Preparing for the Whole30 (One Mother of a Day-style)

For the next month or so, many of the posts on here will be mainly based around the Whole30.  I am sorry for those who are not joining us for the Whole30 and having to read all the posts that will be irrelevant to you. I promise to still include my other fun and interesting posts in here as well. hehe. Fun and interesting? Maybe just in my opinion? I know I will be writing a post on the Liebster Award that I have been nominated for by 3 bloggers! I know, who knew people would think my  blog is interesting enough to  be nominated for something?! In all seriousness, I am very excited and flattered whenever I am nominated for a blog award, even though they are few and far between.

Okay, on with the real reason I am writing this post, to try to give you as much information as I can to prepare you for the Whole30.

My very first Whole30 was January 1, 2013 and that was how I started to follow the Paleo lifestyle. I didn’t start slowly and gradually. I went cold turkey. For me it worked the best because I needed that structure and the black and white, not the grey area. I won’t lie, the first 2-3 days I felt pretty bad. I had a headache for almost 2 days straight and didn’t fully start to feel 110% until after week 2 (around days 13-15). According to the Whole30 website, that is completely normal and that week 2 is when you really start feeling the hard work paying off.

What did I do to prepare for my FIRST WHOLE30?

RESEARCH, PLAN, PREP. RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH.  Did I mention research? You won’t believe how much time I put into preparing for my whole30. I planned out all my meals (EVERY.SINGLE.ONE.), food prepped every Sunday and wrote down every thing I ate. The food journal was for my medical issue not recommended by the Whole30 guidelines. I was trying to find what foods irritated my body, etc. I bought It Starts with Food By Dallas and Melissa Hartwig. This power couple are the masterminds behind this Whole30 program! They have given me a whole new perspective on food, that it should be nourishing your body, not breaking it down.

 

My very first Whole30 was pre-blog, so you will not find any record of this on here. I did it with a friend and we shared recipes, what we are experiencing, how our moods were changing, etc. It really helped that I had her to talk to about it.

Preparing for your Whole30:

Step 1: DO YOUR RESEARCH

Read these Whole30 articles by the people who created this program:

Whole30 program

whole30 Daily

Whole30 approved items

Whole30 Forum

 

Download and print these:

Menu Planning template

Whole30 Grocery guide

Whole30 Pantry stocking

Whole30 dining guide

Here is the link to all the downloads they have available on their site: http://whole30.com/pdf-downloads/

 

Buy these books (highly recommended):

It Starts with Food by Dallas and Melissa Hartwig

Well Fed 2 by Melissa Joulwan (mostly on her recipes in this book are Whole30-approved)

 

Step 2: Clean out your fridge, pantry, kitchen.

 

Step 3: Start Planning.

a) make a list of potential recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, post-workout snacks

               1.) 3-4 dinner ideas (enough to have leftovers)

                        2.) 1-2 lunch ideas (can always use dinner leftovers)

                                           3.) 1-2 breakfast ideas (don’t just limit to only “breakfast foods”)

                             4.) 2-4 snack options: post-workout and mid day snacks

b.) Create a meal plan

                      1.) physically write out what you are going to eat each day for each meal.

                      2.) leave room for change, things come up, life happens, have emergency meals that you can readily throw together on short notice

Step 4: Make a shopping list

a.) make a list of everything you will need for the week.

b.) stick to the list, when grocery shopping.

Step 5: Put all your planning into action: FOOD PREP

a.) Pick one day (usually a Saturday or Sunday)

b.) make a list of everything you need to  cook, prep for the week ahead.

Hope I covered everything.  I’m sure there is something I am missing but I just wanted to get this out there as soon as possible.

I have a whole30 category here on the blog that you can search through to find recipe ideas as well as on Pinterest I have many Paleo-related boards.

Make sure to read this post to get tips on food prep and meal planning.

Are you joining me and other One Mother of a Day readers on May 6th?

Don’t forget to follow me!

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