I am currently 5 days into doing a Low Carb Whole 30 challenge with a group of my friends. I will admit – I fell off the wagon over the holidays and gained a few pounds. So when my friend approached me about doing the Whole 30 challenge, which isn’t that far away from my usual low carb, high fat diet, I agreed.
The kicker? No dairy or sweeteners. I use dairy (cheese, whole cream) as a primary source of fat and I worship my liquid stevia so working around these two omissions for 30 days will prove to be interesting.
I know “Whole 30” sounds a little bit gimmicky, but I get what they are challenging people to do – give up the processed, icky food and change over to ‘real’ foods. I’ve been eating this way for awhile now so it’s not as hard for me as others (especially people that rely on pop tarts on the morning). Here is a link to the ‘Whole 30 rules‘ and a quick summary:
- No sugar – real OR artificial – KICK the sugar craving
- No alcohol – not a problem for me, I’m straight edge
- No grains – no problem for a low carb, high fat diet!
- No legumes – see above, and don’t forget, peanuts are a legume! (Exceptions include green beans, sugar snap peas and snow peas)
- No dairy – sigh. I replaced my whole cream with coconut cream for now. It’s OK. Exception made for clarified butter/ghee.
- No white potatoes – duh. Carboload.
- No carrageenan, MSG or sulfites – It’s impossible to find cream without carrageenan (but not an issue, since no dairy) and double check your bacon re: sulfites.
- No Paleo-ifying baked goods, desserts, or junk foods – meh I’m not a big dessert person. Long time readers would note that most of my recipes are not desserts
- No weighing yourself for 30 days! I need to hide my scale, because I’m getting tempted. I still don’t fit back into my favorite skinny jeans as of this morning, though (LOL)
My typical breakfast of bacon and an iced coffee or tea (and extra water for the commute)
It also helps that I like repetition and can eat the same thing day after day and be incredibly happy!
Here is my approach to my Low Carb Whole 30 so far (I started 2/1, a Saturday, but sadly did not document that day and have no memory of it. I blame my lack of thyroid gland.)
SHOPPING LIST – Purchases made Sunday afternoon
I can never, ever, ever get enough of rib eye. EVER.
- Cashews
- Almond butter
- Avocados
- Bacon (no sugar or nitrates)
- 3 large rib eye steaks
- Green beans
- Pre-washed baby spinach
- Eggs
Note that I already have the following fat sources at home:
- Coconut oil
- Olive oil
- Pecans and almonds
- Ghee
- Bacon fat/lard
I cooked up a large batch of roasted butternut squash, the bacon and two of the steaks (which I cut in half) all on Sunday.
Poured a can of high fat coconut cream into tupperware for daily use, and made a giant batch of iced tea to last the week.
Pre-bagged 1/2 cup serving of a pecan/cashew nut mix into three baggies.
Also, I am not much of a breakfast eater, FYI.
Saturday
Dinner: Grilled rib eye with roasted butternut squash
I am blessed to have a workplace that feeds me, so I hit up the salad bar and deli station every day.
Sunday:
Sunday Brunch: Eggs n’ bacon (yeah yeah boring I know) and tea with coconut cream
Sunday Dinner: Grilled rib eye with spinach salad that had bacon bits
Monday:
Breakfast: Iced tea with coconut cream and two bacon strips
Lunch: Salad with deli meat
Snack: 1/2 cup of pecan and cashews
Dinner: Celebratory Korean BBQ*
Tuesday:
Tuesday Breakfast: Iced tea with coconut cream
Tuesday Lunch: Salad with deli meat
Tuesday Snack: Avocado
Tuesday Dinner: Grilled rib eye with green beans sauteed in bacon fat (YUM)
Wednesday is going to be the same as Tuesday, since I have more meat and left over green beans (make large batches so you can eat the leftovers).
If people find this helpful, I will continue to document my journey of doing a Low Carb Whole 30 challenge. 🙂
The vet may have called me chubby, but I do not need to be put on a diet, mommy. In fact, I need MOAR FOOD and PETS.
*KBBQ – made sure to not eat any marinated meats or non-whole food compliance sides – I will have a seperate post on feasting on KBBQ Low Carb Style
Homeschooling6 Mom says
Great job!!!! I completed a W30 last year and found I could do without cheese and even cream. It took me a few months before adding cheese back into my diet.
Blessings,
Linda<
Sparky says
Thanks!
Did you have any gastrointestinal issues when you re introduced dairy? 🙂
Keto Warrior says
Hi Sparky, I’m DEFINITELY interested in seeing you document a low carb Whole30 more!
Whole30 is one of the things I looked at back when I knew I needed to make a change, but hadn’t started anything yet. I really like Paleo and the whole idea/concept of it, but when I started learning about Keto (low carb, high fat) I just kept diving more and more into the research and it seemed like something I could totally do and stick with.
Anyways, moving towards something like what the Whole30 stands for, while still staying LCHF, is certainly appealing — real, whole food ingredients that you prepare yourself, no canned chemical concoctions, etc. I’d really like to see everything you care to write about how you’re doing it! I’m especially interested, because I try to use as little artificial sweetener as possible — in fact, I haven’t intentionally added ANY since I started 7 months ago! I’m only getting the small amounts in any products I have, that are low carb, such as my protein powder.
Giving up dairy though? I love cheese and cream sauces too much, but I’d still like to see how you are doing it! 🙂
Hope you ROCK it!
Anthony
Sparky says
OOOO!! HI KETO WARRIOR! I am a big fan of yours and have been following you for 1.5 years now on r/keto 🙂
I also got super into the science of LCHF (huge Phinny & Volek fan, woo!) and thanks to r/keto and LCHF started cooking most of my own food, so the transition to Whole30 hasn’t been too bad.
My sweetener of choice is liquid stevia – have you tried it? Powdered stevia generally has maltodextrin as a bulkening agent but pure liquid stevia is pretty awesome.
But dang, NO artificial sweeteners for SEVEN months? HUGE KUDOS to you!!!!! I will admit I started drinking more diet soda than I should the past two months so Whole 30 is helping me shy away from that as well.
Do you have a mailing list for your website? I’ve looked around before and today but still haven’t found a place to sign up 🙁
Mews and Meows,
Sarah
Keto Warrior says
Hi Sarah,
I hope you don’t have me confused with someone else? I haven’t been signed up to reddit for that long, only about 8 months. I was hanging out and reading there in r/keto for a few months before that as well, but only signed up and starting posting 8-ish month ago.
Awesome, yes I have both the Phinny & Volek books also, and watch some of their videos on youtube! I’m also cooking so much more now than ever before!
I’ve tried the liquid stevia before, I have some in the cupboard, just haven’t used it. It’s not bad, but does have a specific “taste” to it that I remember.
Yes, no added artificial sweeteners since I started my journey 7 months ago! It’s not that I’ll never do them, I just wanted to let my palate adjust to how food naturally tastes — or as close to it as I can get, as I still do buy some pre-prepared stuff. Yes, some of that stuff has very small amounts of sugar or artificial sweeteners (like my protein powder), but I haven’t added any to anything I’ve made myself. I used to consume HUGE amounts of sugar all day every day before I started keto (gee, wonder why I was 300 pounds??) so when I started, I wanted to cut it all out as much as possible!
I don’t have a mailing list for my site 🙁 It’s one of those things that was like “hey I should start this”, and just never got around to it yet! Eventually, I’m sure! 🙂
Thanks! 🙂
Anthony
Sparky says
I realized my mistake right after I hit send. In my mind, I’ve seen your posts around for most of my journey (which has been 1.5 years) and am pretty familiar w/ your name/site. My bad, my brain is a bit faulty these days when it comes to memory 🙁
What are your favorite things to cook?
SET UP A MAILING LIST 🙂
<3