Whole 30. Again.

Yes, I know. I always start the Whole 30 challenge and then quit part of the way through. I hate the rhetoric on their website/in the forums too, but my past experience has shown that it really does help me stop craving sweets and generally eat better. Plus, there's nothing like insanely restrictive yet morally superior clean eating to reignite my decades-old eating disorder make me cook at home. Since misery loves company healthy eating challenges are better when you have other people to complain to hold each other accountable, I coerced asked a few friends to join me on this goddamn nightmare magical food journey.

My motivation for doing the Whole 30 this time around is to reset my palate so I appreciate whole foods again, generally eat better, and make sure that I am as healthy as I can be. One of the biggest fitness fallacies is that exercising helps you lose weight. I'm quite the opposite where I often gain weight since exercise makes me super duper hungry. In the past, I've done Whole 30 and have been really diligent about staying within the frankly excessively restrictive boundaries and was miserable the entire time. This isn't a tenable solution for me and so this time around I'm going to modify the rules: I'll still eat small quantities of dairy and beans.

Corporate lunch is delicious. Also free.

I am also in a much better position now because I get breakfast and lunch at work. Breakfasts will likely be mostly eggs and sometimes breakfast meats. Lunches are likely to be salad-based. Dinners and weekends are where I'll have to plan. Without further ado, our meal plan:

less pretty than one would hope but yet so delicious.

Monday
Citrus-marinated chicken with cauliflower rice

Tuesday
Salmon on an arugula salad with a 2 minute mayo-based dressing

Wednesday
Potato, egg, and homemade sausage hash

Thursday
Dijon chicken with cauliflower soup

Friday
"Texas" Chili

I'll try to update with what we actually end up eating and recipes.