Yes our challenge doesn’t start for another week but the prep for it is starting THIS WEEK! Say what?!?
That’s right. Tighten your ponytail because things are about to get real. It’s about to get exciting (self-betterment is exciting!), hard (um hello no sugar, no bread, no alcohol), emotional (your entire relationship with food is about to be tested) and self-empowering (YES YOU FREAKING CAN). But if you want to make it to feeling #4 you have to start setting yourself up for success right now. Here are our tips to successfully prepare for our October challenge…particularly the Whole30 portion.
Schedule A Family Meeting
This includes anyone living under the same roof as you as well as those you frequent meals with often. Whole30 can have a profound impact on your relationship with food, how you feel, and really your life, but it isn’t something you want to take on without the support of those around you. If you are married have a serious conversation – is your spouse going to 110% support you in this endeavor?
My personal experience was that my spouse (aka fix it dude Mike) wanted to 110% support me, but couldn’t see himself 100% honestly sticking to it. So we developed a plan that worked for us. At home he was going to be compliant but if he happened to go to work without a breakfast or lunch packed I was going to just let it be. For us it worked.
If you have children, there is another conversation to be had. If you frequent meals often with co-workers or friends this is another area to reflect upon. If you live solo, sure you don’t have to convince roomies to do it with you, but who is going to support you in a moment of weakness?
Learn What is Whole30 Approved
And focus on that. Whole30 is not about what you can’t have, but about eating real vitamin, nutrient and mineral rich food that your body needs to thrive. But to be successful you do have to know what is on that list.
My first suggestion is to read what Whole30 is all about. There is so much more to Whole30 than just weight loss – the book talks about hormonal + metabolic dysregulation, inflammation in the body, leaky gut, digestive issues and gut bacteria imbalance. And if you’re already thinking well I don’t have time to read a book this week…YOU DO! The audiobook is 8 hours. I guarantee you are going to spend 8 hours driving, walking the dogs, chauffeuring kids, washing dishes, folding laundry, cleaning, showering, putting on make up or fixing your hair, cooking…you can listen to an audiobook while doing all of those things!
And then, once you’ve read/listened to the book, download a cheat sheet to use when meal planning and grocery shopping. Save a copy to your phone, print a copy for your purse, car, etc., and make sure you are never caught grocery shopping without it.
A great downloadable (and free) list can be found here.
Clean out your kitchen
This means removing anything that isn’t whole30 compliant as well as getting organized. Go through your fridge and pantry and separate out anything not compliant with whole30. I would strongly suggest getting rid of it (please donate it, share with neighbors or friends or family over just throwing good food away). Trust me, getting it out of your house will make your whole30 journey more of a success. It’s a lot easier to not reach for a piece of candy if you have to physically get in your car to go buy some versus just open the bag of non-whole30 stuff you stuck up on a top shelf. If you aren’t going to get rid of non-compliant items, at least bag them up, seal them up, and put them as out of sight as possible.
The second part of this refers to your actual kitchen cooking items. If you don’t do a lot of cooking normally now is the time to determine if you need any kitchen essentials.
Get caught up on anything that might stress you out or distract you from focusing on our October Challenge
This is the time to conquer whatever you have been procrastinating on, whatever you know might come up in October that you can handle now. I would say this also extends to honey-do-lists for significant other and chores for kids. Get stuff done now so that you don’t have it as a distraction during the challenge.
Join Our Support Group
We are launching a private group on Facebook so head on over and sign up. This will be an awesome resource to get support from others, ask questions, share advice. To join simply open facebook, search for the goup Tone Barre, click to join.
Start meal & snack planning
My suggestion is to at least plan out your meals for your first week of Whole30 during this preparatory week. If you have time to plan out more go for it, but particularly if you are doing this for the first time, it can seem really daunting to do more than a week’s worth of planning Plus you are going to learn as you start meal prepping and cooking what you like, what you don’t like, if you are making enough food or too little food, etc., So if you do plan for more than one week just be prepared to make some tweaks as you go.
Make some freezer meals
Again this comes down to how much time you have, but the more you can get done now, the easier your month will be. A good goal would be 1-2 meals prepped and placed in the freezer.
That’s it for now! If you’ve made it through #7 you are in good shape to get this challenge started on the right foot. We are so excited to go on this journey with you!
xoxo
Britt
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