Positive living… it’s contagious! Once you catch a taste… a glimpse… a moment… just that one bit of inspiration that leads into an action can bring you to feel like your on a roll! Positivity is a mindset – welcome yourself to positive thinking, eating, and living. Welcome to the Whole30 Round 2!
If your new to the blog and to the Whole30… be sure to check out the Whole30 program rules here. Your going to want to read up, and be sure that you understand the do’s and the don’ts of the program. If your a Whole30 veteran, be sure to check out Day 1 for a quick reminder. And sense we are all still here at Day 2… lets make sure that everyone at home is ready to follow along, shall we?
If you are thinking of starting your first Whole30, or perhaps you are a veteran looking for a reset… I always recommend the following tips and tricks before your official start date.
- Read the Program Rules
As basic as it sounds… it is very important that you understand the program rules and guidelines. There should be no question about if you are allowed quinoa or peanuts! If so… read the program rules or check out the Can I Have Forum Rules are rules and while you meals don’t have to photo ready perfect… they do have to be 100% COMPLIANT!
- Kitchen & Pantry Inventory
Newbie or Rookie alike – you MUST take inventory in your kitchen, pantry, garage… or where ever you keep food. You should create a list that reads at the top … Whole30 Approved / Throw Away, Give Away or Hide Away. And let’s be honest… No… You’er not going to miss that old bag of flour for a month, nor your bag of sugar, nor that half empty box of pasta shells. So throw it away or get rid of it! Be an adult… and say goodbye. At the end of 30 days if you feel so strongly, you can always buy a new one or get your items back from the friend that you gave it to. It’s time to break-up with some of your bad habits, comfort foods, and ingredients that could very likely be hurting you from the inside out!
- Plan for Success!
A goal without a timeline is simply a dream… and while dreams a nice… they don’t help you make a change. Plan your start and your end date well in advance before your take the plunge! If you know that your baby sister is getting married in August, and your mom’s 50th birthday is the week after… maybe starting a Whole30 isn’t going to be such a great idea. After all… hopefully she only get’s married once in a lifetime right? Point being – plan your Whole30 for when you feel that you can be the most successful. That being said, life is going to happen whether or not you are in the middle of the Whole30! So don’t put off doing a Whole30 because of a birthday, a work function, or just not having enough time. Those my dear are an example of excesses! The timing will never be 100% perfect, so use some common sense and try to plan around life’s big moments such as that once in a lifetime vacation to Italy or your sweet granny’s Thanksgiving dinner!
- Practice, Practice, Practice!
Before Day 1 your going to need to have a lot of things in place and ready to go! If your new to the Whole30, this may mean that for the very first time you have to do some meal planning and preparation, you might be brown-baggin your lunch to work for the first time, and gosh… your still wondering what the heck you’re going to eat for breakfast! And veterans don’t laugh… cause you too remember how unusual those first few days were when you looked into the fridge first thing in the morning and wondered if it was socially acceptable to eat last night’s dinner for breakfast because you were in a hurry and needed to EAT! Guys – you never took an exam (hopefully) without studying, you wouldn’t show up for that big presentation without preparing, and you wouldn’t run a marathon without ever running in your life – so why would you expect to start Day 1 without ever practicing your Whole30 commitments. Newsflash … so many do … and so many fail. Plan ahead, practice ahead of time, and you will set yourself up for a successful Whole30. Start first by having a Whole30 complaint breakfast, then maybe pre-packing your lunch, and maybe advancing to a Whole30 24hrs test-run, just to practice getting into the rhythm of your soon to be Whole30 life.
- Keep it Real
Lastly… I want you to remember to keep it real! This isn’t hard… this isn’t torture… and you’re certainly not starving! At any time should you wish to do so, you can simply stop the Whole30 program, reevaluate and decided to start again or to go another route. You are doing this because you decided that you wanted to… not because someone is making you. If you are joining in on your first Whole30 because of the right reasons (more about that here) you will enjoy the process and feel as if it was a life changing expereince. If your doing your first Whole30 to look good in a bikini… well my love… buckle up cause it’s gonna be a rough 30 days. My veterans, you already have decided that you want to do another Whole30… many of you have decided for various health reasons and emotional reasons that doing another Whole30 is the thing that you need and WANT to do. So when it’s hard to go to the party and not drink, or to say no to that piece of birthday cake… I wan’t you to remember to keep it real. Be true to yourself and why you are doing this, and I promise that it will be a positive experience!
Positive mind. Positive vibes. Positive life. – It’s as simple as that!