Whole30-Week 2 Overview & What I Ate

Week two of Whole30 is now done, donezo, completo, I can’t even speak in real words because I’m so excited. TWO WHOLE WEEKS of no sugar, no grains, no gluten, no alcohol, no legumes, no dairy, nothing but meat, fruits, and veggies!!! The biggest thing I’d have to say about week two is that I’m finding really interesting things to make, not just the standard roasted vegetables and meat. This week has had me eating so many delicious foods. And besides one day (day 10) I didn’t have any cravings! To follow along from the beginning, see Whole30 Week1 Overview.

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Day 8
I had no groceries left in my house after week one, so I needed to take a trip to the grocery store…and just a note that grocery shopping now takes about 1.5 hours longer because I’m sitting there checking every label, but I think after this trip I have it down!

• Breakfast: 1 egg and sweet potato hash (I’m STILL working on the leftovers from the hash I made last week, see my Whole30-Week 1 Overview & What I Ate for the recipe – it’s in Day 1)
• Snack: 1 packet Gogo Squeez apple sauce
• Lunch: roasted chicken breast with beets, brussels sprouts and cauliflower with lemon/ghee/cilantro sauce
• Snack: Apple pie Lärabar (this was my first Lärabar during Whole30 and wow, SO GOOD)
• Dinner: chicken stir fry lettuce wraps (made with coconut aminos, SO GOOD, recipe coming soon!))
• Snack: 1 cup of strawberries

Day 9
Are my habits and tastes changing already? This morning I was so excited that I had found bacon that didn’t contain any sugar on my grocery trip the day before. But after cooking it up, I have to say it was weird. I didn’t even end up liking it…was it a texture thing? I didn’t even end up eating it and was completely ok with the breakfast I had, I didn’t even have a snack between breakfast and lunch! I also had my first piece of citrus during Whole30!

• Breakfast: bacon, 2 eggs, 1 blood orange
• Lunch: leftover chicken stir fry lettuce wraps
• Snack: Pecan bar Lärabar (this flavor was just ok, not great like the Apple Pie)
• Dinner: flank steak with bell peppers and 1/2 an onion
• Snack: Gogo squeeze apple sauce, 1/2 a banana

Day 10
Even if I was up too late, I’m finding that it is a lot easier to wake up in the mornings even at 5 am! The thought of just eggs for breakfast did not make me happy: I needed something sweet with my breakfast this morning, so I juiced 2 oranges and had that with my two eggs, I put a little shot glass in the fridge for tomorrow, it was a great way to make my breakfast a little different. I’m going to experiment with chia seeds tonight (see below day 13 for results). I had crazy cravings for a brownie today, but of course I didn’t give in.

• Breakfast: 2 eggs with a 1 orange worth of orange juice
• Lunch: roasted vegetables with chicken and turkey sausage
• Snack: Apple pie Lärabar
• Dinner: Beef meatballs with zoodles (‘noodles’ made out of zucchini, I did not care for them, they were ok)
• Snack: Mango,  banana, and coconut water

Day 11
Today it was 0-2 degrees here in Wisconsin. I just couldn’t get warm but drank about 5 million cups of this tea in the process of trying to get warm.

• Breakfast: 2 eggs with 2 pieces of bacon and 1 orange worth of orange juice
• Lunch: roasted vegetables with chicken and turkey sausage
• Snack: Apple pie Lärabar
• Dinner: mustard lemon chicken with spinach and potatoes – and I added carrots, so good!
• Snack: bowl of strawberries

Day 12
Something amazing happened today, my husband is now on board (like 90%!) Since we got back from visiting his grandparents (remember the pictures of him feeding his ‘sugar beast‘ lol) he has only been eating what I have been cooking, and the stash of ‘noncompliant’ whole30 food in our house has dwindled. I know you’re supposed to throw it out-give it to friends before you start the program, but in a weird way I’m glad I didn’t do that because my husband was still eating it. It has made me realize that just because we have something in the house doesn’t mean I have to eat it…it’s helping me make better decisions. Anyway, back to my husband…this morning he told me he’s lost 7 lbs since we got back (that’s 6 days!!! 7 lbs in 6 days!!!). Part of the program is that you’re not supposed to weigh yourself, so I can’t share with you my progress in terms of actual numbers just yet! I’m so happy he’s on board, I swear I didn’t twist his arm or anything lol! He even said that when I’m done with this ‘whole30 thing’ he wants to continue to eat like this during the week, that was just so huge for me to hear!

• Breakfast: 2 hard boiled eggs
• Lunch: leftover vegetables from mustard lemon spinach and potatoes with 2 poached eggs on top
• Snack: Apple pie Lärabar
• Dinner: meatloaf with canned green beans and a baked potatoes (meatloaf made with 2 lbs ground beef, 1 egg, chopped up bell pepper, onion, mushrooms and garlic and topped with tomato paste)
• Snack: plantain chips and Wholly guacamole

Day 13
I finally got to sleep in, hallelujah! It was the first time since I’ve started Whole30 that I’ve been able to sleep past 6am. I had made a concoction of chia seeds, coconut milk, and water a few days earlier that was in my fridge. It definitely firmed up and was pudding like, but I just wasn’t digging the flavor of it, I’d rather have just had the fruits alone.

• Breakfast: chia seed pudding with raspberry, strawberry and kiwi slices
• Lunch: creamy cashew curry chicken and cauliflower rice
• Snack: plantain chips and Wholly guacamole, 2 dates
• Dinner: leftover meatloaf (recipe above in day 12) and 1/2 a baked potato

Day 14
Today I had to wake up early to work on some recipe development so I was busy in the kitchen all day. I didn’t get as much prep for the week done as I would have liked, but I did get 2 recipes done that I’ll be sharing soon that were whole30 and super delicious

• Breakfast: 2 hard boiled eggs
• Snack: 1 mango
• Lunch: prime rib with garlic and green au jus and roasted carrots and potatoes (recipe coming soon!)
• Snack: plantain chips and Wholly guacamole
• Dinner: leftover meatloaf (see above day 12 for recipe) and a small baked potato with ghee

Day 15
I’m including day 15 with this overview so that the numbers work out evenly so that I’ll have 4 overview posts for the 30 days. Today I was just running behind all day and was very unprepared. I did not like that I had more than one Lärabar for a snack or meal replacement and could really tell at the end of the day that I had not eaten the well rounded way I had been, what was interesting to me is that I could actually ‘feel’ the difference at the end of the day, I felt like I was full but not in a good way, I think for me it was the breakfast component that is so important.

• Breakfast: 1/2 an apple and an Apple pie Lärabar
• Lunch: curry crusted steak with roasted red pepper chimichurri (recipe coming soon) and leftover cauliflower rice from this post (my husband said the cauliflower rice is more like couscous and I totally agree!)
• Snack:  Pecan Pie Lärabar (I did not like this flavor as much as the Apple pie)
• Dinner: Pan fried escarole fish with asparagus and potatoes
• Snack: Mixed berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries)

This week my favorite recipes were:

• Creamy cashew curry chicken over cauliflower rice (I can’t wait to make this again, I was a little sad when it was all gone because it is such an amazing meal!)
• Mustard lemon chicken with spinach and potatoes (I added carrots and because I had more vegetables than chicken leftover I added a poached egg over the vegetables for an amazing lunch! The brand of mustard I found that doesn’t have sugar is Koops organic stone ground mustard)
• Roasted vegetables with chicken and turkey sausage (such an easy meal to put together!)
• Plantain chips (it’s really nice to have a little something crunchy, I’ve found they have a two day lifespan, after that they’re really not that good…but with 2 ingredients? They don’t take long to make)
• Orange juice (made by squeezing two fresh oranges into a glass, it’s super refreshing to have something sweet)
• Meatloaf (I was so surprised at how much I liked this, I just mixed together 2 lbs of ground beef, 1 egg, and then 1 bell pepper finely chopped, 1/2 lb of mushrooms finely chopped, 1/2 onion finely chopped and 2 garlic cloves and some salt, I put that in a meatloaf pan and then spread tomato paste – one without sugar of course- on top and baked it for about an hour to an hour and twenty minutes.)

Words of wisdom:

• Pre-cut vegetables – I don’t care if they’re a little more expensive, because at the rate I’ve been chopping and roasting vegetables, if I can find them cut already I’ll gladly pay the extra few cents!
• Prep prep prep – there is so much prep happening. At first it was very annoying and at times seemingly overwhelming when you’ve used up every Tupperware container you own, but then you get into a rhythm and all is ok again, it just feels like part of daily life.
• Find a snack you like or things that you have on hand for when you’re running low on time. For me that has been Lärabars and applesauce. I don’t like relying on the bars though, so this next week i’m going to experiment with making my own, I’ll keep you posted.

Products I’m loving:

• Lärabars – the apple pie, cherry pie, and cashew cookie are three flavors that don’t have any added sugar, here is a mini pack that is amazing because they’re so small and perfect for an on the go snack, but really, the apple pie ones are the best!
• Gogo Squeez apple sauce – this is perfect for an on the go snack or for a little something sweet when you just don’t feel like cutting up fruit!
• Tupperwear – you know how above I mentioned doing ALL THE PREP? Well these bad boys are perfect for stacking in the fridge
• Vegetable peeler – because of all the roasting I’m doing, this tool is super handy
• Knives – also super handy is having good knives, makes chopping vegetables and fruit so much easier
• Food processor – my food processor is probably the kitchen appliance (besides my stove) that I am finding myself use the most. After eating just roasted vegetables and meat you’re going to need a little texture variety which is where the food processor comes in – you can make sauces, salsas, soups….it’s pretty much the best invention ever and totally worth the investment.

Thank you for following along. I’d love to hear from you…any tips? Favorite meals? Advice?

Disclaimer: some of the above links are affiliate links, if you purchase amazon products through my store at no cost to you, I will earn a few pennies (still haven’t made enough to buy a full cup of coffee – or box of tea in this case – yet, but a girl can dream, can’t she?) As always, thank you for supporting the brands and products I love that make the Sweetphi blog possible.