Photo by Sven Scheuermeier
Congrats on committing to a Whole30! Too presumptuous? Are you still on the fence? Well, let's hope Part 2 of my Whole30 series will help you believe that you can do this! If you missed part 1 where I go through the basics of Whole30, you can find that here.
I get it. A Whole30 can be intimidating. And if you're anything like me, you love your food! I literally live in the mecca of incredible cuisine—the San Francisco Bay Area. I am surrounded by all things delicious from Cowgirl Creamery's life changing arsenal of mouthwatering cheeses to Tartine's world renown baked goods to Fenton's historical ice cream sundaes. I... love... food.
That said, I'll give you 7 ways that will hopefully make the Whole30 more approachable for you.
1. Keep it simple
In my opinion, one of the biggest mistakes people make when attempting Whole30 is making it too complicated. If you aren't cooking a ton now, don't kid yourself. It's not likely you'll want to go full force and cook every day of the week on Whole30. Especially during those initial days when your body is detoxing from all the sugar, gluten, and dairy it is accustomed to. You may feel sluggish, have a headache, or just feel irate. The last thing you'll want to do is cook a complex meal while you're fending off your sugar dragon and kids are pulling at your pant leg. Plan for some options to make your life easier like the hot bar at Whole Foods, Chipotle, Poke bowls with greens instead of rice, one pan meals that don't require lots of prep, make some freezer meals in advance, and so on. I also use Sunbasket for a couple meal kits a week. If you want to try it, I included a link for $40 off your first delivery.
2. Batch cook
Related to the first point, if you do decide to put in the effort to cook a "fancy" meal, double or triple the portion so you have leftovers. This will come in handy if you want to take them for lunch the next day, eat it for dinner a couple days later, freeze the remainder, or transform the leftovers into a new meal. For example, if you make a delicious meaty spaghetti sauce to eat with zoodles (zucchini noodles) one night, use the same sauce and serve it over a sweet potato with some fresh herbs a couple nights later.
3. Batch prep
If you can devote a couple hours over the weekend to prep your meals or ingredients for the week, you'll be better off. I will often times spiralize 6 or 7 zucchinis and sweet potatoes at once, store them in a freezer bag with paper towels to soak up any condensation, and throw them in the produce drawer. This makes it really quick and easy for me to sauté zoodles to eat alongside eggs for breakfast or fry up some sweet potato noodles with a Whole30 compliant pasta sauce for lunch or dinner. It also means I only have to wash my spiralizer once for the week.
Another great thing to prep is vegetables you can snack on with a Whole30 compliant dip. The Whole Sisters dump ranch is easy, super tasty, and comes in handy when you want to reach for a bag of chips. Instead I grab a bowl of celery sticks and red bell pepper slices, and eat it with ranch. I promise it's a very satisfying snack! I've also heard good things about Tessemae dressings you can find in your local Whole Foods. Always be sure to read labels when buying pre-made dressings. Many have sugar, which is a no-no for 30 days.
Also, take advantage of pre-washed, pre-cut, pre-prepared everything during this 30 days. Things like cauliflower rice, spiralized veggies, salad dressings and dips. It costs a little extra, but you likely won't be eating out as much, so might be a wash.
4. Eat more and eat more often
When you eliminate dairy and grains from your diet, you will want to eat more frequently to replace those calories. To avoid feeling hungry all day, you should plan to eat three meals and a couple snacks. You should also increase your intake of healthy fats such as olive oil, nuts, nut butter, avocado, olives, coconut, and so on.
Try to eat a protein at every meal. Proteins and fats are processed slower in your body, which will help you avoid blood sugar spikes. They will also leave you feeling satiated longer.
This is not the time to concern yourself with calories and fat intake. If you are of the camp that fat is bad, a Whole30 may be pretty rough. If you are a calorie counter, time to hang up your number crunching for the next 30 days.
5. Plan for emergencies
Keep Whole30 compliant snacks on you at all times. Nuts, seeds, packs of nut butter (no sweeteners added), compliant meat sticks like Epic or Nick's Sticks, fresh fruit, veggies, and so on. I also keep RXBars on me, but Whole30 recommends you have fruit and nut bars infrequently, if at all. Related, they recommend against dried fruits because the sugars are concentrated. One of your goals during your Whole30 should be to break your relationship with the "sugar dragon". Too many RXBars or dried fruit and you're essentially just replacing one form of sugar for another. That said, dried fruit is a better option than a Snickers bar.
6. Clear your calendar
You may remember that I mentioned I did my first Whole30 over my birthday and anniversary. While it's possible to do this, why torture yourself? Find a 30 day window that you don't have a ton going on. November and December are not ideal Whole30 months in my opinion unless you just love the challenge. For me, March seemed ideal because there aren't any big holidays or birthdays for us unless you count St. Patrick's day. Personally, I gave up pub crawls quite a few years ago. No judgement if that's still your jam!
7. Forget breakfast, lunch and dinner
This is probably one of the biggest ways to make your Whole30 easier. We have been trained for years to think of meals as eggs for breakfast, salads for lunch, roasts for dinner. Throw that out the window and just start thinking about food as food. Tired of eggs for breakfast? Have that leftover hamburger with some avocado and tomato. Too tired to cook dinner? Sauté some quick veggies and scramble with eggs. Flexibility is your friend.
In part 3, I share my Whole30 shopping list to help you better prepare as you trek through the next 30 days.
