7 Days down, 23 days to go!
I started the Whole30 on January 6th, so I am officially 25% finished, and I’m already seeing a difference in the way I feel. If you are a Whole30 newbie, considering a Whole30, or just trying to incorporate better/healthier/’cleaner’ foods into your diet, you’ve come to the right place.
Today, I’ll be sharing the strategy I used to prepare for this first week of Whole30, including my meal prep schedule, what I ate, and recipes I used. Another disclaimer I should mention: If you are considering Whole30, you better get used to eating leftovers for multiple meals. I enjoy cooking, but I’m honestly not willing to spend the time or energy to prepare a home-cooked meal every single night. So I tend to make big batches of a handful of recipes, and eat them several times. It makes shopping, cooking and cleaning WAY easier.
What I meal-prepped:
Breakfast:
Hard boiled eggs, butternut squash breakfast hash
Fiesta breakfast bowl (air-fryer potatoes. scrambled eggs, bacon, hot sauce, guacamole)
Weekend breakfast plate: scrambled eggs, air-fryer potatoes, seasoned avocado, cold pressed OJ, and coffee + collagen peptides
Lunches/Dinners:
Crunchy chicken salad (the PERFECT lunch when you know you won’t have access to a microwave!)
Two-day brisket and baked asparagus
Creamy garlic spaghetti squash casserole
Instant pot carnitas with garlic spaghetti squash and crispy Brussel sprouts
Loaded turkey burgers and Air-fryer potatoes
Instant-pot jalapeño popper chicken chilli
Steak, creamy garlic mashed potatoes, and grilled asparagus
Taco bake (I SWEAR it tastes ten thousand times better than it looks!)
Food prep/Meal Schedule for the week:
As you can see from the photos, I had a variety of different meats, veggies and overall meals throughout the week. You may also be able to tell by looking at the schedule that I ate the same meal at least twice, if not three times during the first week of Whole30. Most importantly, you should notice that I did NOT have to cook every single day. This made my life so much easier. If you’ve ever attempted Whole30, counting macros, or any other special dietary lifestyle, you are probably already familiar with the concept of meal prepping. Meal planning, shopping, and prepping are absolutely critical to staying on track with your goals.
Chris and I usually sit down together, make a list of things we would like to eat, taking note of how many servings each item usually makes, and plan out our food for the entire week. It is so much easier to make a huge grocery list, ONE grocery trip, and a few hours of cooking/cleaning than to try to plan only a few days at a time. We have found that we are much more likely to eat healthier, as well as save money if we are armed with a plan. You’ll have to invest a few hour up front, but trust me- it is absolutely worth it.
Week one take-aways:
- Planning/preparation is KEY.
- Think about your schedule for the upcoming week, and plan your ‘cooking’ nights around it. Also consider special factors, like being on the road, and having access to a microwave or not.
- The taco bake we made was our absolute favorite meal, other than our special Friday date-night steak dinner 😉
Thanks for following along on this adventure! I hope this post gave you an idea of how easy it really could be to stick with the Whole30. At the very least, I hope it gave you some delicious, healthy meal ideas! I’m toying with the idea of posting some of our tried-and-true recipes here on the blog. Let me know if that is something you would be interested in 🙂
Until next time,
Amanda
Follow along on IG: @amandadev4
Amanda Marie Kennedy 