I have less than 10 days left to go in my first Whole30 and it feels so good to have made it this far! Let’s get straight to the food and then I’ll catch you up on how I’ve been feeling!

DAY 17

Breakfast and lunch photos somehow mysteriously disappeared. I am blaming getting a new iPhone and iCloud backups. Breakfast was chia pudding (surprise!) and lunch was leftover chicken, broccoli and a bowl of carrot, sweet potato, butternut squash and ginger soup. I made a big pot of it (leaving out the greek yogurt, adding sweet potatoes to the mix) on Monday afternoon along with roasted beets, hard boiled eggs and baked sweet potatoes.

I teach until late on Monday nights and had nothing prepped in the crock pot so I whipped up some massaged kale salad when I got home from teaching. I did a caesar twist and massaged tuscan kale with lemon juice, kosher salt and olive oil and then topped it with tomatoes, cucumbers, kalamata olives, hardboiled egg and avocado. Dressed with a drizzle of Tessaemae’s Caesar dressing.

I still wanted a little something after dinner so I diced an apple and microwaved it with raisins, cinnamon and a dab of ghee. My grandmother used to always make me microwaved baked apples but she’d put red hots in them!

DAY 18

Loved this breakfast of a mashed baked sweet potato with banana, raisins, chia seeds and cinnamon in a nearly empty sunflower seed butter jar.

Soup and salad for lunch. Carrot, sweet potato, butternut and ginger soup and salad with arugula blend, turkey, beets, radishes, pistachios, avocado and a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic.

Dinner was a portobello stuffed with turkey Italian sausage that I had made fresh at Whole Foods from the meat guys and topped with tomato basil sauce. Green beans on the side.

DAY 19

I added pumpkin puree to the chia pudding base mix and it was a nice way to mix it up and add a little veggie into breakfast.

Had to repeat day 18’s lunch because it was just so good. I am officially obsessed with this soup…and with putting pistachios on my salad! This time I also added diced pear and hardboiled egg.

And dinner was one of my favorite meals ever…Ina Garten’s Perfect Roast Chicken. I roasted a locally raised, free-range chicken that I picked up at the farmers market and it was so wonderful. The skin got nice and crispy and I placed a big layer of root veggies under the chicken to roast. They were TO.DIE.FOR after spending 75 minutes cooking in the drippings from the chicken. I did a mix of parsnips, carrots, onion, rutabaga and turnips. It was my first time roasting rutabaga and we both agreed it was a do again!

DAY 20

Pumpkin chia pudding again.

Lunch was an amazing salad of arugula blend, avocados, turkey, pears, hardboiled eggs and pistachios. Unrelated…can you believe the difference in the coloring of the two photos above in dim/artificial light v. daylight. Craziness!

On day 20 I was traveling to Florida. My flight didn’t get in until after 9 p.m. but I held out on dinner until I got to my parent’s condo. I ate a bunch of snacks on the plane (dried fruit and nuts) and then had steak and sweet potato when I arrived.

HOW I’M FEELING

• Non-itchy. Let’s talk about the skin first…after experiencing no improvement in the condition of my eyes in the first 10ish days, I have noticed that in the last 5-7 days I have been 100% symptom free. I did have to use the steroid cream one time early in the program but not since. I’m not sure what to make of this quite yet but it’s a good thing and I’ll take it after the misery I’ve endured for the last two years. (And pray to the bread and cheese gods that I do NOT have a reaction when I re-introduce them!)
• Determined. Getting to day 20 was a huge milestone for me. There is no way that I am giving up now after making it this far.
• Alone. Almost everyone in the group who started has jumped ship or modified the program. I think there may be 2-3 of us left standing who are adhering to the program rules.
• Supported. My fiance is still 100% on-board and my family is also being extremely supportive. I think it helps that my parents were with me for four days last week and again this week and see all of the things that I CAN eat and how much I am eating. (Because the #1 question I get when it comes up that I’m on this program is, “what can you eat!?“)
• Well-rested. Sleep is good right now.
• Comfortable in my own skin. Once again, I have to mention how good I feel on Whole30 in regards to digestion and bloating. I have never felt bloated or uncomfortable after a meal since starting the program.
• Free. I really don’t feel restricted by Whole30. I focus on all the foods that I can eat and I don’t even think about calories, what I can’t eat or how much I am eating. I eat when I’m hungry and I’m still focusing on getting plenty of good fats in. A few tablespoons of oil, half and avocado, nuts and a few tablespoons of nut butter are pretty par for the course on any given day.
• Creative! While breakfast has been a little on the boring side (but you guys know I am a creature of habit when it comes to breakfast!), I have yet to repeat a dinner and lunches have been pretty killer as well!

Whole30ers…how’s it going? 

What are your favorite creative salad toppings?

Favorite hearty winter soup? 

I’m Doing My First Whoel30
Recent Eats: My First Whole30 Days 1-4
Recent Eats: My First Whole30 Days 5-8
Recent Eats: My First Whole30 Days 9-12
Recent Eats: My First Whole30 Days 13-16 and Thoughts on a “Perfect” Whole30