Whole30 paleo diet?

[Adaline'sMama]

Has anyone successfully done a Whole30 with kids? It seems so hard to cook every single meal from scratch with the littles, but it does seem like the best way to move towards a paleo diet. I cant do it right now with newborn twins, but maybe in a couple of months? 

[Oread]

I haven't done the Whole 30, but we follow a Paleo-ish diet with a toddler (basically paleo, + some dairy for all of us, and some crackers and Cheerios for her)

You don't have to "cook" a meal 3 times a day, or that would be totally exhausting. There are lots of ways to make it easier and prep ahead of time. 

Examples of how my 20 month old and I eat at home most days. Things with an * I make ahead, either the night before or several days in advance

Breakfast: eggs (scrambled, or boiled*), fruit, maybe some sauteed spinach. Bacon* or chicken breakfast sausages* some days

Snack: Fruit, greek yogurt, nuts or jerky for me

Lunch: Leftovers (chicken soup, or paleo stir-fry with cauliflower rice, etc) heated up in the microwave, or maybe some lunch meat and broccoli fritters*, or tuna salad in lettuce leaves 

Snack: grain-free pumpkin bars*, celery or apple slices with almond butter, Babybel cheese, cucumber slices, or carrot sticks (for me), olives, pickles

Dinner: My husband and I take turns making an actual dinner each night and try to go heavy on the veggies then,we always have at least 2. We usually have some homemade meals in the freezer for when we don't have time or don't want to cook. The slow cooker is also a fantastic invention. 

Basically it just takes some planning, and keep lots of fruit around! A lot of what we eat every day doesn't take much preparation. My daughter's diet consists mostly of berries I swear, but she eats a smattering of pretty much everything else that we eat so that works for me

[blueridgewoman]

I LOVE it....in theory. For myself, I feel like compliance would be a huge issue, mostly because of the bacon/butter issue honestly. lol I can't eat eggs, so I find that limits my breakfast options.

I think it would involve a lot of cooking but I also think you could do a lot of soups, stews, roasts, etc combined with batch cooking for breakfast- egg muffins, etc and minimize it to a degree. 

I'll be over here, eating bacon. 

[colemom]

I have been doing a Whole 30/paleo/primal diet with kids for about 6 months. My kids are 6 and 3 and my 6 year old ds has some sensory issues so he does not eat mixed foods with a lot of ingredients like soups and nothing too spicy or flavored strongly.

Basically, my kids still eat grain. They have cream of wheat for breakfast, sandwiches, crackers, baked goods, wheat pasta and brown rice. I have cut back on the amount of grains they have been eating, though, and that has worked well.

They have their breakfasts and lunches and I have mine. My 3 year old dd will often eat some of what I am having as she is more open to a variety of foods. I have fried eggs with sauteed spinach or sliced tomato and avocado, leftovers from dinner, or chicken salad/taco meat in lettuce leaves. I always keep olives, pickles, nuts, and sausages around for quick snacks.

Dinner is the bigger issue as I don't want to be making more than one dinner every night (my kids do have waffles for dinner and homemade pizza night once a week that they love). I make the main entree, make 2 veggies sides, then make a small grain side for my kids, either wheat pasta or brown rice (so I make pasta sauce with chicken or meatballs, they have spaghetti and we have spaghetti squash) . They love sweet potatoes so often I don't need to make them an extra side. I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't harder than it is. If I make a paleo type soup, I will cook some pasta on the side and add it to their bowls.  

I think the hardest part for me is having the will power to not eat the extra kid side. But I feel so much better cutting out the grain that it is becoming easier as time passes. Being able to eat Primal sometimes, and not just strictly Paleo, helps too, I'm okay with small amounts of dairy and occasional white potatoes.

The grocery budget is also a bit of a challenge. We already did not eat much processed food, ate tons of fresh produce, and I mostly cooked from scratch, but this way of eating has increased our grocery budget. Still trying to balance that out...