Getting Ready for a Whole30

Hahaha...just realized Whole30 is publishing these exact tips in the same order. Great minds...!

Between the two of us, we're losing count of how many Whole30s we've done (but our 2015 Whole100 remains the most memorable). And we get a lot of questions about getting started, so here are our thoughts on that...

Step 1: 
Get yourself a copy of The Whole30 book or It Starts with Food if you've never read either before. There's a lot of info on the interwebz, and both of us did Whole30s  before we bought the book, but we both found reading the book gave us a nice solid foundation to build on and clarified some inconsistencies you might see on unofficial Whole30 sites. We'll often skim the book before starting a new round just for reminders and inspiration.

Step 2: 
Set up your process. Notice I didn't say set your goal. We've found that focusing on a goal just makes us frustrated that we're not there yet and if we're not closing in on the goal fast enough, we are likely to give up. When we focus on the process,  we can "win" daily instead of striving for some big win in the distant future (that may or may not be realistic even).



For us, that means establishing ground rules (which is pretty much done for you with a Whole30, but make sure you've got them down and you've made your peace with them), thinking through upcoming events and how we'll deal with them, making some public announcements/establishing support networks, and...

Step 3: 
Deal with your pantry. There are different ways to do this. Some people find it helpful to clean out their house of anything they might be tempted by. That may or may not be realistic for you and your living situation. We find that once we get into abstaining mode, we're not as bothered by other snacks around. Be honest about who you are and what you need to be successful.

But you are going to need to eat, and nothing derails a Whole30 faster than having a crazy day and then realizing you have nothing quick, easy and compliant to shove in your face.



Here are the things we keep in our house AT ALL TIMES:

• Aidells chicken Apple sausages 
• RxBars/Larabar
• Precooked potatoes 
• Prepped veggies (meaning possibly cooked but at least cleaned and chopped up)
• Fruit
• Nuts
• Eggs
• Compliant oils (avocado, olive, coconut)

Some non-essentials that just make Whole30 more enjoyable are:

• Sparkling water and kombucha
• Ghee
• Compliant bacon
• Homemade/compliant mayonnaise  (OMG, this makes the Whole30 life so much more awesome)

It helps to cook in big batches. I'll make a whole tray of chicken just with salt and then use it in several different combinations veggies potatoes and sauces. That can often make the difference between dinner in 10 minutes and dinner in 45 minutes or more.

So that's the gist of it, we'll be posting daily experiences, complaints, inspirations, and any other tips we think of on Instagram for the next month or so at least, so you'll get our thoughts real time over there and deeper thoughts over here when and if we have them...