Whole30 Week 1 Menu & Progress

As of today, we've been on the Whole30 for a week, getting our support from an ever-increasing circle of local and long distance friends and acquaintences who are going through this together via Facebook!

This is our 3rd time out, but feels like the first  time it's really clicking for us, without seeking loopholes or resisting the boundaries.  I won't say it's been utterly drama-free, but it hasn't been as hard as it was the first couple of times.

There are a couple days in the first week described as "KATT" (that's "Kill All The Things") and unfortunately that was dead on accurate! But after a long talk, my husband and I remembered that we both actually want the other one around in our old age, and chose to take our aggressions and peevishness out on  decluttering projects over the weekend.

PRO TIP: Increased energy plus a bit of peevishness makes it extremely easy to get rid of junk that has started overtaking your space!

After some great, fast-paced effort, I notice that moods and environment are much more peaceful here on Monday. (Not a coincidence, I'm sure)

So, as of today, I'm starting to get actually excited by all this - I know there are more challenging days ahead, but I also know there are more glorious days ahead of increased energy and reduced pain!

Speaking of that - prior to starting, I experienced pretty intense GERD upset after nearly every meal, and my joints, as usually, were at least a little achy (I have RA, so I take this as a daily given).

The GERD has been almost 100% completely fine - two episodes, one involving a raw pear, and one a handful of raw cherry tomatoes.  I'm not entirely sure what's happening there, but I do plan to explore further later. But meanwhile, it is absolutely positive that at least one of the things I am not eating right now is the thing that's been making me miserable. (It's like a mystery novel - I can't wait to find out the guilty party!)  So no matter what - this W30 has already been a roaring success.

The joints aren't entirely fine, but neither are they as bad as you might guess, with arctic cold chills and 'bomb cyclones' out here causing mayhem.

In case I wasn't sure before - I am all in with this.

Since lunches need to be portable for work or eaten easily before leaving, we decided on these general guidelines for weekday meals other than dinner. We keep plenty of choices on hand and each one puts theirs together as desired, keeping more time consuming meals for the weekends:

Leftover salad with pork, hard cooked egg, half an avocado. Breakfast? Lunch? Yes! 

Breakfast - choose from the following:

Homemade Sausage Patties

Hard Cooked Eggs (or quickly cooked)

Root Veggie Hash

Fruit

Avocado

Roast Root Veggies, Turkey (leftovers in freezer), Mixed Olives, Cucumber Slices

Weekday Lunch - choose from the following:

Dinner Leftovers 

HomemadeSoup

Salad with Protein

Breakfast Items 

Plus Veggies/Fruits

Snacks, if needed:

Meal items not yet eaten

Fruit slices with Almond Butter

Veggies with Salsa or Guacamole

LaraBar

So this was our first week's menu - a couple of these were slight modifications of our original ideas, but for the most part, this was all according to plan.

A word on the Schweinhaxe on Day 1:  this was an out of the ordinary cut of pork for us that I'd had when we were visiting Germany this fall. The process creates a tender cut of pork with an outer later of delicious pork rinds!  Not a part of our regular rotation, but I'd ordered the cut of meat to have for Christmas and then we left to visit family, and I was determined to have it.  By switching the recipe's called-for beer to broth, it was Whole30 fine, so it became our Day 1 Kick Off Meal!

Day 1:

Schweinhaxe with Sauerkraut

Day 2:

Leftover Pork

Salad

Day 3:

Aidell's Chicken & Apple Sausage

Fried Eggs

 Roasted Root Veggies

Day 4:

Crispy Teriyaki Chicken

Coconut Cauliflower Rice

Asian-Style Cabbage Slaw (recipe to come)

Day 5:

Chocolate Chili

over a Baked Potato (with Ghee)

Day 6:

Roast Chicken

Balsamic Sauteed Brussels Sprouts with Snipped Dates & Walnuts*

Day 7:

Leftover Roast Chicken

Steamed Vegetables with Ghee

Tossed Salad

* My husband cooked this night - the Brussels Sprouts are a variation of this recipe, which is one of his favorites to cook.  He switched out dates for the cherries (which often have additional sweetener), left off the Parmesan and added some walnuts.  He also left off the Prosciutto, but by all means, use it! Check labels but it seems to be the one cured meat that's pretty easy  to find in a Whole30 compliant form!

One week down! Onward to Week 2!