This weekend I completed my very first go of the Whole30 and I am here to share my thoughts, results, and best tips and tricks for anyone thinking about giving it a try! I’ve gotten a lot of questions on how I liked it, so I hope this answers some of those questions and perhaps inspires someone else looking to become healthier to give it a try!
If you are unfamiliar with what Whole30 is, you can read more about it here. Essentially it is 30 days of eating clean, whole foods. You eliminate sugar, alcohol, grains, legumes, soy, and dairy and focus on eating more protein, fruits and vegetables and of course there’s still COFFEE. It is similar to Paleo, but a little more restrictive. You also do not weigh or take measurements the entire 30 days.
Disclaimer: I am not a nutritionist, doctor, or anywhere near being an expert on health and fitness or the Whole30! This is just an honest review of my experience and a part of my story. I’m sure there are many imperfect parts, but if I can help encourage someone through this post that’s what I’m here to do!
life pre-whole 30:
My relationship with diet and exercise had been kind of a mess since Miss America, and lead to a very unhealthy relationship with food for me in 2019. Life as Miss Texas got the best of me, and I would binge diet/workout and do really great a couple of weeks, and then completely retract the next. Once summer rolled around and I moved back to Tyler, in a lot of ways I started to neglect my health. Month by month I could tell a difference in how I felt and how I looked. I knew at the start of the year I needed something to help me refresh and reset my body to get back on track. I never want to be someone who binge eats and starves myself to look a certain way. I don’t want my life to be a constant “diet” or unhealthy obsession with a number on a scale or with working out. But I do know that I want to take care of the body I have and find a healthy balance of enjoying life and caring for my body and my health. So, after a lot of research, I decided Whole30 would be a good place to start.
my thoughts:
I never thought I would be able to survive 30 days without cheese. Truly. I have eaten clean many many times in my life preparing for Miss Texas swimsuit. I know what it’s like to eat clean and eliminate sugar and carbs. However, I have never attempted to fully eliminate cheese/dairy from my diet, and it scared me. BUT we made it! And I am happy to report that it actually wasn’t all that bad! I absolutely plan on doing Whole30 again, and even when I am not officially doing the Whole30 I plan to cook more dairy-free meals.
my results:
Overall, I am SO pleased with my first round! I feel better than I have in months. While doing the Whole30 I slept better, my skin is so much clearer, and I have so much more energy now! I truly feel like a better version of myself. I was a little bit worried at the start of it all that I would be cranky and struggle to teach 5 year olds every day without the help of Coke Zero, but it proved to have the opposite effect! My energy levels are so much better, I feel fuller quicker after eating better foods, and I’ve enjoyed learning to cook new things.
I’ll be honest, I was really nervous to step on the scale Saturday morning for a lot of reasons. One reason being I didn’t want my Whole30 experience to be defined by a number on a scale, and to believe a lie that it wasn’t worth it if I didn’t lose any weight. I paid a lot of attention to how I felt most importantly, but at the same time I am someone who needed a tangible number to know how it worked for me. I did lose over 15 lbs by the end of it, and I am really proud of that. I wasn’t always consistent with working out, but I was consistent and dedicated to doing Whole30 and eating the right way. I would absolutely say it was a success for me.
my best tips and recommendations:
Buy the Whole30 book! I read/skimmed through the entire thing before starting, and it gave me such a better grasp on what exactly I was doing and more importantly the WHY behind it. Understanding foods and the ingredients in them really helped me to stay on track and stay motivated. The book has lots of great tips, gives you tangible resources to refer to, and also includes a section of recipes that I referred to many times! Also… the book can be sassy at times and I loved that part of it! 🙂
SLOW COOKER. I’ve never loved a crock pot more. After long days of teaching, it was exhausting some days to come home and cook a full meal. The days I used the slow cooker were the BEST and made life so much easier! My top Pinterest search last month was probably “Slow Cooker Whole30 Recipes!”
The air fryer was also a good friend to me!
I avoided eating out at all cost, but sometimes it’s not feasible. I ate out a handful of times when we were out of town going to Dallas and my top recommendations are Zoe’s Kitchen Chicken Kabobs + Vegetables, Chipotle Super Foods Bowl, TrueFoods Kitchen (they have a Paleo + Keto Menu!) or finding a seafood restaurant for shrimp + vegetables or a place serving breakfast and building your own omelet with lots of veggies! Eating out isn’t ideal, but preparing and researching before having to do so helps so much!
favorite recipes:
Air Fryer Sweet Potato Fries — forever and ever a lifesaver, and never failed. SO GOOD.
Slow Cooker Enchilada Chicken + Paleo Cassava Flour Tortillas (YUM!)
Dairy Free Broccoli Cheese Soup
Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Sweet Potato
favorite snacks /other food items:
Bananas
Cutie oranges
Almonds
Cashews
Hint Water: Strawberry Kiwi and Cherry flavored are my favorites!
An occasional Lara Bar
Turkey Pepperonis
Grapes
Califia Farms Almond Milk for smoothies, recipes and occasionally a splash of it in coffee— many Almond Milks are not Whole30 compliant, but Califia is!
For the month of February I plan to continue to eat mostly Whole30 compliant meals throughout the week and allow myself to enjoy Saturdays for eating out or indulging in a craving. And then when Spring rolls around I plan to do another round of Whole30 all the way through.
That’s it! If you have already done Whole30 or plan to do I’d love to hear all about it!
xx,
Madison
