Life

Whole30 recap: day 21

Happy Sunday, folks! I’m officially more than halfway through Whole30. Technically I’m on day 21, so we’re on the down slope! If you want to see a little bit more about Whole30 and why I decided to give it a shot, you can check out this post, or click here to see how I finished up!

A few dinners from Whole30! | Teaspoon of Nose
Light lemon slaw – surprisingly good, since I don’t love slaw or cabbage!

So, how’s it going?

I started off week two feeling just plain exhausted. I felt so tired that it wouldn’t occur to me that it was Whole30 related until about 4:30pm, when my energy levels got so low that I was useless for the rest of the day. Which made cooking dinner feel MUCH harder.

Thankfully, that’s passed. I feel normal now: energy levels feel like they did pre-Whole30. I’m theoretically over the detox phase and have the final third ahead of me, which most people say is the good part.

The being said, the good effects – energy levels! focus! pants fitting better! sleeping more soundly! – haven’t kicked in at all. I’m a little cranky about that. What’s the point of giving up all these delicious things if there’s no real health advantage? I’m not even focused on weight loss. Give me something.

I’m used to the food choices, and they haven’t felt as “hard” I’d anticipated: the fact that these dietary choices are temporary makes it easier to skip desserts or eat my Mexican food without tortillas.

A few dinners from Whole30! | Teaspoon of Nose
Pulled pork carnitas with avocado over sweet potato
Have you actually done it, no cheating?

There are two areas I’m less strict than they’d prefer: snacking and fruit. Eating snacks is discouraged, because it means we’re not getting enough protein at meals. But I get full, and tired of eating meat as well, so most days I end up having an afternoon snack, especially if Logan’s working late. Fruit is Whole30 compliant, but it’s not meant to be a dessert substitute. A natural sugar in place of artificial. But y’all, I naturally eat a lot of fruit. And after a steak and roasted veggies, I may need  a bit more food but don’t want any more savory things. So I have a kiwi. I don’t really think of it as dessert, just as more for dinner.

Grocery bill has more than doubled. I knew this would happen, but I keep getting surprised at the commissary. For that reason alone, I’ll definitely be adding things like rice and beans and pasta back into meals.


Biggest surprise: I’m not tired of eggs. Everything I’ve read talks about how you’ll hate eggs by week two, but I pretty much ate eggs most days for breakfast anyway, so they hasn’t gotten old.

A few dinners from Whole30! | Teaspoon of Nose
Shrimp with romesco sauce and zoodles

In spite of my crankiness about no positive effects yet, I do know that this is helping me break some bad habits. When I’m hungry, I’m not reaching for cheese and crackers. For lunch I eat meat and veggies instead of a mostly-carbs meal. I don’t pour a glass of wine when the dog is driving me crazy.

Living in a small town, I definitely feel like I’m doing a fad diet thing. Which I know it’s backed up by nutrition and the fact that its short-term makes it much more palatable, but my group of friends here definitely give me a lot of crap about it. Explaining it was a hilarious endeavor: yes, I’m eating more natural things but no, I can’t have honey or homemade bread. I don’t mind, but I’m definitely VERY aware of it every time we hang out with friends and food is involved. They also bring it up every time. I keep saying that we don’t have to talk about it, but I think they get some joy from torturing me a bit. 😉

A few dinners from Whole30! | Teaspoon of Nose
Salmon with roasted broccoli and garlic aioli

In summary: done with the hard part, now I’m angsty to see some positive effects. I’ll finish the 30 days, but right now it’s more out of stubbornness than anything else. I’ve had friends have great impact from this, I still believe it’s possible, but the crankiness about not eating ice cream has taken over where optimism used to reign.

Have you done Whole30? How did it go? I’d love some encouragement, tips, or favorite recipes!!

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0 thoughts on “Whole30 recap: day 21

  1. I enjoyed this post! I have heard about Whole 30 and have friends who have tried it, I never have myself. All of the foods you made look really yummy. I hope you finish strong and see some of the results you were looking for 🙂

  2. What a shame you haven’t seen the results you wanted so far! You may just be having a down week though because dieting seems to work like that doesn’t it?! Hope things get better in the final days!

  3. Keep with it, you’ll see the results soon. No what you mean about getting frustrated though, with all the hard work you want to see things like yesterday! That pulled pork dish looks delicious, is the recipe on here? going to hunt it down because that looks like my kind of dinner!

    1. Thanks for the encouragement!! You’re totally right, the effort has been so much that I want to see it happen. The pulled pork has probably been my favorite dish!! It’s not up yet, but I’ll post it soon – it’s braised carnitas.

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