Whole30 - anyone up for it / already doing it?

[ewanhoozami]

I've been low-carbing for a few years and leaned towards paleo / primal. A Whole30 after gallbladder surgery earlier this year made me feel absolutely cracking - I lost 9lb and a lot of my digestive symptoms settled.

I've since reintroduced dairy and the occasional cake lentil and I feel like crap again so am starting anew with 30 days of clean eating.

Anyone fancy joining me for a bit of support, recipe ideas and food listing?

If you've not heard of it there's more info on the Whole30 here

It's really not as faddy as it sounds it just cuts out grains, dairy, sugar and processed nonsense for a month

B - three eggs fried in tallow
L - avocado and bresaola salad
D - kale, sweet potato and chorizo stew

snack - handful of strawberries and raspberries, a few coffees with almond milk

Wow your meals sound great! Enjoy your whole 30!

thanks yumyum :)

Although if no one else joins me in here I think I'll be eating worms. Still, I s'pose they'd be W30 compliant

Bugs defo count as paleo ;) lots of b vitamins boak

I am tempted, I feel like I need a w30 but going to wait for after school hols etc and just be as paleoey as pos- hope some other folk come along soon!

I'm quite tempted - I've been doing juicing and then a normal evening meal for the last 6 weeks but after losing 6kgs I seem to have stalled with another 4kgs to go.

I don't think I could make dh join me though so is it a hassle to make multi meals or do you family join you?

It is pretty easy to adapt for family meals esp as its salad weather at the mo! Potatoes are allowed too - in moderation. Where your dh has a portion of rice or pasta you would have extra veg - courgette spaghetti, cauliflower rice, broccoli or a sweet potato etc.

My main reason for not starting properly over the hols is I will need to have lattes to survive the hol ;)

I checked out that site yuympoppycat, but I basically need a list of meals to eat - did you figure out your eating plan for the month or just wing it?

I would entertain this but......I need cream in my coffee.... Will talk this through with my trainer at my gym though. Good luck to you, let us know how it goes for you!

There are facebook pages and blogs with pictures of meals for the month, some are linked to on old w30 mumsnet pages, I will see if I can post the links here for you guys. I always wing it as I am disorganised. I think lack of organisation and discipline around meal planning is a cause of weight gain for me though as I don't always eat enough at meals and end up grazing.

Silvernight coffee with coconut milk is fairly ok you can also cheaply make unsweetened almond milk with a blender and a nut bag. Again its eating out /having coffee in a coffee shop thats tricky so if you mainly have it at home its ok. Once you adjust (dairy takes longer than cutting out sugar/wheat for me) proper milk tastes really cowey but for some reason I always go back to it afterwards

general eating guide

2 week plan

what is this nut bag of which you speak, yumyum? I dare not google

Unsweetened almond milk is only £1 per carton at Asda at the moment so I've stocked up for a while

Yesterday's food:

B - 3 egg herby omelette
L - asparagus soup
D - lamb and aubergine coconut curry with chilli and mustard-roasted kale.

I have a glut of kale in the garden at the moment. It is featuring heavily!

I'm eating paleo so I will join you if that's ok. I have lost half a stone last month.

That's bloody marvellous Amserhaf, half a stone! Do you find you're restricting the natural sugars more that paleo allows, like the fruit and carbier veg? Or are you just eating straight paleo?

Yesterday's grub here was:

B - bacon and eggs (pretty sure that the bacon wasn't "whole30 compliant" but I just can't seem to bring myself to care about that )

L - avocado and prawns in home made wasabi mayo (oof)

D - sumac and lemon chicken thighs with a big salad

several coffees with almond milk. a teaspoon or two of almond butter

Your food sounds AMAZING ewanhoozami!!

I have done paleo/primal on and off for a few years now and had great success when I stick to it but seem to keep going off track. I have been planning to do a Whole 30 in September but really feel like I could do with/would like to do it earlier but my job makes it quite hard to avoid alcohol all together, and I also have a few social events coming up in the next month so am thinking I might just do the best I can with everything else and limit drinking to just these situations (i.e. not at home or just because I feel like it!!) for now and then completely cut it out and do proper Whole 30 in September as planned.

I have a big holiday in October and really don't want to go looking or feeling like I do now so it is really crunch time for me! Need to get my exercise sorted out too so am trying to walk as much as possible, do kettlebell swings several times a week and at least one yoga class, some swimming and just generally be as active as possible.

Anyway, sorry for rambling on...glad to see this thread and hope it will keep me motivated!....suppose I might need to change my username though!! :-s

evan just looked up sumac, had never heard of it. It has a lemony tang. Im loving the sound of that so will have to find it.

I think I just make the choice each day to eat this way. I cut out dairy but I eat maple and honey. I eat medjool dates like sweeties and they are amazing, taste like caramel and definitely stop any sweet cravings. I eat almond butter and make almond butter cookies which are great for a grab breakfast when in a hurry and yummy too.

Yesterday was:-

berry roughie (a not smooth smoothie_) with strawberries, black cherries, blueberries and a banana. All the fruit is just whizzed for a second or two so it still contains most of the fibre.

omelette with mushrooms, spinach, spring onion.

handful of almonds

almond butter cookie

braised beef with sweet potato mash, butternut squash, baked cauliflower, kale, carrots, peas.

strawberries and chopped banana with a blueberry coulis poured over.

I have stopped all dairy including butter as having done research on dairy I now feel it is detrimental to human health as of course it is milk from cows teats and not meant for us but for the huge bones in cows. All those growth hormones are something we could well do without to eliminate modern day diseases. (it was quite an eye opener for me having grown up with all the Milk Marketing board marketing the White Moustache thing)

Fabulous thread! It was just what I was looking for.

I'm joining in the hope of learning some recipes, and for support when the going gets tough. I know it will be worth the effort though as I have tried this before without really knowing what I was doing and the benefits were immense. Hoping to make some long term changes this time.

I would love some help with breakfasts as I just don't have time to cook anything in the morning and I don't eat meat (fish is ok). planning on stewed rhubarb for the rest of the week. Can I sweeten it with anything? I'm going to try apple and cinnamon, but it still might be grim.

tonight I had Salmon and salad and went to aqua-aerobics for good measure.

I go on holiday in 26 days so plenty of motivation. Losing weight would be brilliant, but just feeling healthier with more energy is what I need. It's a fairly active holiday.

Have made a shopping list for tomorrow from all your brilliant suggestions so far.

Have you thought of cooking the rhubarb and giving it a quick blitz with hand blender and banana . It will be naturally sweeter. Other ideas are omelettes, boiled eggs done soft. Other fruit smoothie done roughly though. Nuts. Bacon eggs sausages, tom, mushroom.

What about a frittata packed with veg that you can make ahead and just grab a slice or two in the morning?

Smoked salmon and boiled eggs?

Or just some leftovers from the night before.

I would say you definitely need some protein and fat with that rhubarb...make a 'crumble' top with ground almonds and eat with a dollop of coconut cream or yogurt.

Or avocado with smoked salmon...

OK I am going to post the same things I always post

Breakfast ideas
coyo coconut yog maybe with some grapes and chopped nuts, you can make similar yog yourself but to be honest I am not sure it would be cheaper "All you need is young thai coconuts, lemons and probiotic capsules" ok not much needed then

Parma ham wrapped around a boiled egg with some ready washed baby leaves

Some people make chia seed porridge or museli with nuts and flaked coconut and almond milk.

Tinned mackerel with baby leaves

But basically I nearly always have scrambled eggs, takes about 1 minute in my non stick pan!

My issue is lunch as not that keen on soup or salad.

I'm currently doing the Whole 30! I was looking for a thread to join recently but couldn't find any still alive and kicking. Thank you for starting it.

I need all the help I can get. I must fess up though that in order to keep my sanity I'm doing a kind of Whole 30 Lite in the sense that I'm having sprinklings of goats or sheep's cheese on things and if I eat some rice or white potato I don't stress. I tell myself that this I better than how I ate before and it is. Have managed about ten days so far and aiming to do two months Whole 30 Lite makes up own rules.

I think white potatoes are ok on Whole 30 nowadays Really And I think that sounds pretty sensible...one of my favourite sayings is "don't let perfect be the enemy of good", which is something I need to try really hard to achieve...and why I am thinking that I would be better to try and follow Whole 30 principles from now anyway, even if I know that I will have a few drinks (and that's got to be 'worse' than a bit of cheese or rice!!) or whatever on certain occasions rather than just not bother at all until I can do it properly.

So we can be Whole 30 Lite buddies for the next month or so!

I haven't done great today because we were away all weekend and home late Sunday night and then I was working yesterday and need to shop so just really trying to make do with what is in, but have a shop being delivered tomorrow morning with lots of veg and eggs and do have some lovely organic meat in the freezer so tomorrow will definitely be better!

Today was:

B-Gluten free roll with bacon & coffee with coconut milk
L- Carrot and courgette soup made with chicken stock and some roasted chicken drumsticks
S- dark choc, 2 gluten free oatcakes with goats cheese
T-Beef stew from freezer with carrots in and peas on side (also a few of kids oven chips )

I also had some wine which was leftover from weekend and really lovely so didn't want to waste it!

Yeah, not great at all...but could have been a lot worse so not going to beat myself up about it and just going to start fresh tomorrow. Need to up my exercise again too so planning to walk on beach with dog and do kettlebell swings first thing then breakfast of scrambled egg, parma ham and avocado and will have some leftover chicken drumsticks and salad for lunch then yoga in the evening and probably soup for tea (will make chicken stock overnight in slow cooker).

And there I go rambling on again......sorry!

Panevino that's an excellent saying! I have a tendency towards all or nothing so I thought this was a better route than perfection for two weeks followed by a party bag of Doritos and a cheesecake.

My day so far has been berries and two boiled eggs for brunch; tomato soup and two chicken drumsticks for lunch (snap!); dinner when DH rocks up will be Parma ham, sun dried toms, spinach and the aforementioned goats cheese!

Glad you mentioned some gluten free grains as I think I'll have these occasionally too, if it's a choice between that and going on a mad Krispy Kreme donut binge

I'll try and get some movement in too. Kettle bells sounds impressive!