Last week, I shared The Whole 30 Success Guide For 40 Year Olds (And Why You Should Do It). It went over the basics of the Whole30 as well as the reasoning behind my husband and I completing this eating plan.

This week, I’ll discuss how we prepared for the Whole 30, as well as some things the Whole 30 books don’t tell you…

Things The Whole 30 Books Don’t Tell You

We had made the commitment to complete the Whole 30. Now what?

It’s time to get prepared.

Things The Whole 30 Books Don’t Tell You – Preparation

First, if you take nothing else from this post, remember this.

Without preparation and a plan, you will fail at Whole 30.

I know, that seems harsh, but after going through the program, it’s the truth. The Whole 30 isn’t a plan that you decide on Sunday night to start Monday morning. You need to prep. Here are a few things we did to ensure all bases were covered.

Step #1: Read the books. Granted, this whole post is about things the Whole 30 books don’t tell you. With that being said, the books do a great job going over the science behind why this program works. Plus, I promise you will refer to them SEVERAL times during the next 30 days.

Tip #2: Go through your pantry and see what is Whole 30 compliant. We ate pretty healthy pre-Whole 30 (or so I thought), but when it came time to evaluate our pantry items, I was shocked. Things as simple at Lawry’s Seasoning were a “no” (sugar and MSG), as well as every pre-made dressing, cooking oil (bye-bye vegetable and peanut oil), dry-roasted nuts (WTH peanut oil?) and pretty much anything out of a box or bottle (sniff, ketchup).

Tip #3: Get rid of any food or beverage that will make you to stumble. I cleared out all red wine. My husband cleared out all beer. I hid the potato chips. If it could make us stumble, it was gone.

Tip #4: Create a meal plan. And by “plan”, I mean a two-week meal plan, complete with approved snacks and condiments needed for those meals. (I’ll get to why this is so important in a minute.)

Tip #5: Make a grocery list. Include EVERYTHING for your two-week meal plan, as well as snacks, condiments, and all your pantry replacements items. (Damn you, sugar.)

Tip #6: Have a heart attack about your grocery bill. I’m joking and serious at the same time…it is quite the sticker shock. If you aren’t prepared for the expense of Whole 30, you’ll quit. We added $300 to our monthly grocery bill, the majority during the first two weeks. Not only were we buying more fruits, vegetables, eggs and lean meats, we also had to “reset” our pantry with compliant seasonings, nuts, and oils. The good news…the grocery budget evens out in Week Three.

(I’ve been asked where I shopped during the Whole 30 – the majority of my purchases were made at – in order – Costco, Sprouts, Door to Door Organics and Aldi.)

Tip #7: Prep. The day before you start the Whole 30 make dressings, hard-boil eggs, cut up pineapple, slow cook sweet potatoes, and cook carnitas. When you get hungry, you want easy access to compliant food.

Things The Whole 30 Books Don’t Tell You – Weekly Journal

Whew. You have all your prep done, now it’s time to get into the emotional and physical resets you’ll experience during the Whole 30.

The The Whole30: The 30-Day Guide to Total Health and Food Freedom has a whole section dedicated to your “feelings” during detox, and while those are a good guideline, they don’t quite describe all of the feelings. And because I want to be “open-kimono”, I thought I’d share my journal…

Week One:

I was crazy tired. Like pregnant first trimester, tired. One day I was so tired, I came home from school pickup, turned on Spongebob with my daughter and took a nap for an hour. And I still went to bed at 8:30 pm that night.
Because I was crazy tired, thinking was HARD. (This is why a meal plan is so important. I had enough brain power to follow directions, but not enough to make choices.)
I needed alternative beverages because I could only drink so much tap water (and I was missing wine) – flavored sparkling waters were my savior.
I got an insane amount of things done around the house in an effort to NOT think about having a glass of wine in the evening or during the weekend.
I read the ingredients list on every product in our house and was shocked at how sugar is in EVERYTHING.

Week Two:

Hello ENERGY. It’s back!!
I started sleeping through the night. Every night. (If you remember, this was one my reasons for doing the Whole 30.)
Foods I thought I would miss, I don’t. (Goodbye, Dairy.)
Foods I thought I didn’t care about, I crave. (I just want one damn cupcake…JUST ONE.)
Foods I thought I didn’t like, I crave and put in everything. (Yummy sweet potatoes, in salads, frittatas, with carnitas.)
I feel like I’m cooking all.the.damn.time.

Week Three:

I started counting down the days till I could have THAT ONE THING back. (For me, that was a glass of wine.)
ENERGY is through the roof – no afternoon slump. Added bonus – can survive on less sleep.
Still sleeping INSANELY well at night.
Start worrying about “eating out with friends” or “traveling” while on Whole 30. I can’t stay in the house forever, but will people look at me weird when I order a salad with no dressing.
Begin to believe I won’t need to take out a home equity loan to pay for Whole 30 groceries.

Week Four:

WHAT?! My jeans fit better. And my tummy is smaller. Excited and scared to step on scale.
My skin is looking AWESOME and I don’t have “puffy eyes” in the morning.
I’m so sick of eggs. Food has become fuel and not a pleasure center.
I ate dried apples and it tasted like a caramel apple, they were so good. Feel like my “need” for sugar has been realigned.
So sick of cooking all.the.damn.time.

The LAST TWO FREAKING DAYS of Whole 30

How many DAYS are left? I’m ready to be DONE.
CRAP, how many days are left? What am I going to do when this is all over? Nervous.

My last thoughts: The Whole 30 is a process. It takes time to reset our bodies and there are ups and downs. But this not HARD, this is a choice. HARD is fighting cancer. And honestly, once you get through the first two weeks, it becomes easier. It becomes normal instead of a chore.

Come back next Thursday as I continue sharing the whole 30 success guide for 40-year olds by going over my results (yes, how much weight did I lose), some tricks I learned, what we are doing now, and would I do it over again.