Whole30 Week 1 Update and Meals

Whole 30, Week 1 Update

It’s Saturday…my favorite day of the week! I live for Saturdays filled with a little bit of sunshine, relaxation and productivity. I am lucky enough to have my entire family in town this weekend. My sister and almost brother-in-law are staying with us and are officially crowned as our first overnight guests in our new house! I’m sure they feel quite honored.

Moving on! Today is my 1 week marker for W30 Week 1 – cue the trumpets and confetti (but champagne would be nice if I’m being totally honest)! I feel tempted to say that everything has been rainbows and butterfly’s over here but it’s been a roller coaster of emotions and cravings. Last night was my first real struggle of temptation to sneak a small piece of cheese or morsel of bread, not to mention seeing all the Easter candy at the grocery store was pure torture. But nonetheless I’ll be the first to celebrate small victories over here and say I managed to suppress those feelings and push forward with nothing but compliant foods…minus the fact that I realized I was still chewing gum on Day 1 and 2 before nit wasn’t compliant.

FYI – If you’re wondering where this all is coming from take a glance back at last week’s post about why I’m completing this challenge and little bit more information about what the Whole30 is.

Overall, my food has been good. Surprisingly, I think I miss coffee the most! I’ve made coffee blended with almond milk, coconut oil and cinnamon but it just isn’t the same. As I go into next week I’ll do a better job at capturing pictures of meals to share with you all.

My favorites foods so far: 

• Roasted Whole Chicken: I adapted Ina Garten’s recipe just replacing the butter for olive oil to make it compliant. It was insanely delicious!
• Mashed potatoes: cube them, boil them, mash them and I added a splash or 2 of chicken stock and truffle oil. If I didn’t know they were non-dairy I wouldn’t have had a clue.
• Breakfast egg muffins: making breakfast on the go incredibly easy. Just whisk a few eggs, add your toppings (I added ground beef, tomato and bell pepper) and baked at 375 for 20-25 minutes.
• Creamy sun-dried tomato chicken: I pan-seared some chicken in coconut oil. Removed and added chicken stock, a tablespoon of coconut cream, chopped sun-dried tomatoes, Italian seasoning and tomato paste.
• Tahini tuna salad:  this was my lunch for the entire work week. 1 can of tuna (including the water) mixed with a teaspoon of tahini, cilantro, S&P & lime juice. I plaed this on a bed of lettuce and sprinkled with grapes and red onion.
• Roasted strawberries: quarter a few strawberries,  toss in melted coconut oil and balsamic vinegar and roast at 375 for 15 minutes. I topped mine with cinnamon and coconut cream.

My feelings so far:

I feel like I’ve done more complicated tasks than this but the first week has been a true tug on my emotions. Day 3 and Day 7 have been the hardest so far. Between bad and irritated moods to constantly feeling hungry it hasn’t been easy emotionally. Shout out to my wonderful husband who unfortunately gets the brunt of this and is forced to eat a majority of this food! I’m beginning to realize the frustration behind just wanting to indulge a little bit but staying on track is so important! By placing high importance on the end product is imperative to my success on this. I look forward to incorporating foods back into my diet and seeing their effects on my body (this is huge for a girl who has been dealing with IBS for the past year and a half) so I use this to curve my cravings and desire to steer off track. I’m also feeling the frustration of cooking so much. You all know I love to spend time in the kitchen but making breakfast, lunch and dinner for every day of the week is not only incredibly time consuming but exhausting.

But there have been positives too! When things are good — they’re good! I’ve stopped missing my one-a-day Diet Cokes and actually enjoy my morning green tea. I’ve begun to feel less bloated and think I’ve lost maybe a pound or two even though I haven’t checked. I don’t regret starting this journey and I’ll continue to keep it up and report back on week two next Saturday.

In the meantime, follow me on Instagram and see other things I’m cooking throughout the week! Have a great weekend.