I’m now two weeks into The Whole30 for the second time in my life and I was thinking about what I learned from the last time I did this that helped the transition easier this time. And I said easier, not that this was easy. Many of you may be yawning, wishing this blog post was about Mack and one of her epic meltdowns, but I figured I am not the only one who has struggled with this and that maybe just one person would relate. Most of my adult life, I have allowed food to be in control, instead of allowing myself to have control over what I eat. It has led to crash diets. Fad diets. Going for hours without eating only to binge on high calorie meals later. Getting up in the late hours of the evening to munch on chips, crackers, or whatever salty snack I had at home. It wasn’t pretty. I do not in any way claim to have an eating disorder but I have certainly had an unhealthy relationship with food in the past. My weight goes way up, and way down, and after being diagnosed with an underactive thyroid, those crash diets serve no no purpose in my life anymore. It’s not about weight, it’s about just feeling better, and The Whole30 is the best way to create a positive relationship with food. Here are my top tips for surviving The Whole30.

1. Read the book. There really is no better way to understand this way of eating without learning the reason behind its creation. It’s not Atkins. It’s not Paleo. And it is NOT a crash diet. While it has similar characteristics to those first two, it really is in a league of its own. The best part about the book is that it is pretty entertaining. There’s lots of humor and plenty of sass that will get you in check with this program. You don’t need to read it cover to cover, but I would highly recommend scanning it for the essentials so that you don’t focus on the foods you can’t have, but more so on the science behind why you should stay away from them in general. Seriously. Get on Amazon or click here and order the book. It’s called It Starts with Food and it’s worth the $17. While you’re at it, get the cookbook too. Click here for that one.

2. Plan. Plan. PLAN. I cannot stress this one enough. Coming from someone who starts a diet literally every single Monday, only to realize she has nothing in her fridge, you need to plan. There’s nothing like starving yourself all day, only to binge eat at night because you have no backup plan in the form of food. Sit down well before your start date and plan out all your meals for the week, along with snacks. It will be a life saver on day two when you’re one step away from tearing open a bag of Doritos. To add to this, I wouldn’t recommend shopping for more than a week in advance. Again, take it from someone who would spend a fortune on food in bulk at Costco, only to have it go bad on day 8. Save yourself some cash and your sanity and only shop a week at a time. You’ll need that extra cash anyways because shopping for this program gets pricey.

3. Stay busy. The book was almost spot on in preparing you for which days are the worst. At exactly days 10 and 11, I thought to myself, “screw this crap, I’m heading to Jack in the Box NOW”. I found myself opening the fridge and staring into the light hoping some new carb free food would miraculously pop out at me that tasted like pizza. So, I have learned to occupy my cravings by searching for new recipes, cleaning and organizing my house, taking the kids to the park, and working more on my home business. If you don’t have a hobby, it’s a good time to get one.

4. Expect to to feel a whole wave of different emotions and ailments in the first few weeks. This is why reading the book is really important. It prepares you for what’s coming. If your eating habits are anything like mine were, your body is going to go into shock the first few weeks. I quit my 3-a-day Diet Coke caffeine habit cold turkey (which the book does NOT recommend but I like to live dangerously). Headaches are common but they go away, but my biggest side effect was the SLEEPIES. If you’ve ever been pregnant, think about that first trimester, when you basically have narcolepsy and fall asleep standing. That’s how I felt. As inconvenient as this was having three children, I knew that my body was trying to adjust to not having bursts of sugar, carbs, and caffeine throughout the day to keep me awake. Once my body figured out how to use good fat for fuel, I actually ended up having more energy throughout the day. Until then, I won the mother of the year award the first few weeks by putting on endless TV so I could pass out on the couch in the middle of the day.

5. Don’t be afraid to try new things. As most of you know, I LOVE to cook. But a lot of my staple ingredients are off limits on this program. Mayo was one of the hardest to give up, so I was super excited to try the mayo recipe from the cookbook. Yeah, that didn’t go well. If you’re a die hard Best Foods lover, this is not the same. The first round of Whole30, I choked it down, needing a light sauce to accompany some of the recipes. This time around, I was committed to trying different variations until I found one I loved. After all, this program is meant to turn into a way of life and I needed to find something to replace my favorite condiment in the long run. I’ve made a homemade ranch, jalapeno mayo, and even a super yummy chimichurri. If you don’t feel comfortable going rogue on recipes like I do, collect recipes on Pinterest or check out the many Whole 30 blogs. There are entire online communities dedicated to support people who are taking the leap of Whole30. They can be very helpful.

6. Find a buddy. No one wants to embark on 30 days of limitations by themselves. You’re gonna want people by your side that will encourage you, make you laugh, and be able to relate to you when the going gets tough. Cause trust me, it will get tough. My girlfriends and I embarked on this journey together and we use an app called Voxer. It basically acts like a walkie talkie so we can all chat in a group and encourage each other…aka it serves as a place for us to cuss, whine, and complain. We also share our favorite recipes there.

7. Find replacements for the things you crave most. While they will never taste exactly the same, you will be shocked by how your body and brain will slowly start to recognize the new, healthier replacements as satisfying. Here are a few of my favorite replacements:

*Soda (for me Diet Coke): I started drinking flavored sparkling water. It had enough bubbles and flavor to get me through the ten minutes where I would take a human life for a DC.

*Ketchup: I learned to like plain yellow and organic dijon mustard. It wasn’t easy. It also wasn’t as hard as labor.

*Ranch dressing: If you read my blog, you know my love affair with ranch. I played with a few recipes and made an amazing homemade version that truly was just as good as Mr. Jack makes.

*Carbs: I did some amazing things with sweet potatoes that ended up tasting better than my normal salty indulgences. Think “asada fries”. Again, be willing to try new things.

*Sugar: Fruit in moderation, but it’s really about not giving in to the signals your brain is putting out. For the first 30 days on this program, you can’t even make desserts with Whole30 approved ingredients. Again, it is about retraining your brain. I don’t love fruit and I crave sugar in the form of processed carbs, but a slice of watermelon or an apple always seemed to satiate my craving for something sweet when it came along.

*Alcohol: There is no substitute. Sorry. Nothing tastes like champagne. Social settings may be slightly awkward for a month if your friends are like mine. Just grin and bear it.

While it might seem like this will be hard, the book explains it perfectly. Fighting cancer is hard. Not having certain foods for 30 days…that’s not hard. It isn’t easy, but it’s not the hardest thing you’ll ever do in your life. And I can tell you that after only 2 weeks, I feel AMAZING. I’m not bloated, my joints don’t ache, and my brain isn’t focused all day on what my next meal will be. If I’m hungry, I eat. But now it’s because my body actually needs food, not because my brain is telling me to do a drive through run just for the hell of it.

Do I still want a bag of Doritos? Not really. Would a Starbucks be tasty? Probably. Do I want a glass of champagne?

I think we both know the answer to that one.