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Free bonus gift eBook with purchase of Everyday Grain-Free Baking

By Kelly · Leave a Comment

Companion Guide Cover

Have you purchased my beautiful, helpful new published cookbook Everyday Grain-Free Baking? If so, I have a very special gift for you to say thank you for your kind support!

The Companion Guide to Everyday Grain-Free Baking is a FREE bonus gift eBook that was specifically designed to be used side-by-side with my published cookbook and provides more than a dozen complementary recipes, as well as step-by-step instructions and special tips to make all of your grain-free baking adventures a delicious success!

This exclusive Companion Guide eBook is available to everyone who purchases my new published cookbook Everyday Grain-Free Baking and will be sent to you via email when you sign up for my new Grain-Free Baking Club by February 28, 2015.

As a member of The Grain-Free Baking Club, you’ll receive “The Companion Guide to Everyday Grain-Free Baking” bonus gift eBook, and each month you’ll also receive a copy of my Grain-Free Baking Club Newsletter with delicious recipes and lots of tips and techniques for achieving grain-free baking perfection!

To join The Grain-Free Baking Club and enjoy all of these helpful free resources, simply click here to subscribe. If you’re already a subscriber to The Nourishing Home, you’ll be directed on how to update your preferences to join The Grain-Free Baking Club.

Companion Guide Collage

Here’s just a quick peek at what you’ll find inside The Companion Guide eBook:
• How to bake with blanched almond flour and coconut flour
• How to store grain-free flour and baked goods
• My personal tips and step-by-step instructions for achieving GF baking success
• More than a dozen delectable recipes, such as Cinnamon Swirl French Toast Bake, Pineapple Upside Down Muffins, Key Lime Pie, BLT Quiche Tartlets, and lots more!

Please note: Starting March 1, The Companion Guide eBook will be sold for $6.95, but it’s FREE right now with the purchase of Everyday Grain-Free Baking when you join my new Grain-Free Baking Club. Click here to join now!

Thank you again for your sweet support! My heart in providing this companion guide bonus gift eBook and fun new baking club is to further equip and encourage you with my best tips, techniques and recipes for deliciously easy grain-free baking!

Happy baking!

With blessings and gratitude, Kelly

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Filed Under: The FUNdamentals ·

Life After Whole30: How to Evaluate Your Progress and Reintroduce Foods

By Kelly · 18 Comments

Life After Whole30 How to Successfully Reintroduce Foods & Evaluate Your Progress

Congratulations! If you’re reading this, you’ve probably just finished (or are about to finish) The Whole30 Program.

And if you’re like many of us who’ve completed this life-changing program, your mind is most likely racing … It’s the moment you’ve been dreaming of for weeks! And now that it’s finally here, you may find yourself feeling a bit nervous as you ponder the big post-Whole30 question … What should I reintroduce first?

But before we dive into how to properly reintroduce your most-missed morsels from the restricted foods list, it’s important to first do a little self-evaluation.

Taking some time to think through your Whole30 journey will go a long way in helping you to better appreciate the positives you’ve experienced, and better recognize if perhaps more time is needed before you launch into the reintroduction phase of the program.

Personally, I opted to do a Whole45 because as I evaluated my progress at the end of 30 days, I felt I needed more time to get past some of the unhealthy cravings I was still battling, and I felt I needed more time to detox and heal from a very unhealthy summer. I also wanted to better establish the self-control I had gained as a result of completing Whole30.

Of course for some people, 30-days may be all that’s needed, while for others, a Whole90 may be in order. Only you can determine the best course of action at the end of your 30-day journey.

But knowing what the best course of action won’t be clear, unless you take some time to evaluate your progress first.

How to Properly Reintroduce Restricted Foods

So back to the question we’ve all been pondering … What should I reintroduce first?

Of course, this is a question only you can answer. But I do have a few helpful suggestions …

1) Start by making a list of the restricted foods you miss most and want to include in your diet either regularly, or somewhat regularly.

2) Then, choose ONE of the foods from your list to reintroduce first. Be sure to keep the rest of your diet as Whole30 compliant as possible, except for this one restricted ingredient you’ve selected to reintroduce. Add this food to your diet and carefully evaluate its impact on your health, mood, cravings, sleep, etc. (See “Reintroduce Just One Food at a Time” below.)

Go S L O W !

I definitely encourage you to read through Whole30’s recommendations on how to successfully reintroduce restricted foods and check out their sample schedule – after all, they’re the experts who developed this amazing program.

I also can’t recommend enough Whole30’s advice to go slow! In fact, I personally prefer going even slower than the Whole30 folks recommend. Why? Just because our body doesn’t immediately react when a restricted food is reintroduced doesn’t mean it’s an automatic “green light” telling us we can safely enjoy that food regularly, or even occasionally.

That’s because some foods don’t cause an immediate reaction, but may take a longer period of time before we start to see how that food is negatively impacting our bodies. That’s why I prefer to reintroduce just one new food over a 5-7 day period of time, without introducing any other restricted foods during that week-long time span.

In other words, if the food I’m reintroducing into my diet doesn’t appear to be causing a negative reaction, I continue to eat it daily for up to one week. Then I remove the food and go back on a strict Whole30 diet for 2-3 days and carefully evaluate how the reintroduced food impacted my body both physically and mentally. This helps me to better decide whether or not I want to incorporate this food back into my regular diet, and if so, how much and how often?

Reintroduce Just One Food at a Time

On a similar note, it’s also my personal opinion that it’s best to reintroduce just one particular food from a food group at a time – not the entire food group all at the same time, and not a food that contains multiple restricted ingredients. Again, this is my personal opinion, based on my past experiences with allergy-specific elimination diets.

The reason is, just because one food in a food group causes a reaction, does not mean all foods in that food group will cause the same reaction, or will cause a reaction to the same extent.

Now, I know some will disagree with this recommendation, and that’s okay. Everyone is different and each person should decide for themselves how best to reintroduce suspect foods. I also know some might not like this approach, because it certainly does slow down the reintroduction phase.

Yet, it’s been my personal experience that the best way to truly know what the real impact is of each particular food I reintroduce into my diet is to go slow and reintroduce just one food at a time. Otherwise, if you introduce more than one restricted ingredient and get a reaction, you won’t know which to blame. For example, if introducing rice, don’t add butter to the rice, because that would be introducing two restricted foods at the same time.

Understanding which foods cause our bodies to react negatively will help us to clearly decide whether the negative consequences of the reintroduced food far exceed the pleasure of eating it, or whether we have some wiggle room to enjoy certain restricted foods from time to time without having to “pay the piper” so to speak.

The bottom line – the reason it’s best to only reintroduce one food at a time is because if you reintroduce more than one new food at the same time and get a reaction, you won’t know which food is to blame.

What if there are foods I don’t want to include back into my diet? Simple – don’t reintroduce those foods. For example, if you’re not missing beans, then don’t reintroduce them. Instead, fill your plate with other healthier Whole30 vegetables and fruits that you enjoy.

New from Whole30: Create Your Own Custom “Life After Whole30” Meal Plans!

Custom Whole30 Meal Plans

Exciting news! … Of course you always have access to my free weekly whole food meal plans. But now, our friends at Whole30 have teamed up with Real Plans to offer you the option of totally customizable “Life After Whole30” meal plans to help you slowly reintroduce restricted foods back into your diet. This unique meal planning system allows you to create custom menus based on your unique tastes, preferences and schedule. How cool is that? [Click here to learn more about this brand new customizable Whole30 meal planning resource.]

Determining “Your Life After Whole30” Strategy

Figuring out which foods to reintroduce back into your diet and how often to do so isn’t the end-all of a successful Whole30 program.

Instead, taking time to think through what we’ve learned while on Whole30 and then using that knowledge to formulate an action plan for moving forward are truly the most important things we can do to ensure that the healthy changes we’ve made the past 30+ days become a solid foundation that we can continue to build upon.

If you’re like me, and so many others who’ve completed Whole30, you’re probably most amazed by the sense of freedom that comes from gaining better self-control as we learned to kick our cravings to the curb and replace them with healthier eating habits. I believe this is truly one of the most empowering aspects of The Whole30 Program and is one that should really give us confidence that we can continue to make positive changes that impact our health (and our family’s) for the better.

That’s why I appreciate the practical wisdom of the Whole30 team in encouraging us to really think through our personal life after Whole30 strategy. Each of us have our own reasons for taking the Whole30 Challenge, and these reasons – as well as the personal healthy living goals we set – will greatly influence our commitment to remaining on the path to better health and well-being.

Continuing Our Healthy Living Journey Together!

Of course, you know that I am always here – as is The Nourishing Home Community – to continue to encourage you and support you with your healthy living goals. So if you’re not already an active part of the community here, be sure to join us by subscribing to The Nourishing Home Newsletter where I share free exclusive whole food GF meal plans, recipes and lots of healthy living tips & resources. And please also join our awesome community forum on Facebook. We’re here to help you continue to make great strides in your health and your family’s health too!

Now it’s time to share your story …

What positive changes have you seen as a result of taking the Whole30 challenge? And what is your action plan for reintroducing your favorite restricted foods back into your diet and in moving forward with your healthy living goals?

You’ll find my personal story and action plan in the first comment below.

I look forward to hearing your story!

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Filed Under: The FUNdamentals, Whole30 ·

Day Zero: Getting Ready for the Whole30!

By Kelly · 88 Comments

Whole30 Day Zero Tips for Success

Are you as excited as I am to officially start the life-changing Whole30 Program developed by New York Times best selling authors Melissa and Dallas Hartwig? Yes! Let’s do this!

But first … be sure to subscribe to my Whole30 Challenge to get my free weekly Whole30 Meal plans, as well as lots of recipes and encouragement to help you on your 30-day journey to better health!

And second … Have you done your homework? As you’ll notice below, it’s the first step in ensuring your 30-day journey is a success!

5 Helpful Whole30 Day Zero Tips for Getting Ready to Start the Whole 30 Program

Whole30 Day Zero Step 1: First Things First!

ZIn order to transform your health with Whole30, first you’ve got to learn the basics of the program.

Remember, I do not provide any of the details about the Whole30 program, that’s all available via the Whole30 Website. I’m simply here to support you with encouragement and lots of my favorite recipes and meal plans to help make your 30-day journey a delicious success!

So be sure to thoroughly read the following quick overview posts from the Whole30 website, or even better grab a copy of their New York Times Best Seller, “Whole30: The 30-Day Guide to Total Health and Food Freedom,” which provides everything you need to know about the Whole30 program in detail, as well as tons of delicious recipes with beautiful color photography!

If you haven’t read the Whole30 book, then be sure to:
• Read the Whole30 Program Overview
• Read the Whole30 Program Rules (super important!)
• Download their helpful free resources, particularly the shopping list (see step 2 below) and meal planning template since these give a great overview of the types of foods you will want to fill your plate with, and the types of food you will need to avoid during the 30-day program.
• Read “How to Survive (and Thrive) on Your Whole30 Journey” for lots of helpful tips on making your 30-day whole food journey a whole lot easier!
• After reading all of the above, if you’ve still got questions about what you can and can’t eat on Whole30, then be sure to check out “The Official Can I Have? Guide” to Whole30.

And last, but certainly not least … be sure to subscribe to my Whole30 Challenge! To make life during Whole30 a whole lot easier and more delicious, I’ve created exclusive new Whole30 meal plans and recipes just for my Whole30 subscriber friends.

Whole30 Day Zero Step 2: Get Your Kitchen Ready

Just when you thought your homework was done … I know cleaning out the kitchen may sound a bit boring, but think of it like cleaning out your closet in anticipation of a whole new wardrobe. In fact, if you stick to this 30-day whole food program with 100% zeal, you may very well be in need of a new wardrobe when you’re done, or at least a new belt.

The point is … you want to get rid of all that off-limits temptation food lurking in your pantry and fridge. Or you at least want to get rid of as much of it as possible without causing a revolt in your family – I’m of course talking to those of you who are on the “Lone Ranger” Whole30 Program like me. And if you must keep certain foods in the house that are real hot buttons for you, then simply relocate them to a different cupboard – you’re family won’t mind the scavenger hunt, and it’s a good way to keep those no-no foods “out of sight, and out of mind!” 

Helpful Tip: Be sure to print out the Whole30 Program Rules and have this page handy as a reference while cleaning out your pantry and fridge, since this document provides a good overview of the types of foods you’ll need to avoid while on the 30-day program.

Once you’ve cleared a little space in your pantry and fridge, you’ll want to be sure to fill the void with some super healthy Whole30 staples. Whole30’s helpful shopping list provides some great ideas for how to stock your pantry and fridge with lots of healthy and delicious Whole30 fare.

Of course, save the major grocery shopping for when you’re ready to get started with the program. Remember, when you subscribe to my Whole30 Community, you’ll receive my free Whole30 meal plans and recipes to make your 30-day journey a delicious success!

Whole30 Day Zero Step 3: Get Inspired

Yes, I’ll be providing subscribers with brand new weekly Whole30 meal plans, but let’s face it – you may not like everything I do. That’s why having options is good. Options will keep you from straying off the Whole30 straight-n-narrow.

So if you’re on Pinterest, check out my Whole30 Board for lots of great Whole30 recipes, download the free Whole30 Meal Plans from previous Whole30 Challenges located below and of course, make sure you’re a subscriber so you don’t miss my free weekly Whole30 Meal Plans and recipes to help you make your 30-day journey a healthy success!

Whole30 Day Zero Step 4: Think Positive!

Never underestimate the power of positive thinking! It’s okay to feel nervous about taking this challenge. In fact, if you’re not a little nervous, somewhat apprehensive, or having some level of self doubt about what’s in store, then maybe you’re not taking this too seriously, or you’re superhuman, or of course you’ve sailed through Whole30 with gold stars and you totally need to let us know we’re just being big babies about it (in a kind uplifting manner)!

But seriously, let’s just be upfront and face the facts right now … unless you’re a robot, you’re probably going to experience periods of time during this 30-day journey where you feel like a big-ole bag of mixed nuts (I picked the nuts analogy intentionally) – with conflicting emotions and feelings shifting from day to day and hour to hour as your body and mind try to come to grips with the radically-healthy changes you are making.

The key to success and happiness is … don’t give in to negative talk!

Formula for Success

Instead, strive to keep your thoughts positive, pure, hopeful and even better – prayerful! Talk to God about your feelings and emotions. Ask Him for strength. He cares about YOU! So seek Him in pray and ask for His strength and power to feel better so you can better serve others.

And when those negative feelings and thoughts begin to surface … buckle down and strive to replace them with a positive outlook and a can-do spirit! Here are some of examples of how to turn that frown upside down.

Instead of

You may even want to repeat to yourself daily … “What, 30 days? That’s nothing, I can easily do 60!” Okay, maybe I’m getting a little carried away. But the point is …

HOW YOU THINK directly impacts HOW YOU LIVE! So think positive and surround yourself with others (like us) who are thinking positively too, and are ready to cheer you on!

Whole30 Day Zero Step 5: Get Connected!

Speaking of surrounding yourself with “positive peeps” (my kids told me not to say that because it’s not cool anymore), it’s really important to get connected!

Having a support network will make thisWhole30 Friends program not only a whole lot easier for you to stay on target and keep that positive motivation flowing, but it will also make it a whole lot more FUN!

Of course, you’ve got me here dishing out weekly posts, recipes, meal plans and encouragement.

But even better is to get a flesh-n-blood friend or family member to join you. Two are better than one because they can help each other (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12). Truly – nothing beats a good friend. Friends help friends stay accountable and motivated to stay on track with their goals – and to keep smiling!

Whole30 Meal Planning Made Simple! If you’d like to get a jumpstart in meal planning, or simply want more recipe options to choose from, be sure to join my Whole30 Community for the latest Whole30 meal plans and recipes. For even more Whole30 recipes be sure to follow my Whole30 Pinterest Board and The Nourishing Home on Instagram!

Alrighty, friends! That’s my five “Whole30 Day Zero” tips for getting ready for a successful Whole30 adventure! Remember, these steps are provided to help you get prepared for a successful and FUN Whole30 Journey!

Whole30 Day Zero

How are you feeling about starting the Whole30 Program? Are you excited, nervous or a little of both? Share your thoughts below and let us encourage you!

Hey, you Whole30 veterans out there … If you’ve successfully completed the Whole30 Program, please share your helpful “Whole30 Day Zero” tips with us? We could always use more good advice and encouragement!

*Disclosure: This is not a paid endorsement of the Whole30 program. After careful consideration and prayer, I decided to personally take the Whole30 challenge since it’s a proven method for improving health and wellbeing. And because I care about you, I’m inviting you to join me in taking the 30-day Whole30 challenge. Please note: The only affiliate link in this post is an Amazon link to the book. Should you choose to purchase the book via the link above, The Nourishing Home will receive a small commission at no additional charge to you. And last but certainly not least, I am not a health professional, so nothing in this post, or on this site, is intended to replace the advice of a physician. Please see my full disclosure for more details. Thank you!

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Filed Under: The FUNdamentals, Whole30 ·

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My New Cookbook is Here!

Welcome to The Nourishing Home!

I’m so glad you’re here and want you to feel right at home! My heart in creating this blog is to help you by sharing helpful meal planning strategies and nourishing GF recipes that are healthy, easy and delicious with thanksgiving to God! [Read More …]







All content (recipes, photos, posts, etc.) on this site is the creative property of Kelly Smith. You are welcome to share a photo via social media, as long as it contains a link back to the corresponding recipe or post from this site. However, you may not republish a recipe in its entirety in any form. For questions, or for permission to use a photo or recipe, please contact me via email at [email protected] Thank you!

Please Note: All content (recipes, photos, text, etc.) on this site is the creative property of Kelly Smith of The Nourishing Home. You are welcome to share a photo via social media, as long as it contains a link back to the corresponding recipe from this site. However, re-publishing a recipe in any form is strictly prohibited. Additionally, please refrain from adapting recipes without properly linking back to the original recipe, and keep in mind that simple substitutions do not constitute an adapted or original recipe. For details regarding recipe copyright law, please visit the Food Blog Alliance.
The Nourishing Home is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

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