WEEK 3.  WEEK 3. WEEK 3!!!!!!!! whatttttt??? p.s. i'm sorry this one is so late, i've been SUPER busy this week so i'm a little bit off schedule.  let's get down to it, shall we??

In Week 1 I told you EVERYTHING you could have ever wanted to know about what a Whole30 is, what the rules are, why I'm doing it, and what I did to prepare for the first week (physically and emotionally <- SO DRAMATIC).  In my weekly updates (find week 2 here), I've also been listing out EVERY meal Frankie & I ate, where we got the recipes from, and what adaptations we made.  We talk about meal prepping, our experience so far, and all that good jazz.

I can't believe this is already the week 3 update!  It's crazy how quickly this is going by!  If you're new to the blog/me (or are new to Whole30 in general), click on over to week 1 and it's all explained there.  I'M SO GLAD TO HAVE YOU!  (and, as always, I'm super happy to answer ANY of your questions, so don't be shy).

The Meal Prep. 

I figured it might be helpful for you guys to see a visual of how I do my meal plan.  (if its not skip on downnnnn).  I start the process by searching the circular of my local grocery store.  any meats/veggies/fruits I see on a good sale I write down on my shopping list to start off with.  From there I look at what I know i'll be buying, because FRUGAL! and then I search through my whole30 pinterest board, my whole30 cookbook, and i'll think about things I WANT to eat and try to make whole30.  from there I generally have a meal/dish list that looks like this:

(on this sheet I also start to list out what i'll want to do on sunday, what I'll have for “emergency” meals, and I also put down there what I was photographing for the blog that day – without lists I'd be lost)  THEN – I take that list of dishes and throw it into a week long plan – so each day Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner – to make sure I've at least considered what I could eat for each meal and have accounted for it food-wise (so I know i'll have generally enough to last the week).  I don't consider the meal plan a STRICT menu – meaning i'll switch things around as I see fit/as my tastes desire.  Generally the meal plan looks like this:

After I know that I have enough meals planned to last me all week, I start to put together my shopping list.  I also have some pretty standard veggies/fruits that I add in just to have (seasonal fruits, bell peppers, cauliflower, broccoli, cucumbers, and zucchini are the staples around here).  I've found it WAY easier to have a shopping list that's organized by food group.  somehow when I just make a straight list I'm always all over the place.  So I organize my ingredients/items by Meats, Veggies, Fruits, and Healthy Fats, Spices, & Herbs.  I've found this to be the most efficient way to make sure I don't forget something in the produce section for instance.  Also, if I have stuff I need from a specific store I'll give it its own section (i.e. whole foods).  In general the list ends up looking like this:

I'll go out and do my shopping (usually on Sunday morning, but if I have Friday off or am super organized on Saturday I could easily be doing it then) and come home to put it all away/organize.  SO now I'm tired. obviously.  That's why I really try to have my lists/meal plans down BEFORE sunday morning.  and if I can have the shopping done EVEN BETTER.  Sunday morning i'll sit down and look over my meal plan and list of things I need to make and decide what I should be doing on Sunday to help myself.  That list generally looks like this:

I cross things off as I buy them or make them and that keeps me organized and on track.  This is the only way i've been able to survive the Whole30.  As you can see, this week's Sunday meal prep included making and doing the following things:  roasting two chickens, making bone broth, cutting peppers and watermelon, making sausage patties, tandoori sauce, nut bites, turkey burgers, prepping the beef stew, and assembling shepherd's pie.  I'm not going to lie to you, this was an all day affair (probably around 10 hours).  BUT to be fair, I probably lost 2-3 hours of efficient time because I was shooting photographs for future blog posts.  I know there are several bloggers out there who have “2 hour prep plans to eat for the whole week!” and those are GREAT resources.  and having emergency meals in my back burner is SO important (i.e. those turkey burgers, hot dogs, meatballs, and the quick and dirty hamburgers that Frankie died over in week 2).  I truly think the reason my prep schedule takes me so much time is because I'm doing different foods each week.  It's really important to me that I have a vast array of recipes I can choose from to keep me interested over these 30 days.  they say after week 2 the “newness” starts to wear off and you begin to resent the program.  that didn't happen for me and I think its because the main dishes we're eating have been different each week, so yeah I can't have all those things but I'm also not eating boiled chicken each day. <- if meal prep wasn't such a big part of my process that's what we'd be eating.   

Now, just like last week, I'm going to give you a day-by-day look of what we were eating.  If frankie and I ate different things (mainly on leftover days) i've noted it –> generally he eats what I eat but will add stuff which is marked with a additional sign( + ).  we rarely eat completely different things – but, if that happens it's noted with a separation line ( | ).  If frankie ate most of what I ate but not one or two ingredients they'll be marked with a subtraction sign ( – ).  B = Breakfast, L = Lunch, D = Dinner.  pretty simple, but if you have questions just ask!

Day 15

B – 2 sausage patties + home fries + watermelon
L – week 2 tandoori chicken + lettuce + bean sprouts + cucumbers
D – chicken soup {homemade bone broth + kale + carrots + onions + roasted chicken}

Day 16

B – 2 sausage patties + home fries + watermelon
L – chicken soup from Day 15
D – shepherd's pie

Day 17

B – 2 sausage patties + home fries + bell peppers + watermelon
L – shepherd's pie
D – roasted chicken + roasted cauliflower

Day 18

B – 2 sausage patties + home fries + watermelon
L – shepherd's pie + grapes
D – shepherd's pie {ash} | roasted chicken {frankie}

Day 19

B – 2 sausage patties + apple + bacon {ash} + 3 eggs {frankie}
L – deli turkey + a few nut bites 
D – beef stew

Day 20

B – deli turkey + homefries {ash} + 3 eggs + 4 sausage patties – deli turkey {frankie}
L – chicken salad lettuce wraps + grapes + cucumbers + canteloupe 
D – beef stew {ash} | chicken salad wraps + grapes + cucumber {frankie}

Day 21 

B – deli turkey + potatoes {ash} + 2 sausage patties + 3 over easy eggs – turkey {frankie}
L – mexi meatballs + fajita veggies
D – mexi meatballs + fajita veggies {ash} | beef stew {frankie}

The cost.

SO. lets talk numbers!  For those of you just joining us, I'm tracking the cost of my Whole30 on a weekly basis.  it won't be totally accurate because each week I've bought things that I'll use throughout the process (and likely even after) AND i started with a stocked pantry/freezer so there are things that I didn't/won't need to buy.  Week 1 cost us $135 total, $67.50 per person, and $3.21 per meal.  Week 2 cost us $255 total, $127.5 per person, and $6.07 per meal.  This week we spent $222 total.

$222 weekly cost / 2 people = $111 per person

$111 weekly cost per person / 21 meals per person = $5.29 per meal

We came in a just a little bit lower than last week.  which also surprised me, but again we spent a decent amount on stuff that will span across next week/beyond the Whole30.  A quick glance at receipts would say that about $85 of what we spent this week was on things that go beyond just Week 3.  I'm hoping week 4 is going to come in at MUCH lower than the last two weeks.  I can see why people think eating this way is SO much more expensive – when I look at $222/week my eyebrows raise (i try to impose a $100 weekly food budget).  Then I think about the fact that the $100 doesn't include ANY of the meals we eat out.  Especially on Date Nights where we could easily drop $100 or more on a meal for the two of us.

I really think it comes down to “you are what you eat”.  Is it worth it to spend a little more to put good quality food in my body?  To eat things that actually HELP my body instead of nutritionally void foods?  To me it is.  I'm okay with $5.29 per meal; and honestly, i think that's a huge benefit of this challenge.  I'm OKAY with our choice to spend more on health.  We spend $100 on the gym every month (OY NYC WHY?); if we have the means (which i totally appreciate the fact that we're lucky that we DO have the means and not everyone is in the same situation) to spend more on our food to feel better, i'm willing to do that.

The week overall. 

{ash}

This week I felt like it was more challenging.  not in eating the food or avoiding the things I can't have, but in eating the appropriate amount at the right times.  Things started going downhill on Day 18.  i had a particularly stressful day at work and barely ate my lunch, which I knew was bad but I still did it.  Day 19 was the start of my long weekend and the weekend was just UGH.  almost every day frankie slept WAY later than I did so I waited probably till 10:30/11 for breakfast each morning which just messed with my schedule completely.  I'm pretty sure we didn't even really eat lunch until dinner time on Day 19.  and the trend just continued pretty much the whole weekend.  I'd be hungry and cranky and I could FEEL my body saying WHY DIDN'T YOU EAT EARLIER.  i'd be light headed and tired.  but i didn't want to make breakfast twice so i'd hold out.  I also went on a run (i think on day 19) that I didn't properly fuel for – I ate two nut bites and had a terrible headache on the run and was super discouraged – but it taught me a lesson about not being invincible and NEEDING to properly feed my body.  

So from that paragraph you probably gleamed that I started working out this week.  Frankie convinced me to sign up for a 10K with him.  I told myself i wasn't going to start a workout plan this month because i wanted to “really see what the Whole30 could do” and i didn't want to “skew the results” <- that was really an excuse.  I didn't want to.  I was overwhelmed with the work that goes in the Whole30 and I was scared.  But with the race signed up for, I had to start  my “training” on Monday, which honestly felt good.  I'm glad i have something that makes me have to work out – i'd been SERIOUSLY slacking in that department for a few months now.  I will say that I working out on the whole30 leaves me feeling it more.  I don't know if that's because i haven't done it in a while or because my body is working more efficiently.  

Knowing I was starting the training this week, I tried to plan appropriately.  I knew i wasn't going to want to go out and run 3 miles after a long day and spend an hour making dinner.  So i made sure our meal plan was casserole/soup heavy this week to make my life easier.  We tried a couple different whole30 recipes that we really liked (beef stew & shepherd's pie were both huge hits – details below).  I also did all the steps for the beef stew until it was supposed to go in the crockpot and froze it.  That way I could just throw it in the crockpot frozen and have nothing to do.  I froze some of the shepherd's pie filling too, which i'll probably use during week 4 after frankie leaves for Disney on Friday.

I have noticed that my tastes have started to change from what they were when this started.  Frankie mentions it pretty regularly that things just taste BETTER – but things that I HATED to being with (i'm looking at you Cashews) i'm actually really enjoying.  so that's kind of nice.  

One of the things I'm noticing (that I really didn't expect) that's more of an emotional change, is feeling more connected with Frankie.  NOT that there was anything wrong with us before, we were perfectly happy and totally in love, but I feel like sitting down at the table together for meals is bringing a new aspect to our relationship.  We've fallen into a rut of “watching a show” when we eat meals and not really “talking” about our day… or even ourselves.  Part of the Whole30 is making sure you really focus your attention on what you're eating and sitting at the table away from distractions helps that.  But I really love the discussions that it has brought into our relationship.  We talk about the food we're eating, how we feel, how our day went, what we want to do over the week.  When we talk about these things and discuss ideas or solutions to upcoming events or challenges it makes me feel like we're a team.  and if we're being honest, having him do this with me makes me feel like its him & I against the world, like we can take on anything.  its really just… nice. so eating at the table is a habit I want to continue after the whole30, I think it helps promote a healthy relationship with food and healthy communication with others. 

Overall, with week 3 coming to a close I'm starting to feel scared.  I had twangs of the feeling throughout the week really.  what happens at the end?  what if i don't lose weight?  what if i do and gain it all back when its over?  what do i eat?  what if things I used to love make me feel completely awful?  I know that that's the point of this and it's totally normal to feel this way (according to the book), but it's just unnerving to know that this is almost done and then i'm on my own.  

{Frankie}

this was Frankie's last full week on this “nutrition reset” because he leaves for Disney on Friday in week 4 – dun dun dunnnn.  overall, he feels pretty good.  he's been noticing he's able to go longer without eating and still hasn't needed to snack as much in between.  he kept asking if i'm going to eat this way even after the whole30 is over because he's really mad he has to cut his short.

he really loves having eggs on the weekends, he mentioned that he thinks he'll want them even after the whole30 is over.  he also has been LOVING on hot sauce lately.  I promised him i'd make him some compliant ketchup and i just never got around to it, so he's been super into Frank's hot sauce and he thinks that'll continue afterwards as well.  He did mention that he was really jealous of a co-worker who had a chicken/mozzarella sandwich that smelled really good and he wanted to get one, but that's really all he's mentioned lately about “cravings.”  He liked the shepherd's pie and beef stew that I made and overall i think he's been pretty impressed with what i've been able to come up with that is compliant.  When people make comments about all the things we “can't” have – he's quick to jump in and explain the point of the whole thing (and even reference examples from the book!) and also mention that the food, so far, has been really good.  

he mentioned to me during this week that he doesn't think i'll like alcohol when this is over.  he says he just “has a feeling.” but he's been missing his occasional wine when he gets home – which i think will probably be the first thing he “reintroduces.”

frankie still hates waking up in the morning, he says that part hasn't changed for him.  Part of this reset is supposed to help you wake up refreshed and not tired and he hasn't been experiencing that.  Once he GETS up he feels good, but he doesn't like “the act of having to wake up” ………… #lifeproblems?  he had a food dream this week about dunkin donuts arnold palmer cooladas.  he dreamt that he drank a whole thing and then wanted another one but realized it wasn't compliant.  i asked if this was something he really likes (because i've never seen him get one before) and he said he'll get them occasionally during the summer.  he's really struggling with “just having water” he's bored with it (but also doesn't want to take fruit infused water…. oyyy). 

Weekly Resources 

prior week recipes: any recipes that are labeled as week 1 would be detailed here and anything from week 2 would be here.

recipes from the whole30 cookbook: sausage patties {adapted} + basic mayo

my recipes:  roasted chicken {adapted: everyday method, subbed olive oil for the grapeseed oil} + roasted cauliflower {adapted: subbed olive oil for the grapeseed oil} + mexi meatballs + nut bites + {recipe coming your way soon} + almond milk for cold brew coffee  {adapted: omitted cocoa powder and vanilla extract}

other places: tandoori chicken {adapted: used my roasted chicken, cubed + kept the sauce on the side until using + put it in a lettuce wrap with bean sprouts, cucumbers, and a drizzle of sauce} + shepherd's pie {adapted: used bone broth to make the mashed potatoes + for the sauce I used 3 tomatoes on a vine instead of diced ones and arrowroot powder instead of tapioca starch + for the filling i left out peas because i hate them and added some bell pepper to the mix} + beef stew {adapted: left out mushrooms + used chicken bone broth because i had it made, we didn't have any issues with flavor!} + chicken salad {adapted: used my roasted chicken + no green onions + added 1/4 cup red onion + pulsed chicken, red onion, and celery in a food processor + used all whole30 mayo and no greek yogurt + no cranberries + topped with grapes)

anyway, that's pretty much everything I have for you.  week 3 wasn't the best week.  it wasn't terrible, just not my favorite.  Did anyone else feel this way at the end of week 3?  

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