Whole 30 Meal Plan: Week 1

Here is my meal plan for my first week of Whole 30! There is no structured meal plan, so I went off the grocery list and made meals out of things I like. Now, I'm a super weird picky eater. I don't like a lot of things on the grocery list. So by the end of the month, you will definitely be able to tell which foods I love, and which foods I definitely don't like.

Also keep in mind that I'm don't have a family or husband to feed, which results in a lot of left overs, although I don't mind. My work schedule plus the drive make prepping food after I get home torturous as I am normally absolutely starving by the time I get home. I get off work at 6:15p, and my drive is about 45 minutes. Add on food prep and cooking time and I would be eating every night around eight o'clock. Now you understand my love for leftovers? Kay good. :)

My meal planning sheet is from The Joy Cottage.

Don't know what Whole 30 is? I can help with that. :)

What is Whole 30?, as well as the reasons why I'm participating... 

What is Whole 30?

As mentioned in previous posts, I have had a lot of trouble in my paleo journey as of late. Things have been busy, I've had family visiting, etc. I just haven't been on my game.

One major part of eating paleo, and eating clean in general, is making sure that you have time to grocery shop and prep. For me, this absolutely has to happen on the weekend. My work weeks are too hectic and busy to make that happen. Ideally, I'd grocery shop on Saturday & prep and cook on Sunday. Obviously people like to plan things on the weekend, but I just try to work around things I have going on.

Enter Whole 30.
My friend Emily is the one who turned me onto a paleo diet when I went to visit her a few months ago, she also does Whole 30 a few times a year. When I first heard about it, it seemed like an extremely daunting task and I didn't think I would be able to do it, but now that I have fallen further and further away from paleo, the more I know I need to do a Whole 30.

What is Whole 30? Whole 30 is a thirty day program that cuts out food groups that could be having a negative impact on your health, fitness goals, and digestive system. It's essentially a reset for your body, and it's exactly what I need right now to get back on track. I have gotten all information I have from Whole 9 Life.

I decided that I wanted to be informed as possible so that I could do this 100% correctly. I put together a folder that has everything I need in it, including my calendar and weekly meal planner.

In my folder you will find:
Whole 30 Program
The Butter Manifesto
Whole 30 Shopping List
Whole 30 Meal Planning Template
Weekly Meal Planning Sheets
July 2013 Calendar

I'm super excited, and can't wait to get started on Monday! :)

Paleo Eats: Lesson Learned

Written on Thursday, May 30th, 2013. 

I've been eating mostly paleo for the past six weeks. I'll admit, I've had a few less than stellar moments. I had multiple drinks at the lake last weekend, along with some not so healthy snacks. However, in general, I've been eating whole or paleo foods. But tonight? Tonight takes the cake in all my bad eating decisions.

I wanted pizza. BAD. Like rightnow. So my mom ordered some, along with an order of breadsticks,  and had it delivered to my house. I ate the breadsticks. The entire order, along with a piece of pizza. I've learned my lesson. That fast food and my digestive system do not get along, at all. To think that I was ever possibly going to go back to the way I was eating before was an absolute joke.

Gluten and wheat are not my friends, guys.
Looks like I'll be paleo for life, which maybe isn't such a bad thing.

Paleo Eats: Weeks 3 & 4

These two weeks sucked. I definitely didn't do as well as I should've been. Today is Friday, almost my "last day" of my month of eating paleo. But, I don't feel like I dove into this experiment with as much dedication as I should've. I was sick earlier this week and craved strong tasting foods. So I had chilli cheese fries...twice. I have had more donuts than I'd like to admit. So I'm restting myself.

I've decided to tack on another month of paleo eating. However, there will be days where I just can't eat 100%  paleo. For example, I'm going on a trip to the lake on Memorial Day Weekend. I don't expect special accomodations to be made, so I will just be doing my best and making due. But other than that all my meals and snacks will be paleo.

Due to my lack of dedication, I won't be sharing my meal plans for the last two weeks because I didn't stick to them at all. My meal plan for next week will be posted on Sunday morning. :)

Happy Friday! Have a fanstatic weekend!

Paleo Eats: Week 2

Because Joshua and I were out of town for the weekend of the 27th, I didn't have a chance to prep my food for this week. That's a bad idea. If you're going paleo, make sure to set aside time to shop and prep. This week totally sucked because I didn't have achance to cook on Sunday.

I was probably paleo only about half the time, but still tried to make smart decision when I wasn't eating the way I was supposed to. If my mom wouldn't have shopped for me even though I was gone, I would've been totally, completely screwed.

I know this update was really short, but it is what it is.
Week 3 was better.

Paleo Eats: Week 1

I'm currently in my third week of eating paleo (as of May 6th). Although writing about the first few weeks of my journey isn't in "real time", I took notes.

To set it up for you, April 6th was the last day I drank soda, if I'm remembering correctly. I was lucky to have a pretty great soda quitting experience this time around. I only had three minor headaches over the first two weeks. Not too shabby. I took half a dose of Tylenol if I left a headache coming on. Note: my headaches tend to progress quickly. If I don't nip it in the bud at the first signs, I will be miserable.

I began eating paleo on April 22nd, 2013. I will be sharing my meal plans in different posts, but I warn you that the first two weeks look very similar. There were only a few recipes that I knew about without having to research.

Week 1 was pretty easy for me. I had a sugar craving during the middle of the week that was so strong, and I really just wanted to eat a cupcake. I didn't miss grains as much as I thought I would. On that Tuesday, I had beans at Chipotle on my salad. I don't think beans are paleo but I had to make the best of my situation. On Tuesdays, I go straight from work to school and sit in class until 10p. I must not've packed dinner that night. My body handled the change in my diet well. Since I tend to have a sensitive stomach, for things to go that smoothly is impressive. The rest of the week was uneventful.

The weeks are the hardest part for me. At work I have time to cook as L eats and naps through out the day. However, on the weekends I have more busy, on-the-go type days.

Lesson: Don't sweat the small stuff. Don't get discouraged if things don't go 100% right. Stuff happens sometimes. The next meal is a new beginning to make a good decision.

That weekend (the 27th & 28th) Joshua and I went out of town to go retrieve the boat to get it ready for this summer. Eating paleo whilst traveling is HARD. Even if you have access to cookware and a stove. It's even harder to find restaurants that are accommodating to primal eaters, but I did my best.

Do you think you could go paleo?