Whole30: 20 Days In!

20 days in to Whole30 and I gotta say...I'm still LOVING it!  Yesterday, day 19, was my first struggle day where I was craving some good ole carb-beans-cheese Mexican food, but I stayed strong with a little help from my friends and am feeling much better today!

How did I stay strong?  I focused on all the GOOD that has come from these last 20 days.

• Down 6 pounds total
• No more bloating
• More energy than the first 10 days
• Easier to fall asleep
• Healthier skin (no more breakouts!)
• Feeling stronger overall
• Even more new foods I'm loving
• Cooking is getting faster and easier
• Our grocery bill has been just around $100 a week

All the good FAR outweighs the one night of cravings, and is so worth it to finish these last 10 days strong!!

So what's been on the meal plan?

Breakfast is still my favorite meal of the day!  Whether I'm in a hurry and quickly throw together some hashbrowns and eggs or I've got a bit more time to try something fancy, I'm definitely at my most creative in the morning.  A few days a week I do a "kitchen sink scramble", grabbing whatever I've got leftover in my fridge and making it in to a yummy omelette.  One morning when I knew I had more time I broke out my cast iron skillet and made my first ever (and SUPER delicious) egg, pesto, red pepper and squash frittata!  LOTS of variety, and LOTS of balance!

To save on time (and keep the budget low) lunches have consisted of lots of leftovers and salads.  I pick one dressing a week to make (last week was the raspberry vinaigrette) and add whatever fruits/veggies I feel like that day on top.  I'm still wanting a small snack between meals, so I grab fresh fruit, veggie sticks and dip or a Larabar when I'm on the go.

Dinner has continued to be a family affair!  My hubby and I sit down together to meal plan for the week and we've been trying to really mix it up and keep it fun.  Different proteins each night (above: chicken nuggets, bison burgers, pecan crusted salmon and curry turkey meatballs) and different veggies and sauces to play around with.

Side note - we've decided we are NOT bison people!  Too dry for us!  Those turkey curry meatballs though...amazing!

One of the most EXCITING realizations since starting Whole30 has been our LOW GROCERY BUDGET!

We honestly expected to spend more.  The plan is all fresh, quality meats, veggies and fruit...typically expensive compared to their processed food counterparts.  BUT...we eat LESS of the quality ingredients to be full and satisfied!  SO, instead of buying a frozen pizza for dinner and still being hungry an hour later and snacking on something else, we have one filling meal and are done!

Plus, because we're nervous to try and eat out and stay Whole30 compliant, we've had fun at-home date nights trying new, more time intensive meals instead of going out to dinner.  Talk about saving money (and growing our list of recipes we love in the process!!)

Our haul for 5 days of food was less than $90 one week (15 meals total) and 5 1/2 days of food (17 meals) for just $110!

My tips for staying on budget:

• PLAN AHEAD - Write out a meal plan and grocery shopping list before you go.  This has taken me about 30 minutes of planning the meals and an hour of shopping.  Then, plan things you can use for more than one meal...so if you're using pesto as a sauce for dinner one night, double the batch, buy in bulk and use the extra sauce for a meal the next day.
• MAKE IT AND FREEZE IT - I make bulk batches of sausage, sweet potatoes and chicken salad so I'll have meals for a few weeks at a time...just pull out and defrost the night before!
• SHOP THE SALES - get the fruit and veggies that are on sale that week and see what proteins you can get cheap and buy a lot and freeze it for future use
• BE WILLING TO TRY NEW THINGS - get out of that food comfort zone and try new recipes and ingredients.  For example, last night we made turkey curry meat balls with lemongrass and arrowroot...two ingredients we'd NEVER used before!

Last but not least...my workouts!  Going strong with yoga and I gotta say, this has been the BEST decision I made for my Whole30 journey.  It's keeping me centered, relieving my stress and I am feeling so STRONG.  Between the healthy foods and the challenging poses, my body is feeling longer, more flexible and leaner than ever!

10 days to go and can't wait to share my final "report"!   Have questions or interested in joining one of my upcoming groups for support on your own health and fitness journey?  Email me at shanahowellfitness@gmail.com and we'll talk!

xoxo

Whole30 Update: 10 Days In!

I've made it 1/3 of the way through my Whole30 journey and I am LOVING it, so thought I'd share how it's going with you!  The food has all been incredible (as in restaurant quality!), I haven't been hungry once and I'm already seeing some pretty awesome changes that I'd hoped to see!

• No more bloating
• Found new foods I am LOVING 
• Actually enjoying cooking (I know, I'm shocked too!)
• ZERO cravings
• A bit more energy
• WAY easier time falling asleep
• Down 5 pounds!!  (a perk, as I wasn't looking to lose weight!)

I'm calling this a HUGE win for being only 10 days in to this new way of eating.  Now given, I did eat pretty clean before, but I have cut out a lot of things that were normal for me and honestly...I haven't missed them one bit!

Things I've cut out include:

• wine (okay, maybe that one was a LITTLE tough)
• PB
• bread
• pasta
• cheese
• milk
• Kodiak cakes

The HARDEST thing to cut out was sugar...you'd be amazed what has sugar added that you wouldn't think twice about.  Mustard is a great example...why is there SUGAR in MUSTARD!?  So weird, right!?  So it's meant longer grocery shopping trips as I'm checking my labels for those sneaky sugars, soy, sulfites and other Whole30 no-no's!  I have this handy cheat-sheet saved in my photos in my phone to make shopping a bit easier:

So what HAVE I been eating???

A LOT!  SO much good stuff!  Breakfast has turned in to one of my favorite meals of the day and I'm finding all kinds of ways to not only use eggs, but add leftovers from the night before to my breakfast in fun, delicious ways.  And the best part...none of the meals have taken over 20 minutes to make!

Lunch has been leftovers a lot of days because, well, it's easy!  And I'm ALL about easy in the middle of my busy day.  My FAVORITE meal so far has been the Chicken Salad Boats.  I can make up a batch and it gives me two days worth of yummy lunches!

And dinner has been fun for ALL of us!  My hubs and son often join in on the cooking at night, and since we tend to have more time in the evenings we've tried some "fancier" meals!  It's meant buying ingredients we aren't as familiar with (tomatillos, rutabagas, ground lamb and pancetta to name a few) and using some new kitchen accessories we'd never used before (we bought our first dutch oven, cast iron skillet and immersion blender), but all the experimentation and willingness to try new things has not only shown us some new great recipes that are being added to our weekly cookbook, but brought us closer together as we learn and explore!

On Whole30 you're supposed to get to the point where you don't need snacks between your meals, but to be honest...I just really love food!  I'm not starving, but I get a bit antsy if I don't eat a little something every 3 hours, so my go-to has been veggie sticks with "Sunshine Sauce" (an amazing Whole30 creation!) and Whole30 compliant LaraBars (which are IDEAL when we're on the go running errands or hitting the zoo!)

My hubs workweek is 4 days, so here's a sample of our "work week" meal plan to give you an idea on how this has worked for us:

Day 1:

Breakfast - carnitas omelette with peppers and potatoes (carnitas was dinner the night before) 

Lunch - Chicken tuna boats w/veggies and sunshine sauce

Dinner - Shepherd's pie

Day 2:

Breakfast - Diner breakfast (two eggs, chicken sausage, sweet potatoes with peppers)

Lunch - Leftover shepherd's pie

Dinner - Spaghetti squash w/pesto, pork sausage and double roasted tomatoes

Day 3:

Breakfast - Spaghetti squash leftovers topped with two eggs, leftover sausage and spinach

Lunch - No fuss salmon cakes with veggies and berries

Dinner - Roasted roots with chicken

Day 4: 

Breakfast - Scrambled eggs breakfast tacos with quick spicy sausage and avocado

Lunch - Leftover breakfast tacos with fruit

Dinner - Jamaican salmon with mango salsa

My #1 tip for anyone wanting to do Whole30...

PLAN AHEAD!  Planning ahead has made this a breeze!  One day we spent a few hours in the kitchen while cooking dinner to prep some foods for the week ahead and it has saved SO much time during the busy week.  We made clarified butter and stored it in a covered glass container, the dip for my veggies, sausage patties for breakfast that we keep stored in the freezer until we need them and even cut up sweet potatoes and peppers and stored them diced in containers in the fridge until we needed them!

And because I've had a lot of people asking what workout I'm doing while I dive in to Whole30...I'm doing YOGA!  As my nutrition will cleanse my body these next 30 days, a little yoga will help to clear my mind!  I'm following the 3-Week Yoga Retreat the first 21 days as I am just a beginner, and then plan to dive even further into the yoga studio on my "Netflix" for workouts as I continue my practice.

Any questions about Whole30, why I'm doing it or how I'm fitting this AND workouts into my chaotic life, I'd love to hear from you!  Email me at shanahowellfitness@gmail.com or message me HERE and we'll talk more!

xoxo