• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

SimplyNaturalMama

baking from scratch

  • Home
  • Meet
    • Connect with me!
  • Recipes
  • Healthy Living
    • DIYs
    • Parenting
  • Essential Oils
    • What is an Essential Oil?
    • Essential Oil Reference Guide
    • How to Use Essential Oils Safely
    • Why doTerra? Come find out!
    • Work with me!
  • Essential Oil Classes
    • FREE Class: Essential Oils and Babies
    • FREE Class: Cleaning with Essential Oils
    • Essential Oils 101
  • Resources
    • Meal Plans

How to Socialize on Whole 30

November 17, 2016 By MamaMillason 5 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links.

Pin1
Share
Tweet
1 Shares

These are some really great tips and tricks. Being on Whole 30 is challenging, and I am always afraid to go out to eat. Thanks for sharing!

Many months ago, my husband, Erik, and I did the Whole 30 program.  It was completely life-changing, and I’ve talked about it before here on the blog.  If you don’t know what Whole 30 is, you gotta check it out, but in a nutshell, it is a lifestyle change, 30 days to reorient your mind and your relationship with food. And along with Whole 30, comes lots of rules about what you can and cannot eat.  For example:

No Grain
No Sugar
No Alcohol
No Dairy
No Legumes (yes, that includes peanuts)

After completing the Whole 30, Erik and I have continued to stick to the plan 95% of the time.

Quick update: In total, I have lost 21 pounds since starting Whole 30.

Recently, I had an email subscriber reach out to me and ask what we do about socializing while on Whole 30.  I get it.  Going out and spending time with friends is TOUGH.  My husband and I both used to treat food as an adventure (we still do, we just do it differently now).  We used to constantly say things like, “Oh, we should all go out and try the new restaurant that opened up on Friday!” or “I’ve never had kimchi deviled eggs before!  Well, we have to order some of those!”  And if you are like that, or around people that are like that, then it can be difficult.  Not to mention, many people treat food as a celebration, and who wants to exclude themselves from that?

So here are tips and tricks I have picked up since adopting a Whole 30 lifestyle permanently.  I have arranged them, in my mind, from the most ideal solution to the least.

1.)  Suggest doing something that doesn’t involve food.

Get people together to do something else- a hike, a trip to the botanical gardens, or a museum.  But I recognize that what is appealing to a lot of people is the opportunity to sit around and converse.  There is a place in my city where you pay a $5 cover charge to get in, and then you can sit and play board games.  They have hundreds to choose from, and you can stay as long as you want.  Do some research and find unique and different places in your city where you can just sit around and talk.

2.)  Have everyone over to your house for dinner.

This way you can control the menu and all of the ingredients you use.  You’ll know for certain if that bacon is sugar-free or if that almond milk has no carrageenan.  Yes, it’ll mean you have to cook, and clean, and pay for food, but you’ll be creating a situation where you can stick to the Whole 30 plan.

3.)  Suggest a potluck.

This tip is a little different from the one above.  You can have your gathering anywhere; just make sure that the dish you bring is Whole 30 complaint.  This way, you will know for certain that there is at least one thing you can eat, and fill up on it.

4.)  Go out to eat- and chose a chain restaurant.

Okay, I am going to be honest with you.  Chain restaurants are not my favorite thing ever.  I would much prefer to support a local business, but there is a method to the madness.  All chains with 20 or more locations are required by law to share their nutritional information, and many of them do it via their website.  By suggesting a chain restaurant, you are giving yourself the opportunity to do a lot of research beforehand.  Go online, figure out what you can and can’t order, and what substitutions you can make.  The go-to restaurant of many a Whole 30-er is Chipotle. There you can order a salad with carnitas, salsa (no corn salsa), and guacamole.  Done!

5.)  Go out to eat- and pick a steakhouse or a diner.

In my experience, these are the two categories of restaurants that make staying on Whole 30 the easiest.  Since both types of restaurants are used to custom orders and requests.  I can’t tell you how many times I have gone to a diner and asked for poached eggs (which are always cooked with no oil or butter) and dry hash browns.  Is it the most amazing meal of my life?  Not a chance, but if it makes hanging out with friends possible, I’ll live with it.

6.)  Eat before you go out.  Sort of.

A personal trainer taught me this.  She would eat at home just enough to take the edge off. That way, when she went arrived at the restaurant, she wouldn’t order something crazy.  Or dive into the basket of fries everyone at the table had decided to split.  I have done this for years and years now, long before Whole 30, and it works!  My personal preference is to take a spoonful of almond butter and eat it right before we leave.  It’s so fatty and sticks to the roof of my mouth; I don’t feel like eating anything else right away.

Note: I am not saying this only works with almond butter.  I know that nut butters are trigger foods for a lot of people, and if they eat one spoonful, they end up eating the whole jar.  Find something that both satiates you and is Whole 30 compliant and use that.

7.)  Carry snacks with you in case you go on a spontaneous outing.

Things like apples, bananas, Larabars, and these single servings of almond butter are all great things to have in the car, purse, etc.  That way, you always have something with you to perform tip #6 with.

So there you have it!  Seven tips and tricks for socializing while on Whole 30.  And now, I want to hear from you!  What tips and tricks have you picked up along the way?

blog-signaturenew

 


This post contains affiliate links. For more information, click here. Also, if you do utilize a link, THANK YOU!

Hello there, Friend!

Get my latest recipes sent right your Inbox on a monthly basis!

Yay! You are officially a part of my Five Day Healthy Life Hack Challenge. Lucky you! Stay tuned for your first email tomorrow! Until then, Millason

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

Powered by ConvertKit

Related Posts

  • 5 Tips to Getting Your Diet Back on Track after the Holidays5 Tips to Getting Your Diet Back on Track after the Holidays
  • The Ultimate Guide to Begin BloggingThe Ultimate Guide to Begin Blogging
  • How to Go On A Road Trip With A BabyHow to Go On A Road Trip With A Baby
  • 4 Ways to Save Money on Meat4 Ways to Save Money on Meat
  • How I Went from 0 to 1,000 Pinterest Followers in 6 Days!How I Went from 0 to 1,000 Pinterest Followers in 6 Days!
  • 5 Foods to Survive Whole 305 Foods to Survive Whole 30

Filed Under: Whole 30 Tagged With: eat out, how to, life, restaurant, socialize, spend time with friends, tips, tricks, Whole 30, Whole 30 plan

Popular Posts

  • 8 Must-Have Charts to Make You an Essential Oil Expert
  • 5 All Natural Face Scrubs You Gotta Make
  • 7 DIY Room Sprays You Must Make So Your Home Smells Like Spring
  • Nine DIY, All-Natural Hair Products that Will ROCK Your World
  • 8 Must-Have Essential Oil Blends Every New Mom Needs
« Our Almost Natural Birth Story
The Ultimate Guide to Begin Blogging »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Julie McCullough

    November 17, 2016 at 3:54 pm

    I love all your ideas. Eating out is difficult and especially around the holidays. Thanks.

    Reply
  2. Latasha| Arts & Budgets

    November 18, 2016 at 7:33 pm

    Yaay! Congrats on losing 21 lbs! 🙂
    I am getting back into working out since the birth of my baby boy! 🙂

    Awesome post & I love all your ideas

    Reply
  3. Theresa

    November 23, 2016 at 5:10 pm

    We did a looooooooooooot of hosting when I did a Whole30. It was more work, but it was also a lot easier than navigating the social minefield of not eating food at friends’! These are good tips.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CommentLuv badgeShow more posts

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Meet Millason

Hi! I'm Millason, and I bake with simple, real food ingredients that are natural and preservative-free. And everything I bake is simply delicious! Learn More

Footer

Learn More:

  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclosure

Copyright © 2019 · Foodie Pro Theme On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in