Hello friends! Who’s ready to start their Whole30?!?! This has been us for the last week seeing family for the holidays 😂 All the food AHH!
January is our favorite month to do a Whole30 reset, it just is so easy to feel motivated after two and a half months of eating junk and cookies and rich foods! As usual, you know I like to share what we have learned and what we are eating, so I thought I would try to do a post a week with our meal plans for those of you following along with us.
I usually don’t start until around January 4 or so, just so I have time to clean out our refrigerator and pantry, but WHEW when we got home from being away for a week seeing our families, we felt ready to just dive in. After a week of tons of holiday food and sweets, we can feel that our bodies just need a reset. We know how good we can feel, and we know how far from that we feel. So here we go!
A few quick links…for those of you who are jumping into your first Whole 30, I wanted to share some of my informational posts that I have done in the past.
Whole30 – Introduction & Information
And then of course, you can always click on the Food tab above to see all of my recipes and nutritional posts.
My plan is to write out quickly what we plan on eating this week, linking the meals I have blogged as well so you can just click and find what you need to know. Since we are starting in the middle of a week, my plans will go from Wednesday to Tuesday, so if you are starting on a different day, just shift the meals over!
We also like a lot of variety during our Whole30s, I feel like food boredom is our biggest challenge, so I try not to repeat meals a lot. BUT, I’m telling you, you could repeat the same week of plans four times and you would have your 30 days of real foods done. So feel free at any point to sub out my choices for something else you’d rather have! I hope this helps you all and good luck!
Day 1 – Jan. 2 (Wednesday)
Miranda’s Potato Bacon Bake
Day 2 – Jan. 3 (Thursday)
Apple Cider Pulled Pork, Fresh and Crunchy Apple Coleslaw Salad, Mashed Sweet Potatoes
Day 3 – Jan. 4 (Friday)
Grilled Chicken (on grill), Zucchini and Squash (slice, add garlic powder, sea salt and pepper, put on grill slab for a few minutes), Baked Potatoes
Day 4 – Jan. 5 (Saturday)
Jamaican Jerk Salmon, Mango Salsa and Plantain Rice
Day 5 – Jan. 6 (Sunday)
Miranda’s Pot Roast, Mashed Sweet Potatoes, Steamed Broccoli
Day 6 – Jan. 7 (Monday)
Jessica’s Spaghetti
Day 7 – Jan. 8 (Tuesday)
Skillet Bacon Sausage and Potato Bites
I am also planning on making some chicken salad, I think it is smart to have something like this on hand that you can grab, especially that first week! I tend to be hungry between meals more during that first week and I definitely don’t want to be tempted to grab something not on our reset plan!
Also, get your snacks planned out! I’m grabbing nuts and raisins to make a little trail mix for us to snack on, apple sauce pouches and plantain chips. I think technically Melissa Hartwig has said not to rely on store bought plantain chips but I just can’t commit to that with three little ones running around and one being a baby hah! They are a great snack and easy lunch time side. I will also be getting some Applegate lunchmeat for lettuce wraps for lunch and maybe some salami too! Applegate hotdogs are great quick lunches as well!
I have found that the more prepared you are, the easier doing 30 days of real food will be. Prep your fridge and pantry, plan out your meals and prepare ahead of time! If you are going to be eating out, check menus before you go and make sure there is something there for you to eat. If you’re going to a friend’s house for a meal, kindly let them know what you are up to with your food this month and ask if you can bring something to help with their meal that would also be something you could eat. People are usually not offended if you opt to bring your own food! Especially once they understand that you are doing this reset to aid your health.
I hope all of these tips and information is helpful to those of your starting out. Keep me posted on your progress, ask me questions so we can learn together and good luck! You can definitely do this and will be so glad that you did! I will leave you with this thought from Melissa Hartwig’s book, “It Starts With Food”…such a good reminder as we start slowing down and being more selective with the foods we eat.
If you are interested, here are my meal plans for the rest of the month!