Whole30: Expectations, Experiences & Tips
Have you ever experienced low energy levels or fatigue? Brain fog or lack of focus? Chronic aches and pain? Bloating or issues with digestion? Or even just stuck in a cycle of eating foods that you know lack nutrients? These are all things that Whole30 has helped people overcome.
Whole30 is not a “diet” in the traditional sense & is not meant to be long term—it’s more a of a “reset” where you eat only real, whole foods for 30 days. Whole30 requires you to eliminate foods that could be negatively effecting your health: All sugars, both real and artificial (including honey, maple syrup, stevia, etc); Alcohol; Grains, including oats and corn; Legumes, including peanuts and soybeans; Dairy; Carrageenan, MSG or sulfites; baked goods, “junk” foods or any treats, even if they use approved ingredients. You are also asked to refrain from stepping on the scale, since the end goal is health, not specifically weight loss.
My Expectations
In January, Jake & I set out to do our first round Whole30. I went into the experience not knowing what to expect, but was hoping to see an increase in energy & find new recipes to help get me out my rut of making the same meals over & over each week. We bought the Whole30 book and jumped in head first…
My Experience
Honestly, the first few days were a lot easier than I thought they would be. I felt on top of the world thinking about how I was doing something good for my body. And then, it didn’t feel great. After about a week I started to feel a little irritable—which is totally normal for this stage in the program. My body was being starved of sugar that it had become so accustomed to feeding on. I never thought of myself as someone who consumed a lot of sugar, but it became evident that my body had definitely been relying on it for spurts of energy—like a true addiction!
The next week was exhausting. Spending time cooking a homemade meal after a full day of work was the last thing I wanted to do. I was seriously tempted to throw some Trader Joe’s Orange Chicken on the stove-top, make some rice in my rice cooker & call it a day! That’s when I was so thankful that I had planned my meals ahead of time—I’ll get to that in a bit. By about day 10 the cravings began to set in. Cravings for little snacks on the couch or after dinner cookies were what I found myself thinking about!
BUT by day 20, things got a LOT easier. I hit the “Tiger Blood” phase—where my mind was sharp, I was laser focused, had tons of energy, my morning workouts were better & I had enthusiasm each day! It was incredible. The Whole30 really encourages you to look at your results in terms of non-scale victories—not just weight loss. This Tiger Blood energy made my Whole30 feel like such a success!
What I Learned Along the Way
This was definitely a learning experience. Looking back on the moments where I thought “this is hard”, I’ve thought about the reasons why we were able to make it to day 30. My first tip: Be prepared. I would 100% recommend buying the Whole30 book & reading it at least a week before you plan to start. There is SO much information packed in it, like the science of why food impacts our bodies, meal plans, recipes and even a day-by-day guide to how you might feel each day—super helpful when you’re thinking “why do I feel like this?”
My second tip: Plan Ahead. Like, really plan. Plan everything; plan all of the things. It might be easy to say “March sounds good, I’ll start in March.” But look ahead, pull out the calendar & see what is coming up in the next month. Don’t start Whole30 if you’re going on vacation in the next 30 days or if there are big events coming up. While there’s never a “perfect time”, there are most definitely times that are better than others. For example, Jake & I adopted a brand new puppy on December 29th…and started our Whole30 on January 2nd. Bad timing. Between making meal plans, grocery shopping & prepping meals, the first week of Whole30 was overwhelming; bringing a new puppy into our house was a big added stress that made for a very emotionally exhausting week. I’m talking low-key meltdowns. It was a long week.
So yes, the first week of Whole30 is a little overwhelming. Your shopping trip will most likely look a lot different from what it does normally, even if you eat a lot of fresh produce routinely. With that being said, my third tip: don’t go into the grocery store blind. Sit down each week, grab a notebook and plan out every single meal you’ll eat for the 7 days—breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks. Take into account what you have going on & plan accordingly. Don’t start a meal that takes an hour to prep & an hour in the oven if you have plans that night. Save your recipes & then turn that full meal plan into a grocery list, looking at what each recipe calls for so there’s no surprises. We did one grocery trip a week to avoid small trips to the store, which worked really well!
Need some meal time inspiration? Here are a few of my favorite recipes from Whole30. Don’t be intimidated by long ingredient lists or instructions— promise you’ll get the hang of it! Banger Sausage & Sweet Potatoes (I usually just roasted sweet potatoes instead of making a mash), Bruschetta Chicken, Sweet Potato Hash (using a Whole30 compliant chicken sausage), No-Bean Chili, Crockpot Carnitas, Sweet Potato Sloppy Joes & this Breakfast Casserole—a life saver for hurried mornings!
My fourth tip: Read Labels & Look Up Nutrition Facts In Advance. You can’t assume that deli meat is compliant (I learned that my first shopping trip, after I took home a $12 package of sliced deli turkey, only to find it had added sugar. Yes, really.) And don’t wait until you’re standing in line at Panda Express wondering if you can eat that broccoli beef (spoiler alert: you can’t). Read every label and consult the Whole30 forums for commonly asked questions about food ingredients. If nothing else, Whole30 is extremely eye-opening when it comes to seeing how many things have added sugar or random ingredients like soy or milk for no apparent reason. You’ll become a master label reader by the end!
A Few Answered Questions
There were a couple of questions that I received while on Whole30 that I wanted to answer for you!
Question 1: Did you eat out at all on Whole30?
Yes! Jake & I reserve Sunday lunch to be our once a week that we eat out. And with so much cooking, we wanted to find a way to make it work during Whole30. The easiest places we found to eat out were Chipotle & the Whole Foods Hot Bar/Salad Bar. Chipotle even recently added a Whole30 salad bowl that has lettuce, carnitas, fajita veggies, mild salsa and guacamole—it’s endorsed by Melissa Hartwig, co-founder of Whole30. The Whole Foods hot bar is great because they list all of the ingredients on a label over each dish, so there’s so surprises when it comes to oils or added sugar in that cajun chicken. If you want more options, here’s a great list of places you can eat out on Whole30, but most require some modifications. Here’s the Whole30 guide for eating out, in terms of things to consider & questions to ask.
Question 2: What did you do for snacks?
For snacks, we did lots of fresh fruit & veggies. Apple slices, bananas, raspberries, sliced cucumbers, bell peppers. Having them pre-sliced & easy to grab was so important. Another great snack is Larabars. Here’s a list of the Whole30 compliant flavors. Our favorites were Apple Pie, Cherry Pie & Carrot Cake. Jake also really liked Epic bars, which are a Whole30 compliant jerky snack (the link is for a bulk package, but these are sold individually in stores).
Question 3: What did you order at Starbucks?
Ok are you ready for this? Black coffee. Yep. Both Starbucks’ coconut & almond milk are off-limits for Whole 30, along with their sauces & syrups. So the choices are: black coffee, iced coffee (no classic), cold brew, espresso shots or tea (unsweetened). If you make coffee at home, i hear Nutpods are a great compliant creamer!
Question 4: How expensive is it to make all the meals?
Ok, I’m not going to lie: for us, Whole30 was more expensive each week than our typical shopping trips. But, I think a lot of that has to do with our lifestyle. Over the last year, I’ve made a commitment to eat all organic food if I can, including organic & grass-fed meats, which costs extra. In addition, we had a few select items that we bought at Whole Foods—like pre-made chicken sausage & sauces—that were pretty expensive because of the convenience factor.
Additionally, keep in mind that I made every meal for 2 people (one of which is 6’4” & eats enough to feed a small city). If I were buying groceries just for myself, it obviously would have been a LOT cheaper & provided more leftovers, which would in turn be less meals to make.
So with all of that being said, for us it wasn’t a budget savvy move & is something to definitely plan for. But, when you’re on Whole30 it’s pretty hard to eat out impulsively, which could offset costs! Something to keep in mind!
Question 5: Is there a reason someone shouldn’t try Whole30?
Personally—as a non-medical professional—I think Whole30 is something everyone should do at some point in their life. It is so eye-opening when it comes to what is in our food & any emotional ties we associate with food. However, it’s probably not a great choice if you are vegan or vegetarian, since it will be hard to get protein while staying compliant.
Overall, Whole30 was such a great experience & I’m so glad we committed our month to it! Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t necessarily “easy”, but I see so many upsides to doing it.
Thanks so much for reading! And feel free to ask me any questions if I didn't answer them here!
