First and foremost, HAPPY NEW YEAR! I know it's February already, but I haven't posted anything here since last year and I feel like that needed to be said right now. I hope your year has been off to a great start and nothing but good things are coming from it.

Speaking of great starts to New Years, I decided to take the plunge with a couple of friends and do a Whole30 Challenge in January.

"Hey, Kristina! What is the Whole30?" 

1.  Added sugar: real or artificial
2. Alcohol in any and all forms, even the cooking kind
3. Grains: breads, pastas, rice, corn, oats, quinoa, etc. 
4. Legumes: all beans, peas, chickpeas, lentils, peanuts, soy/soy based products (tofu, soy sauce, miso, etc)
5. Dairy: milk, cheese, yogurt, sour cream, etc.
6. Bakes goods, junk food, treats with "approved" ingredients

So let's chat about my bits of experience on the Whole30, shall we?

Week 1: 

Week 2: 

After having found some sort of a pattern with my cooking and food choices, things weren't too terrible. Yes, there were days where I got home and truly did not want to cook, but otherwise I wouldn't have had anything to eat and that just would have been a bad situation all around for me. Luckily, I enjoy cooking and experimenting. There were two incredibly things I discovered during my week 2 on Whole30: (1) AND INSTANT POT IS A LIFE SAVER FOR MAAAAAAJOR DUMP MEALS, (2) Westville is a godsend for healthy, delicious, and tasty eats while on Whole30. Personally, I noticed my face was starting to clear up and I was getting less breakouts.

Week 3: 

I WAS ON TOP OF THE WORLD! I had a ton more energy throughout the day, my skin was looking flawless, I felt happier and cheerier while at work (which is never a thing when I'm at work), and overall was just feeling better about myself. I was frequently complimented by my coworkers that I was looking good and looking like I had been losing weight which was a nice little thing to hear considering I had put on a pinch of holiday weight. Saying no to snacks and deserts became second nature to me. I always had a clementine, a little container of fruit, or half a Larabar prepared to shut down that cake and candy. 

Week 4: 

This was it. This was the home stretch. I knew I was going to make it, but with a minor bump in the road. My day 28 happened to fall on Super Bowl Sunday. While my stepdad popped the top off of a Corona beer, he looked over at me and said, "What's 2 days?!" To which I came back with, "everything!" I didn't commit to a 28-day challenge. I was going all the way with WHOLE30! I took over my kitchen for the Super Bowl to make my entire family Whole30 compliant meals so we could all be happy while watching those Eagles fly to victory! 

The Lessons I Learned On Whole30

Once you make it through 30 days it becomes easy realize that Whole30 can actually be a Whole Lifestyle. Granted, I did go back to introducing grains and dairy slowly because, let's face it, I love them all! But you don't have to have them every.single.day. 

Whole30 also helped me to be more mindful of my ingredients and the nutrition I'm putting into my body. Some of the spices my family would use everyday are actually terrible for you. MSG? GROSS! And don't even get me started on all the things that are loaded with sugar/sugar substitutes! 

Though weight loss isn't the purpose of Whole30, I did lost 8-pounds while on the program, and that was without working out (I know! I need to include exercise into my life. I'm working on it!) 

I've only been post-Whole30 for a week now, but it's practically engrained into my mind to always check labels and stick to the substitutes I learned for myself while doing Whole30.

My Favorite Whole30 Tips and Tricks

• SPARKLING WATER IS YOUR BEST FRIEND! Water can get very boring to drink very quickly. So switch it up for lunch or dinner with a can of La Croix or your favorite sparkling water. Just remember to check your label and make sure it's purely sparkling water with no additives/sugars. Some brands, sadly, are deceiving. 

• RELY ON THE BUDDY SYSTEM! I'm going to be 100% honest - I don't think I would have had the strength of the faith in myself to do Whole30 if I was doing it alone. It made it 10x easier to have trusty and reliable friends to do it with. You know what else helped in our joint Whole30 adventure? Snapchat. To hold each other accountable of everything we were eating, we'd snap each other photos of breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 

• MEAL PREPPING SAVES LIVES! Particularly yours! I would sit down on Sunday night, look at what foods I had leftover from the previous week, and plan out what I would be making with those foods plus what else I would need to buy to complete meals. I always tried to make enough food to last for 2-3 meals (ex: that night's dinner + next day's work lunch + an additional serving for later in the week). For me, I didn't mind coming home just about every day to have to cook. I enjoy being in my kitchen and experimenting. I know that might not be the case for all people, so always make yourself enough food where you don't have to be in your kitchen every night, or at least have most of it prepped and ready so your meals turn out quick. (When in doubt/lazy, a quick seared pork chop or sautéed shrimp with garlic were my go to meals with some greens and maybe a boiled potato or tostones if I needed a little carb). 

• AVOID SOCIAL OUTINGS (IF YOU CAN)! Social outings = temptations of fast food and alcohol. Trust me, you don't want to put yourself through that! You'll thank me later for this tip!

• COCONUT MILK + DATES = GAME CHANGER! Although I liked NutPods creamer, it just wasn't enough for me and I was using a lot more of it that the serving suggested. Plus, NutPods are a bit pricey. Instead, I would take half a can of compliant coconut milk and simmer about 6 dates in it - just enough to soften up the dates and extract the most flavor out of it. DON'T BOIL IT!!! After about a 5 minute simmer, I transferred the mix into a blender with the other half of the coconut milk and gave that a buzz to break down and mix it all together. Strain it into a mason jar and you've just made yourself a week's worth of tasty coffee creamer! 

• THRIVE MARKET IS KEY IF YOU'RE NOT CLOSE TO A WHOLE FOODS OR TRADER JOE'S! Yes, you'll have to wait for shipping (about 5 days) but you can order so many key Whole30 staples from Thrive at some pretty great discounted prices. Plus, you get a discount with your first couple of orders anyways! (*NOTE: you will automatically be registered with a free trial membership for 30-days; after 30-days you'll be charged a membership fee, so please remember to cancel your membership if you don't want to be charged for the year!*)

• LARABARS ARE LIFE (+ other snacks to keep on hand)! If you're out running errands or maybe don't have time for breakfast, Larabars are to best thing to have thrown in your bag as a quick snack. But, of course, not all of them are compliant with the Whole30 program. Now, I only tried two of these bars: Cashew Cookie and Apple Pie. While I liked Apple Pie, it tasted nothing like an actual apple pie. It also had a.lot.of.raisins in it. Granted, I love raisins, but not this much. Now, the Cashew Cookie one is a totally different story. I AM ABSOLUTELY OBSESSED WITH THE CASHEW COOKIE BAR! It's made of just two ingredients: cashews and dates. Simple and delicious. It's also helpful to keep a handful of cashews or almonds in a little container or ziplock bag thrown in a bag as well. But BE CAREFUL! There are some brands (I'm looking at you Planters) that use peanut oil on their nuts and, if you've been paying attention, you'll know peanuts are a major no-no on Whole30. If you're looking to use fruit as a snack, berries (strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries) are your best bet as they're low in sugar. Remember, you don't want to load up your body on fruit sugars, even though they're natural sugars. 

And I think that covers everything I learned and everything that helped me through Whole30. 

I would love to hear about your Whole30 adventures and maybe offer some inspiration of you're thinking of challenging yourself!