellow Onions

• Broccoli

• Red and Orange Bell Peppers

• Kale

• Green Beans

• 2 Zucchini

• Carrots

• Large container of Spinach

• 4 Sweet Potatoes

• Shiitaki Mushrooms

• 1 head of Garlic

Fruits:

• Apples

• Avocados

• Plantains

• Best priced berries

• Pineapple

• Dates

• Dried Berries

• Lemons

• Limes

Other:

• Coconut Oil

• Light Olive Oil

• Almond Butter

• Coconut Flakes

• Bulk Nuts

• Almond Flour

• Coconut Aminos

• Chicken Broth

If you’re looking for places to splurge and save, spend more on quality meats (like grass fed beef and free range chicken). We love our local butcher and trust me, you will taste the difference! Take your list as a guideline. If something else is fresh and looks tasty (and falls within the parameters of the Whole 30, go for it!)

We’ll probably pop back into the grocery mid week to restock any fresh produce that’s running low as well! 

I’ll also pick up little extras that come in handy when you’re winging it or are good substitutions for what you normally cook with - things like almond flour, coconut oil, coconut aminos (a soy sauce alternative), almond butter (great for sauces or spread of apple slices). Spices go a long way in paleo cooking as well! 

Prep Work

A little prep goes a long when you’re learning a new style of eating. Adam and I like to spend a little time on Sunday (or in this case, New Year’s Day) prepping foods in advance. Here are some of the shortcuts we take:

• Hard Boil eggs

• Grill and chop chicken

• Chop Veggies (for omelettes and stir fries)

• Make condiments (like fresh Mayo)

Treats

The main concept of the Whole30 is to clean up not only the food you’re eating, but your habits, including mindless eating. You’ll want to avoid making paleo versions of junk food during your 30 days, but I also think it’s important to have some treats (not cheats!) to keep your sanity. I also reach for these if I’m super starving before a workout.  I enjoy:

• Bananas or apple slices with almond butter, raisins and unsweetened coconut flakes

• Carrots with Homemade Guacamole

• Muffin Tin of Homemade Trail Mix (nuts, coconut flakes, raisins)

Final Notes

This time around, I’m not aiming to lose any weight, instead to tone up a bit, get my complexion under control, sleep better and generally feel more awesome! Skip the scale for the entire 30 days and measure your progress by how you look and feel versus the number on the scale. You can follow my meals on Instagram! 

You’re going to see amazing changes after completing this diet, but I’m not a physician. Please consult with your doctor before starting any health or fitness regimen! 

And… You can do it! 

The Whole 30 Challenge Review

This January, I indulged in the Whole 30 Challenge. My goal was to to only eat whole foods. No added sugar, no grains, no legumes, no alcohol. And it was the best month of my life… A lot of you have been asking about my experience with the Whole 30 and I’m excited to share the results. I’ll share my favorite meals, the benefits and challenges I experienced, answers to your FAQs and my before and after photos and results.  It’s a long post, so grab a fresh glass of water and let’s jump in!

Before discussing the Whole30, I want to give you a little bit of my personal history as it relates to health and wellness.  Before I go into ANY of this, please remember this is my personal experience during my 30 day experiment and I’m not a doctor, nutritionist or trainer. As with any diet or exercise routine, it’s wise to check in with a doctor before you begin. 

BACKGROUND: I come from a line of long, tall, athletic people.  As a kid, teenager and young adult my metabolism allowed me to eat pretty much whatever I wanted and stay in the same size or two (thanks youth and genetics!).  I ran 8 years of varsity cross country and track and my runner’s diet was super heavy on carbs like pasta and potatoes… and lots of them! 

In my mid-twenties I experimented with 15 months of veganism (no animal products or bi-products). During that time I was really into yoga, pilates and running and was still eating lots of simple carbs like pasta. rice and potatoes… and yet, I still never saw definition in my abs. I was at my lowest adult weight at this time and I have no goals of going that low again, because it was just too skinny and not healthy for my height.  As my trainer Matt says, STRONG is the new skinny - and that’s my goal!  And for those of you wondering why I stopped eating vegan - I met and married a really good cook! 

When I rounded the corner of my late twenties, my body really started to change. I moved from a fast paced New York City and lots of walking to a slower pace of life in Indiana. I got married and in the honeymoon stages of love, I got soft.  I didn’t work out regularly other than walking or biking to a mile to work when the weather was nice - yet it didn’t add up to the amount of time I was on my feet in the City or at the gym.  Moving to Indiana also dropped our cost of living, so eating out became more affordable and a regular part of our routine. 

Long story short, I put on between 8-10 pounds a year in the last three years. And yes, I’m a taller person, so it can be a little easier to hide, but I didn’t want to make it a yearly thing to jump up that much on the scale.   In August 2012 I got serious about my exercise habits and signed up for a year’s worth of bootcamp at Force Fitness, three times a week.  I’ve been feeling stronger ever since and lost about 5 pounds (but gained a lot of muscle!) in 2012. 

THE WHOLE 30: Then came the Whole 30 - a month long experiment to clean up my eating habits.  I ordered It Starts With Food by Dallas and Melissa Hartwig got reading and got excited. Adam agreed to do the thirty days with me, which was vital to our success.  On December 31st, I cleaned out my fridge and got rid of everything that contained sugar, dairy, grains/gluten and legumes. I hid our stash of craft beer by putting it on the bottom shelf of our fridge and covered it up with brown paper bags (outta sight, outta mind, baby!) 

Next, I made a meal plan using the guide in It Starts With Food and went to the grocery. The idea is to eat what our distant ancestors could hunt or gather, as our bodies have evolved to this kind of eating. My first priority was to buy high quality meats - grass fed beef and free range chicken. Then I filled my cart with a rainbow of veggies and added in new cooking oils (coconut oil is my FAVORITE). I also love eating half an avocado each day or sprinkling coconut flakes over almond butter and fruit. 

When January 1st rolled around and we made a commitment to do this right. We eat three large meals a day at home and take turns cooking. We allow ourselves one or two meals at a restaurant each week where we can stay on track (burgers with pickles, lettuce, mustard and sweet potato fries, make your own omlettes). 

We grocery shop every 5 days and now buy all of our meat from the butcher or farmer’s market.  Our average meal cost is $5 each.  We eat breakfast around 8:30am, lunch at 1:30pm and dinner at 7. We eat palm size portions of meat and HUGE servings of vegetables (between 3-6 cups a day each). I also eat a lot of eggs (usually 4 a day).

FAVORITE MEALS:

• Turkey Meatballs with homemade tomato sauce over Spaghetti Squash

• Lamb Burgers with Broccoli and Sweet Potatoes

• Winter hash (sweet potatoes, parsnips, brussel sprouts) with Fried Eggs on top

• Scrambled Eggs with ½ Avocado and ½ cup of berries

• Chicken stir fry using coconut oil with Bell Peppers, Mushrooms, Green Beans, Onions and an Egg

• Pork Benedict (homemade Hollandaise sauce made with clarified butter over a boneless pork chop instead of an English muffin) with asparagus

NOTABLE RESULTS:

1. CLEAR SKIN  I’ve had acne since I was around 12 years old and I’ve tried everything. For the first time in my adult life my skin is pretty clear! I still get a few spots around that time of the month, but nothing like it used to be. It makes me feel so much more confident about myself and I’m wearing a lot less makeup these days. I asked my dermatologist about this and he think it’s likely because I omitted dairy. 

2. BETTER MOODS The winter is hard for me and I have pretty intense mood swings (especially while PMSing) all year round. Both Adam and I noticed that I felt a lot more balanced this month! 

3. BETTER SLEEP Unless the cats are screaming, I’m sleeping through the night, about 8-10 hours each night. I feel rested and energized every morning.  We’ve also started sleeping on memory foam and I made blackout curtains for a pitch black room! 

4. BETTER DIGESTION I’m not going to go all Jamie Lee Curtis on you with this one, but our digestive tracts are in gear. Enough said. 

5. NO MORE SPIKES and CRASHES - Before the Whole 30, my blood sugar would drop and make me shaky if I hadn’t eaten enough. Now I stay full between meals with good energy levels. 

6. MORE MUSCLE TONE. My body fat dropped 1% in 30 days and I’m finally able to see more of my hard work at the gym! I lost 2 inches at my waist and an inch and a half off my belly! 

7. WEIGHT LOSS - I lost 7.2 pounds in 30 days, (for a total loss of 12 lbs since starting bootcamp in August).  I also added in an additional day of weight training at the gym for a total of 4 workouts a week, so I’ve likely put on muscle weight. This wasn’t my top priority, but I am super proud of posting a number like that - while eating like a king and never being hungry! 

UPDATE: Skip the scale! I didn’t weigh or measure myself for the entire 30 days of the Whole30 and gauged my progress on visual changes and strength! 

8. CONFIDENCE - I’ll spare you the long sob story here and simply say I’ve never felt better about myself. Maybe it’s the new way of eating, maybe it’s the working out, maybe it’s how strong and toned I feel.  Maybe it’s my clear complexion or how my husband says that I’m beautiful. This is going to sound hyper dramatic, but for the first time in my life, I really truly feel beautiful. I don’t see the flaws, I see the happy girl shining through.  This is the way we were meant to feel about ourselves and I’m so grateful for all of the external support I’ve had through this experiment. It’s like a flip switched and I finally feel proud of myself. It’s a priceless feeling. 

Some of the other key benefits have been sharing meals with my husband, practicing (and getting pretty good!) at cooking and feeling great overall. I can’t imagine going back to the way I used to eat,with appropriate exceptions- a glass of wine once a week on date night, a sweet treat on a special occasion, or homemade pizza with friends.  

YOUR FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

1. Is it hard? I get this one more than any other question! In the scheme of life, eating vegetables instead of bread is not difficult. It takes willpower, but it’s not impossible. Another tip from my trainer - don’t try to make substitutions for junk food - just eat something better! My regular breakfast - four scrambled eggs, avocado and berries is a good example - I wouldn’t trade that for a bagel and cream cheese any day of the week! 

2. Do you miss restricted foods? Not really. There are things I would like to eat or drink again in my life, but when it came to making a list of what I would “break” the Whole 30 with, I couldn’t come up with a lot. Maybe a little piece of chocolate. A glass of wine. Someday I want to have a waffle again. But with so many other delicious whole foods available, I’ve started to change what I crave.

3. What are your on the go foods?  We like to hard boil eggs and cook a big batch of chicken on Sundays and then pack them into mini meals along with some nuts for when we’re in a rush.  The key to our success was a LOT of planning.  We also keep almonds in the car for a super easy pick me up.  Generally though, you want to be eating enough at each meal that you don’t need snacks. 

4. How do you socialize without drinking? This was one of the more challenging parts of the Whole30 for us because we love craft beers, cocktails and wine.  At friend’s houses the best option is to bring something you CAN drink like sparkling water with a lemon or lime slice. Having a partner who’s not drinking is helpful as well. When we would go out, like to watch a ball game, we ordered ice tea or coffee. 

5. How can you eat out? Do your research before selecting a restaurant and make sure there’s at least one dish that will work. It’s not uncommon for people to ask for exceptions like no gluten or dairy, so don’t feel shy asking your server. We found breakfast was the easiest meal to eat out (eggs, fruit and black coffee). 

6. Where do you get recipes?  I use a lot of the base recipes in It Starts with Food and also get ideas from Melissa Joulwan of Wed Fed and The Clothes Make the Girl.

If I’m missing something, please ask on my facebook page! I’d love to hear about your Whole30 experiences too! Please share!

When people say the Whole 30 will change your life - it’s true!  To read my follow up post on the Whole 30, click here.