Whole30 Struggle

After realizing there was miso in the marinade for the chicken recipe on Day 1 of Whole30. I vowed to pay closer attention to the ingredients in pre-made marinades from the meal delivery service. While miso is a fermented soy and great for gut health, it is not technically allowed in the spirit of Whole30. Overall, it was a good day of eating nutrient dense foods but to reap the benefits of Whole30, I added an extra day.

THE STRUGGLE IS REAL
I was going to write about preparing for Whole30, instead I’m going to tell you about the struggle you will experience if you don’t prepare. On Saturday, I picked out meals and started an order on Instacart for delivery but never put in the order because I thought I could combine intermittent fasting with Bulletproof coffee for weekday breakfast. WRONG!! I was starving by afternoon and it took all my strength not to eat all the chocolate on the snack table at work. Clearly, not enough food.

Day 1 restart went better, but I hated the elk meatloaf from the Pete’s Paleo meal. It probably would have been ok if I could put ketchup on it but microwaving plus no sauce and a new meat = no bueno. I kept trying to eat it but it was so dry, I ended up throwing it away.

When I got home, I was STARVING and before I could finish making dinner, I had to stop and eat something because I was lightheaded. I ate the saffron rice (not Whole30 compliant) and koobideh (ground beef kabob) leftovers from when my sister and I had dinner with the kids at Faz Restaurant (Mediterranean/Persian food).

I finished making dinner and had the tomato-braised turkey with zucchini and roasted cauliflower for ‘real dinner’. I was fine for a while then wanted a snack, I kept telling myself no and in hindsight could have eaten more of the dinner I made. Instead, I toasted 2 slices of oatnut bread and had that with Kerrygold grass fed butter. I was sitting the couch mentally picturing bread in the fridge taunting me to resist and in the end caved in. The bread was thrown out in the morning…ha, take that!

The biggest hurdle wasn’t eating healthy, it was the mental toughness to stop eating foods which are not Whole30 compliant. I had to throw out bread, tortillas and crackers in the pantry because if it’s in there, I’ll eat it. The best plan is to not have tempting foods in the house.

I had to make “snack foods” for when cravings strike so I don’t end up making toast or eating crackers. I made a tray of bacon to eat with breakfast, ordered kale and spinach for smoothies, brought almond butter to work to eat with apples or pears, and bought nuts to make snack packs.