Hooray! I have officially finished my fourth round of Whole30! Unfortunately I woke up on Day 31 a little under the weather so didn’t feel much like celebrating. I did however treat myself with 3 Lindt truffles and one diet protein truffle from Protein Works.
For this Whole30, I decided to freshen things up a bit; it’s easy to get stuck in a rut cooking the same old recipes over and over again. So I updated my cookbook library and decided to take inspiration from each book on a weekly basis.
For the first part I used Hemsley & Hemsley; The Art of Eating Well.
For the middle 10 days or so I took inspiration from Deliciously Ella.
The third and final book was the new release from Whole30 called The Whole 30: The official 30-day guide to total health and food freedom
The last few times I did my Whole30 I have to admit I wasn’t fully in the picture. I knew I wanted to do it, so I just did. I scanned through the book, It Starts With Food: Discover the Whole30 and Change Your Life in Unexpected Ways and dove straight in the deep end (quite unlike me!).
Recipes I tried included, sausage patties with sweet potato mash and caramelised onion, beef brisket, romesco garlic prawns with courgette noodles (pictured below), steak with garlic shallot relish (pictured below), greek salad (pictured above), spinach and tomato frittata and coconut curry chicken.
What have I taken from the last 10 days?
These ten days were probably my favourite due to not having to work out which recipes were compliant and which weren’t. All of the recipes were easy to make, I even got to whip out my slow cooker for the beef brisket.
One part of the book I love is the section on sauces – it can be a big deal when you do whole30 and can’t add ketchup / BBQ / sweet chilli sauce to your meals for a little added flavour! I love making my own mayonnaise and using it to make quick meals like jacket potato with tuna mayo.
What have I taken from the whole experience?
Since completing whole30, I’d say I have been about 50% non compliant; a few days after finishing, and then being unwell, I took part in my first ever triathlon and used my tried and tested methods of fuelling myself. After my event, and some more swimming, and running I just feel like I can’t calm my hunger. I’m happy to have a relaxed week or two and then get back to 80:20. I think part of the issue has been that I haven’t been using a structure or a book so I guess I’ll have to choose another book and get meal planning to get me back on track.
Each time I complete whole30 I think I learn a little more about myself, my body and the way I eat. This time, I focused heavily on post workout nutrition and worked hard to add more vegetables to my meals. I also tried to mix breakfast up a bit and not rely so heavily on bacon and eggs – my new breakfast crush was chia pudding!
Doing whole30 always refreshes my awareness of what is in the food I eat, what I don’t need and how I can make healthier choices for long term results. I’ve even started making my own almond milk this time round and started buying more organic ingredients (within my budget). It’s not cheap, but we only get one body.
Are you considering a whole30? What is holding you back?
What’s your favourite whole30 recipe?!
Check out my whole30 Pinterest board for inspiration! Beware though, I’m not afraid of a little SWYPO (google it!).
Elle 🙂
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