Whole30: Week 1

I’ve officially made it through one week of the Whole30.  Honestly, I did not believe I could make it a whole week.  Part of why I embarked on this journey was simply to prove to myself that I could do it.  After a really tough, stressful week, I feel like I’ve got nowhere to go but up.How I felt: This week actually wasn’t that bad.  I had a headache on Sunday and Monday that pretty much went away by the middle of the day on Monday.  I was a little tired all week, but it was a busy week at work and I was a comparable amount of tired to what I have been in any other week.  Mostly, I just felt left out when people had delicious carby foods at work - but we’ll get to that.  Also...I swear my skin looks a little brighter and there’s a new twinkle in my eyes...but maybe I’m imagining it.Favorite recipe of the week: Cinnamon Apple Grain-Free Breakfast Porridge. Delicious (I made it without the raisins) and makes 3-5 servings, and warms up well in the microwave the next day!  I can tell this will be a staple.What I’ve learned:

1. There’s a lot of cooking involved in eating this way.  I can’t just come home and have popcorn and gummy snacks and cereal for dinner when I’m tired (yes, I’m cringing as I admit that I’ve had that exact dinner before.)  I can’t just wing it and expect to have everything I want to eat in front of me all the time.  That doesn’t mean I need to make elaborate meals every single day, but it does mean that having a plan of attack makes 6 pm feel a whole lot better.
2. Related: I don’t get enough food at the grocery store when I go shopping. I severely underestimate how much food I’ll need for the week and try to “get by” on what I think I should need...and this does not work. Instead of trying to see how little food I can eat in a week, I need to buy as much food as I need to for the week - a definite mindset change for me.
3. There’s a lot of support out there if you share.  I’ve been telling everyone what I’m doing in an effort to be accountable...and I feel really self-conscious talking about it all the time.  I feel like everyone around me must be so sick of hearing what I’m eating and not eating!  But what I’ve also realized is that people are SO incredibly supportive once I tell them, and will ask questions about Whole30, or will be more mindful of what they eat around me or offer me, it’s pretty amazing.  Now, it’s very hard at office events where our snacks have included cookie cakes, soft pretzels, and bagels, but everyone has been that much more impressed when I sit there and eat my grapes.  Not gonna lie, I’m counting down the days until I can have a cookie.
4. Wash all the dishes at the end of each day.  I have to be honest: I’m horrible about washing dishes.  I’ve timed how long it takes me to wash dishes and it honestly must be my most-dreaded 7-minute-or-less task.  Maybe this is because I cut my thumb after washing dishes earlier this summer….but I digress.  I’ve found that I’m more likely to actually cook good things if I have clean dishes to cook with.  It’s hard enough to make breakfast (ok, it’s really not that hard at all), but it’s even more annoying to have to spend 2 minutes washing the pan and spatula I didn’t wash the day before.  It makes me feel much more calm if I wake up knowing I have all the tools for a successful day at my fingertips.

Now that I’m almost done with day 9, and almost a third of the way through, I feel like the next 21 days will be a piece of cake!  The first week really is the hardest just in terms of changing routines, and it all seems easy from here.  Let’s see if I eat my words next week!