whole30ish

For the month of January, Justin and I did a slightly modified version of the Whole30...which actually ended up being a Whole25 because we weren't quite ready to start on January 1st and I decided I wasn't going to carry it over to a new month. Whole30 is old news, and Justin had done it twice before. Though I had cooked for him during those months, I did not join him because I am generally skeptical of any food plan that eliminates entire food groups, plus I like food a lot and wasn't really all that interested. This time though, curiosity got the best of me and I wanted to see if I could survive it. Plus, I know that I do a lot of mindless snacking and eat too much sugar, so I wanted to see if a good reset would help and I was interested to see if I could tell a difference in how I felt if I tried to be a little more disciplined. The kids ate some of what were were eating (the main courses I made), but obviously added things like bread & oatmeal for breakfast, occasional treats and some snacks that we weren't eating.

Here were our exceptions that we set before we started, because I knew if I wanted to be successful, changing a few rules before we began would be helpful.
We allowed:
Popcorn for snacks and some corn chips (think small amounts for crunch on soups and salads, not "pig out on chips & and salsa" amounts, but I'm not going to lie, that may have happened a time or two.)
Black beans
Peanut butter
Small amounts of butter for cooking eggs since I didn't feel like making ghee.
We probably ate too many servings of fruit most days, and ate more snacks than a serious Whole30 person should, but I am still breastfeeding and didn't want to get too strict with that since I felt like the snacks I was eating were healthy ones. Anyway...while that might sound like a long list of exceptions, I still felt like eliminating dairy (all the cheese!), grain (all the bread + rice + pasta!), and sugar (in everything!!!) for more than three weeks was a major accomplishment for me. ;)

As for recipes, we stuck with a lot of simple meals and a lot of variations of similar things:
taco salad
meat & roasted potatoes
 beef stew
eggs/omelets
 baked potatoes
stir fry
sheet pan chicken & veggies
modified versions of meatloaf and sausage & kale soup from Magnolia Table.

And a few new favorite sites/instagram accounts to find recipes were:
The Real Food Dietitians 
The Defined Dish

We also ate a lot of random conglomerations of vegetables and leftovers like these chicken, carrot, green onion, cilantro wraps that were actually super yummy.

These three items were probably my favorite "flavor enhancers" or sauces. I'm not a huge sauce person, so I didn't buy any specific ketchup, BBQ sauce or make homemade ranch like I know a lot of people like.I did use these three things from Trader Joe's quite often as well as buying riced cauliflower and kale which aren't part of my usual grocery list.

I watched this video later that I thought was helpful though, so might have to try a few of these suggested items in the future (and had I known you could buy ghee for a good price, I would have probably splurged for that too.)

So...in a nutshell, here are my thoughts about the whole thing...

THE WORST PARTS:
-Missing out on enjoying food or treats with my kids (think hot chocolate and cookies and banana bread on the coziest, snowy winter days) and feeling annoyed when we were with other friends or at family gatherings where we had to eat weird food instead of the good things they were eating. In short, connecting through food and fellowship...can you tell where my affections lie? :)
-Food Prep...I feel like I normally cook a lot, but I felt like I spent even more time/energy thinking about meal planning that I normally do, which also resulted in more dishes and more time spent in the kitchen instead of somewhere else. On the flip side, though..it did force me to plan ahead and meal plan even more than usual and that was probably a positive.
-Not baking. I really love to bake and there are not a lot of recipes you can bake and eat on this plan. :) I did decide I could still bake for other people part way through the month and that actually made me hate the whole thing a little bit less even though not eating what I made was a little sad.



THE BEST PARTS:
-Breakfast...I love eggs for breakfast and regularly eat an egg sandwich almost every morning, but I was forced to up my breakfast game and can honestly say that a giant nutrient dense breakfast is my favorite thing. I will be adding sourdough toast back into the lineup, but kale with bacon is going to stick around too.
-The grocery budget...we actually spent less money this month that normal--partly because we ate out a grand total of zero times and partially because I wasn't buying a lot of things we couldn't eat (and I kept the specific Whole30 purchases to a minimum because wow..that stuff can be pricey!) and was using a lot of meat we already had in our freezer. We did buy a ton of fresh produce, but still ended up saving a little.
-Discipline! I realized that I CAN live without sugar, or more importantly, I can limit myself to a lot less and still eat good food. I made some pretty good snack plates if I do say so myself and I think that will be something that continues.
-Renewed inspiration for healthy eating...new recipes and increased excitement for cooking healthy food is definitely a win.

GENERAL THOUGHTS AND TAKE-AWAYS:
Overall, I did not notice a huge amount of difference in the way that I felt...which maybe means that I regularly feel pretty decent or maybe I made a few too many exceptions (see above) to notice all the benefits you are supposed to feel from an official Whole30. I know some people say they were much less tired than normal (I am always a little tired, but I sleep well other than when little people wake me) or that their skin was much clearer or a number of other things were a result of the way they were eating. I didn't notice great changes in any of those areas, but I didn't feel bad, either, if that makes sense and maybe had a little bit more energy? It's hard to say, really. And I think I lost a few pounds but didn't actually weigh myself at the beginning, so I'm not sure that really counts. I can say that I was not actually hungry very often, which tells me that good food is filling and satisfying. I mean, I may have made mental lists of all the food I was going to eat when it was over and craved certain things, but I was not legitimately hungry very often. :)
So, will I do it again? Probably not, but I am glad I tried it and am excited to take the whole food mentality into the future...trying to eliminate some of the extra sugar and looking for meat and vegetable based recipes that will work into our regular routine (I have been bookmarking plenty of recipes in this book and they seem more manageable now) and just more moderation in indulging in not great foods, to be sure.
That said, we'll also be going back to pizza on Friday nights and I'm feeling good about that as well. :)