Our Whole30 ((what we ate))

I had been hearing about Whole30 from my internet friends for about six months. I was curious and started doing some research searching Pinterest for the details on the mysterious diet that had people raving. As I read, it made sense and I wanted to know more.

After a long December of one sickness after another, I started to plan how I could get my husband on board. It turns out, he didn't need much convincing. We bought the book, It Starts with Food and he was very interested, as someone who had been diagnosed with Type I diabetes as an adult.

Our first Whole30 started on January 4.

We prepped the kitchen, by cleaning out the pantry. We literally boxed up almost everything the diet does not allow -anything processed, containing refined sugar, grains or dairy. By removing the temptations from the pantry, we were setting ourselves up for success. The only exception was leaving a portion of the shelf for our 18 month old's animal crackers, cheerios and veggie sticks.

So, what did we actually eat?

Breakfast is my favorite meal and I was a bit worried about getting sick of eggs, but I can honestly say I did not get tired of them. We had fried eggs, cooked greens, roasted potatoes, sausage/sweet potato/broccoli casserole, eggs topped with salsa, proscuitto and eggs, brussels sprout breakfast hash, scrambled eggs, sweet potato hash and the list goes on. My favorite breakfast recipes we used were:
brussels sprout breakfast hash
sausage and sweet potato casserole

Lunch was always a bit more tricky, since we both work full-time. Planning ahead is key in the Whole30 (I will talk more about that in my next post). We ate a lot of tuna salad made with homemade mayo and soups, along with dinner leftovers. My favorite lunches included
healing chicken noodle soup
avocado chicken salad (not pictured)

Dinners were my favorite. We had a great variety, from fish on weekends to crock pot prepared meals on weeknights, there were so many great recipes to try! My favorite meals were:
butter chicken (skip the flour) over riced cauliflower
crispy buffalo chicken wings and homemade ranch dressing (on Super Bowl Sunday)
meatballs over steamed broccoli slaw

I'm happy to say, we made it through January free of sickness. My husband saw the most drastic changes within days of starting Whole30; he was using less than HALF his daily insulin by the third day of the diet. We both lost a little weight (I'm kicking myself for not taking our measurements at the start) and feel great.

I'll be back later this week with a rundown of our grocery staples and food prep tips!