Tips For A Successful Whole30

Earlier this week, I posted about my Whole30 experience and what I thought of it. I loved it! And I’ve definitely felt the effects (my mom too) of reintroducing foods into our diet.

We haven’t re-started it 100% yet, so we’ve had a few things here and there (cereal for me mainly haha and some cookies…) As I previously mentioned, it has made me feel so lethargic, and given me headaches…and my energy during the day has waned a little bit. Also, my shin pain, specifically calves burning and getting super tight during runs, is back! I can’t say if its solely because of not eating whole foods…but I wouldn’t be surprised after reading in It Starts With Food about how just one bit of something can throw everything out of whack.

Anyway…I wanted to share some tips with you all about how to manage 30 days of eating only protein, veggies, fruit and healthy fats! A lot of people I have told can’t believe it and say “I could never do that.” Yes you can! You just need to commit to it and do it. You can do anything for 30 days. What means more to you? Feeling great and improving your body? Or treating yourself to certain foods because you “can’t” give them up? Sorry for the tough love…

Here are my tips:

1. Take it a week at a time: Don’t view it as OMG 30 days…take it one week at a time. Trust me, after week 1, time flies and you’ll soon be at week 3 and can’t believe it. Also, once you’re further in you won’t want to break your streak!

2. Prepare a meal chart weekly: This helped me SO much. I am not a planner at all, but I found that when I thought, “hmm what should I make for dinner today” (in the past) I’d end up making whatever was quickest and easiest. Once I mapped out every meal for every day, it was a lot easier to follow Whole30.

3. Cut up meat, veggies or fruit on a weekend for the week: Meal prep helps a lot too. You get home, you’re tired, hungry…do you really feel like cutting up meat and veggies? Cut them up and put them in containers, or freeze if you won’t use it right away, so you always have them on hand and ready.

4. Look at ALL ingredients: you’d be surprised how many things you think are healthy actually have a lot of preservatives, added sugar, added salt, and more. These are not whole30 compliant!

5. Try new recipes: this is a great time to experiment with new foods and recipes. I loved doing this, and it makes it more exciting…who knows maybe you’ll find your next favorite recipe!

6. Try not to dine out: Yes, this sucks, but try not to…or if you do, make sure your protein is grilled, not pan friend, there is no extra butter or whatever sauce on it, and they don’t use dressing. Exactly…it’s easier to just eat in. And WAY less tempting! If you DO dine out, look at the menu ahead of time and pick something so you’re not tempted once you get there.

7. Have a “treat” when you are craving something: craving a sweet? really bad?? Don’t do it! I grew to love bananas and apples with almond butter (in moderation). Cravings will go away as you keep going on, I promise!

8. Just commit and do it! The book makes a great point of if you think “I’ll let myself have 1 cheat daily or weekly” it then becomes complicated and you’re constantly thinking “should this be my cheat for the day? maybe I will have 2 cheats and not cheat tomorrow.” For 30 days just commit and get those cheats out of your head! At the end, I promise you, you will feel SO much better

Hopefully this helps those of you with questions or who want to try it! It really changed the way I view food and my relationship with food.

Do you plan on trying Whole30? What motivates you to make the right food choices?

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