You almost didn’t get to read this post. I thought about not sharing my experience until I was finished through Whole30. Honestly, I thought about not sharing that I was doing it at all because I was scared I would fail. I figured that because I’ve always failed at every healthy eating effort (usually 3-4 days in), I’d fail at this too.

However, the more people I tell in real life that I’m doing Whole30, the more support I get. So I wanted to share this online as well because the support and encouragement has definitely kept me going!

I decided to film my experience with Whole30. I’m enjoying sharing what I’m eating and how I’m feeling through quick snippets during the week.

As mentioned in the video, I decided to do Whole30 on a whim the day before my sister-in-law started. I had considered doing it before after seeing my doctor for a physical because I still felt so bad all the time 6 months after giving birth. When my sister-in-law mentioned having some of the same problems and was going to do Whole30 to see if it helped, I decided to join in!

Whole30 Week 1 Wins

I did it! I completed a full week!

Cooking has increased dramatically. A lot of nights I’d come home and not want to cook at all but if you have no other choice, you just make something. I even made my own ketchup one night since I didn’t have any compliant ketchup that had no sugar.

Drinking black coffee isn’t as hard as I expected. I’ve been drinking green tea as well and that’s been a nice change from coffee. It turns out most of the sugary coffee drinks I have aren’t necessary as long as I find a mellow light roast coffee I can drink black. I’m still not on the dark roast train but at least I’ve managed to figure out how to drink coffee black for the next few weeks (and beyond?).

Whole30 Week 1 Mistakes

I did zero meal prep for the first week because I was not prepared for the week like I should have been. If you plan to start Whole30 learn from my mistake and get prepared before you start!!

Larabars made an appearance too often in the first week due to my lack of preparedness. Once I found out these were compliant I ate 2-3 too many. I’ve made sure not to use them as a sugar craving stand in since that goes against the goal of the program, but I did eat too many in general as meals.

Thoughts On Whole30 

I knew before I started Whole30 that I ate too much sugar. I love desserts and sweet things like ketchup. But what I did not realize was how much extra sugar there is in everything else that I eat! It’s lurking in savory items you don’t expect, in medicines, in all sorts of random things we consume. Eliminating sugar entirely has meant most of the food I previously had in the house could not be consumed.

Condiments are my downfall. We have a ton of condiments and sauces in our fridge… and they all contain sugar! I think there is one mustard without it but otherwise it’s all just sugar we throw on our food to make it taste better. Starting Whole30 really opened my eyes to condiments. I’ve dressed salads with Whole30 approved dressings or just lemon and olive oil. I made my own ketchup without sugar for some potatoes. Rethinking condiments we use has been hard.

You have to think more about what you are consuming while you are doing Whole30. There is no mindless eating. You can’t just pick something up and pop it in your mouth. You have to think through what is in it and whether you can eat it. Is it actually food?

Whole30 Resources 

I’m constantly googling things like “can you have___ on Whole30?” or “Whole30 compliant” or “whole30 first week”. Learning about the Whole30 challenge and figuring out what I can can’t have while doing this has been an interesting challenge.

Here are some of the best and most helpful things I came across in the first week:

Whole 30 Website – This is the actual Whole30 site and it has a ton of resources, from cookbooks to

The Real Food RDs – I actually heard them on a podcast the same week I made their slow cooker chicken chili verde, which I ate for multiple meals during the week. Lots of Paleo and Whole30 recipes on their site.

Primal Kitchen – This brand created by Mark Sisson is pretty awesome. I bought the mayo and used it the first week and really enjoyed it. It’s available on Amazon and at Whole Foods.

Tessemae’s – Salad dressings and condiments you can have on Whole30! I bought the ranch dressing to take with me to restaurants. The ranch is peppery but delightful and I will probably try more of their options.

Those are just a few of the resources I found and used the first week! If you’ve done Whole30 before and have any tips or tricks, please let me know in the comments!