Hey world. It's me again. You knew that because you came to this site hoping I would have another post and have been checking week after week to just learn about all the wild events going on in my life, but alas, nothing. SO, here I am to share with you many a tidbit of news about my relationship with....Whole30.

Quick note, I haven't had brussel sprouts once (except today) this entire time, so the title is semi-inaccurate (oops). 

A mere 28 days ago, I began the journey of Whole30. From sugar detox hangovers to the sufferings of the carb flu, I'm finally two days away from completing this chapter in my life.

How did it go? How are you? Are you still breathing? WE NEED TO KNOW.

Yes. That's the short answer because yes, I'm still here....but what you really want to know is how I'm feeling, what my thoughts are etc.etc.etc.etc.etc...

I'm honestly feeling really great. It took a couple weeks to accept the fact that I was living through a fairly extreme diet, limiting gluten, grains, alcohol, dairy, soy, legumes and sugar.  But now, I'm not really thinking about it to much. I shifted my focus to what nutrients my body needed, and in turn, that has become what my body wants. I love vegetables. I love fruit. I love my protein. 

PERKS: I'm not bloated, my digestive system is so happy, and I have loads of energy during the day (no more midday crashes).

CONS: I miss dark chocolate. There are some other things I miss, but that's the main one. That said, I HAVE located a dairy free, vegan, paleo refined sugar free, etc. chocolate — shout out to Loving Earth.

Here's the dealio. People have cravings. That's SO fine. I love baking. Am I going to stop baking because of the horrific damages of refined sugar wreaking havoc on my body? Literally no. The entire point of Whole30 for me was to reset my digestive system, have a better relationship with food, understand why we need whole foods, figure out my sensitivities, and try to live a healthier lifestyle.

In case you're curious as to what some of my favorite snack-o's and whatnot were, here you go:

• Sliced apples with almond butter and cinnamon 
• RX Bars
• Vital Proteins Collagen Peptides & Coffee Creamer
• Plantain chips (from Trader Joe's) and salsa 
• Spicy mustard (weird, I know, but it's a great and flavorful mayo replacement for dressings, dipping, spreading, etc.)
• Raspberries, both fresh and freeze-dried
• Coconut curry
• Dried mangoes​

 Well friends, I am back after a long hiatus, in which a WHOLE lot happened with my life. Fear not! I'm here with some exciting new content...

It's true. If the title didn't give it away, well, I'm doing Whole30! So far we are on day seven. No food. No air. No water. No showers....just kidding. It's not that extreme. However, it is fairly extreme from a nutritional standpoint. I'm not doing it to lose weight, if that comes out of it, then awesome, but I'm doing it to reset my digestive tract. Short synopsis, I have always had issues with digesting foods and all that good stuff, so I felt like eliminating some potential triggers might be helpful and informative. Also...I'm a sugar hound. It's probably best that we just leave it at that.

FAST FACTS ABOUT WHOLE30: 
No grains, legumes, dairy, mayo sugar, alcohol and soy (as far as I can remember). ALSO, no weird processed foods, smoothies (they prefer you avoid drinking your meals), dessert. The key is to eat whole foods and check your ingredients labels! I've discovered that sugar and soy lecithin is in literally everything​. 

We are on day seven, as I mentioned before, and things are actually looking better than expected. I'm doing this with my mom, which has been SO encouraging, since we used to be on the same sugar train back in February.  In the past week, we have learned that there are actually a lot of foods that we can have. Here's a guide to Whole30 shopping at Trader Joe's that I found online. 

Here's the meal plan thus far:

Breakfast:
Eggs, greens, any veggies on hand, avocado and the occasional sweet potato or Trader Joe's hash brown (POTATOES ARE ALLOWED!). If I'm in a hurry, I'll eat an RX Bar and have a banana, but if I work out before I need more nutrition sustenance. I'll drink coffee or tea with that, but because I cannot have my usual hazelnut creamer, I've been using my Vital Proteins Vanilla Coffee Creamer with a dash of Trader Joe's unsweetened coconut milk (the creamer is Whole30 friendly, as dictated on its packaging and is supplemented with collagen peptides — collagen peptides are good for your hair, skin and nails, while also giving you some protein! SO awesome). The aim is to have protein to stay full.

Lunch: ​
Typically, we will put together a super hearty salad with pumpkin seeds, avocado, cucumber, veggies and loads of whatever protein source we have on hand (sometimes chicken, and in today's case, steak from last night). When shopping at the homeland (Trader Joe's, if you haven't caught on thus far), my mom and I discovered they had three vegan, paleo, gluten-free (etc...) dressings that we could keep in the fridge. Typically at home we make lots of vinagrettes, but because all of us are working, this makes it easy when we need something in a pinch. Early on, we went for the Green Goddess dressing (avocado, basil, lemon juice, green onion, chives, basil and garlic), but this week, I'm trying out the Almond Butter Turmeric dressing (almond butter, turmeric, ginger, lemon juice and black pepper). That said,  lunch is filling, but I needed to supplement that 2:00pm tummy growl with a piece of fruit and some almonds/almond butter.

A couple nights ago, I pinned a recipe for Whole30, Paleo approved sweet potato white chicken chili. It had carrots, garlic, onions, Japanese white sweet potato, chicken, vegetable stock (no added sugar), green chilis, jalapeños and a bunch of yummy spices (cumin, oregano, chili powder). Long story short, you have options! TG4PINTEREST.

Dinner:
​Dinner has been different almost every night, but remains relatively simple. A couple nights we had steak, grilled veggies and a sweet potato. Last night I took the Trader Joe's carrot spirals and vegan pesto and mixed those together as a side to make it a little more exciting. Aside from steak, we made some paleo lettuce cups, no soy sauce of course, chicken apple sausage & peppers, and there have been a few "breakfast-for-dinner" nights. We continue to pin to gain inspiration! 

I'm only a week in, but I have slept SO well — better than I have slept in a really long time. Thus far, I have been fairly alert, but today is the "I need a nap day," as dictated by the Whole30 How You Should Feel Calendar and I feel a tad sluggish. I haven't felt bloated at all, which is INCREDIBLE. Then again, I'm pretty positive I'm lactose intolerant, but I refuse to admit it because there are just so many great dairy products.....which I can't have for another twenty-three days. But real talk, I could probably live without dairy and refined sugar.

After doing some research, I have located some paleo chocolate brands that I'm going to some serious recon on to find a good alternative. At home, we buy Enjoy Life chocolate chips/chunks/morsels/etc. because it's dairy free, but now, more than ever, I could seriously go for a massive hunk of dark chocolate...buuuuut now lemon water and tea!

For those of you wondering, I'm going to include some brands down here that are Whole30 approved:

• RX Bars
• Larabars
• Aidell's Chicken Apple Sausages
• Primal Foods Mayo (haven't tried it, but if you need mayo in your life...)
• A lot of Applegate meat products (check the label for sugar or soy)
• A lot of Trader Joe's products, just check this list 
  1. Vegan Kale pesto
  2. Almond Butter Turmeric Dressing/Cold pressed Green Goddess (same section)
  3. Plantain chips
  4. Kale chips (not my favorite, but you do you)
  5. Frozen turkey burgers
  6. Hashbrowns! THE POTATO! HARK!
  7. Cruciferous Crunch 

****That list also lies and says you can have coconut chips, but the ones that I saw at Trader Joe's have SUGAR. So. Yeah, no. 

Alright. Happy travels my friends. I continue on this journey, and I will get my act together and start posting more often. With that, I bid you adieu, and I'm sorry this was a mini novel. I'm not really that sorry because it's very informative and packed with TONS of great resources. Onward!