Today is Whole30 Day 8! I started my first Whole30 challenge last Saturday. For most people, the first week on Whole30 is one of the most difficult. Luckily for me, my only major challenge was yesterday. The rest of the week has gone by fairly smoothly. If you want to learn more about what to experience during Whole30, check out the timeline of side effects. Mine didn’t really follow it, but everyone reacts differently.
I’ve put together everything I remember eating in the last week. I tried to spread my updates between social media accounts, but I definitely didn’t record all my food. Portion sizes are not included. Generally, I had 2-3 eggs, 1/2-2 apples, 1 banana, and a small handful of raisins & pistachios. If a beverage isn’t listed, I can’t recall if I drank hot tea or lime water.
Whole30 Day 1
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with bell pepper & leftover steak; hot strawberry black tea.
Lunch: Leftover chicken, bell pepper slices, Kalamata olives, raisins & pistachios, lime water.
Dinner: 1 bell pepper sliced in half to serve as a taco shell, smeared with guacamole, piled with taco-seasoned ground beef, & sprinkled with salsa; applesauce, lime water.
Challenges: I buy bottled lime juice because it’s easier than buying fresh limes every few days. I’ve been drinking lime water since July. I just add a bit of lime juice to a tall glass of water. It’s delicious! Alas, my two brands of lime juice both have preservatives not allowed on Whole30. Luckily, Dan and I found a Whole30-compliant brand of lime juice at Kroger.
Whole30 Day 2
Brunch: Scrambled egg bowl with avocado, bell pepper, & salsa; banana & almond butter; hot strawberry black tea.
Snack: Pistachios & raisins.
Dinner: Steak, potatoes, apple with almond butter, lime water.
Challenges: The night before I took my anti-anxiety medication to help me sleep, but I took it too late. I’m pretty sensitive to it, so I slept in Sunday until noon. I was so groggy when I woke up, and all I wanted to do was eat the rest of the Christmas cookies. I scrambled eggs instead. I also had a headache all day, most likely from sugar withdrawal. I was pretty groggy most of the day, but it’s hard to say if that was a side effect of sleeping 12 hours or of Whole30.
Whole30 Day 3
Breakfast: A repeat of Day 2! Scrambled egg bowl with avocado, bell pepper, & salsa; banana & almond butter; hot Constant Comment black tea.
Lunch: Stuffed bell pepper with leftover taco meat. Basically a repeat of Day 2, but I baked it instead of eating the bell pepper raw. I prefer it raw. Apple with almond butter, lime water.
Dinner: Leftover steak sauteed with mushrooms & bell peppers in a romaine lettuce wrap (i.e. fajitas), lime water.
Challenges: I experienced some bloating. Who knows if I should blame Whole30 or Crohn’s, though.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BAIzbpcrowY/?taken-by=belle_brita
Whole30 Day 4
Breakfast: “Deviled” eggs with guacamole (aka blended guacamole with the egg yolks; did not like). Banana, hot chai black tea with almond milk.
Lunch: Eggs fried over leftover fajita filling (peppers, mushrooms, steak). Raisins & pistachios, hot chai with almond milk.
Dinner: Hamburger patty with guacamole & salsa; baked sweet potato; lime water, apple.
Challenges: More bloating.
Whole30 Day 5
Breakfast: Applesauce, hot tea.
Snack: Pistachios & raisins.
Lunch/Dinner: Leftover hamburger patty with guacamole & salsa.
Challenges: I wasn’t really hungry on Day 5. I wasn’t hungry at all until about 3pm, when I ate the leftover burger. I think I snacked on carrots & bell peppers at some point during the evening.
Whole30 Day 6
https://www.instagram.com/p/BAPryUlro0E/?taken-by=belle_brita
Breakfast: Hard-boiled eggs, avocado slices, hot Constant Comment black tea lightly sweetened with apple juice. Probably some apple or banana, but I forget.
Lunch/Dinner: Leftover hamburger patty with guacamole & salsa.
Challenges: No challenges, but a win! I made fake hummus with zucchini, and it’s so incredibly yummy! I woke up hungry for breakfast, but again wasn’t hungry for more real food until the afternoon. I’m pretty sure I snacked on something at some point, but I don’t recall what.
Whole30 Day 7
Breakfast: Raisins & pistachios, banana, banana porridge with raisins, hot chai with apple juice & almond milk.
Lunch: Potato wedges, bell peppers with hummus, lime water.
Dinner: Chicken, potato wedges, lime water, apple.
Challenges: Day 7 has been my most difficult day so far. I woke up feeling completely hungover. I couldn’t drag myself out of bed until about 10:30am, and I still felt dizzy/lightheaded for another 20 minutes or so. I immediately guzzled the bottled water next to my bed. I staggered into the kitchen, grabbed a banana, the raisins, and the pistachios, and then I collapsed onto the couch. I felt a little more stable after eating the banana and some raisins & pistachios. I then prepared the rest of my breakfast, since I had started the porridge the night before.
Whole30 Week 1 Recipes
For the most part, Dan and I didn’t use any special recipes this week. Dan grilled out a fair amount of meat. I ate a ton of eggs (literally more than a dozen). I did follow two Whole30 recipes this week, though. Both of which have really enhanced my food options, so I’m really glad I tried them.
Note: I modified this slightly. I didn’t add any lemon juice, and I guesstimated the seasonings. I think this is better than than real humus.
Note: I also modified this slightly. I couldn’t find pecans at the grocery store, so I just used cashews & almonds. Instead of trying to compensate completely for the missing pecans, I upped both the cashews & the almonds by roughly 2 spoonfuls each. I also substituted 1 cup almond milk for the 2 cups coconut milk. It’s supposed to create 4 servings, but I feel like my modifications made 2 Brita-sized servings. It was really good, and I can’t wait to have the second bowl.
How are you focusing on your health this January? If you’ve done Paleo or Whole30 before, please share your recipes with me!
For the love of God and for everyone’s well-being please don’t give people “clean eating” advice because you clearly have no idea what you’re doing.
1) that’s a disturbingly high number of eggs, way too many eggs. More protein and cholesterol than anyone needs or should be consuming unless you’re looking for health issues down the road.
2) fiber-rich foods should be added to your diet very slowly. If you do it all at once – suddenly you’re eating nuts AND bananas AND apples EVERY day and little else – you’ll get bloated and experience serious discomfort and/or issues with bowel movements.
On a separate note, the way you use “aka” is incorrect, and unless your audience is deep south only, most people assume tea is hot so no need to always specify that the tea is hot.
I discussed the Whole30 diet with my gastroenterologist a few months ago. He approved it. I’ve been on a high-fiber diet since May, which my gastroenterologist put me on. I’m getting less fiber right now than I did previously because I can’t eat my high-fiber oatmeal, beans, whole grains, or FiberOne bars. Right now I’m getting less than 20g fiber per day, down from 25-30g.
Maybe you should read my post on why I ignore medical & nutritional advice from people who aren’t my doctors. http://bellebrita.com/2015/01/not-my-doctor-stop-talking/
I live in Georgia. I’m from South Carolina. A large chunk of my readers thus assume tea means both iced and sweet.
I’ve changed “aka” to “i.e.”
Please be more civil in future comments to my blog.
Brita I just wanted to let you know that I’ve taken every single one of your blog posts to mean you’re an expert AKA I can’t change my name when I get married, I have to now eat 12+ eggs a week, I have to drink hot and cold tea, and I have to wear jewelry like you do and make a capsule wardrobe. Clearly I’ve failed at life until you’ve arrived.
I MEAN WHAT THE FRENCH (and you and I can both say this!) props for being a respectful bigger person here. Side note, I have 7 chickens, we get anywhere from 5-7 eggs a day. If I lived closer I’d ship the whole lot to you. I eat 2 eggs a day for breakfast AKA 10-14/week give or take a morning I don’t make brekky. I do drink tea frequently now HOT not ICED, since I’m not from the PNW and we literally don’t see the sun from Aug. to July it can’t be iced…maybe someone from the deep PNW (does that exist?! maybe the expert above can correct me) can let me know what other beverages to try.
Much love always! Keep on keeping on! I find that those who have chronic diseases are much more in tune with their bodies than those who aren’t afflicted. It doesn’t take knowing much about you to know you’re not cocky enough to subject others to “it’s Brita’s way or the highway” nor are you dumb and looking for MORE medical issues.
SWEET BABY J this sent me into a Haugen tizzy 😉 and you know my dad so you know what that means.
Love you!
Love you too J-HAUG!
As you are unable to follow my comment policy, after I requested you comment with more civility, you have been blocked from commenting on my blog.
To other readers: Liz commented twice more with inflammatory comments that I chose to delete.
I love that a lot of your meals involve avacado/guacamole and salsa. Both things that I love! Though I’m not doing whiole30, I am trying to eat healthier in general. I think I’ll borrow some of your meals. I’m so glad you’re keeping track and recording it on your social media and blog so we can follow along. And so you can have accountability! You’re past the first week! Congrats and good luck with the rest! You can do it!
P.S. Liz Changer is a jerk and I think you handled her comment very well.
Avocado and guacamole are just so good! Plus since I’m one of the few people who should NOT lose weight following Whole30, I’ve tried to focus on healthy fats. Avocado is my favorite healthy fat! (Kalamata olives are a close second). I usually just enjoy salsa with Mexican food, but since I didn’t feel like making my own ketchup, I thought the salsa would be a nice tomato flavor with my burgers.
I definitely hope this will help me eat healthier long-term. I mainly want to curb my cheese and sugar cravings! Plus I’ve already discovered this week how often I want to eat just to eat, even though I’m not hungry. Several times I walked into my kitchen, thought of all the food allowed (that I like! yummy!), and realized that not only did I not feel like eating any of it, I wasn’t actually hungry. I think I’ve been snacking unnecessarily in the past without even realizing it, especially since my snacks were generally healthy, like cheese and whole grain crackers or a handful of peanuts.
Thanks for the support! This is not easy to do all alone. (And it took all of my self-control not to write a snippy response to Liz Changer. I figured what I wrote would still be helpful to other readers).
It’s pretty interesting how much of an impact sugar has on our diet, to the point where you would feel so bad just for removing it from your diet!
Also, WOW people get feisty over someone else’s diet choices, don’t they?
Yeah, I think I had it fairly easy since the timeline of expected reactions includes headaches for longer! I’ve cut way back on my sugar consumption over the last few years,* but it’s amazing how much sugar is added to pre-packaged food. It’s in everything! I had a pretty good diet before starting this, which is why I think I haven’t had as many negative physical responses.
And yeah, they do. I mentioned my Crohn’s several time in this post. It’s an insult to my intelligence to assume I hadn’t consulted my doctor before starting this diet.
*When I was still very sick and never hungry, I still ate a fair amount of candy. Part of me wonders if that was somehow my body’s only way of getting regular calories, since nothing else was “empty calories” for me. I couldn’t snack on anything else unless I was actually hungry.
So excited to be going “along” this journey with you 🙂 And seriously, kudos to you for how you handled a negative response. Funny thing, I never thought you were dishing out “advice” as she called it, you’re simply recapping your experience. Some people…
And for real. Avocados are the best.
I’ve appreciated the paleo resources you’ve shared with me! I’ve been holding off on trying anything too fancy. I want to see how long I can go with the basics before I get bored.
I might have four avocados ripening on my counter… I stocked up on a few supplies at Nam Dae Mun since much of their produce/meat is cheaper than at Kroger. None of their avocados were ripe yet, but I figured I could stockpile them, since I’m eating 1/2-1 avocado a day!
Also, yeah, I thought the title alone made it clear this is a recap of my own experiences… Don’t the words “my” and “recap” give it away?! 😉
That no bean hummas sounds amazing!!
I promise it’s even better than real hummus! Easy to make too. The only ever-so-slightly time-consuming part is peeling & chopping the zucchini.
All the avocados in this sound deliciously yummy. I would happily eat avocados everyday, though I’ve found it a little hard to get ones that are actually good and not deplorably bruised here. I had an egg and potato scramble topped with avocado for lunch today so I am very happy. 🙂 Bell peppers, on the other hand, are probably my least favorite vegetable in existence–anything but bell peppers!
You don’t like bell peppers?! They’re so good!
Avocado has definitely grown on me over the last decade. I first developed a taste for guacamole, but it took awhile for me to like regular avocado too.
Great list! I’ve been thinking of giving something like this a try. It seems like your experience has been challenging, but manageable, and your meals sound DELICIOUS.
Plus now I’m halfway done! I feel like Whole30 is a really great challenge even if you’re not able to follow it perfectly. While I understand an elimination diet can help people find food sensitivities, that’s not my primary concern. So far I’m thrilled with my fewer cravings for cheese and for sugar. 😀
Where do you find tahini for the hummus? I’m looking forward to seeing more of your whole30 journey!
I found it in the “health food” section at Kroger with the alternative nut butters. I got my almond butter there too.