Whole30 – Week 4 Overview & What I Ate

I don’t know if I’ll be able to contain my excitement, but I finished Whole30 (click here to view some posts and recipes from my journey)! That’s right…30 days of no sugar, no gluten, no alcohol, no legumes, no soy, no grains, no dairy, basically ‘no’ anything that wasn’t a fruit, vegetable or piece of meat. It was truly eye opening, and I could not be happier that I did it. By day 27 I was ready to throw in the towel in a big way, but I didn’t, so here is  my whole30 overview of week 4 and what I ate.

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Day 24
Today literally flew by which was a definite improvement over the slow week I’d had during week 3. After work I met a friend at a cafe for some tea/coffee. In the past I would have ordered coffee and then loaded it up with LOTS of cream and sugar, so it was amazing to me that I was able to get a tea and really enjoy it. For me I think it’s important to actually be in social situations with friends and not just be at home the whole time I’m doing whole30, I want the changes and what I’m doing now to be sustainable long term!

• Breakfast: 1 egg and 1 small potato cooked in ghee
• Lunch: Chicken stir fry lettuce wraps made with coconut aminos 
• Snack: 1 mango
• Dinner: charbroiled steak and a roasted beet and orange salad at a restaurant, both cooked in only olive oil
• Tea at a cafe

Day 25
On a trip to Costco I had found this amazing cooked beef – only cooked with natural meat juices and salt & pepper. It is truly delicious and perfect for putting on top of salads, next to roasted veggies or just by itself. I personally haven’t gotten sick of roasted vegetables, but my poor husband has had enough. He said there’s only so many more days he can take having roasted vegetables for dinner lol, I might need to mix it up and try something creative. That and fish, he said he needs a break lol, but I’m fine with it so I’ll continue having that for lunches.

• Breakfast: 2 eggs cooked in ghee
• Lunch: salmon with roasted vegetables on the side (Brussels sprouts and butternut squash)
• Snack: 1 mango (I feel triumphant after having butchered many a mango, I finally cut it correctly!)
• Dinner: roasted chicken wrapped in prosciutto with roasted Brussels sprouts

Day 26
With all the prep I’d done over the weekend, it was amazing to be able to have lunch options, and even thought I had eaten out the previous day and had dinner plans again I was so excited to find that the restaurant I went to had fantastic vegetarian options that I could eat.

• Breakfast: 2 eggs with a little bit of vegetables/potatoes/hash, I ended up getting full and didn’t finish it
• Snack: plantain chips
• Lunch: salmon with roasted vegetables on the side
• Snack: blood orange
• Dinner: baked sweet potato topped with guacamole and a salad

Day 27
Today I felt antsy, like I was ready to be done with whole30, ‘only 3 more days’ I kept telling myself

• Breakfast: 1 egg and vegetables/potato hash cooked in ghee
• Lunch: Chicken with Brussels sprouts
• Snack: raw almonds, fruit leather
• Dinner: chicken and stir fry vegetables cooked in coconut aminos
• Snack: 1 no bake coconut date energy bites

Day 28
Can we talk about feeling tired and exasperated? I know I only have two days left, but yesterday and today just couldn’t seem to go fast enough!

• Breakfast: 2 eggs and 1 potato cooked into hash
• Lunch: lemon garlic thyme whole roasted chicken with carrots (made with salt, garlic salt and fresh herbs)
• Snack: no bake coconut date energy bites
• Dinner: salmon with roasted vegetables

Day 29
Today was another day of pep talking to myself. It was as if I’d hit a wall of resistance on Day 27 that I was trying to push through, still, 2 days later, but at least my energy was super high!

• Breakfast: 2 eggs and 2 oranges, juiced
• Lunch: leftover lemon garlic thyme chicken and carrots
• Snack: no bake coconut date energy bites and berries
• Dinner: lamb with rosemary, carrots and potatoes (recipe coming next week!)
• Snack: fruit leather

Day 30
30 days? NO! Whole30 is done after today! Today I went to the movie theater with my girlfriend and you know what she did? She brought a little Gogo squeeze apple sauce as a snack! How sweet is that? It felt so great that even my friends are taking part and participating and helping me get through. For the movie I packed plantain chips and fruit leather in my purse, but I ended up not needing a snack:

• Breakfast: banana, kiwi and strawberries
• Lunch: salad with chicken, peppers and zucchini
• Snack: plantain chips and a gogo squeeze apple sauce
• Dinner: leftover lamb carrots and potatoes

Thank you so much to everyone who has emailed/texted/called and given me support. I do not think I could have done this on my own if it wouldn’t have been for all the support and cheerleading. I am going to write a ‘life after whole30’ post next week.

And of course, I’m sure you want to know if it actually worked, if I noticed a difference? The answer is undoubtedly YES! I lost 11 lbs. But beyond the weight loss (I still have a long way to go) the biggest thing whole30 has done for me is given me a new perspective on food, and my energy level is just soaring. I now wake up every morning around 5 am and am ready to go. I will definitely be continuing with aspects of whole30 as I move forward and will keep you posted through the update.

Words of Wisdom:

• It’s ok to go out to eat and socialize-I think the first two weeks while I was getting used to Whole30 I was like afraid to leave the house. While YES, the diet is definitely super restrictive, I was focusing on the wrong things – what I couldn’t eat. After week 2 I started seeing all the amazing things I COULD eat, and life became a lot easier. I went out a few times to restaurants and while again, yes it is a little difficult to find a menu item that works and then communicate with a waiter what you can and cannot have, I found that farm to table restaurants were very accommodating and there was usually a salad I could get (with no dressing, cheese, or croutons) and some fish dish (cooked in oil over roasted vegetables) that worked. So you just have to get a little creative. And then my other tip would be to order hot tea, this definitely made dining out super pleasant.
• Try making dinner items with different textures (for example make chicken lettuce wraps one night and then roasted vegetables with chicken and turkey sausage the next night). It becomes very boring when each meal is a piece of roasted chicken or fish with a side of vegetables.

Products I’m loving:

• Orange juicer – I loved making a little glass of fresh juice, started the day on a high note
• Fruit leathers – such a delicious snack for on the go!
• Food processor – a food processor (this is the one I use) is a life saver when making a batch of no bake energy bites (also, it’s amazing for making cauliflower rice!)

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 box of fruit leather – 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.