Last weekend was my first weekend doing the Whole30. I knew that weekends would be one of the more challenging times to follow the plan but it really helped that I wasn’t going out so I had full control over my meals. I also didn’t have as much temptation to drink:)
Over the weekend I felt like I make some steps towards really getting the hang of this Whole30 thing. I was putting together meals more easily and falling into a better eating schedule without relying as much on snacks. Honestly I also think it helped that I wasn’t running so I wasn’t starving like I usually am after a long run.
I broke down my meals by Saturday and Sunday:
Breakfast: frittata and sweet potato fried in coconut oil, black coffee
Lunch: leftover spaghetti squash with paleo meatballs and tomato sauce with spinach
Snack: gala apples with cashew butter
Dinner: bacon bison burger sliders with homemade paleo ketchup and a salad
Post-dinner: green tea
Pre-breakfast: banana and black coffee
Breakfast: apple, zucchini, squash, and sausage hash with eggs (After I took the above picture I ended up making it into a scramble as the eggs finished cooking)
Lunch: taco salad with spinach, ground turkey, peppers, onion, cucumber, tomatoes, avocado and homemade taco seasoning
Snack: Roasted almonds with sea salt
Dinner: Slow cooker chicken, kale, and sweet potato stew
Post-dinner: Apple chips baked in coconut oil with cinnamon (with a little melted cashew butter!)- we ate dinner much earlier so I felt like I needed to eat something else before I went to bed.
The trick was finding things we could eat over the weekend without interfering with our meal plan for the week! (Usually I don’t plan meals for the weekend other than Sunday’s dinner and we rely on eating out or eating leftovers). I think it went pretty well for not eating out at all!
Do you usually plan your meals for the weekend or just wing-it?
Do you eat differently on the weekends than during the week?
Thanks to Jenn for hosting the link-up!
This meals look delicious! I usually wing-it/kinda plan weekend dinners. Like you I most likely am going out so when grocery shopping I don’t want to account for too many weekend groceries because I don’t want them to go bad if I end up going out or having plans.
I think part of what makes it hard it the uncertainty of weekends. During the week I know Ill be bringing lunch to work and eating breakfast and dinner at home, so I can always plan for that. I do like using the weekends as a time to go out more but its much easier to control what I eat during the whole30 by cooking myself!
I rarely plan my meals in advance although I am pretty routine and end up eating the same things in some form anyway lol. Weekends are a bit different because I tend to eat out more often.
I just have a really hard time knowing how much of everything to buy without meal planning- even still I end up running out of stuff! I hate having to go to the store more than once a week, which is what happens if I don’t plan ahead!
I love bison, and I have to check out the paleo ketchup, simply for my own curiosity. Everything looks really incredible! I would imagine that it could be very hard to “wing it” on Whole 30. I definitely winged it this weekend… hello, goldfish for dinner!
It’s really hard. I think its a little easier to be creative/flexible with snacks, but with meals you really need to have some options available!
Weekends on Whole30 were strange at first, but we weren’t going out to eat much anyway so I quickly realized it didn’t make much difference what day of the week it was! It was all mental. The extra prep felt like a lot though – planning 7 meals rather than maybe 5 – and now I break the week into two parts in my head to make meals more manageable.
I think planning for 7 days is really hard. Its a good idea to split the week into two parts. I just never know if I’ll have time to get back to the grocery store during the week. I think I am learning what foods to just buy a lot of (like sweet potatoes and eggs!) because they will get eaten in a reasonable time no matter what!
It’s funny, the weekends are usually easier for me because we are home more often. During the week I am always running around taking kids to different appointments etc so it’s so easy to get something quick somewhere (read: a smoothie. My addiction 😉 )- but even then I keep it healthy. Meal planning makes me stick to healthy eating better though and I love being prepared!
See that’s funny because I put so much more effort into the days when I am busy/out that I am always prepared with what I’ll be eating! On the weekends I know I will have more time so I don’t necessarily plan, and then end up without anything to eat!
I am considering trying this challenge when I finish marathon training. My issues: no sweets and GUM. I chew a pack a day. Do you find your sweet tooth is satisfied by apples and almond butter?
I don’t think I had too much of a sweet tooth before..I mean I definitely enjoyed some chocolate on occasion, but I was also fine with paleo baked treats instead of sugary sweets. I don’t chew gum so that wasn’t an issue. I am learning to enjoy fruit as my snack, so I guess thats a good thing!
When it comes down to me making the meal plan (instead of my partner) I only write down Monday through Friday in hopes he’ll take us out for dinner or something on the weekends. It seems to always be a scramble deciding what to have… and when not doing a whole 30 or eating strictly paleo like we are now.. it usually ends up being pizza. We start our next Whole30 in February and will be much better at planning that out in advance so we aren’t as scrambled for food when we can’t rely on the junk.
I used to always just put “out or leftovers” as our Saturday meal plan, but we never had leftovers so we always ended up just having to go out! I did like having a break from cooking:) It doesn’t hurt to save some money by eating in every day. And while doing the whole30 its much easier to control what you eat by cooking at home!
I’ll plan my meals when I’m making my grocery list, but then wing it from there for each day. Saturdays I do have to decide what not to put in the freezer so I can cook something for dinner, but the rest of the week is: what am I in the mood for?
That sounds like a really good way to do things! The only purpose I have for planning each day is so that we don’t eat similar things back to back, and also if I know I will be home later I plan to make something quicker (or that my husband can make).
I would’ve loved to of joined you for Sundays meals. Everything – especially your breakfast – looks divine!!
We would have loved to have you (and the babies!) Thanks! Following the Whole30 has really pushed me out of my comfort zone a bit with some of my meals!
Your food looks great! I always try to plan for our meals for the entire week, but the weekends are definitely the hardest! Usually, my husband ends up cooking one night of the weekend and another, we finish off leftovers.
I think it can be hard to truly plan for all 7 days. Its nice to have a back up plan when things don’t work out come the weekend:)
The spaghetti squash looks so good! I love that you used sweet potatoes for burger buns instead of bread – what a great idea! I’ll have to try that sometime.
I was thinking it would be weird and that I would just eat the burger with a fork and knife…but it actually really added to the flavor of the meal! I might have to use sweet potatoes as buns all the time now!
Looks like you are doing so well on the plan! Your meals look delicious. I pretty much eat the same way on the weekends. I have a loose meal plan which is what I buy and/or prep. But I never have set nights for any one dish.
Thanks! I think I need to start doing that for the weekends- just buying a few items that I know I can make into some sort of a meal over the weekend! Or that won’t go bad if we don’t use them.
Week days are pretty planned out, but I tend to wing it on weekends or finish up left overs. I haven’t seen the needle moving on the scale lately, and that’s probably because the weekends have been a little too loose.
I love reading your food posts, they give me great ideas. I should probably just use my crock pot a bit more on the weekends. And possibly dip my toe into Paleo. I don’t think I could do the Whole 30. My husband is not health inclined and it would just be way too difficult doing that solo.
Your kale stew looks fantastic and reminded me of a soup I had from Wegmans last week that I wanted to try making at home.
I used to always find that I ate way worse on the weekends. Even when I wasn’t going out to eat or “splurging” I was not eating fruit and veggies like I usually do. I think its just hard to stick to a routine on days off!
I think that doing whole30 alone would be really hard. Since I am pretty much in charge of cooking around here, my husband realized he didnt have much of a choice so he’s giving it a try:)
All of these meals look great! I hope that as I become more comfortable cooking and meal planning I can branch out and try some of this stuff. Thanks for the ideas! That frittata looks especially good 🙂
You’re welcome! Its definitely a learning process. You did great with meal planning last week and if you keep at it, it will just become part of your routine!
Yum! The bison sliders look so good. I’m terrible at planning meals, but trying to get better now that I’m living in the US with a car and can do massive grocery shopping trips…guess it takes practice!
It definitely does take practice! Part of my reason for doing such specific meal planning is to avoid going to the grocery store more than once a week. If it was more convenient, I would probably go every day (and probably spend way too much money!)
I just moved back from Germany, and my refrigerator there was about the size of a laptop, so I had to go to the store almost every day…not fun! I’m loving my huge (normal) refrigerator!
i need to try your slow cooker chicken, Kale & Sweet Potato soup… that is totally my style, yum!!! I don’t usually plan my weekend meals, I usually wing it and go with the flow 😉
The stew was really good! Even my husband who doesn’t like crock pot meals admitted he liked it:) I used to really enjoy having some more flexibility with my eating on the weekends. But it is good that we aren’t going out to each as much lately!
Those meals look so delicious! Spaghetti squash and sweet potatoes are the best!
I usually try to plan our meals for at least Saturday and Sunday night dinner (or plan meals with leftovers at the end of the work week) so we don’t get tempted into eating out. We’ll eat out maybe one weekend per month, but it’s so much healthier to eat at home, even if we just have something like an egg and sweet potato hash.
That’s so true, and such a good idea! I have really been struggling with figuring out if we will have leftovers from meals before I make them. Some of the meals this week I expected to have 4 servings of leftovers and only had 1!
I always think I wouldn’t do very well at the Whole30 diet but looking at your food pics I’m in awe! I think the hardest thing for me would be cutting out cheese. But you certainly replaced that with so many awesome flavors! This looks awesome and so, so satisfying!
With certain meals I do expect to miss cheese but I think as long as you get creative with spices it can still taste really good! Hopefully I can keep finding good meals to make for the next few weeks!
I am looking forward to doing the Whole 30 challenge when I get back from Mexico…and using all of those recipes listed 🙂
That’s great! Let me know if you have any questions when you are doing it! There are SO many great Whole30 recipes out there, it makes it much easier to follow! Oh and have a great time in Mexico:)
YUM!! Love all those colors in your meals. How was the ketchup??
It was great! My husband said it was better than store bought! Not sure if I would go that far, but I do think I could get used to it and eventually just make my own instead of buying it anymore!
Thanks so much for all of the paleo ideas! I need these. I’m particularly interested in the bacon bison burgers. Bison is just so darn good.
No problem! The burgers were probably my favorite meal of the weekend.
You know me well enough to know now that I’m the crappiest meal planner in town. You are doing great with Whole30! This all sounds delicious too. I wish I had your skills.
Thanks! I don’t think I could manage to the the whole30 without meal planning. Otherwise I would be at the grocery store every day!
This looks a whole lot like the way we eat always. I should look into this. I am loving making a breakfast hash with veggies and eggs. Yum!
It would probably be really easy for you if you already eat this way alot of the time!
Looks like you got the whole 30 thing down. All your food looks so good and healthy. Was it hard not to have any wine this wkend? I normally don’t plan meals out and just wing it. I should start planning more.
It was a little hard but I think after having so much wine over the holidays a break from it was welcome:)
Weekends are usually leftovers or eating out. After cooking enough food to feed my husband and I for 5 days {breakfast to dinner} I need a break! Plus those days I am usually cooking all our meals for the week! Your eats look delicious!
Thanks! I agree that it gets so tiring to cook every single day! Usually I also eat out on the weekends or rely on leftovers, but while doing the Whole30 it seems easier to make my own meals so I have some more control over what I eat.
Your meals look great, especially the chicken, sweet potato and kale stew! I will have to try it.
I kinda do, kinda don’t plan meals for the week: I don’t plan exactly what meal we will have what day, but I have a rough idea of what we’re going to make for meal prep on a Sunday and meals throughout the week. We always have quiche on hand, a dish made with ground beef (grass-fed of course!), usually a chicken curry of some kind made by my husband, plus fat bombs and nutter bombs. We plan our weeknight meals so that Monday, Wednesday, Friday are the nights we cook some combination of meat and vegetables, and Tuesday, Thursday (aka running group nights) are the leftovers that we just heat up. This planning and organising allows to always have delicious, wholesome, real, primal food always on hand so that we’re never tempted to (or resorted to) grabbing something non-primal friendly. We also don’t keep any non-primal foods in our house, what’s the point?
It sounds like even without specific meal planning you are extremely organized! I love that you have figured out a schedule for leftovers versus cooking- that’s what we try to do as well based on what we have going on throughout the week. For me its gotten easier as I have discovered more meal and snack ideas that are Whole30 compliant but also easy to prepare/keep on hand in case of emergencies.
I wasn’t always so organised, sometimes I’d make weekend meals (the ones that take a while to cook) on weeknights, and we’d eat later. Not worth that. It’s always great to have stuff on hand already, it just makes the whole experience easier.