My Whole30 Journey - Week 4 + Results

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Hello I’m back again with my last weekly update on my Whole30 journey! This is the week I finally started to notice major acne changes. Overall, there is less inflammation + irritation around active breakouts + the breakouts are less frequent. Overall, my gut feels incredible. I haven’t had an upset stomach since starting Whole30 (except the one day I accidentally ate dairy despite the menu saying it was vegan – you can read about that in my week 2 recap).

Skin Update

Here is a before + after of my acne due to Whole30. I made certain I did not change my skin care routine although, I did change my regular workouts, which could have an effect on it. Look at the difference in my skin breakouts + complexion!! I hope to see more improvements moving forward. I would like to add that I also went off of all medications prior to starting Whole30, which is known to have an effect on acne as well.

Before

After

How Much Did It Cost?

Let’s talk about cost for a second. This is really where it matters because I can justify eating healthier + at home if it makes a difference financially. I would like to point out that I am being very transparent here + a little vulnerable sharing financial information. But to me, that is the only way to know if something is worth looking into.

In order to keep it fair, I calculated my food bills for 30 days prior to starting Whole30 January 16-February 14. This includes all groceries, going out to eat, + ordering food at home. We got married on January 15 + did not drive home until Jan 18 which accounted for a decent contribution to the amount from January 16-February 14 but we also went out during the Whole30 challenge + all of that was included. The only exception is my husband’s birthday. It is on Valentine’s Day + dinner was my gift to him so I splurged a little since he deserves it. Since we spent more than a typical night eating out + it was a special occasion, I chose not to include that in the final calculation.

I compared that to all food expenses for February 15-March 16 which did include a few going out to eat bills (when traveling). For January 16-February 14, we (my husband + I) spent $1,306.73 on food. From February 15-March 16 we spent $1,243.81. While we spent close to the same amount as the previous month, Whole30 included stocking up on entirely new sauces (Primal Kitchen makes an entire line of Whole30 approved sauces!). We also cooked a new meal every night which can spike pricing. I do believe that if I did another month of Whole30, the cost would drop significantly because I would not need to stock up on products that I did not have. I do plan on meal prepping in the future to continue to work on keeping the cost down because these numbers seem ridiculously high to me.

Moving Forward

Just because the challenge is over now does not mean I want to throw all caution to the wind. I have a new relationship with food + respect how it can nourish my body for the active lifestyle I live. While I personally do not believe Whole30 is a sustainable long term plan, I definitely learned a lot over the 30 days. I did not realize just how much sugar I was eating prior to Whole30. Hello, there is SO much added sugar in most food products – just read the labels on your next grocery run! I also did not realize that I snacked all. day. long. I don’t think was a major issue, but now I eat my 3 main meals with a few snacks rather than snacking consistently throughout the day.

At the end of all of this, my goal moving forward is to be mindful about what I am eating. I read every food label + look at the menu prior to going out to eat, when necessary. While looking at the menu prior to eating is not a must, reading food labels definitely is! For example: peanut butter tastes the same without added sugar, yet most brands have the added sugar. I plan on carrying this habit with me + taking my time when pulling items off the shelves at grocery stores.

I also plan to order more from an online shop that eliminates the middleman, offering wholesale prices! What I love about this website is the ability to filter based on diet type. There is even a Whole30 section! By ordering online, I will be less tempted to pull random cravings in the grocery store. By clicking on my link here, you can get 25% off of your first purchase as well as a free gift!

As I have done in all of my previous weekly recaps, I will include any new recipes that we tried! I will include my daily food diary below in case you are thinking of doing the Whole30 yourself! If you are interested in any Whole30 meals that are not described below, you can read any of my previous weekly recaps + find all of the recipes there!

Breakfast

Unfortunately, I did not plan breakfast this week so I had 2 scrambled eggs every morning. They don’t take a terrible amount of time to cook but it was rather annoying cooking every morning.

Lunch

The lunches worked the same as previous weeks. In case you haven’t had a chance to read any of my other Whole30 weekly recaps, I chose to set up my Whole30 meals for dinner. I chose choices with 4-6 servings so there was enough for lunch the following day.

Dinner

To make it a little easier on myself, this last week I chose to redo our favorite recipes. There were a few new ones so I have included those below, but if you are looking for some dinner ideas, be sure to check out the recipes I share in my previous weekly recaps.

Steak Bites + Sweet Potatoes by The Modern Proper – this dish was delish! Such an easy to make meal + I honestly think this could be a great meal prep idea too!

Cauliflower Fried Rice + Shrimp by The Defined Dish – this dish was such a hit! My only advice is to drain the cauliflower rice before mixing it all together. We chose to heat the veggie steam bag in the microwave to cut down on cooking time. But the flavor of this dish was very good!

Chipotle Ranch Beef Burgers by Paleo Running Momma – we opted for beef burgers instead of chicken burgers because that is what we had in the freezer but this was SO good! We made sweet potatoes as a side dish however, were very soggy + the taste was not the best, so I opted not to share that recipe.

Creamy Tuscan Chicken by Paleo Running Momma – this dish unfortunately wasn’t one of my favorites this week. I’m not sure exactly what went wrong but the sauce was gooey + the tomatoes overpowered the dish.