On the Whole30 Program …..our first week

Before starting the Whole30 Program, I felt that our diet was pretty healthy already.

We didn’t regularly buy snack food or junk food, our kids liked the majority of veggies we put in front of them most of the time, and we rarely ate out.

Then we started following the Whole30 Program.

Wow! By day two, I was (and continue to) put sugar and cream into my coffee. On day three I allowed the boys to put their salads between the 4 remaining pieces of bread we had in our pantry, and all of the kids to have a couple tortilla chips that were also in the pantry. One of them even got into the sugar bowl ….I’m guessing he was going through his own sugar detox and that was the only source of sugar he could get his hands on.

By day four, I decided that we would continue following the program in a less rigid manner.

I’m allowing dairy in the form of yogurt back into their diet in a morning smoothie. Typically smoothies are a no-no when following Whole30, but sometimes you just have to pick your battles. I allow myself to enjoy my coffee with cream and sugar, as well as some random treats we’ve had laying around. However, I am still trying to not let my kids have any sugar, because I would like to see if I notice a difference in their behavior as the month continues.

It has been a little more challenging to get the kids to eat all of the veggies that I ask them to eat than I anticipated.

However, I’m starting to come up with or find ways to make them more appetizing. First of all, I realized that going for variety wasn’t that appetizing to my children. For this week’s meals, I’m going to stick more with the veggies that they know and love already. They don’t normally like things like spinach and kale, but they will drink them in a smoothie (I even let them see me put them in the blender). I’ve also found that my oldest will eat more of the veggies if I put them in a food processor after they’ve been cooked, and thin them with almond milk. They have a grainy mashed potato consistency, but he seems to like them. That tactic is more of a hit or miss with the other kids, but they tend to eat more of the raw veggies anyways.

As for me…

I’m obviously cheating as well, here and there. However, I do feel like I have a bit more energy. ….maybe it’s because I’m actually eating breakfast in the morning. Haha! In all seriousness, in the second half of the week, I’ve felt like it’s been easier to get up in the morning. Now, it could be that it’s just been a good week. I haven’t gotten to bed any earlier… Friday night I actually went to bed at 2AM watching Frontier House, but was ready to greet the day by 7 that morning!

My hubby still questions why we’re doing this, and has his own cheats. However, he’s very gracious by allowing me to do this experiment with our diet.

I don’t know what our plans are yet for when we’ve completed the program.

Eating mostly meat, fruits, and veggies is very costly. It’s been hard for me, because I usually pride myself on planning healthy meals with a monthly budget of $300 and the help of WIC coupons (although I don’t usually use all of those). I know we won’t be following the Whole30 Program for July. However, I’m hoping I can learn how to increase our intake of these whole foods, while remaining within our monthly budget.