7 Whole30 Mistakes to Avoid

It’s important to know these 7 Whole30 mistakes to avoid. The Whole30 rules are simple but it is easy to slip up. One missed ingredient can ruin the many days you worked so hard to stay compliant to the Whole 30.

I have failed more Whole30 rounds then I have completed. Some of the failures were because of simple mistakes. Like not reading the ingredients to products I was using.

To keep you on track here is a list of Whole30 mistakes to avoid.

7 Whole30 Mistakes to Avoid

Not Reading The Book

Read It Starts with Food or The Whole 30. You can’t jump into your first day of the Whole30 and expect to know what to do. Knowing the rules are important! You need to know what you can and can’t eat. It’s also helpful to understand why you have to avoid the food you need to avoid for 30 days.

Not Reading Ingredient Labels

It is so easy thinking food is compliant when it’s actually not. A great example is chicken broth. It’s chicken broth, right? How can it not be compliant? Well, most store-bought chicken broths have sugar in it.

Wait, sugar? Why does chicken broth need to have sugar? Who knows but it does. So you need to make sure you are reading labels because sugar is hiding in A LOT of stuff! It would be terrible to make it to day 28 only to realize you ate something that had sugar!

Snacking

One of the rules for the Whole30 is you are not supposed to snack. You are only supposed to have 3 meals a day. The purpose behind this rule is because you’re most likely not hungry.

Unless you want to snack on salmon and broccoli. Then you might be hungry. To avoid snacking you need to make sure your meals are big enough.

Meals Are Too Small

Since you are only eating 3 meals a day you need to make sure you are eating enough at each meal. Here is a meal planning template from Whole30.com.

Know the correct proportions to make sure you’re getting enough to eat. Otherwise, you are going to want to eat between meals and snacking is a no-no.

Swypo

You are not allowed to have sex with your pants on during your Whole30 days. Meaning you cannot make non-compliant food with compliant ingredients.

So you cannot have pancakes made with bananas and eggs. Because you would still be having pancakes and pancakes are not allowed on the Whole30.

Also making ice cream with blended coconut milk and bananas is another sex with your pants on mistake.

Not having a plated fat

You need to have a plated fat with every meal because it keeps you more full for longer.

Examples of plated fats are:

• Avocados
• Olives
• Nut butters (not peanut butter)
• Nuts (not peanuts)
• Oil-rich dressings like Dump Ranch

If you skip your plated fat because of the calories you may find that you are hungry before your next meal. The point of the plated fat is to keep you full longer.

Not planning ahead

Meal prepping will be very helpful when on the Whole30. Having some meals planned and ready to go ahead of time will make your Whole30 journey go so much smoother. You don’t have to go crazy. Have some vegetables roasted and meat cooked. So you are ready to turn these items into a meal.

How I failed my first Whole30

I thought I rocked my first round of the Whole30. Turns out I screwed up not once but several times. Those times, to my defense, were unintentional.

Finish the Book Before you Begin

I hadn’t finished reading the book before I started my first round. That was my first mistake.

I screwed up my very first dinner on the Whole30. I had made a recipe for Balsamic Beef Roast and veggies. Perfect recipe, all compliant ingredients.

This is true except for my balsamic vinegar. The balsamic vinegar I used had one of the no-no food additives, sulfates. Sulfates were listed in the ingredients. Which means it was added to the vinegar. Not naturally occurring.

12 Tips to Follow before Starting the Whole30 explains more about food additives to avoid.

So if I would have finished my homework before jumping in I would have known about sulfates. Let that be a lesson, make sure you finish the whole book before you start the Whole30 journey!

Failed Again

Fast forward to another round on day 16. I was grilling some chicken legs and I needed a marinade. I couldn’t use the Italian dressing or BBQ sauce that I usually would.

So I decide to get a bottle of Tessemae’s organic green goddess dressing and marinade.  I assumed that I was good to go. If the Tessemae’s ranch is compliant why wouldn’t the green goddess dressing be?

Failed again! I didn’t check the label. If I did I would have found out that tamari sauce, which has soy, is in the ingredients. Oops.

Be Mindful of your Actions

My next failure was completely unconscious. Which reinforced how mindlessly I stuff food into my face.

One evening I was making boxed mac and cheese for my kids. While cooking I took a bite of the pasta to see if it was done.

I didn’t even realize I did it until the next morning. Weird how out of all the things I could think about that’s what popped into my mind. That’s what the Whole30 will do to you.

Of course, making some of these mistakes doesn’t mean you have to go back to Day 1. Especially if the mistakes were unintentional.

Ultimately you are only affecting yourself. So you have to decide if you should start over or keep going. Making some of these mistakes doesn’t mean you need to start at day 1 again.

If you follow the rules of the Whole30 you’ll be able to experience all of the amazing benefits that come along with it.

Knowing these Whole30 mistakes to avoid can set you on the right path to your Whole30 journey.

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