Whole30 Essentials: Items I Love

If you haven't read about my whole30 journey, I advise that you go back and read that first. You'll understand why I fell in love with the whole30 lifestyle and can read about my results from following the plan for 30 days. Upon completing the plan, 80-90% of my meals and recipes are whole30 approved. Starting a plan like whole30 can be over whelming at first. What can I eat? Where can I buy that? And if you're like me, you like convenience and to be told exactly what you need and where to shop in order to succeed. The following are resources and products that I absolutely love and still find myself using over and over again. Books and Resources: First things first, you'll need to educate yourself on the program. This isn't something that you read about today and start tomorrow. Take a week or two to read through the plan, it is a lot to soak in. The Whole30 website is filled with free information to get started, but I also purchased The Whole30: 30 Day Guide to Total Health and Food Freedom. It was nice to have a book at the tip of my fingers to reference to anytime needed and it really helped me understand the science behind everything. You'll also find many simple and tasty recipes in the back of the book. You can purchase for a very reasonable price here. Kitchen Necessities: A Spiraliazer You may find yourself spending some time in the kitchen when following a whole30 lifestyle. That's a good thing, it means all of your foods are fresh, need time to prep and cook, and are not processed! You may even find a new found love for cooking. One of my favorite ways to eat my vegetables are spiralized! There are SO many delicious recipes that use spiralized vegetables. Sure you can buy them already spiralized, but cutting them yourself saves you money! You can pick up a spiralizer for pretty cheap too. I would recommend one that doesn't require too much work. You can find a decently priced one here. Food Storage Containers If you spend a lot of time away from your home and are finding yourself eating while on the road or at work like me, then you'll definately want to invest in some good food storage containers. You can prep your meals on Sunday for the week, pack them in the container and store them in fridge. Then when you're in a hurry out the door you just grab a pre-made meal from the fridge and off you go with your healthy meal all ready to eat! I'm a fan of these food storage containers on amazon. Common Foods: Lara Bars Lara Bars are a life saver. Not just any ole granola bar or protein bar is ok to eat on the whole30, but Lara Bars are approved and mighty good. They are great for when you're on the road or for those times when you have more than a 4-5 hour window between when you can eat a real meal again to hold you over so you don't enter starvation mode. My favorite is the cashew cookie! GT's Raw Organic Kombucha Ever get tired of drinking water? Me too. Kombucha is a nice refreshing drink that has many health benefits. It's a fermented tea that improves digestion, fights candida (harmful yeast) overgrowth, improves mental clarity, and mood stability. I like to enjoy one every other day or so. Careful with which Kombucha you purchase, not all brands are whole30 approved. GT's Raw Organic Kombucha is my favorite and I'm a fan of all the flavors. Many grocery stores are starting to carry them now. You can check it out here. Condiments I often hear people say that they'd miss their condiments too much if they did the whole30. I'm right there with you, I love sauces to spice up my meals and to add flavor. Not to worry though, there are many whole30 approved sauces out there! You can even make your own if you're up to it. Typically I'll take the easy way out and purchase my sauces. They can take up a lot of extra time to prepare. Check out tessemae's whole30 approved sauces. I have not had a bad one yet! Happy shopping! If you decide to try the whole30 lifestyle, enjoy the process and don't beat yourself up if you screw up. It's totally ok to not dive into this doing everything 100% perfectly. What matters is that you're making healthier changes to your lifestyle to be a better, more confident and happier you! As always, feel free to contact me with any questions or comments. I love to hear from my readers.

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