Whole 30 Day 1

Ladies and gentlemen, here it is. My Whole 30 Day 1. Haven’t heard of the Whole 30? Read all about it here. Today, Monday, July 21st was Day One for me of this Whole 30 meal plan. I decided to try this out because I’ve never done anything like it, so I think it will be a good challenge, and I’m interested to see how it changes my relationship with food, my taste preferences, cravings, and energy levels. For the next 30 days I will be keeping a public diary of everything I eat and how I feel at the end of each day. The Whole 30 website and book have loads of information for you to browse, but here is a seriously quick explanation of what I’ll be doing. For the next 30 days I will be consuming meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, nuts and seeds, fruits, and some fats. What I will not be eating: dairy, grains, legumes, potatoes, and sugar.

I can’t decide what will make me the most sad, avoiding cheese or avoiding bread. I think it will be more difficult to avoid grains because they are everywhere, but I think it might be more difficult psychologically to avoid cheese. I mean, it’s cheese. Delicious, delicious cheese. Mmmm now I’m craving cheese… darn it. Sugar is another thing that I know will be tough. I have a major sweet tooth and I feed my sweet pretty much daily. Especially in the weeks leading up to this challenge, I have been craving and eating sweets nonstop.

I have a joint birthday dinner coming up this Saturday at an Italian restaurant. This will be a true test for me as Italian is my absolute favorite cuisine! I have already begin to take precautions by viewing the restaurant’s menu and not even looking at the pasta section. Turning down dessert at a fancy restaurant will be tough, too.

So how was Day One? It went pretty well, actually. I knew I was going to have a busy day away from home, so I packed myself a selection of breakfast and lunch items. I ended up being a little more busy than I expected so I didn’t have a real, full meal until dinnertime, and I snacked all day long. Snacking is against the plan, but I snacked well. I also ate more fruit during the day than the plan suggests, but I’m applauding myself for Day One and making plans to make Day Two easier.

Breakfast: 1 hardboiled egg, 1 pluot, 1 small handful of sunflower seeds.

Lunch: 2 hardboiled eggs, 1/2 an avocado with lemon juice and salt, 1/2 a carrot, 1 small handful of dried cranberries.

Afternoon Snack: My birthday was on Saturday, so today, my boss and her children brought me chocolate cupcakes! I sat next to my chocolate cupcake for about 15 minutes, seriously contemplating whether or not to eat it. I was so close to just giving myself a pass for the day and eating the cupcake, but I didn’t! Yay! I realize how silly it is to be this excited about passing up a cupcake, but on Sunday, yesterday, the day of my birthday party, I ate 1 mini cupcake, 1 slice of cake, and 1 large cupcake. So I would say passing on a regular sized chocolate cupcake presented to me by cute children is a success to be celebrated.

Dinner: 1 boneless, skinless chicken breast, roasted with salt and pepper and drizzled with Cholula hot sauce. About 2 cups of roasted purple cauliflower and broccoli with oil and salt.

Dessert: This is also against the plan, but in the evening I developed a pretty bad headache and was seriously craving something sweet. So I ate 1 small pluot and 1 plum. A pretty good choice, if I do say so myself.

I also didn’t eat the bagels with cream cheese, hummus carrot sandwiches, chocolate protein bars, rice cakes, or peanut butter that was available to me at work today. Go me!

My headache lives on, even after taking drugs, so I’ll be turing in super early for the night. Looking forward to sticking closer to the Whole 30 plan tomorrow with eggs and veggies for breakfast.