Whole30 in May shares how one mom of two boys is finding food freedom and healthier living through whole foods and creating more balance.
Well friends, it’s that time! I’ve decided to take on the Whole30 challenge for the second time ever this month, and honestly I could not be more excited to do so. It’s been almost 4 years since my last one, but this time around feels like it’s going to be a completely new experience (which I’ll go into in a few minutes). Before I kick of a string of posts – including weekly meal plans, recommendations on bloggers to follow for recipe inspiration, workouts that I’m doing, a weekly journal of all the feels – I want to talk about why I’m taking this on.
Why I Chose Whole30
The first time I took on Whole30 I was 3 months postpartum and more than ready to get into “pre-baby shape” (which is ridiculous, but I’ll share my thoughts on that another time). It was literally just a diet plan, which is not what Whole30 is intended to be. I was nursing, and about halfway through found that I needed to eat oatmeal at least once a day to keep my supply up. It was quite the blow to my Enneagram 3 achiever/Type A personality, and looking back I see that it was really dumb for me to be in the headspace and life stage I was in and trying to lose weight with such a strict “diet.”
Fast forward to today. My goal with Whole30 this time around is definitely not weight loss, although I’m sure by cleaning up my food intake there may be some weight or bloating that goes down. If it does, cool, if not, that’s cool too. My why is really just because I’ve found myself feeling very tired and unmotivated lately, which has corresponded perfectly with some major emotional eating because there’s just a lot of stress in my life right now. I’ve been snacking on junk food, eating more bread and grains that I should, not allowing enough veggies to pass my lips, and drinking wine more frequently to calm down at the end of the day.
I just want to eat healthier food because I feel (and am) healthier when I do, and while I don’t plan on eating Whole30 style forever I do feel like a launch month to nix some bad habits is appropriate. So here we are!
May’s Whole30 Plan
While there’s nothing set in stone I have decided first and foremost that, in an effort to keep from getting too legalistic about food, I will not be keeping to a super strict Whole30. The actual Whole30 plan requires abstaining from certain oils, all sugar, etc; however, that makes life stressful and expensive. Since I’m not using this as an elimination diet, I will certainly be reducing the levels of these ingredients but not meticulously tracking them.
My food intake over the next 30 days will consist of tons of veggies, some fruit (I’m just not the biggest fan but definitely see myself eating more of it in May), meat, eggs, healthy fats, and lots of water. What I will be abstaining from as I find a better balance is grains, sugar (outside of fruit), wine/alcohol (unless there’s a date night because those are rare these days), dairy, and most legumes. The legumes thing is weird to me, and I enjoy them from time to time so I won’t be super strict about them.
Working Out While on Whole30
Y’all know I love my workouts, and I think that Whole30 will not only help with food, but with overall performance. I know that the first few days are usually a kind of withdrawal period, but I also know that pushing through workouts will help. That said, I’m working on figuring out a workout plan for the month. At the moment I’ve been creating my own (although I’m no longer a Certified Personal Trainer and therefore won’t be posting the specifics of those), but would love to incorporate some training from other sources occasionally.
Meal Plans & All the Feels
My hope for the next few weeks is to share just the ins and outs and everyday things that I’m going through with Whole30. This is not going to be a comprehensive plan of how you should do it all and get a shopping list to boot; it’s going to be a real-life in-the-moment thing where you guys will see what I’m eating, how I’m feeling, and the ups and downs of the whole thing.
I will be posting meal plans with recipes that I love, and every night will be writing a few emotions about the day and how it went, which I’ll share weekly. I think that’s going to be the most interesting part – how I am emotionally dealing with a few food restrictions when I’ve become used to eating whatever I want willy-nilly. I know myself and can definitely tell you I’ll have some rebellious thoughts in the coming days and weeks.
That’s about it for today – I’m just excited to be sharing this with y’all and bringing you along for the ride. For even more in-the-now takes you can always follow along in my Instagram stories where I’m always being weird and oversharing. And if you have questions, don’t hesitate to ask!
Leave a Reply