I’m a Mom Trying a Whole-Food, Plant-Based Diet – Here’s How It’s Going: Week 3

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Was week three of our whole-food, plant-based diet a failure?

It depends on how you view the challenge. 

Were we able to stick to a WFPB diet?

Nope.

But wasn’t sticking to a WFPB diet the point of this month-long experiment?

Not entirely. 

Sure, I wanted to see if eating whole foods for a month was effective for weight loss, lower anxiety, better sleep, and a few other health benefits. 

But I also embarked on this journey to see if following a WFPB diet was not only effective but practical for a busy mom and her family.

If only I’d remembered that our spring break vacation was smack dab in the third week of my challenge. 

Oops. 

But again, it wasn’t a total failure. As Henry Ford said, “The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.”

And I learned a lot from week 3. 

Ready to see how badly we bombed, why, how we plowed through, and plan to go forward?

Let’s go. But first, this. 👇👇👇

I’m not a doctor. I’m not a nutritionist. And I’m definitely not a culinary expert. I’m a mom who wants to feed herself, her kids, and her husband healthy foods that minimally impact animals and the environment. This is not medical advice, but rather an account of our experience to be used for informational purposes only.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you use these links to buy something, I may earn a commission at no cost to you. Thank you!

Why was it hard to eat WFPB in week 3?

Calories don’t count on vacation, right?

Sigh. We all wish that was true, don’t we?

Spring break was last week. And in addition to fun day trips to Universal City Walk, a trampoline park, and visiting friends, we also spent a couple of days beach camping.

Which meant meal planning struggles (which were challenging for me in Week 1 and Week 2) reached epic proportions. 

We dined out often. We packed food that was shelf-stable or didn’t need to be refrigerated. Both of these were obstacles I didn’t encounter much in the previous weeks. 

Restaurants have a lot of yummy vegan options. But they aren’t usually whole-food, plant-based.

But. 

This week wasn’t a total loss. 

It’s caused me to pause before I order and read through the ingredients. Now, since going vegan I’ve always read ingredient lists, but I wasn’t a stickler for processed foods. Dining out wasn’t ideal, but eating whole foods for two weeks helped me make healthier choices when dining out.

What WFPB meals did you eat?

Not many, honestly. Or at least there weren’t many that were entirely whole-food, plant-based. But we got close on most meals. Here’s a look at what we ate in week 3.

WFPB Breakfast

Similar to the last two weeks, if we were home, we ate oatmeal with berries, maple syrup, walnuts, ground flaxseed, and almond milk. 

While camping, we found some low-sugar granola and ate it with plant-based milk. And on some of the mornings we were out, we ordered a bagel breakfast sandwich from one of our favorite vegan and gluten-free cafes. 

WFPB Lunch

While camping, we packed PB&Js on whole grain bread, cuties, bananas, apples, strawberries, and nuts for lunches. 

During the rest of the week though, we were out and about and therefore dined out often. Here’s some of what we ate:

• Vegetable sushi
• Plant-based tacos
• PB&Js with fresh fruit
• Leftovers

WFPB Dinner

Again, since we were rarely home and cooking, we ate on the go often. One thing we see at restaurants lately is processed vegan meat (I’m not including tofu or soy curls in this) and cheeses. 

While these are delicious, I’d like to make them a “sometimes food” in our family rather than a “more than one day a week food”. Because many are highly processed. And even after 2 weeks of eating WFPB, I could already tell a difference when I ate meat and cheese substitutes as opposed to whole foods. Here’s what we ate for dinner:

• Chili
• Creamy spinach soup
• Pizza without cheese and loads of roasted veggies
• Kale Caesar salad with tempeh
• leftovers

WFPB Snacks

Snacks stayed the same this week and since we were on vacation, we didn’t eat as many of them because our meals were more filling. But here are some WFPB snacks we ate:

• Fresh fruit
• Mixed nuts
• Salted popcorn

WFPB Drinks

This also went out the window this week because we had a couple of beers and haven’t in the two weeks prior. We also had our coffee with plant-based milk in the morning and chamomile tea every night.

WFPB Dessert

Oreos. 

I know they aren’t whole-food, plant-based. But they travel well when you’re camping, they’re accidentally vegan, and my kids and I have a mean sweet tooth. 

And, as I said, this week tested one of the reasons I did this experiment: is following a WFPB diet possible for our busy family? In this instance, I didn’t have something to make before we went camping.

What were your results?

After two weeks of eating mostly at home, I experienced something unexpected when I dined out. I felt full sooner. And I was more aware of my full feeling than usual. 

I’m not sure if that’s a result of eating less processed and sugary foods that were contributing to my cravings, so I’ve been eating more mindfully, or something else. But it’s definitely helpful and empowering to be able to stop eating when I feel full, as opposed to feeling like I have to eat everything on my plate before I can stop.

And on that note, I also had fewer cravings!

Surprisingly, I was less bloated this week than usual. 

And, the most unexpected thing of all: I lost weight! It wasn’t as much as the previous weeks, but I was still surprised. 

Why do I think this happened? Well, we didn’t eat at restaurants for every meal. So when we cooked, I still made whole-food, plant-based meals and snacks. Perhaps that contributed to the weight loss.

With that said, here are my results.

Pros:

• Less bloated
• Fewer cravings
• Can tell when I feel full sooner
• I lost weight! (Gasp!) Even dining out as often as we did! I lost .8 of a pound, (And 4.6 pounds since I started.)

Cons:

• Lack of WFPB menu items at restaurants 
• Hard to throw an impromptu meal together

Conclusion: Is a WFPB diet effective and practical for busy families?

Honestly? Here it is: I feel awesome when I follow a WFPB diet. But it takes time to meal plan and then prepare those meals. 

And sometimes, life throws hiccups in our plans. 

Being away from them house made it challenging to follow a whole-food, plant-based diet. 

But when I set out to do this challenge, I knew I had to be completely transparent, hold myself accountable, and share the reality of this lifestyle. 

And vacation tested me. 

But, I’m not viewing it as a failure. I’m learning that in order for this to work when life happens that’s outside of my routine, I have to plan extra hard or more in advance in order to succeed.

I’m also learning that there will be events, celebrations, and occasions when whole-food, plant-based food isn’t available. And consuming it occasionally, rather than often, may still have health benefits.

So, week 4, here we come!