This post includes a recap of my first Whole30, including what I loved and what I didn’t love about the elimination diet. I’m also sharing my favorite Whole30 recipes.

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K and I completed the Whole30 elimination diet on January 31. Today I’m sharing what I loved, what I didn’t love, favorite recipes, must-haves, and what’s next.

What I Loved about Whole30

Completing Whole30 in January was a good idea because it allowed time for a “re-set” after the holiday season, when I enjoyed far too many cookies and treats. K and I took on the Whole30 elimination diet together. It was easy at times and very difficult at other times. Starting the Whole30 eating plan in January provided extra motivation. I think it would have been much harder to finish 30 days if we had picked a different month.

• Establishing new habits: Whole30 required a lot of planning and meal prep. We got into the habit of meal planning on Sundays and preparing lunch for the week {usually soup}. Meal planning was particularly important since we have a 1 year old and he often needed separate meals. Toddlers definitely require carbs and cheese! 🙂
• Saving money: While our grocery bill was typically higher each week due to a larger haul of meat and produce, we barely dined out at all – only getting compliant takeout twice – so we ended up saving quite a bit of money by the end of the month.
• Feeling good after meals: I never felt bloated or overly full after Whole30 meals. This is a great feeling and one I’m working to continue going forward. I think it’s the lack of refined carbs in the Whole30 diet – no pasta, bread, crackers, etc. to weigh you down in the evening. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE foods like pasta and bread, but it was nice to take a break and incorporate healthier options.

What I Didn’t Love about Whole30

Despite the positives I list above, Whole30 is difficult at times. It’s hard because of the time commitment to prep meals from scratch and the mental commitment to stick to certain categories of food. Towards the end of the month, my “didn’t love” list grew longer.

• Limited breakfast options: The hardest meal of the day for me on Whole30 was breakfast. I typically don’t like savory breakfast options so I grew very tired of eating eggs. I usually ate a banana with unsweetened almond butter and unsweetened coconut flakes, paired with a hard boiled or scrambled egg or two. I ate a few sweet potato breakfast bowls but there’s something that felt wrong eating sweet potatoes for breakfast. I just couldn’t do it!
• Digestive issues: For some reason my body/my digestion never synced with the Whole30 diet. Even at the very end, my digestion felt off and ran much faster than usual {TMI alert} and I never figured out why. I had no recent digestive problems before I started Whole30. I don’t think my stomach appreciated the extra meat or cauliflower I was adding to my diet on a regular basis. I may have gone overboard on cauliflower rice a few times! Post-Whole 30, I’m having the opposite problem. I’m still figuring out what foods are best for my system – it’s a work in progress. K had no digestive problems, either during or after Whole30. Lucky guy.
• Too much meat: While I’m not a vegetarian, I have never been a huge meat eater and I prefer to include plant-based meals in my diet on a regular basis for environmental and health reasons. I found it difficult to stick to plant-based meals on Whole30, due to the lack of beans, legumes and dairy in the eating plan.

Favorite Recipes

In early January I posted 30 Recipes for Whole30 Meal Planning on the blog. I loved Whole30 for requiring us to try new recipes and get more creative in the kitchen. I bought the Whole30 Fast & Easy Cookbook a few weeks before we started Whole30, and I highly recommend it. There are lots of great recipes and tips for meal planning.

Besides the cookbook, K and I enjoyed a number of different recipes by food bloggers {including me!}. Our favorite recipes:

• Whole30 Potato Skins
• Paleo Pork Egg Roll in a Bowl
• Instant Pot Whole30 Chili
• Whole30 Stuffed Peppers
• Instant Pot Butternut Squash and Cauliflower Soup

Must Haves

There are a handful of foods that really helped me get through Whole30, including:

• Plantain and sweet potato chips {minimally processed – I ignored this Whole30 rule and purchased instead of making my own}
• Rx bars and Larabars
• Dried fruit with no sugar added {my favorite chewy, satisfying dried fruits are figs and apricots}
• nutpods Dairy Free Coffee Creamer {my favorite flavor is hazelnut}

What’s next?

I’m not sure whether I will complete another round of Whole30 in the future, but I would definitely do the elimination diet again and encourage others to try it. Going forward after Whole30, I’m planning to take three steps:

1. Incorporating Whole30 meals a few times per week – we enjoyed many of the meals on Whole30 and plan to continue trying new compliant recipes on a regular basis.
2. Continuing to meal prep – this is such a good habit to keep our lives organized every week and save money. It also allows us to maximize our time with baby C.
3. Limiting desserts, cheese and beans – I’m not giving up pizza or cake forever, but I feel best limiting these foods the majority of the time.