whole 30 | get ready!

For the month of April, Eugene and I have committed to doing the whole30 program.

Apparently, April is the month I am most motivated to pursue healthy living. Last year, I did #30daysofsalad in April. It was fun but a lot harder than I thought. I learned a lot of valuable lessons during that month (i.e. you can make almost anything into a salad!) and I feel that it really changed my perspective on food.  I'm excited to see how our perspective will change after this month! 

 I heard about "Whole30" last year through instagram. I've been wanting to try it for over a year now, and finally coughed up enough courage to plan for it. Whole30 is a program that challenges you to only eat "real food"/whole foods for 30 days. Nothing processed. No grains, sugar, dairy, legumes, soy, corn, etc. It is practically a paleo diet on steroids with a little bit of fun! 

According to my husband, I have a really bad track record when it comes to these things. Last year, we also attempted a 3-day juice cleanse. I bought over 10 pounds of fruits and vegetables and juiced away for hours to prepare for the week. I actually quit/cheated after breakfast on Day 1. DAY 1, people. Pretty pathetic, if I do so myself. My amazing husband was able to complete the entire 3-day cleanse without me. The good thing is I acknowledge this about myself - I quit way too easily and when the going gets tough, I'm usually the first to excuse myself from the game. That's why I hesitated for so long. I knew that if we were to commit to it, than we need be wholehearted about it. 

"He who fails to plan is planning to fail. " 

{Winston Churchill}

We've been thinking about this for a long time now. To complete a one-month cycle has been one of my new year's resolutions. For the last two months, we have been purging our fridge and pantry of non-compliant things to rid ourselves of any temptation to cheat. We've been trying our very best to only purchase whole30 compliant things such as sauces, spices, canned goods, etc. I've been reading labels on almost everything I buy and find myself consicously thinking, "what whole30-compliant ingredient can I substitute this for?" It's been crazy, y'all, and to be honest I'm actually getting really excited for this month. 

There is a book that the makers of the Whole30 program encourages you to read. 

I'm currently 25% into it and it's been a huge help. It's been helping me to understand why the program limits certain foods and does a great job explaining how the food we eat affects our psychological response, hormonal balance, the health of our gut (aka intestinal permeability)  and support our immune function by minimizing inflammation! It's made me think twice about certain foods that I eat and it's been helping us get pumped! 

Another thing I had to do is revamp our pantry. 

Whole30 does not allow you to consume anything that is processed or anything that contains sugar, AKA everything in my pantry. In order to help us to succeed, I have been researching and ordering a bunch of compliant pantry items. We found a worthy substitute for soy sauce (coconout aminos!) and I thought I found a good sriracha replacement at Fresh & Easy but I later saw that it contains sugar (BOO!). But don't fret - I found a recipe for Whole30-compliant Sriracha and I bought the red jalopenos so I'm ready to go! 

We've also been doing practice runs (usually breakfast) to get ourselves used to whole30 meals. Eugene is actually really loving it so far! 

Pursuing Whole30 is definitely going to take a lot of planning, prepping and thought. However, we're excited to see how this month will change our perspective on food and what kind of health benefits we will experience as a result of thinking more intentionally about what kind of things we eat.

We only have a few more days to prepare... 

and to be honest, I'm already missing my caramel macchiatos (*sob) 

LET'S DO THIS!