Let me start by saying I am NO EXPERT on diet or clean eating. If you’ve been following my posts, you know I had quite the journey getting pregnant with baby #2. I have always been fairly health conscious and tried to eat pretty “clean.” While doing research on fertility and changes I could personally make, two things kept coming up. One being toxins and chemicals you may be putting in your body. The other being your diet.
In one way I feel unqualified to write a post about this, but on the other hand, sometimes I feel like it’s great to hear from someone who’s not an expert at something. Someone who uses terms I understand. And someone who has realistic goals and doesn’t want me to turn my life upside down.
We decided to do a Whole30.
This is just what seemed to align with my goals and our needs at the time. I wanted to get rid of processed foods. Get rid of sugars. Eat real foods. Basically, on a Whole30 diet, you eat foods with a small number of ingredients, ingredients you can pronounce, or better yet, no ingredients because they’re whole and unprocessed. I thought this would be great for our family and help to reset our system. After the 30 days, our plan was to stick to a Whole30 type of diet, but not feel bad about slipping up here or there. If we ate at home, it was Whole30. If we were eating out somewhere, we didn’t mind bending the rules.
Our results…
This ended up being a PERFECT “diet” for us. It actually wasn’t too much of a change–we usually eat eggs every morning. Lunch is something easy. And dinner is a protein and a vegetable. Mainly all we had to cut out was snacking, grains, and late night treats. The goal of the diet was to reset our bodies, not necessarily to lose weight. But clearly, when you’re cutting out all of these processed foods and sugars, you are bound to lose some weight, as well. I also feel like a Whole30 allows you to learn a lot more about foods and how your body responds to them. I have since cut out most of the dairy and grains from my diet all together because I noticed such a change in energy and digestion during the month.
Here are some tips if you’re interested in having a clean diet:
+ Find some recipes you love! I loved following @whole30recipes on Instagram. Each week they have a guest who shares a bunch of their favorite recipes. I spent a few hours over a couple of days scrolling through this account and taking screen shots of my favorite recipes, and also following some of the people whose recipes I seemed to like the most. Also keep in mind, a lot of Paleo recipes are also Whole30 compliant. And of course, I used Pinterest! Spend some time on there pinning some of your favorite recipes.
+ Make sure you have a solid grocery list. Go into your store knowing what you’re looking for and what brands are compliant. A LOT of your items will come right from the produce section. Below I’ve listed out the grocery stores I shopped at, and just a few of my favorite items from each store.
+ Keep in mind this is only 30 days! After the 30 days, you’ll have some foods and recipes under your belt that you love to eat. Find a friend to do it along with you! You’ll hold yourselves accountable and be able to share with each other some of your favorites!
And now–some of my favorites!
Trader Joe’s:
- Salsa Verde (throw this in a crockpot with chicken and serve over cauliflower rice)
- Avocado’s Number Guacamole
- Cauliflower Rice (this is also super easy to make on your own at home and we did it ALL the time)
- Frozen Uncooked Ground Buffalo Burgers (great to have on hand for lunch)
- TJ’s Spicy Italian Chicken Sausage
- RX bars (great for a snack)
- Clarified Butter, Coconut Oil & Spices
- TJ’s Almond Butter (this is my FAV)
- GT’s Kombucha
Market Basket:
- Proteins–eggs, chicken, ground beef, ground turkey…just read your labels
- Produce–whatever you like! We love Brussels sprouts, spinach, kale, peppers, mushrooms
- Rao’s Homemade Spaghetti Sauce
- Frank’s Red Hot (thank goodness this is compliant, I put it on everything!)
- Aidelle’s Chicken & Apple Sausage
Some of my favorite Instagram Accounts to Follow:
- @whole30recipes
- @whole30approved
- @melissa_hartwig
- @cleaneats_cleantreats
- @wholesisters
- @nomnompaleo (look up her cracklin’ chicken, it was a fav of ours!)
