Life After Whole30

Day 31 = weigh in day.
Results:
I lost 12 pounds and 1/2-2 inches just about everywhere.
Dustin lost 14 pounds and a few inches too.

We feel great! Seriously the easiest 12 pounds I've lost.  Never counted calories, points, portions, just ate when we were hungry and ate real whole delicious food. 

I'm already looking forward to our next round and implementing a lot more exercise in. 
I was much more conflicted about eating my yogurt for breakfast this morning and am not as excited for "normal" food as I was a week ago.
This next week we will be off Whole30 but I want to get back on for a few weeks starting next week.  I like this lifestyle and am happy with the results.
I still want that baby too.  I don't expect to get pregnant after one month of clean eating, so we will keep this up for a while.
We seriously loved this past month and our new relationship with food.  Let me know if you are going to start Whole30 and let me be your cheerleader!

Day 30

It's day 30.  The day 30 of Whole30.  The last day.  The finale.  Can you believe it's been a whole month? Me neither.  Let's take a look at how we closed this bad boy out. 

Breakfast was sweet potato hash browns with fried eggs and spiked monkey salad.

Lunch was a leftover Asian turkey burger, sweet potato fritter, pickle spears and Rainier cherries.

Dinner was crab cakes with smoked paprika mayo, roasted garlic artichokes, steamed baby carrots, and strawberry slices.

Thoughts on today:
This doesn't feel like the end.  And it shouldn't be! And it won't be! While we won't be doing a strict Whole30 forever, we have good habits in place that we will continue to use.  And lots of recipes that we love and will have frequently.  I still want to use good quality meat, organic produce, and stay away from processed food.  And sugar.  For the most part.  I don't want to be one of those people who says I eat super healthy ALL the time and the next thing you know, I'm shoving a doughnut in my face.   But that doesn't mean that I won't be eating an occasional sweet treat.
I won't say that doing Whole30 was super easy, but I also don't think it was that hard.  Giving up gluten for 2 months before starting this was a good start.  When I gave up gluten I was no where near ready to give up sugar or dairy.  But after a while, I knew that I could do Whole30 and while we weren't perfect, I feel like we did a pretty great job. 
We'll see how the transition to real life goes... and try to not go too crazy this weekend. :)

Day 29

Breakfast was steak and eggs with sauteed mushrooms, cashews, and strawberries.

Lunch was dijon chicken salad with cashews, pickle spears, and raspberries and peaches.

Dinner was Jaegerschnitzel (breaded pork cutlets with mushroom gravy), sweet potato fritters, steamed broccoli, and an Izze.

Thoughts on today:
It's strange fixing sweet potato hash browns tonight knowing that it's the last day tomorrow morning.  We feel great and have a good routine down. It still surprises us that even when we're super hungry, it doesn't take much to fill us up anymore.   I know things won't be exactly the same day 31 but I am excited to see how much weight we lost and to try out all the healthy habits we've gained. Maybe once this is over I will spend some time posting our favorite recipes we've had and favorite finds in our shopping. One more day!

The Final Countdown Meal Plan

ACK! Only 2 days left! Though we plan on continuing to eat this way most of the time, we will be taking a short week off to enjoy time with family and traveling.  We will try to continue making good choices, but dairy, grains, and sugar will be back in our lives this week.  Also pancakes. But good news, they will be paleo sweet potato pancakes that I SWYPO'd the other week.  Cuz that's how we roll.

Here's a look at the menu for the final countdown:

29. Pork chops, broccoli, and sweet potato fritters
30. Crab Cakes and roasted artichokes

And that's it my friends! But because I'm back in the good habit of meal planning, the rest of the week looks like this:

31. Sweet Potato Pancakes (yes, for dinner) with blueberries or cinnamon apples... or both
32. Pizza.  But homemade and gluten free. (Dustin has really missed pizza!)
33. Cinetopia 
34. Graduation
35. The Coast

Yikes, there will be a lot of temptation in there, but we will be strong for the final countdown and then do our best with this busy upcoming week and the places we're going!  Then we will probably pick up another round of Whole30 on a budget to make sure we keep this up as a new lifestyle.  And to get that baby.
Side note, yogurt will be back in my life this week and I'm kinda excited.  But this time, it's organic. :)

Day 28

The last day of Week 4!

Breakfast was an egg scramble with bacon and fresh tomato, half a grapefruit, and cashews with dried pineapple flowers.

 

 

 Lunch was leftover lemon pepper drumsticks with buffalo sauce and a side of broccoli and baby carrots.  And a cute little juicy doughnut peach for dessert. 

Every payday my boss brings in cookies for everyone and she's been bringing me in fruit instead.  This doughnut peach is from her.  She's the best.

 

During grocery shopping we got hungry so we had a Larabar for a snack.  That chocolate chip cookie smell in the produce section at Costco will kill me one of these times.  Our bakery is right next to the produce and the smell is intoxicating!

Dinner was Asian turkey burgers with lettuce and tomato, homemade sweet potato chips, and Rainier cherries.

Thoughts on today:
It's the end of week 4! Grocery shopping today was a little weird because we only have two days left of strict Whole30 and then we'll be incorporating dairy and grains (and sugar) back in.  So it was more of a normal shopping trip with yogurt and cheese in the mix with a lot of produce. BUT, we steered clear of processed food, especially junk food so we have made progress in the past 28 days!  This month really has flown by and I am a little scared for Whole30 to end but know that there is life after Whole30.  Two days left to be strong and to keep up good habits that will hopefully keep when we reach day 31.

Day 27

Breakfast was fried eggs and sliced strawberries and almonds in coconut milk.

Lunch was Italian sausage, baby carrots, and an apple with almond butter.

Dinner was lemon pepper drumsticks with buffalo sauce and sweet potato fries.

Thoughts on today: 
We are almost done! Which is great because posting daily is getting pretty old.  I'd much rather enjoy my free time spending with my honey.  Only a few days left! Staying strong until the end!

Day 26

Breakfast was chicken apple sausage, monkey salad, and half a grapefruit. 

 

Lunch was leftover dijon chicken, baby carrots, and an apple with almond butter.

 

Snack was an Upbeet Jamba Juice on the way up to Jake's graduation.

Dinner was steak with pickles, red peppers, strawberries, and watermelon.

 

 

 

Thoughts on today:
It was a busy day and we had a late dinner after the graduation but we made good choices and made it work! Life is usually busy like this so it will be a lot of work to keep this up but it will be good for us.