Health & Wellness Whole30

My New Year’s Resolution: #Whole30 Challenge

I'm doing the Whole30 challenge

Welcome back and Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas season!

It’s the first day of a brand new year, and this month hubs and I have decided to take on the Whole30 nutritional challenge to help us get 2014 off to a great start. I did a Whole30 challenge last summer with fantastic results, but I’ve gotten lazy and fallen back into some bad habits. Christmas and the whole holiday season were especially full of sugar and junk, so now’s a good time to reset my metabolism and taste buds back to clean eating.

I’d love for you to join me and Krystal from Krystal’s Kitsch as we work towards better health through the next 30 days.

As I’ve mentioned before, we’ve also been coping with my father-in-law’s cancer. At first I thought maybe now wasn’t the time to take on this challenge, but after discussing it, hubs and I are going to go ahead. Eating better supports our mental and emotional health, and with everything going on, we definitely need the extra help. Chris is especially committed to improving his diet as his father’s illness has reinforced his motivation to stay healthy for his family.

What is Whole30?

So, just what the heck is this Whole30 thing? According to Dallas and Melissa Hartwig, the authors of It Starts with Food and founders of the Whole30 program, it’s a “short-term nutritional reset, designed to help you restore a healthy metabolism, heal your digestive tract, calm systemic inflammation and put an end to unhealthy cravings, habits, and relationships with food.” It’s a way of eating that banishes the junk out of my diet and focuses on real, whole foods.

Eat real food – meat, seafood, eggs, tons of vegetables, some fruit, and plenty of good fats from fruits, oils, nuts and seeds. Eat foods with very few ingredients, all pronounceable ingredients, or better yet, no ingredients listed at all because they’re totally natural and unprocessed.” (http://www.whole9life.com)

I’ll be sharing my weekly Whole30 meal plans and some of my favourite Whole30 recipes with you. These will be grain-free, sugar-free, dairy-free, and legume-free.

Up to this point I haven’t really done much with Instagram, but I received an awesome iPad Air from my wonderful family for Christmas so I’m having lots of fun with it now! Follow us on Instagram at @thiswestcoastmommy and @sunnysweetdays to see the Whole30 goodness we’re making and eating.

We’d love for you to share your Whole30 challenge with us too! Tag your Instagram pics #Whole30BlogChallenge and leave me your link in the comments.
 

Whole30 Meal Plan for January 1-5

Wednesday, January 1

Ginger and Green Onion Chicken
Roasted Broccoli and Cauliflower

Thursday, January 2

Spice Roasted Chicken with Apple Stuffing
Coconut Mashed Sweet Potato

Friday, January 3

Chicken Vegetable Soup

Saturday, January 4

Slow Cooker Chicken with Spicy Coconut Cream Sauce
Cauliflower Rice

Sunday, January 5

Butter Chicken
Cauliflower Rice

 
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8 Comments

  • Looking forward to following along, just started today! But I have a feeling a good sense of community will help me keep this challenge for 30 days.

    Thanks for posting,
    Alex Lipinsky

  • I did my first W30 starting last May 1st. Ended up doing 3 back to back, and have come out the other side with a new approach to food, a healthier weight, and off both my prescription medications (one for acid reflux/ulcer, and one for low thyroid). So glad I did it! Wishing you good health!

    • Thanks! Interesting you mentioned acid reflux. My husband was taking rabeprazole for his acid reflux, and he was able to stop using it too after about the first month eating paleo/whole30. Congrats on the all the changes you’ve been able to make!

  • I am so glad to find this blog about Whole 30, my hubby and I were thinking of doing this sort of thing, because our goal for this year is to get to lose as much as we can so we can start yoga, we need to lose weight before we even try that( even though we would look hilarious). Thank you so much for sharing your journey with this , it has helped make up my mind to really give it a hard try:)

    • Glad you found this helpful! Changing our diet made a huge difference in our health and weight. Stick it out for at least 30 days and I bet you’ll see a difference too. I’ve got lots of family-friendly paleo/Whole30 recipes, feel free to check them out. Good luck!

  • Wow, this sounds interesting! However, I’m a super picky eater so I feel like it would be hard for me to stick to this. With your recipes, though, I may be able to find some stuff I like! 😉