My Whole30 Journey - Week 2

Healthy living starts with choosing the right foods! I use Thrive Market for all of my pantry staples! They have a section devoted entirely to Whole30 which makes shopping for groceries easy!

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If you are new here, welcome! I’m so happy you took the time to visit my blog! This week I’m sharing my Whole30 Journey Week 2 recap. For those of you who are not aware, I started my Whole30 journey on February 15th to determine if food was affecting two specific areas of my health: my overall energy//mood + my acne. I have been struggling with cystic acne since undergraduate school and it has escalated ever since. You can read more about that in my Week 1 Recap. I include all of the recipes + my opinion of how the dish turned out. I’ll do the same here for week 2 (:

Week 2 Review

For week 2, I didn’t notice a change in energy until later in the week. However, I will add the disclaimer that I traveled to Florida + I SWEAR the weather affects my mood. I am my best self when I’m in warmer weather! So that could have played a factor in my energy as well as my skin. I did notice my acne cleared up a little, but I am curious if that is due to the food choices I am making or if it is due to being out in the sun (because I do notice a difference after spending time in the sun)! Overall, I do have less irritation in terms of digesting food and this week was much easier than last with my sweet cravings!

If you are considering a Whole30 journey of your own, I encourage you to do it during a month you can control. Traveling to Florida was very difficult because I had the temptation oof chips, a charcuterie board, + eating out for lunch. I tried to choose dishes that were Whole30 compliant. I also requested that none of my food be cooked in butter to avoid any hidden dairy products! So here we go, week 2 meals!

Breakfast

In all honesty, my breakfast this week was very plain. I opted for 2 scrambled eggs every morning, occasionally throwing in Whole30 approved hash browns from Cascadian Farms.

Lunch

If you read my week 1 post, I described my method for cooking. I tried to get creative with dinner and any remaining servings would then be used for lunch the next day or 2, depending on the serving amount. There were 2 days that I did not follow that because I traveled to Florida for a quick weekend trip. I was able to have Bolay for lunch on day 1. Bolay is a restaurant that has a wide variety of fresh, clean eating options. I opted for a small bowl with the following foods: cilantro noodles*, broccoli, roasted potatoes, lemon chicken, and a cilantro pesto sauce.

*After looking at the ingredient list on Bolay’s website, the cilantro noodles + the cilantro pesto sauce apparently contain parmesan cheese. The menu shows that the cilantro noodles are vegan and I do believe it was the same for the cilantro pesto sauce. I have reached out to the company for clarification + will report back once I hear from them. I did not feel great after that meal – very bloated and upset stomach. Maybe that is an indication about dairy?!

For the 2nd day in Florida, I had a shredded chicken bowl with cauliflower rice, corn, cilantro, and peppers.

Dinner

Chicken Street Tacos by the Defined Dish – the chicken tasted great but the lettuce wraps were a complete fail! I personally did not feel satisfied from this meal.

Italian Meatballs + Spaghetti Squash by Tastes Lovely – these meatballs were incredible! I opted to pair it with spaghetti squash to get the spaghetti + meatballs vibe. I made sure to use the approved marinara sauce from Primal Kitchen to top it off!

Tarragon Chicken Salad by the Defined Dish- personally, I was really disappointed in this recipe. I’m not sure why I wasn’t a fan of it but I will not try to make this recipe again.

Salmon Burgers + Zucchini Fries by the Defined Dish – If I could use one word to describe the salmon burgers, it would be delish! It was rather messy to make the salmon burgers myself so I would opt to purchase the salmon burgers that are already prepped (be sure to read the ingredients!) but these were great! I paired it with Primal Kitchen’s Garlic Aioli Mayo. The zucchini fries were rather tasty as well but I think I should have left them in the oven longer. They weren’t as crispy as anticipated.

Chinese Chicken + Broccoli by the Defined Dish – Since we were leaving town the next day, I wanted to make an easy recipe that had 2 servings. This was a favorite of mine on week 1 so I repeated it for any easy meal!

I also had a chicken pesto bowl from Primal Kitchen one night we were in Florida. They have 3 bowls that are Whole30 approved and you can search for a location near you that has them in stock! These are perfect for a lunch emergency (which I had on day 15, oops!).