Whole30: Nearly Halfway

Tomorrow marks day 15 of our Whole30. I'm not going to lie, it has been a rough couple of weeks. Chris and I were ready to call it quits last weekend...and then I looked up the "timeline" and realized we were right on track! I didn't realize people felt lots of different emotions while doing the Whole30, but it totally makes sense. It's also cool to see that enough people have chimed in about their experiences that the timeline was able to be created. Today's post is just a quick update, including some recipes we've tried, setbacks, accidental and purposeful cheats, and thoughts moving forward.

Feelings after first half: Is it February 11th yet? Seriously, I'm counting down the days. I miss everything I can't eat. I've already started making a list and daydreaming about what I'm going to eat when this is done. I know you're not supposed to jump into ALL the crap food the day after Whole30 is done, but it's so tempting! It doesn't help that Valentine's Day is just a few short days after. The things I miss most are cheese, chocolate, cookies, any kind of bread, cereal, milk...and also being able to eat out. We've been out for breakfast but that's all we really care to try. (Though we are going out to eat later this week and it should be interesting.) I also couldn't get into my journal. I journaled for three days and then stopped. I should have kept track more because I had weird PMS symptoms last week (when I'm not expecting my menstrual cycle until next month). I was not expecting that at all. It's crazy how much diet affects bodily functions that you don't even think would that much.

Accidental and purposeful cheats: We bought freeze-dried strawberries that just had strawberries listed in the ingredients. We also bought freeze-dried peaches, thinking that it would just be peaches. Nope. We had some and then realized there was added sugar. We also made roasted potatoes last week (see bottom photo) and put seasoned salt on the potatoes, also not realizing there was sugar in it. Oops! At least we didn't put that much on. After the first week, we both felt really weak and decided to take our gummy vitamins again even though there's glucose in them. (Turns out the weakness we felt was normal for everyone doing the Whole30.) We don't have them every day but I still don't think it's allowed. We also bought calcium gummies because of the lack of dairy. Those we've been having more often and they also contain glucose. I just say YOLO to that, lol.

Greatest difficulties: Lunches and snacking. (And declining friends' offers to eat out.) For lunch, we've brought leftovers as often as possible, but it kind of gets boring to bring leftovers over and over again. We've had a couple of successful lunches: strawberry almond arugula salad with lime vinaigrette and egg salad lettuce wraps. We tried doing turkey avocado rolls but we could only eat the organic turkey slices and they were disgusting. Never again. Snacking is quite difficult because you're not really supposed to snack on the Whole30; you're supposed to eat enough filling things during meals to keep you fuller for longer. While I've significantly cut down on snacking, it's still something I do and there's not a whole lot I can eat. We did make rosemary roasted almonds and those are fine. I also nibble on pecans and fruit, like peaches or strawberries. (Strawberries are nature's potato chips, I've decided.) At home, I LOVE having a sliced green apple dipped in fresh almond butter. So. Good. Breakfast used to be difficult, but now we pretty much eat the same thing every day: scrambled eggs with avocado and grapefruit during the week and that plus bacon on the weekends. We add in leftover potatoes if there are any. (This week we are making a potato hash which sounds excellent for breakfast.)

Thoughts moving forward: I'm so happy we're nearly halfway done! I feel like these past two weeks went by relatively slowly but hopefully the next two won't be so bad. We were invited to a Super Bowl party next weekend, and that plus our one planned evening out might be the last couple of times we have to deal with making sure the food is compliant. (Thank goodness, because I hate being the person who says I'm dairy- and gluten-free when I'm not, really...) I'm eager to see how I feel by the end of it since I don't really feel that different at this point. Also, I don't see us continuing to eat like this forever even if it does help us both feel better because it is kind of expensive. We go to the store twice a week now and the gluten/dairy-free things are more expensive than the other things. I'm glad to have new favorite meals and snacks, though, like the apples and almond butter. I hope to try some more new recipes in the second half (we tried a lot in the first half!). Lastly, I hope we continue to fight the urge to quit. We almost quit many times over the past couple of weeks (the most major being last weekend when we felt so weak). We can do it! We're so close!

Top photo: lemon rosemary salmon, rosemary roasted potatoes, and sautéed garlic green beans

Middle photo: guacamole and chili "nachos" with baked russet and sweet potato chips

Bottom photo: flank steak with pineapple relish, roasted potatoes, and lemon roasted broccoli

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