Have you been seeing #whole30 pop up all over social media? Have you heard about it and wondered what is the Whole30? Maybe you’re wondering why you should do the Whole30? Well we’ve just finished our very first whole30 and we feel pretty amazing! So here’s our low down, merrymaker style!
What is the Whole30?
It is 30 days of eating real food and cutting foods like sugar, grains, dairy and legumes. You may be thinking… isn’t that simply paleo? Well it is BUT with some key differences. There is no paleo-fying anything. No paleo sweet treats, no paleo bread, no paleo crackers… you get the picture right? AND no physiologically unhealthy food, we think this depends on each individual, we cut out nuts for this one.
Ok, let’s stop focusing on the no list. The stuff you can eat is delicious fresh fruit and veg, nuts, seeds, eggs, coconut (yum), nourishing meats, poultry and fish. Just the simple real food. For the official ‘rules’ checkout the Whole30 site. If you’re not a fan of the word ‘rules’ continue reading! Oh wait, we forgot to mention our favourite Wholoe30 rule, NO weighing yourself (best rule ever! We haven’t weighed ourselves in over 2 years).
Why do the Whole30?
We did the Whole30 after Christmas and New Years. Our bodies were screaming for a re-set. We’d overdone paleo treats, eaten a little too much (occasional) dairy, too many nuts and too many alcoholic bevies (not crazy amounts, but compared to normal it was too much). Although we’d stuck to a 100% primal diet and mostly paleo we were not feeling our bests. It was time for a change.
The Whole30 is designed to heal our bodies and allow us to become even more aware of how our food choices can impact us. It will boost your energy and the metabolism, decrease inflammation, assist with food cravings and unhealthy eating behaviours (like going nuts on nuts). Oh and it will promote weight loss too.
Why can’t I eat a paleo raw cake on Whole30 but I can eat cashews, dates and coconut milk?
Good question! When we attempted our first Whole30 back in 2013 we questioned this and ate a sweet treat by day 5. We totally get the confusion and why we failed. BUT now we totally get why we have this rule! News flash, paleo treats are still treats. You can still get fat eating paleo (read about how we put on weight eating paleo here). 30 days with no treats was hard… it was bloody hard! We’ve now realised that we were still eating far too many paleo sweet treats and that we can make even better decisions in the future.
Delicious Whole30 recipes!
Need some Whole30 recipe inspiration? Boom! Whole30 recipes coming at chaaa!
Breakfast:
- Fry up
- Frittata
- Avocado and herb stuffed mushrooms
- Pumpkin, bacon and carrot fritters (holleyyy yumness)
- Chia pudding (this is on the fence Whole30, we say go for it!)
Salads/sides:
- Summer salad
- Zucchini pesto
- Pumpkin and sweet potato with bacon (drool)
- Caulirice (technically paleo-fying BUT it is just cauliflower so we say it’s ok!)
Dinners/lunches (leftovers for brekky):
- Shepherds pie in capsicums
- Easy chicken bake
- Mexican chicken bake
- Fish tacos (LOVE THESE)
- Chicken and bacon pesto pasta (again technically paleo-fying but yes way it’s ok!)
- Mexican creamy pasta (same as above!)
- Burger patties
- Pork belly (MAKE THIS!)
- Burrito bowls
- Salmon with lemon and parsley
- Lamb rack crusted with macadamias
- Slow cooked beef cheeks
- Slow cooked pulled pork
- Pulled pork
Keep us posted on your Whole30 and remember don’t beat yourself up if you stuff up. Have fun with your Whole30 experience, try different veggies and cuts of meat. Learn about herbs and spices, how they can benefit your health and how they taste ALL kinds of amazing!
If you love baking sweets, put extra effort in to your dinner recipes and make them the standout! If you still need something sweet after din dins, then have some berries with coconut cream instead of your regular sweetie! Notice how you feel… and look at every day with the goal to be healthier than yesterday. You’ve GOT THIS!
Always merrymaking,
Emma + Carla