Whole30 Week 1

Follow along with my Whole30 journey! I’m sharing a day-by-day recap for week one, plus some tips and tricks I’m learning along the way. 

I’ve been wanting to do a round of Whole30 for quite some time now. I first heard about it when researching the Paleo diet and I really liked the concept of it. Basically you’re just eating real food – nothing processed! No grains, dairy, sugar, or alcohol. Don’t be discouraged by hearing that – it’s only 30 days!

Once I got Kyle on board, we set a date and are now done with week 1. I thought it would be fun to share our experience each week, plus meal ideas and recipes!

Before I get to what we ate and how we felt, I want to share a few tips that will be helpful if you’re thinking of trying Whole30

Research, Research, Research!

In order to start out strong and be successful, you need to know what to expect. The Whole30 website is full of information and there is even a handy shopping list so you know exactly what to buy. There are also tons of testimonials and blog posts on what to expect. The more knowledge you have, the more successful you’ll be. 

PLAN!

Planning is probably the most important part of Whole30. You have to plan your meals in order to be successful. If you get hungry and don’t have approved foods available, that’s when you’ll be most likely to cheat. Plan out breakfast, lunch, and dinner for every single day. Also come up with snack ideas to have on hand incase you get hungry in-between meals. If you can go with just 3 meals that’s ok and I think the program recommends that, but I’m a snacker so I always have snacks available if needed. 

Get Creative!

If you’re eating the same boring food every single day and aren’t enjoying it, you’re probably going to get sick of this really fast. Kyle told me that this first week wasn’t bad because all of the food I’ve made has been so good. I’ve been trying to come up with a lot of creative recipes so that we are excited to eat them and not think of it as “diet food”. So far it’s working! 

Here is a recap of what we ate during week one and how we felt!

Day 1:

Breakfast: Paleo Twice Baked Breakfast Sweet Potatoes  (we had these for the next 5 days)

Lunch: Butternut Squash Soup (recipe coming soon!) and a salad

Dinner: Grilled Chicken with Spaghetti Squash and Broccoli

Today was pretty easy – no cravings, but we both had headaches later in the evening. 

Day 2: 

Breakfast: see day 1

Lunch: Leftover Grilled Chicken and Butternut Squash Soup

Dinner: Chipotle Pulled Pork Lettuce Wraps

We both had headaches again today and felt a little hungry. 

Day 3:

Breakfast: see day 1

Lunch: Chipotle Pulled Pork Stuffed Potatoes (recipe coming soon!)

Dinner: Grilled Pork Chops with Kale and Apple Salad (recipe coming soon!)

Today was the worst of the first week – the cravings were strong! We were both pretty irritable and just wanted to go out and get loaded fries and drinks, but we resisted. We were both really hungry after eating dinner and just didn’t feel satisfied. We fried up two pieces of bacon and each ate one – that killed the cravings we had.

Day 4:

Breakfast: see day 1

Lunch: Chipotle Pulled Pork Stuffed Potatoes (me), Grilled Chicken and Butternut Squash Soup (Kyle)

Dinner: Whole Roasted Chicken with Gravy (made by blending up the vegetables that roasted with the chicken and the jus), Mashed Potatoes (made with chicken broth and clarified butter), and leftover kale and apple salad

Today we both felt amazing! The amount of energy I had was incredible. I couldn’t sit still and even stayed up later than I normally do because I wasn’t tired. Kyle also had a lot of energy and felt more focused/no brain fog. 

Day 5:

Breakfast: see day 1

Lunch: Leftover Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, Kale and Apple Salad (me), Leftover Chicken and Acorn Squash and Kale Soup (Kyle)

Dinner: Leftover Chicken with Gravy, Vegetable Soup (I made this with all of the leftover vegetables we had in the fridge)

Today was similar to yesterday, we both felt great and had a lot of energy!

Day 6:

Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs and Bacon 

Lunch: Leftover Vegetable Soup (me), Homemade Sausage Patty and Salad (Kyle)

Dinner: Grilled Steak, Baked Potato, Steamed Cauliflower (me), Crab Legs, Baked Potato, Acorn Squash (Kyle)

We went home to visit our parent’s for the weekend, so that’s why the meals are different! Lots of energy again, but had maybe an hour or two where all I wanted was a nap. Once that passed I felt great. I also slept like a rock the previous night. 

Day 7:

Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs and Bacon

Lunch: Bratwurst (from whole foods, all ingredients were compliant), Leftover Vegetable Soup

Dinner: Homemade Buffalo Wings – I’m typing this before we eat, so we didn’t actually eat this yet! We plan on seasoning chicken wings with salt and pepper, roasting them until crisp and then tossing them in a homemade buffalo sauce (compliant hot sauce, garlic, and clarified butter). I have celery to go along with them and I’ll make a ranch dipping sauce from this paleo mayo, some herbs and garlic. 

Today we both feel great, are full of energy, and have no cravings. 

---

I feel the first week has gone really well for us. The worst was day 3! The cravings were so strong and I really thought we were going to cheat, but the bacon saved us ?

For snacks this week we had cut up vegetables, a piece of fruit (I like apples with a little bit of almond butter), homemade beef jerky, or a few bites of whatever leftovers were in the fridge. I only snacked if I felt hungry, which was mostly during the afternoon, but some mornings I needed a snack too. 

I will come back to this post to link the recipes I have coming up this week. So wherever you see “recipe coming soon” means I haven’t shared it on the blog yet, but I will soon! 

I hope you enjoyed this post and found it helpful. I plan on doing updates each week and then a final recap with our results. 

Have you ever done Whole30? If so, did you like it? If not, do you think you’ll ever consider trying it?