News Years Resolution - Whole30, Get Healthy NOW!

Since my first Whole30, almost six months ago, I have slipped back into my former eating habits. I wouldn't say that I'm eating super unhealthy, but I'm not eating fully paleo. I don't eat rice and I don't eat a ton of dairy or refined sugars, but I do eat other grains and some sugar and a fair amount of cheese. The silly thing is that I know that I feel better, sleep better, look better while eating a fully paleo diet, but I have been lazy.

So, I'm doing it again!

This time I am roping some of my wonderful friends and family members into this crazy journey to ride along with me! I know that this experience will make a huge difference in their lives and well as opening up a brand new view point of what "healthy" means. I am so excited to have some partners in crime this time around.

I am committed to these people having as great of an experience as I had the first time around. I understand that not everyone takes to this lifestyle shift the same way. It is so so hard to forget what our culture says is "healthy" and eat what is actually good for our bodies. We have been eating foods for our whole lives that are considered healthy and they are actually the total opposite. Its tough to unlearn that. But that is the beauty of the Whole30. It cleans out  all of that old stuff and creates a brand new habit of eating.

I learned so much about my body and the foods that I eat and how those foods effect my everyday life through my first Whole30 and I am so excited to start my next one.

The group that have committed to joining me this time is a pretty good mix of foodies. There are a few people who have done the Whole30 at least once, and a few who are paleo vets. There are also a few who are totally new to the idea, other that hearing my praises. I am so excited for these newbies to take this on! I just can't wait to hear about their experiences.

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To ensure everyone's success, I have started a Facebook group where everyone can post pictures, recipes, questions, tips, links, and inspiration. We also have an Instagram hashtag #WHOLE302014FTW so we can easily post pics of our fabulous meals. I will continue pinning paleo recipes and recipes that can easily be modified to fit the Whole30 guidelines on Pinterest. I am going to create a list of my favorite recipes (a request from my aunt), and I am going to be updating on here as often as I can. Posting recipes and a weekly update just as I did last time.

I want to challenge anyone who is even a little interested in taking on a Whole30 journey that this is your time! Don't wait, just jump in! Its really not as hard as you might think it would be. Grab some friends (everyone is looking to "get healthy" this time of year!) and create a support group. Use our hashtag and follow this blog for inspiration.

I am so excited to start my Whole30 and I can't wait to make this journey with some really wonderful people.

Check out my previous Whole30 posts:
My Whole30 Journey - Week 1
My Whole30 Journey - Week 2
My Whole30 Journey - Week 3
My Whole30 Journey - Week 4
My Whole30 Journey - Reintroduction
My Whole30 Journey - Conclusion
My Whole30 Journey - Tips and Trickspin

My Whole30 Journey - Reintroduction

iced coffee with cream

Day 1 - Dairy

What I ate:

• A splash of cream in my coffee - it was good, but honestly I like coconut milk in coffee. I don't think I will go back to cream unless that is the only option
• Two spoonfuls of plain Greek yogurt over peaches - again, good but I like coconut milk.
• Three slices of cheese with turkey roll-ups - this was more what I had been missing.
• Small amount of mozzarella with dinner - yup! I missed cheese!
• Small bowl of ice cream after dinner - holy sweetness Batman! I haven't had any kind of sweeteners in a month and that sugary ice cream was crazy! It didn't even taste that awesome. I wasn't relishing it, it was almost sickeningly sweet. 

How I felt:

Ugh! I started feeling kind of crampy in my hips and lower back, kind of like mild

contractions or PMS. My joints felt sore, I was bloated, and I got a stomach ache after the ice cream. I had a really hard time falling asleep and didn't sleep well at all. Seems like my body isn't loving the dairy or the sugar.

Day 4 - Gluten

amish friendship bread
(not actually what I ate, but I forgot to take a pic)

What I ate:

• 1/2 of a giant (seriously, bigger than my head) pancake - couldn't eat more than half.
• A few Ritz crackers through out the day - megh, take it or leave it.
• A slice of homemade wheat bread with dinner - this was pretty good, I really do love a good slice of homemade bread.

How I felt:

Honestly, gluten is what I was expecting would give me to hardest time, and I didn't notice any reaction. I felt fine on the day I introduced it and I felt fine in the days following.

grits from mallery street cafe, st. simons island, georgia

Day 7 - Non-Gluten Grains

What I ate:

• Grits with breakfast - we were in Georgia, so I had a good southern bowl of grits!
• Gluten-free bread sandwich - Udi makes a really tasty bread.
• Rice with dinner - just white rice, not to interesting. take it or leave it.

How I felt:

I was pretty much fine all day until after dinner. My fingers started to swell up about 45 minutes after dinner. It was slightly itchy and painful. I am thinking rice may not be my ticket to healthy living.

Day 10 - Legumes

SKIPPED IT! 

I don't really have any desire to reintroduce legumes into my diet. I honestly don't miss them. Not even peanut butter. 

My Whole30 Journey - Week 4

This is going to be a short post, I am still riding the high of Week 3, but I wanted to share a little of my Week 4 experiences. 

This week has been a little harder than last week. I have been more tired and have taken a few naps, but I am pretty sure that has more to do with A waking up a few times a night to feed and chasing after J all day long. 

I have noticed that my skin has been clearer. I have pretty sensitive skin and if I don't rinse my face off after eating a juicy piece of fruit then I will break out. I had a rash on my chin, it wasn't really visible but it was bumpy. It had been there for a few weeks and I couldn't figure out what it was from. That has pretty much disappeared. I also had some form of hives on my hand, again no idea where it came from, and that is gone too.

I have eaten a ton of great food on this journey. Its been amazing how rewarding real, clean, healthy food can be after you get all the crap flushed out of your system. I cannot wait to share some more recipes!

I am looking forward to the reintroduction process. I can't wait to have cheese again! I am a little worried that I won't like it anymore, so many people say that the foods they loved before don't really appeal to them after the Whole30. I really want to still love cheese, especially since that is one of the foods that is paleo approved. 

CONFESSION: I didn't actually start reading It Starts with Food until mid Week 3. I don't recommend that course of action. I read a ton of stuff from the Whole30/Whole9 website and blog, but didn't start reading the book until later. I still haven't finished it and am kind of skipping around a little to get whats important in the moment. I think the Whole30 is doable and doable successfully without reading It Starts with Food, but I think you will get a lot more out of the program and be even more successful long term if you read the book. 

That's it for now folks! 

Let me know if you are thinking about starting your own Whole30 Journey! 

Xoxo, 

Coco

My Whole 30 Journey - Week 2

This week I want to share some of my frustrations. This is not easy. Its not particularly hard, but its not easy. Its not eat whatever you want and feel awesome. Its eat really great and good for you food and feel awesome.

Excuse the  lack of makeup, I have a newborn.

I MISS CHEESE! And bread. No, but seriously, cheese.

I knew when I started my Whole 30 Journey that cheese and yogurt would be the hardest things to give up. I love cheese. One of the reasons for doing my 30 days in July was so that, when the county fair opened in August, I could eat a grilled cheese sandwich.

Side note: If you are ever in the DC Metro area in mid-August you have got to come out the the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair and go to the Big Cheese. They seriously have the BEST grilled cheese sandwich you will ever eat. EVER!

I have had so many craving this week. Chocolate (brownies, cookies, cake, bars, etc...), bread, cheese, yogurt, milk and cereal, chips, cream and sugar in my coffee, fried mozzarella sticks, rice, wine, pasta, Dr. Pepper, etc... Pretty much anything and everything not allowed on the Whole 30.

It Starts With Food by Dallas and Melissa Hartwig

I miss baking. As anyone who knows me will tell you, I love to bake. I will come up with any excuse to bake. Its Sunday afternoon, need to bake something! There is a birthday at work, need to bake something! Husband is coming home from work, need to bake something! 

Its been really hard to cut back on my baking adventures. One of the ideas of the Whole 30 is to break your bad food habits. They suggest not simply replacing regular pancakes with paleo pancakes because this isn't teaching your body good habits, its just perpetuating the old ones. Now, I will admit, I have made pancakes. I have also made muffins. They have followed the rules of the Whole 30 ingredients wise, but haven't exactly followed the rules.

One of the justifications I have given myself for baking muffins and pancakes is that I really don't like eggs and what else am I supposed to eat for breakfast? I have never liked eggs. When I was little I couldn't even be in the kitchen when someone was cooking them because I would puke. I know its gross, but that's the truth. Unless they are baked into a cake or cookies or frozen in custard, I am not interested. And don't try to change my mind, I have tried them in many different forms and flavor combinations. I don't like eggs.

While we are talking about foods that I don't like lets touch on seafood. Its gross. So is lamb, and pork (bacon and some sausages excluded) and veal, and goat and duck. Its interesting because I wouldn't say I'm a picky eater, because I love trying new flavors and ethnic dishes, and love experimenting with recipes. But maybe I am. Anyway, these dislikes have always limited my diet and even more so now that I can't supplement with grains and dairy.

One of my greatest frustrations is that I haven't been experiencing the results that I was hoping for. I am still really tired, although that could admittedly be from a lack of sleep due to the fact that I have a three week old baby. I am hungry all the time and can't seem to get enough food in my belly, again, could be from breastfeeding. My skin hasn't cleared up at all. I haven't seemed to lose any weight. I haven't weighed myself, but I haven't noticed a difference. My husband who isn't even doing the Whole 30 other than when he eats at home is losing weight. Ugh, men! 

My sister keeps saying to push through the first two weeks and it gets much much easier by the third week. Here's hoping she is right! On the bright side, its summer and the produce is wonderful! 

Leave a comment and let me know how your Whole 30 is going!

XOXO,

Coco

My Whole 30 Journey - Week 1

I grew up in a very healthy household. My mom is a little on the hippy side of life when it comes to food. The closer to the farm you can get the better. Grow it, cook it, eat it.

I grew up on whole grains and raw milk. I am very grateful that my mom didn't give into my pleas for Wonder Bread and Fruity Pebbles. (I am also grateful that I had a dad who did!) I am glad that I learned to eat and love good food.

I consider myself to be a pretty health eater. I have a brownie or a bag of chips here and there but other than that its mostly home cooked, pretty well balanced meals. I really enjoy cooking, baking and experimenting with flavors.

When I heard about the Whole 30 for the first time it was from my granola (aka, hippy) mom who is always telling me about the newest healthy food lifestyle. I love hearing about these diets and lifestyle changes, but I rarely take them all with full force.

Then my cousin did the Whole 30 and had AMAZING results! She had all kinds of medical issues (pretty much on the verge of surgery) before and now they have almost all disappeared. She has also lost about 30 pounds in 6 months, feels great and looks like she did in high school. I'm telling you, its incredible.

Since hearing about my cousin's results and after my sister started her own Whole 30 Journey, I decided to jump on the band wagon! Why not? Its only 30 days! I can do anything for 30 days. It would be great to feed my body really good food for my on postpartum recovery as well as the heath of my little newborn. Plus, I have some baby weight to get rid of.

If you haven't heard of the Whole 30, here is a little info. Basically its a cleanse. You are cleansing your body for 30 days of all the "bad stuff" and then at the end of the 30 days you are able to slowly add back in what you have been avoiding to see what your body has aversions to. You are also cleansing your eating habits and food lifestyle. You want to stop depending on food for emotional support, boredom relief, etc...

The basic rules are cut out any and all added sweeteners, alcohol, grains, legumes, dairy, soy, while potatoes, carrageenan, MSG and sulfites for 30 days. No biggy! Check out The Whole 9 Life or get the book, It Starts With Food for more information.

Here is a little of my experience and favorite meals from the first week.

Things I've learned so far:

1. EVOO and balsamic vinegar makes the best salad dressing (okay already knew this, but thought I should share), add some salt, pepper and garlic powder. Done and done!
2. Make a menu plan, seriously. It makes a huge difference in your weeks meals.
3. Make cold brewed iced coffee and freeze some coffee into ice cubes. Unless its winter.
4. Coconut milk is awesome in coffee. A.W.E.S.O.M.E.
5. Deli meat with fresh veggies makes a quick and yummy lunch.
6. Cut up a bunch of carrots and celery sticks at the start of the week and you will be more likely to grab that instead of the box of crackers in your pantry.
7. If its not in the house, you won't eat it. Or your kids won't eat it. I have gotten my almost 2 year old to eat way more veggies and fruit and way less crackers this week because we just don't have any crackers for him to eat. 
8. Clearly outline the rules, and write them down so you can seem them all the time. That way you won't forget them.
9. Eat fresh and yummy food. Try new flavors. Go to the farmers market and just get what they have and figure out how to cook it, usually they will give you suggestions.
10. Spaghetti squash is better than regular spaghetti.

I wrote the rules on a white board in my kitchen, and added little sticky notes labeled 1-30 that I can pull off at the end of the day as a little reward for checking on more day off.

I have been snapping pictures of the great food that we have been eating this week and I will post some recipes and photos pretty soon. Stay tuned!

Have you tried the Whole30? 

What tips do you have? 

What was your favorite thing to eat?