We Tried It: Whole30
First things first: We are not dieters.
In reality, we’re the farthest thing from it – we are eaters. We love food. We love exploring with new flavors, trying unique restaurants and embracing different eating experiences. In that same arena, we love healthy foods. We love the idea of fueling our body with nutrient-dense ingredients that will help us power through. We also find immense value in “doing things yourself.”
Unfortunately, though, as schedules becoming more demanding, we found ourselves consuming a few too many sugary and salty treats to ease the stress of our busiest days.
When we finally decided to kick our habits of overindulgence to the curb (or at least try to), Whole30 seemed like the best approach.
What is Whole30?
Before we get into the good stuff, let us give you a bit more insight into what Whole30 is. An elimination diet focused on eating real food, Whole30 asks—but really demands—you to omit all of those foods listed above that are potentially making you feel like crap (i.e. bloated, tired, achy, sore, depressed, etc.). By focusing on meals with real, whole food, your body finally gets a much-needed reboot for a more energetic, endorphin-filled and anti-bloat life that it, and you, deserve.
Don’t roll your eyes at us. Yes, we did willingly give up processed foods, sugar, dairy, grains, legumes and booze (we know). Did we mention we’re NOT dieters? That’s why we thought we’d ease into it by only doing it for 7 days and seeing if it’s something we could actually stick with. Spoiler alert: We could. But only because we had huge help from Territory Foods who took the guesswork out of making sure everything was Whole30 compliant, in addition to the biggest lift of all: preparing everything we ate.
We’re here to tell you that Whole30 is not another diet fad. And while we eventually waved our white flags on Day 7, we still actively practice and think about all of the things Whole30 taught us, only now with a glass of wine in our hands.
What we learned
Planning your meals is your lifeline
We beg you. Plan them out. We’re not saying you need to spend your Sunday hashtag meal prepping or stuffing your sad containers with broccoli, chicken breast and spinach. But have a plan. The easiest way to slip up on Whole30 is by not being prepared. Cooking is not our strongest skillset so we opted for a weekly plan with Territory Foods to made sure we had fresh food without the grocery shopping or meal prep.
Territory’s whole approach is grounded in healthy food to fit your lifestyle—and their Whole30 selection lived up to every last bite. They create made-to-order fresh meals available for easy pick up where available or delivered to your door.
Our favorite selections in our meal plan were:
Sweet potato breakfast “nachos” with pico de gallo. This is by far one of the most delicious prepared meals we’ve ever had. It was so good, we tried to ask for the recipe but understandably is kept under wraps by the team. All of Territory’s meals are simple but loaded in flavor so any savvy cook can likely figure out how to create any one of their incredible meals.
If you like to cook, select a few recipes you can make for dinner that can also serve as leftovers for following days—write them down and stick to it.
Sugar is in everything
Literally, everything. Why is there added sugar in bread? Why are lunch meats cured with sugar? On our 7 days without sugar (unless naturally occurring), we learned pretty early on that we add sugar into everything we can. And when you cut it out? Yeah, you don’t feel great right away. For the first few days, we felt like we were in an eternal sugar crash that brought us back to our moody, temperamental teen days. But after that, when our bodies finally adjusted to a world without added sugar? Gone were the sweets cravings (except for a random craving for banana bread that stuck with us almost the entire time), the low energy and the urge to order dessert after dinner.
Telling friends and family will help you stay on track
We never really wanted to be that person. The person who tells everyone in their life and on Instagram how great they are now that they’ve found this new healthy lifestyle. But telling the important people in our lives that we were giving Whole30 a shot really ended up being a huge help to us.
You have boundless energy, seriously
Before we went on Whole30 we were sleeping 8 a night (yes, we love our sleep), yet come 2 p.m. we’d hit an energy slump. We’d feel high right after we ate (looking back on it, probably because we were eating so much added sugar) but our energy would significantly fluctuate through the day. During the beginning of Whole30 — specifically the first 2 days — we really struggled. Again, we are junk food addicts and we think detoxing from that really affected our energy levels. But after that slump, our energy was constant — we really had never felt better. Even when things didn't go the way we wanted, we felt energetic and up for any challenge.
You feel deflated and debloated
We can attest that everything about our bodies just felt better. We know saying something like "We lost 11 pounds" would sound much more convincing, but we could see that our stomachs were flatter.
The verdict
Whole30 has been so helpful in understanding our bodies. We would definitely do Whole30 again via a meal service like Territory Foods who truly takes the guesswork and hassle out of figuring everything out on our own. It was like having a supportive coach and friend, cheering you on and making you feel like you can truly power through.