Hellobee

I had such incredible results with Whole 30 that I’m continuing to eat as whole as possible. I used to be utterly exhausted every day, and now I have so much more energy! I’ve also battled insomnia my entire life and it usually took me hours to fall asleep every night. Now I’m falling asleep easily and waking up feeling much more rested, which has had a huge impact on my quality of life.

It’s been pretty easy to stick to whole foods during the week when I’m busy, however I have had a couple of cheat meals when I’ve been out since I finished my first Whole30… but only when it’s something absolutely delicious and worth it. Go big or go home! The biggest hindrance from initially starting Whole 30 was all the cooking that is involved, and I am not a fan of cooking a lot. So I relied on these foods as shortcuts and couldn’t have survived Whole30 without them!

1) Eggs, eggs, and more eggs. Boiled, steamed, scrambled, over easy and in frittatas. They’re fast and easy to cook. You can make a big frittata on the weekend and eat a slice all week because they reheat great. I always kept boiled eggs in the fridge so I could add them to my salads or eat them as a snack.

2) Avocados – Avocados are so filling. Mr. Bee would eat them with tabasco as a snack! I’d add them into my salads, and make guacamole… everything tastes better with guacamole!

3) Tomatoes – I always had avocados and tomatoes on hand because I didn’t have to cook them to have some veggies with my meals (ok technically they’re both fruits). Avocado + tomato + lemon + salt + pepper = delicious easy salad that I could eat every single day.

4) Lemons and Limes – I used lemons to make lemon water, in my avocado/tomato salads, and to make salad dressing. Limes were used to make guacamole.

5) Sweet potatoes – I would bake a bunch in the oven at 400 degrees for about an hour and keep them in the fridge to last the week. They are very filling, and so good even cold!

6) Cucumbers – I used cucumbers to make cucumber water or to make a tomato/cucumber/avocado salad. The cucumbers provide a nice crunch. I love vegetables you don’t have to cook.

7) Nuts/Trail Mix – There aren’t very many things you can snack on during Whole30 other than nuts. So I bought a bunch from Trader Joe’s and rediscovered my love of sunflower seeds. So good alone or on top of salads! We also bought almonds in bulk and made our own almond milk to add to coffee. We really missed milk, but almond milk was much better than drinking black coffee!

8) Tea – When we didn’t have almond milk on hand (which was often), earl grey tea became my go-to beverage instead of coffee, because what good is coffee without milk and sugar?! We also kept cold jasmine green tea in the fridge.

9) Balsamic Vinegar – A good balsamic vinegar was needed to make salad dressings. Pretty much all the salad dressings out there have sugar added… which is why they taste so good!

10) Nut butter – Almond butter is probably the most popular, but I prefer sunbutter. Dip veggies or fruit as a filling snack!

11) Vitamix – I can drink the greenest of green juices and smoothies with nothing sweet added. It just makes me feel so healthy! But my go to mix is usually a mix of whatever greens we have (kale, spinach, romaine), a banana and an apple (since they last a long time unrefrigerated), chia seed, hemp seed, green powder, and water. I can drink 32 ounces of this for breakfast.

12) Mason Jar Salads – I have never eaten as many vegetables in my life as I have on Whole 30! Honestly mason jars weren’t big enough to hold the size of salads I ate, so I would just wash all the lettuce for the week, and then keep a large tupperware container filled with salad stuff – avocados, tomatoes, cucumbers, mushrooms, red onion, boiled eggs, etc. – then toss it all together before I ate.

13) Spices/hot sauce – Now that we weren’t relying on cheeses and sugar/soy based sauces to flavor our food, I turned to spices. I spiced everything up with tabasco, red pepper flakes, and very coarsely ground pepper from a pepper mill.

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With these shortcuts and tips, the only food that really required cooking was the protein.

What foods helped you survive Whole30?

all food images courtesy FreshDirect.com