Two Great Blogs to Follow

The authors of two of my favorite Paleo/Whole 30 websites are also doing January W30s!  Not only am I super excited to see what recipes Clothes Make the Girl has to offer, but she has listed her 30 reasons why you should do a W30:

http://www.theclothesmakethegirl.com/2012/12/30/30-reasons-whole30/

And Nom Nom Paleo has apparently been appointed the "cruise director" for the January W30 and will be posting daily recipes and meals:

http://nomnompaleo.com/post/39048368662/paleo-eats-12-27-12

I've got a full slate for tomorrow - early am workout (maybe even a run outside if I'm still so asleep that I'm not conscious of what I'm doing), grocery shopping, meal prepping, and refrigerator/pantry cleaning, followed by a little New Year's Eve shindig.  And yeah, I might buy a car in the morning, too :)

Breakfast & Lunch for Week 1

Thanks to Jen Sellwood - who I owe at least one cold, early am Saturday run for sleeping in this morning - I'm bumping up my Whole 30 to start January 1.  Yes, I will miss beer and chili with my football on New Years' Day, but my wagon has been dragging for the last two weeks and I need to get it moving again :)

If you like eggs, W30 breakfast is a piece of cake!  Cook up a couple of eggs, serve them with some veggies, and you're good to go.  If you like omelets, they're a great starting place for incorporating veggies into your breakfast.

I had a comprehensive food panel in August that showed an egg sensitivity, so my breakfasts take a little more planning.  My go-to breakfast food is spinach salad - literally a couple handfuls of baby spinach, tossed in vinaigrette, topped with a little fruit and some sunflower seeds.  Whole Foods carries Tessemae's salad dressings and hot sauce (OMG - so good!!), all of which are W30-compliant:

http://www.tessemaes.com

Because I usually work out first thing in the morning, I have some winter squash or half a sweet potato on the side for recovery.  It's the protein piece that takes a little planning for me.  For now, I'm going to make a big serving of paleo shrimp and grits:

http://www.health-bent.com/seafood/paleo-shrimp-and-grits

I'm hoping I have a few slices of sugar-free bacon left in my freezer; if not, I'm going to try my luck at the SoPo Farmers Market tomorrow.

Lunch plan for the week - kale salad with lemon-butter shrimp:

http://www.thekitchn.com/lunch-for-one-kale-salad-with-148328
http://greenhsv.wordpress.com/2012/02/18/shrimp-with-lemon-butter-herb-sauce/

Unsweetened dried fruit is 1) hard to find, and 2) hard to fund, so I'm going to replace the dried apricots with fresh grapefruit.  To keep the recipe W30-compliant, I'm taking out the parmesan cheese and the beans.

As for the shrimp recipe, butter is out on the W30, so I'm going to make my own ghee (clarified butter) and will even then cut the butter in half.  Here's the recipe I'm going to use - fingers crossed it turns out okay:

http://www.grassfedgirl.com/how-to-make-ghee-in-your-crock-pot/

And Whole 9 has a forum which includes a W30 Log.  I'm going to post meals there, too:
http://forum.whole9life.com/topic/5220-egg-free-3/

I hope you're all starting to get excited for this!!

The Planning Begins!

One of my friends asked yesterday about what to eat and I sent him this:

http://whole9life.com/book/ISWF-Meal-Planning-Template.pdf

If you're not a big cooker, this is a great resource for putting together meals!

If you like to cook, I have a whole Pinterest page dedicated to Paleo meals (almost all of them meet Whole 30 guidelines) that you can check out here:

http://pinterest.com/curranma/paleo-recipes/

W30 Resources

I’m trying to pull together as many resources as possible to help set us all up for success with our January Whole 30.

1.  Check out the Whole 9 website:  http://whole9life.com

This covers all of the basics, including some background on Dallas and Melissa and their philosophies on health, life, etc.

2.  Check out their program - the Whole 30:  http://whole9life.com/2012/08/the-whole30-program/

This also covers just the basics of what you can/can’t eat during our 30 days.  If you want more information on the “Why?” behind the plan, you should skip down to #3....

3.  Buy their book - It Starts With Food:  http://whole9life.com/itstartswithfood/

I dabbled with Whole 30 in June (maybe a Whole 18?) going solely by the website and was happy with the results.  It is definitely doable to complete the Whole 30 with the website alone.  But... the book takes it to a whole new level and helped me understand why I needed to make changes for my overall health, not just for weight loss.

4.  Consider signing up for the Whole 30 Daily:  https://daily.whole9life.com

I did this in September, and it was incredibly helpful!  They email you every morning with advice that is tailored to whichever day of the Whole 30 you are on.  You have no idea how amazing this was the first few days, especially when I would have killed for some sugar!  And if you fall off track, they will continue to email you with advice on how to get back on track.

5.  Download their shopping guides, starting with this one:  http://whole9life.com/book/ISWF-Shopping-List.pdf

Way down at the bottom of the page for their book (#3 above), they have free downloadable resources.  I carry the Shopping list on my phone all the time now - fantastic resource!

Interesting Article on W30

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/erin-henry/healthy-lifestyle_b_2327258.html

Why I Am Blogging Against All Odds

After dabbling in Whole 9 concepts this summer, I completed my first Whole 30 on October 3, 2012 and my second Whole 30 on November 21.  I’m going to start off 2013 the right way with another Whole 30, but this time I’m going to try the full food reintroduction schedule, which will make it closer to a Whole 45.  And what better way to do my next Whole 30 than to drag some friends along with me :)  I’m hoping we can use this space to support each other through the carb flu, celebrate our accomplishments, and trade a few recipes (if not a few actual meals!).