Revolutionary Whole 30 Diet

My Whole 30 Journey:

So after embarking on my weight loss journey for 1.5 years realizing I was/can only lose 1 pound a month, as exciting and slow as the progress was, my mental state on weight loss and food restriction (whether that being from junk food, carbs, sugar, etc) was not following suit. About once a month I often would eat "perfect" the entire week just to binge on a Friday night on 100% junk and ruin not just any current progress but my mental state. It was a roller coaster. After one particular day of probably consuming 1,000 calories in one sitting (after eating my days worth of food) something snapped. I decided right then and there, no more. I will rid myself of this. I will not be a slave to food. I am/will not be controlled by something so inanimate, so insignificant in day-to-day life. Yes food is extremely important, but no where near where we place it in our lives. I eat to live, not live to eat. 

I am slowly working on this day in and day out. It will take many many weeks and months to slowly change this mindset. Eating healthy is about lifestyle and mindset. What is most important to you? Having one more cookie, or living a long healthy life enjoying the moment and not how you will have to burn off these calories or what to do to make up for it the next day. Life is too short to be in that destructive spiral and it truly is solely up to you. So I'm going to do something about it. I know i'm not obese now but what about 10 years down the road or when I have kids. Who will be in control? My mind or the food? Having high cholesterol issues keeps me on track to motivate me to fix this. 

So with all of this being said, on that particular day that I snapped, I decided to embark on this program called Whole 30. I IMMEDIATELY started on this "diet" from the knowledge I already had on it and ran to the bookstore to buy the book below to learn even more about not just the do's and don'ts but the science behind this lifestyle change and how to take away the key points to incorporate into the rest of your life. So the whole 30 eliminates the main inflammatory foods from your diet and basically gives your body a 30 day chance to restart. Inflammation can cause so so many problems with your health from bloating, IBS, arthritis, to Crohnes disease, to cancer. The whole 30 can help you realize with the 2 week re-introductory period after the 30 days, which food groups your body agrees with and which it doesn't. The book, It Starts with Food, helps explain more about the re-introduction phase of the foods after the 30 days. It is also a very informative book about the science behind the diet. The book, Whole 30 Day-by-Day allows you to journal your thoughts, feelings, and physical changes you have noticed day-by-day. 

So before I talk about what you can't eat/do on this 'diet', lets talk about what this diet can do for you besides reducing inflammation. This lifestyle allows your body to get rid of skin problems like acne and eczema. The whole 30 helps you find your energy again (after day 5-11), and helps insomnia. The whole 30 diets frees you from being a slave to food. It retrains not only your body but your mind too. You realize that you no longer need the junk and sugar, truly! Around day 11, I truly didn't crave sugar one bit (and I have a real addiction to that). I was so pleasantly surprised. Also, if you are having allergic reactions and can't figure out where it is coming from, this diet is PERFECT for that as most foods individuals are allergic to are part of the don't eat list.

And one of the happy side effects of the whole 30 is weight loss with the average weight loss being 10-11 pounds in the 30 days! Oh! And did I mention that you can eat however much of the whole 30 approved foods that you want!!!! You will not go hungry and you will still lose the weight! When you naturally reduce the bad carbs, sugar, etc from your diet, your body will thank you and weight loss will happen!

Guidelines of this diet:

• No alcohol
• No grains (gluten or non gluten) (this includes ALL breads, wraps, rice, pasta, quinoa, oatmeal)
• No dairy (this includes ice cream, butter, milk, yogurt, cheese, etc) (feel free to have dairy free cheeses, yogurts, and almond milk)
• No legumes (this includes hummus, edamame, beans, peanuts, peanut butter) all other nuts are ok!
• No sugar AT ALL (besides natural sugar from fruits) (this takes ALL junk food and candy out)
• No artificial sweeteners (splenda, diet drinks, aspartame, sorbitol, high fructose corn syrup etc).
• No soy in any form
• You must start over at even a nibble at one of these off limit foods. This completely skews the 2 week re-introduction phase at the end and won't give you a full reaction to the foods you add back in. Your body needs the 30 day cleanse to evaluate foods you may be allergic to.

Advice

1. Go all in. Mentally prepare and dive in, don't stop, don't give up, it's just 30 days. You've got this!
2. All the positives of this lifestyle are true! I've done this! (And I plan on doing another round of whole 30 for the month of September and next February).
3. Plan, plan, plan. Have a plan of what to say to deny the no-no foods, pack accordingly when you go on vacations, business trips, or even all day excursions. 
4. Get as much of the no-no foods out of your house. It will help mentally with your journey the first 11 days when you are weak. 
5. The first 3-5 days are TORTURE, have an accountability partner and cheerleader!
6. Make a little easy to access section of the whole 30 approved foods in your house for easy "snacking" or quick grab-and-go's (such as the picture below, sorry it's messy, our pantry is the size of a shoe box basically). 
7. Don't snack. If you do, you will be snacking all day. Trust me.
8. Don't even lick the bad foods, you won't be able to resist devouring the whole thing. 
9. Mix unsweetened coco powder in your dairy free yogurt to get your chocolate fix in!
10. You can't chew gum so have some (unsweet) tea ready (this was the most difficult part for me besides the sugar).
11. Eat lots of protein (all meats are approved (besides hot dogs and bologna). Just make sure the beef is as lean as possible and there are no added sugars (sausage). Eating a lot of protein helps you feel full especially with the large volume of vegetables. 
12. Eat more vegetables than fruit. Seriously. You lose much more weight when you do this. I learned this after the first 15 days. Limit your fruit intake to 2-3 servings a day (1 medium sized apple is a serving) (one handful of freeze dried fruit is a serving).
13. Drink lots of water to stay hydrated.
14. Still work out but not as hard. You won't need to. I still did 25 minutes of cardio mixed with weights 2-3 times a week and took walks now and then. 

My little "pantry". I have everything from Rx bars to coconut oil to fruit leather to nuts.

My refrigerator had 95% whole 30 approved foods such as my almond milk yogurts, almond milk, egg whites (I have bad cholesterol), fruits, spinach, avacado's, etc)). 

Breakfast:

To make this 30 day challenge more interesting and fun, try new foods and combinations. Grab some neat kitchen tools to help you cut and pit your avocado, grab a grapefruit saver for when you only want half of the fruit in the morning. Buy some little tablespoon/teaspoon measuring beakers to add some sciency fun to your food. Don't be afraid to eat a whole avocado in one day! Put paprika and dill flakes on your scrambled eggs! Grill your grapefruit for a sweet twist!

This is/was a typical whole 30 breakfast for me. On the second half of the 30 days I cut my fruit servings to one for breakfast and had another serving for lunch. (Notice I grilled my grapefruit in the oven for a caramelized sweet fruit)!

Here is an egg white spinach, black olive omelette with sliced avocado, sugar free almond butter, paprika, and dill flakes on top. AMAZING!!

Here is the same thing as above but in scrambled form and without the almond butter this time. The black olives were a game changer for me! 

For a sweeter breakfast twist, I took a no sugar added cup of applesauce and dumped it in a bowl. I placed cut up apples (1/2 apple), cut up apple pie larabar (1/2 bar), and no sugar added almond butter on top (1.5 tablespoons). After heating in the microwave for 1 minute, I added a good sprinkle of cinnamon on top and mixed it all up. SO GOOD. 

The banana was saved for lunch but here is another typical breakfast for me!

My day 30 breakfast celebration feast! The bag of apples were for my lunch and the tea was for after dinner. The seasonings are to show you what I used during the whole 30. And yes, that is steak. You can have ANY whole 30 approved food for breakfast that you want. Even green beans!

Lunch:

My typical lunches included an entire sweet potato with either cinnamon and dairy free yogurt mixed in or with almond butter mixed in. But sometimes I just ate it plain or in sweet potato fry form (made the night before, just sweet potatoes cut in french fry form baked in the oven with pink Himalayan salt). I would add a fruit like an apple or banana and would add a protein like a boiled egg, or tuna (in water) pack.

Dinner:

Dinners were my absolute favorite! You can do just about anything! For this particular meal I took butternut squash spirals and added a pack of tuna on top. I sometimes added plain no sugar, no salt added tomato sauce in to make a "spaghetti" dish. 

This is the "spaghetti" dish with spaghetti squash, rotisserie chicken, and tomato sauce! You do not leave hungry, trust me! In the background you will see the avocado deviled egg. I mixed the boiled egg yolk with avocado and coconut oil and re-stacked the mixture back into the egg white half. I sprinkled paprika on top for the garnish. So delicious!

A more simple dinner (which I sometimes love) is chicken baked in olive oil, green beans, and plain no sugar added almond milk. 

Eating out on the Whole 30:

While you are on the go and are at places not whole 30 friendly (a lot of places unfortunately), plan ahead and pack a chocolate sea salt Rx bar (found at Walmart and Starbucks) in your pocket. They will satisfy your hunger, can replace a meal, taste AMAZING, and have lots of protein packed in from the egg whites. Plus this is the only way to basically get 'chocolate' during your whole 30 since 99% of chocolate has either added sugar and is made with milk, aka dairy. #airportfood

These bars are delicious with their various flavors such as this apple pie bar, cherry pie, and pumpkin spice flavors. These bars are made with dates, fruit and nuts; that's it! Unfortunately there isn't many grams of protein with these bars but that's ok!

If you are eating out during the 30 days (which you will) always plan ahead and look at the menu online. Going in with a plan is so helpful. This is a lifestyle change, don't deprive the table, have the bread still come to the table, it will get easier and easier to resist because....honestly, you won't want it. Truly! At restaurants, always opt for veggie omelettes, potatoes, grilled chicken, steak, lots of veggies, salads, etc. Those are always safe bets for the whole 30. Above, this is the meal I ordered at First Watch. It has avocado, egg whites, potatoes, veggies, a fruit cut, and water. I left beyond full and lost a pound that day. Restaurants don't have to be bad! This diet almost gives you more freedom than restrictions when you learn you are not a slave to the food!

For something quick, easy, and satisfying on the run, try Smoothie King, Juice Bar, or Planet Smoothie. All three places impress me so so much. At planet smoothie I order the small planet pro veg (pea protein powder) with blueberries and apples. At Smoothie King I order the small vegan dark chocolate banana smoothie (with blueberries instead of the acai sorbet). This smoothie has unsweetened coco powder, banana, pea protein protein powder, banana, and blueberries.

At the Juice bar I get the dark chocolate, spinach, almond butter, sea salt, banana, almond milk, plant protein powder (made with pea protein) smoothie. You can't even taste the pea, seriously.

So amazing and thick!

The Smoothie King vegan coco dark chocolate banana.

For caffeine I drank unsweetened iced green tea at Starbucks. This is my favorite drink!

On my business trips I packed my luggage with these treats like the dried fruit (limit this to one serving a day), and bought this green tea drink and lightly salted dry roasted almonds at the gas station. There is always a way to eat a perfect Whole 30. You just have to know where to go and look.

Whole 30 Recipe's:

In the whole 30 diet you aren't supposed to recreate any unhealthy foods into healthier version like black bean brownies (which aren't allowed anyway because of the beans) but if you are absolutely dying on day 21 and need a way to re-connect with your spouse after a busy month (which i'm not going to lie, people connect over food), make a healthy brownie recipe. It won't kill you and it's still whole 30 approved. I did this once when I just wanted a fun baking and eating day with my hubby after a month of running around with work trips etc. 

With this avocado brownie recipe, 1 avocado, coconut oil (1 tbs), 1 small container no sugar added applesauce, 1 banana, almond butter (2 tbs), water, and unsweetened coco powder (2 tablespoons) was added to a blender and blended to a smooth brownie batter. 

The batter is added to an avaocado spray greased pan and cooked at 350 for 30 minutes. 

Once out, raisins are added for the "chocolate chips" (use your imagination) and you've got yourself an amazing dessert. Cody and I LOVED it. It actually didn't taste too different than normal brownies! Store outside the fridge in an airtight container up to 7 days.

Reintroduction Phase:

For the reintroduction phase, you slowly every 3rd day add in one of the food groups you eliminated for a day while keeping the rest of your diet whole 30. For example, below is a vegan pizza with gluten free pizza crust. I ate this amazing creation at Your Pie Pizza and added the grain category to my day while I kept the rest of my food whole 30 approved to see how the grains effected me. 

This pizza was made with gluten free crust, vegan dairy free cheese, marinara, and lots and lots of veggies. It was one of the best pizzas I had ever had!

Say vegan cheese!

And of course, preparing for this glorious day, the end of my whole 30, I had to wear my pizza earrings and socks to celebrate!

We ended the day seeing the Incredibles 2! (finally😒) (It was really good, but worth the 14+ years wait, ???? that's up for you to decide).

Progress Pictures:

                           

There is a 3 year difference between these 2 photos (left was 3 years ago at Morgan's 19th birthday inflatable 5k race (so fun)) and right was a few months ago. I can see a slight difference in weight. I would say ~10-12 pounds if I can remember correctly. 

 

               There is a three year difference between these two photos. I don't know the exact difference in weight between now (on the right) and then (on the left) but I would guess ~12-15 pounds. I love comparing my old selfies to see the weight difference in my face!

 

Two years ago on the left, to now. I can see a big difference in my opinion. Between these two photos there is a ~17 pound difference! :)  On the left we were on the last day of our honeymoon part 2 and I hadn't eaten well at all in the past month but that's 100% ok! Honeymoons aren't for dieting (that is for before)!

I love my progress and I am so incredibly proud of myself. I have been consciously trying to lose weight for almost 2 years now and I plan to keep going to prepare my body for pregnancy one day! I want to be at my healthiest weight before my first pregnancy so after my second (or third?) pregnancy, I won't be too far off of my weight now hopefully.

 In this picture above I finally feel comfortable in my own skin. I didn't feel comfortable at my previous highest weight. I love my weight now and it will keep getting better from here. In this picture above from a few months ago, I didn't worry about my stomach poking out or my face looking fat in pictures. I finally can see some collar bone and I just feel good. I have loved my whole 30 progress and how I view my body and how I eat now. I am 100% an advocate of the whole 30 lifestyle. 

I personally lost 5 pounds during the 30 days which doesn't seem like a lot but for someone who struggled immensely for 2 years to lose just ONE pound a MONTH, i'd say this is a HUGE victory. I found the solution. I plan to incorporate this diet into my lifestyle when my eating starts getting out of hand, and at least 3 times a year. I plan on incorporating this diet into my future future pregnancy (which is completely safe) and postpartum journey to avoid gestational diabetes and pre-eclampsia. It will help with breastfeeding and weight loss postpartum. I found the solution!

I have also fixed my insomnia and my MAJOR MAJOR sugar/junk food cravings. And guess what!?! I don't binge eat anymore! I have more energy and have realized I don't need carbs from breads. I feel best when I don't eat sugar and bread carbs. Dairy is still a mystery to me but I tread cautiously. I don't think about food 24/7, and I don't go to bed hungry anymore. Most importantly, I am not losing near the amount of hair on my head that I was before the whole 30 due to the natural vitamins and minerals I was getting from all of the whole foods and vegetables I wouldn't have eaten before. My hair and nails grew like CRAZY, and I wasn't bloated or sick after any meal! This diet has been incredible! I will do the whole 30 a month before my cholesterol appointment in February to see if it helps lower my overall cholesterol even more! I am so excited to see!

I hope you have enjoyed this little info on the whole 30 and my personal experience, and I hope you consider the whole 30 lifestyle!

With so much love,

Kayla Raborn

7/28/18

P.S.- My 13 pound weight loss journey before the whole 30 is described in the Weight Loss!! post here.