Whole30 — Week 3
On the home stretch! A lot of crazy things going on this week. I waited a couple of extra days to post because the 30 days doesn’t fall even with the blog posts. Next week my final post will be the day after I am finished.
Week Reactions
This week I think I started feeling what other Whole30 people call the “tiger blood”. I have been feeling absolutely phenomenal. I have been sleeping great, waking up with tons of energy, and my cravings have significantly decreased. Even when I am watching food shows I don’t get that usual “omg i need to eat that right now” feeling. I’m really starting to get a feel for what masked ingredients are good and bad for me from looking at so many labels these past few weeks.
The Food
For the food, I didn’t try anything too crazy this week. No slow cooker meals. Breakfast at this point is almost exclusively sweet potato hash and over easy eggs because the eggs are quick in the morning and I make a large quantity of sweet potato hash to last throughout the week. For lunch and dinner, I mostly had buffalo chicken- which I prepped a bunch at a time, and a nice multi-spice shrimp. The veggies for lunch and dinner alternated between green beans and kale. I really wanted some corn on the cob, but forgot to buy any.
The Workout
This was week was the first I was able to actually make some gains in my workout since I started Whole30 and that is super exciting for me. I had a lot of doubts about how well I would be able to bulk up or even maintain my muscle mass on a diet like this, but I think with some adjustments I could actually make it work without a lot of extra effort.
The Recipes
I have gotten a couple of requests to post some of the recipes I have been using as inspiration for my dishes. I didn’t follow any of these exactly, but they definitely inspired a lot of the stuff I made. Before I list them though, I do once again highly recommend the official Whole30 book — it has a TON of great information for putting together your own compliant dishes as well as many, many, recipes. So here are a few:
- http://lexiscleankitchen.com/2014/02/01/crispy-baked-buffalo-wings/
- http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1890-roasted-brussels-sprouts-with-garlic
- http://www.anyaseats.com/slow-cooker-beef-brisket-with-tomatoes-and-onions/
- http://lexiscleankitchen.com/2015/07/01/spicy-shrimp-sweet-potato-boats-with-avocado-crema/
Closing Thoughts
This has been an incredible journey so far. I have definitely learned a TON about food and what I am putting into my body. With that said, I cannot wait to be done and see how I fare with the reintegration of some of the ingredients I haven’t been eating.
