Have you ever done Whole30? Dave completed it last February (I made it 12 days but then had to stop because I was nursing Charlie and my milk supply went down too much) and we did it together in October. There’s no sugar-coating it (or sugar in general :P)–it is NOT easy, but for a serious health reset, it gets the job done! Our best results have been weight loss (it was the perfect way to lose the lingering five pounds of pregnancy weight, and then some), way less bloating, overall improvement in gut health, clearer skin, and increased energy. We aren’t planning to do it this year since it is kind of stressful and we don’t need that on top of Dave’s CPA studies, but since I know many people like to tackle it in January, I wanted to share some of the recipes and foods we relied on.

A little extra context if you’re not familiar with the program: it’s outlined in this book and is essentially an elimination diet that helps you identify how certain food groups specifically affect you. It’s not meant to be a lifestyle program–it’s a reset. For 30 days, you completely cut out sugar, dairy, grains, alcohol, legumes, and soy, and then reintroduce each group one by one over the following 10-13 days. There are absolutely no “cheats” allowed (even vanilla is off-limits because it technically contains alcohol) and you do slip up, even by accident, you’re supposed to start over. Like I said, not easy, but it’s only 30 days!

Here are some of the things we ate and loved:

Breakfast: Sausage Hash Brown Egg Bake (great for lunch too), Sweet Potato Apple Breakfast Bake, Pumpkin Apple Breakfast Bake, scrambled eggs with veggies, fruit bowls (usually apples, bananas, berries, almond butter, cinnamon, unsweetened coconut, and pecans)

Lunch: Leftovers!! Also, Trader Joe’s turkey burgers or chili lime chicken burgers on lettuce wraps with guacamole, salads with compliant dressing

Snacks: Sliced apples with cinnamon, sliced bananas with almond butter, compliant LaraBars (only some flavors are compliant so check the labels), almonds, pistachios, blueberries, leftover roasted vegetables

Dinner: Chicken Enchilada Soup, Crockpot White Chicken Chili, Cajun salmon (using the spice blend from this recipe)/grilled chicken/pork tenderloin with roasted vegetables, pulled pork from Costco over baked sweet potatoes with broccoli, Sausage Potato Spinach Soup (with compliant sausage and chicken broth, and subbing the cream for canned coconut milk)

Drinks: So. Much. La Croix. And good-quality coffee (we LOVE Counter Culture) with compliant almond milk.

Eating out: Possibly the hardest part of Whole30 for us is the fact that eating out is next to impossible, and that’s one of our favorite activities! The salad bar at Whole Foods is the best option since they list all their ingredients so clearly and it’s pretty easy to find compliant things. We also occasionally grabbed Chipotle carnitas (the only compliant meat there) salads with salsa and guacamole.

If you’ve completed the program, or are interested in it, I’d love to hear your tips and thoughts below!