Our Family Whole 30 journey begins - prep weekend!

This week Andrew and I are embarking on the Whole 30 and the kids, for better or worse are coming along for the ride (or at least somewhat.) If you're new to the Whole 30 read up HERE. Basically it's designed to be a short-term nutritional reset. You spend a month of focusing on eating real, whole foods and cutting out processed foods and foods that are known to irritate our bodies (think sugar, legumes, dairy and grains.) 

Why, you might ask, would any sane person want to cut those things? I'll tell you, my husband said "what is left to live for in a world without rice and pasta?" so we feel you if that's your response. I could live on bread and water and be a happy camper - or at least my brain would be happy if not my body.

Why are we doing it? 

The short answer is to establish some healthier habits, get some of the lingering bad foods out of our house for us and the kids, and to see how cutting those foods makes us feel. Everyone I've talked to who's done it has raved about how much energy they had, the mental clarity, etc.. 

Then there's the other piece about weight loss - not my motivation but it definitely happens for many people. I'm more interested in the energy piece. I've also read a lot about how folks with auto-immune disorders shouldn't eat gluten since it encourages inflammation. I've definitely scaled back on my gluten intake but am curious about whether I'll notice a difference myself. I'm always game for a little challenge/experiment!

Here's a little more about our why and our reason for including the kids in this journey: 

How are we swinging it with the kids?

I'm not forcing them to follow Whole 30. Instead we're telling them we're making this a "healthy March" and we're going to stop buying some of the less healthy treats we typically stock (think boxed mac & cheese, Campbell's soup, Hood ice cream, Oreos, etc.) My goal for them is to see if we can replace some of those lingering bad eats with some healthier ones. They've been along for the ride with me in many ways over the past 2 years. As I've cleaned up my own eating habits, I've slowly pushed them to join me. They eat very healthy in a lot of ways and love their raw veggies, fruit, etc. but they definitely still have raging sweet teeth. 

This month is about owning that I'm a big part of the problem in what they eat. I do the shopping and the cooking so if I don't like it and want it in our house, I need to stop buying it. So that's what we're doing.

One of the 3 is totally on board and is asking lots of questions about what's allowed and what's not and why. She'll probably follow it most closely. The other 2 are going to just lose their "bad" foods when I stop buying them and they'll eat what we eat supplemented with a side of pasta or rice here and there. 

We've really emphasized with them that we are NOT doing this to lose weight and that they really need to eat a lot because they're so active. So that might mean supplementing or eating school lunch or having that slice of pizza at a birthday party, and all of that is totally ok. 

Regardless, I expect some resistance when the reality sets in. Bring it on!

How are we preparing?


Well I'll tell you what we're NOT doing - binging all weekend in preparation for the foods we won't be able to eat. Yes, we're enjoying a few treats (can you say Friday night pizza?) but nothing crazy. We've both been really solid with our nutrition since coming home from vacation 2 weeks ago and are feeling good about that. No need to blow that out of the water AND make next week all the more painful as we detox from those foods.

Over the past 2 days, I some spent time reading up more on the Whole 30, finding blogs and websites that have good Whole 30 recipes and pulling them all over into a Google doc with the links.  I'm a seasoned meal planner at this point and have my repertoire of recipes that I pull from each week when I'm meal planning. This journey though is pushing me to go beyond those old reliables and instead find new grain and dairy-free options. I'm excited to try out some new recipes but also want to make sure I'm not setting myself up for 7 days a week of new meals for the next 30 days. 

Thank goodness for the internet/Pinterest!

Veggie spiralizer is on order
(no more hand-held one for me!) 

Last night I spent some time cleaning out the pantry, fridge and freezer of treats that we don't want or need in there. Part of this month is about reclaiming control over the food we buy. I've done that for me but still allow the kids to throw things in the cart that I wouldn't touch myself and this month I'd like to start being more choosey for them too. 

What's our plan for week 1?

I'm trying to simplify as much as I can. Typically I eat relatively the same thing for breakfast and snacks. Dinner changes nightly and whatever was dinner, becomes lunch the next day. I'm trying to do that as best as I can on Whole30 - the only challenge being that the egg, the staple of the Whole 30 breakfast diet, doesn't reheat all that well in some forms. Fortunately I live on egg muffins and they're Whole 30 approved so we're good!

Where I struggled, is that my as-I'm-running-out-the-door-to-work-breakfast is Shakeology. I've been drinking it every day for the past 2 years and am a diehard believer in it both for its nutritional value added and for the noticeable side benefits I get from it (clear skin, stronger hair, reduced cravings, etc.) With that said, Shakeology is not Whole 30 approved. It has trace amounts of stevia and pea protein, both of which are not Whole 30 approved and Whole 30 is focused on eating your food, not drinking it.  So I wrestled with it a little and have decided to give up my Shakeology for the month. With that said, I'm choosing to keep a shake as my breakfast since we need that convenience of grab and go on our weekdays so I'm replacing it with a veggie and fruit shake and just ignoring that eat vs. drink food rule in the name of weekday sanity.

My workout plan is staying the same - I'm doing the Master's Hammer & Chisel but following the 30 day program with the Hammer workout only. Beachbody is releasing their newest program, 22 Minute Hard Corps, this week so once that's out and on order, I'm switching to that for a bit to try it out. It's timed perfectly for me since March is a crazy busy month for us so getting in a great workout in LESS time is totally ideal. If you want to join me, check back later this week for more info on my exclusive test group kicking off on March 21st.

 And finally, the piece de resistance, my meal plan for week 1 (with a few gaps for today's meals since we're flying by the seats of our pants today as we prep for tomorrow's adventure.):