Whole30 Round 3 Wrap Up

My third round of Whole30 proved significantly easier than the first two thanks to the addition of potatoes and the planning of a 2 week menu that I recycled for the second two weeks.

Round 3 isn’t quite over – I’ll finish up on Tuesday – but since today’s food prep included non-Whole30 foods it seemed appropriate.

Potatoes Feed The Soul

I was sobbing with relief excited to see that the Whole30 creators had amended their position on potatoes before I decided to do another round. When my family started our “less processed” journey with food almost 5 years ago, we launched into an uber strict attempt at Paleo. With a newborn, an often absent military husband and a desperate love of traditional food, I often failed spectacularly. And then I beat myself up. Eventually, I took the approach of figuring out what worked for us specifically. I found that dairy was a huge trigger – although we all do fine with goat cheese and my son tolerate full fat, high quality milk and cheese just fine. My husband eats yogurt but no other dairy. I tend to stay away completely. My husband definitely should not eat legumes. But we all do just fine with potatoes. Plus, potatoes allow us to work in many of our favorite family dishes in a menu that doesn’t feel the least bit restrictive. I’ve found that the emotional/psychological considerations are just as important and worth considering as the physiological. We are fortunate that the lack of serious medical conditions allows us to make that choice – and having potatoes on this Whole30 simply put the focus on planning and preparing to avoid making eating choices out of the need for convenience.

Repetition is my friend

Back before my son was born, meal planning wasn’t quite as important but I remember one of my first attempts being based around a friend’s recommendation to write down what we ate for dinner for 30 days, then use those meals in a repeating pattern each month. Those basics still hold true. I love cookbooks and food blogs and food magazines with all those new tastes and textures, but preparing new recipes takes more time, energy and thought. Lately, those things are in short supply and efficiency and ease win the day. For this round of Whole30, I tackled the challenge of coming up with all the compliant meals by embracing repetition. I doubled recipes (or tripled, like with Shepard’s Pie) and stuck an extra in the freezer. I did as much extra cooking as I could during the first week while I was still feeling super motivated and stuck them in the freezer. This turned out to be the best move I made as Week 3 ended up being INSANELY busy (which is why this blog has been so quiet) and I essentially ate from my freezer for lunch and dinner for most of the week.

Other Tips That Helped

• fun glasses help me drink water – especially if it has a straw.
• fruit in water doesn’t work for everyone (I couldn’t stand it)
• heating up fruits like apples and peaches so you get some carmelization is AMAZING for knocking out the sweet craving
• combine the above with toasted almonds for a sweet and crunchy knockout
• when you’re doing a lot of food prep, it’s worth the investment to buy good quality food storage. I really like these glass containers
• planning meals with common ingredients makes for much easier food prep (for example – both butternut squash soup and roasted root veggies require chopping and roasting butternut squash)

results

I made a point this time to not worry about losing weight (although I did!) or measurements (lost inches too!) but focus on habits. I did MUCH better this round with water, which is an ongoing struggle of mine. Keeping a pitcher of water in the fridge combined with using my nicer glasses made a huge difference. I also switched my grocery shopping from Sunday to Saturday making a much easier and more restful weekend schedule. Now, munchkin and I spend the morning at the barn and shop on the way home. While it makes for a little bit busier Saturday, it means that Sunday is much more relaxing as I can do my food prep in about 2 hours in the late afternoon while my son plays at the kitchen table.

While I’m ready for this round of Whole30 to be over so I can make some Fall-fabulous apple crumble, this 30 days made absolutely clear that prepping ahead is the key to healthy eating success for me. Life is too unpredictable and I get too tired to not need convenient options. The key, then, is making sure that I have a healthy option available that is both easy and appealing!

What are your biggest food prep challenges?