Whole 30

[InanimateCarbonRod]

I'm going to do the Whole 30 challenge starting on the 1st of February. Anyone interested in joining in?

For those who don't know what Whole 30 is I'll give the links:

whole30.com/

A brief synopsis is that you basically eat whole foods for all your meals for thirty days. Sugar, grains, dairy and legumes are all off the list.

For any doubters among you here are the testimonials that the whole food way is life changing:

whole30.com/2011/06/the-whole30-a-z-real-life-testimonials/

Hello everyone, mind if I lurk for a bit? I did a whole30 Jan 12-Feb 11 and felt amazing for it. I've lost loads of weight (I started with dropping sugar last September and the BIWI's boot camp before Christmas, lost around 27lbs in total!) and my migraines have all but disappeared.

I've tried reintroducing a bit of dairy but have come to the conclusion that it makes me feel nauseous. I've also realised that paleoed desserts are an impossible area for me as I just can't stop (made raw chocolate brownies today and have already scarfed loads).

I've also developed a real interest in making my own stocks and improving the nutrient density of my food, and am loving listening to paleo podcasts and learning more. I'm umming and ahing about next steps - another whole30? A 21-day primal challenge? I want to look at health in the round and start looking at things like exercise, stress and sleep.

Would love to hang around and chat!

Come and share your tips and recipes! I have egg-overload and don't want to see another one ever.

Have you seen The Clothes Make the Girl and her awesome week by week guide to cooking and eating a great whole30? It's great for getting you to have more veg. All her posts here. I especially like her silky gingered zucchini soup.

I do a lot of joints in my slow cooker for easy stews, and always have a lot of either chilli or bolognese in the fridge to eat with veg.

Oh, and my favourite packed lunch is cold hm burgers with guacamole. Recipes from Nom Nom Paleo (her iPad app is superb if you don't have it).

Hi Tankusian - well done on your whole 30! I am doing T25 at the moment for exercise and there is a nice little group on the exercise section.

Harry that Nandos salad sounds disappointing but at least that prob means it was legit :( I went to chiquitos (sp ?) yesterday with the children (we had one of those bowling and movies days.) and had the most yum sweet potato fries ever so I think there must have been some cheat stuff in there that's not allowed.

Had broccolli cooked with leftover chicken and stock for breakfast. The stock pretty much evaporated in cooking and it was a nice breakfast but obviously time consuming.

I think I am slowly getting used to black tea now

So today I found out that Brunswick ham is w30 compliant! I now have 5 slices in the fridge ready to go :)

Anyone else fed up? I'm absolutely shattered, felt hungry all afternoon even after the ham, my skin is still a mess and I'm surrounded by cake for DH's birthday, DN's birthday and DS's birthday. DH came home and suggested we order Indian

Harry you have done amazingly sticking with it so faithfully, don't give up. I have def cheated a tiny bit (by eating out - 1 glass of wine and foods that seem ok but pos not in reality with regards to oil and pos sugar) so cant really claim a whole 30. At least one of us must succeed at this!!

I felt much more tired last time I did this (and I was 100% strict until I fell at the last hurdle) so maybe its one of those things that your body gets used to. I am finding exercise possibly helps with tiredness.

The other thing is eggs and chicken can make people feel tired, if your interested I can find links.

I think skin can take time, my redness has def gone down when I applied benetint/pinch your cheeks today I could actually see it for the first time in ages) and dp thinks my arms are less bumpy, but my nose is a little bit spotty! maybe an omega 3 supplement would help? paleoista.com/news/are-you-paleo-and-still-not-seeing-the-clear-skin-you-want/

Thanks yum, that link is quite helpful. I've been eating quite a lot of nuts and seeds to so I'll think about how I could swap those out for something else. I've found it really hard to eat enough calories and nuts were helping with that!

Apparently I've also cheated a couple of times as I didn't realise until yesterday that peas were out. I also had a glass of orange juice with my meal out on Tuesday, but it was freshly-squeezed with all the bits so it doesn't count AFAIC

Tanukisan Thanks for your post and the links. I am trying to eat paleo/primal but there doesn't seem many long lasting/current threads for it.

Harry I think I might need to give nuts a miss next week too as I haven't lost any weight this week even though I have been pretty careful.

I got a protein pot from pret today for £1.50, it has 2 hard boiled eggs and some spinach. For after whole 30 they also do a pot of dairy free coconut yog with candied pecans and flakes of coconut!

You mean you're weighing yourself between start and finish?! The protein pot sounds very reasonably priced for Pret, shame I don't have one near me.

I had this for tea. Very nice but I'd use a less fatty cut next time.

We had corned beef hash for tea tonight. It's adapted from the Delia recipe but I use sweet potatoes instead of white ones, and make my own Worcestershire sauce with whole 30 compliant ingredients. It is absolutely delicious - really moreish!

I have a whole 30 board on Pinterest - if anyone's interested, PM me and I'll tell you my name on there :).

Oh no I lost my post!

Harry only 5 days to go!!!

Tankusian can you PM me please, I am intrigued that corned beef can be delish

Hi everyone so really pissed off with myself haven't started whole 30 properly yet!!! Woke up last Monday after the migraine from hell DH brought me a cup of tea with milk and I completely forgot I was supposed to start whole 30, anyway ended up being ill till Thursday so decided to take it easy and just eat as well as I could, I've been doing mostly ok but have been eating yogurt, rice and milk in my tea. Today has been a really bad day and a real eye opener, I couldn't be bothered this morning and had gluten free cereal and milk for breakfast and was starving within an hour I've been eating eggs, asparagus and tomatoes followed by Greek yogurt and chia seeds for last week and I've not snacked at all. Was also feeling a little queasy with an upset stomach maybe it was a diary and sugar overload?
Well done everyone for keeping it up. Im so rubbish at it!!

Yes please Tanukisan, I'll PM you.

My w30 is supposed to run until Sunday but I'm probably stopping on Saturday as we're visiting my grandma and I would hate to make her worry about it.

This evening I made some delicious lamb burgers from Ainsley Harriot's Olympic Cookbook. Really easy too:

Mix 500g lamb, a finely chopped red onion, 1 tsp cumin, chopped mint and a sprinkle of dried parsley in a bowl, then shape into 4 burgers, brush with olive oil and grill for 5 minutes on each side. I served them with beef tomato slices and Jamie Oliver's homemade potato wedges.

X-post ELR. Bad luck about the headache :( I've found breakfast the most difficult to plan. I have to get two small DC ready, delivered to nursery/breakfast club and then get myself to work so it's not really practical to treat it as 'meal 1'. My go-to breakfasts have been:

• avocado, banana and some sort of protein: nuts/Brunswick ham/egg
• yumyum's Coyo yoghurt with pomegranate seeds, banana, blueberries and a handful of mixed seeds.

Hope your ok ELR. Giving up dairy is hard and takes longer than wheat withdrawals for me but I am totally used to black tea now (not coffee though so have just stopped having it but will have this occasionally post w30)

Your breakfasts sound lovely Harry My go to is scrambled eggs with coconut oil in my ikea non stick frying pan (so quick and just needs a thorough wipe with kitchen paper) and some bagged organic washed baby leaves.

How do you feel now w30 is nearly finished? I feel like I should continue as i am (imperfect but more or less compliant) but I want to lose weight so not sure how to make that happen quicker! I do have a mini crunchie and a really really small pack of minstrels that have been waiting in the fridge for weeks for me to finish though....

I wonder if any of the others have kept it up and been too busy to post - updates would be fab if anyone is lurking!

Ok ladies - I weighed myself (I know, I know). 5kg GONE!!!

I feel fantastic. I feel light and airy. All the heavy fatigue is gone gone and gone.

I'm not going to reintroduce any dairy or meat because I really believe that digesting meat made my GI system sluggish and over taxed. Seriously TMI but I'm pooping 4 times a day. I've no recollection of doing that before. So I'm somewhat Vegan now. I'm eating eggs but they are from our local community farm hens. I help look after them so I know that they're happy and healthy, fed good food and have loads of room.

How is everyone feeling?

Wow Ianimate, that's amazing! I can't even imagine how you could do this without meat, do tell.

I'm excited to do measurements on Saturday morning. I haven't got anything big planned but will eat what I'm given at my grandma's do and I have a slice of each birthday cake in the freezer :o

I feel fine, just wondering what to do next. I've got around 6kg to lose and ideally keep off. This is my last week of the 30 Day Shred too so I've got No More Trouble Zones to start next week. DH is going to start seeing a personal trainer once a week who will do a nutrition plan for him so I suppose I'll be basing meals around that.

Ooh yes well done Inanimate that's fab! I am really interested in what you were eating too.

Good plan Harry. Have fun at your grans. We should do a sat am weigh in?

Sounds good. I'll be plucking my eyebrows and breathing in :o

... but in all seriousness I think my hair is due for a trim ....

Wow inanimated that's fab.
Everyone else please stay on the thread it's really good to read, I've been eating really nice breakfasts scrambled eggs with half a bag of watercress and smoked salmon (prob not allowed) with coconut water and berry smoothies and it's keeping me full till lunch. Then I've been having homemade soups, bacon and avocado salads with the occasional oat cake then either grilled chicken or fish with veg and sweet potato wedges. Snacks have been a few nuts, and the odd date, Ive still been having my tea with milk but I'm getting there it's just the odd oat cake and the milk in my tea I need to eliminate so will try that next week. I tried tea with coconut milk and it wasn't too bad but made me feel a bit sick!

Funnily enough, I do have a haircut booked early tomorrow morning:o

It sounds like you're doing really well ELR. I couldn't find smoked salmon or bacon that hadn't been cited in sugar so you're right, that will have to go.

Sainsburys smoked salmon is sugar free!!!

No way Harry (contemplates cutting own hair using ponytail method)

Should we start a new thread to see if people doing similar diets but not just whole 30 want to join in? What could we call it? 'Cutting Out Processed food/Whole 30/ clean eating/primal/ vegan etc' ... not the most inspiring title is it