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I'm a Foodie - Whole34, second round, *deep breath* Jan11th-Feb14th


Felina

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Plan: Today we celebrated "King's Cake Day"... with cake of course. Which is why I picked tomorrow as the start of my Whole30, and plan to continue until Valentine's day.

 

History: I started playing with Whole30 July 2015 (154 lbs), and officially did my 30 days in September 2015. It took at least 45 days for me to really see the results I wanted (mostly around mood and energy.) I did end up losing 14 lbs while never counting a single calorie and without increasing my exercise, and never felt hungry, so my body definitely responded to it well. But I have other issues like IBS (which didn't improve) and bad moods (depression? I can't call it mood swings because it was rarely "up",) that I'm hoping to work out this round. Sadly, my mood seems to be high when I eat gluten (or grains maybe? very high carbs?) but it crashes when I see the bloat and loss of patience that inevitably creeps up afterwards.

 

Cravings: Do they really last less than 5 minutes for most people? I'm lucky if mine are gone in 5 hours! I don't think they're cravings actually, they act more like Obsessions. I've always been a "live to eat" type of person, I adore most foods, and dream of fabulous taste combinations. Whether it's a new flavor combo or a trusted oldie, once it's in my mind it's not going anywhere *sigh*. (I blame being French.)

 

Support: My husband does all the shopping and cooking for me and our 2 kids, and he absolutely 100% refuses to give up cheese. And most everything else. So while he is "supportive", as in "I'll cook meals where cheese is added on after or optional", it doesn't keep it out of the refrigerator, or even out of my face. (I know *exactly* what he's chewing on when I hear him rummaging in the kitchen and coming back to the office with his mouth full... hrmph!)

 

Life: I live in Las Vegas with my husband and 2 children (6 year old boy 3 year old girl,) whom I adore more than anything. I work full time from home for a large casino corporation. My husband does contract work from home. I feel like our lives are high stress, and have a tight budget that we ignore too often (we are both "head in the sand" types unfortunately.) We seem to always be insanely busy and yet nothing ever gets done.

 

 

 

 

I'm not sure what, if anything, I can do to make this easier... actually that's not true, I could have sat down (hah, with what time??) and meal planned and shopped and prepped like the book spells it out for me, but apparently regardless of my intentions that's just not me. yet. And now here I am, day 0, night 0. Tomorrow, it begins.

 

(Oh, and I weaned myself off caffeine last week in preparation. I now drink 12oz of french press decaf a day. So I can't use caffeine as a mood enhancer anymore :( )

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Do you eat a lot of starchy veg, or mostly grains when not on W30? Were you having dairy as well, with the gluten?

 

I found a huge difference eliminating grains and replacing with starchy veg. Overall I find I feel much healthier without dairy and my food choices improve when I don't eat it (not sure if that's the hormones or just that cheese is often added to junkier food).

 

Since it's been awhile I wanted to make sure you know you can have white potatoes now :) This might help a bit with your starchy veg options.

 

Cravings can last much longer, especially if you feed the cravings. It sounds like you really miss cheese, are there other things you are really missing? Did you do reintroductions last time?

 

The head in the sand is a really good insight and something that you might want to keep in mind for your Whole30. Ignoring things in general doesn't make them go away, or usually any easier. This is something to think about in regards to planning. Some planning may help you manage the time you have more effectively, especially in food prep. But some people prefer to wing it and it works for them :)

 

Way to go giving up the caffeine :) That will probably save you some big headaches

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We actually don't eat that much grain or starchy veggies, we do eat a ton of cheese, and gluten about 2-3 times a week.

 

I completely botched any possibility for reintroduction last round, so I don't know how the different elements affect me. I'm starting to suspect that dairy (non-cheese) makes me unbelievably tired, but it's usually been with gluten as well (like finishing off the pasta alfredo leftovers after coming home from dance class one time, I was toast the next morning!)

 

When we do eat white potatoes, we eat so much of it it's no longer healthy (my husband actually splices two baked potatoes for himself to make it like Jason's Deli! It's a bit obscene...) and I want to keep eating (long after I'm full, then I finish the plates of my children, especially if there's cheese and sour cream.)

 

My love of cheese partially defined me as a person, as did my love of food. My friends often joked that they couldn't have a conversation with me without drooling as somehow the conversation always ended up about food. (And not "gee, I'm hungry" but "oh goodness have you tasted X? combine it with Y and cook it just so... it's divine!")

 

I'm pretty sure I have some mental block with planning... I start by intending to plan, then planning in my head, then stressing out about planning, then it's time to do the thing I haven't planned for. There's a gap of actually *doing* that I have great trouble with, it's like pulling teeth and I don't understand why! But this is not something I expect W30 to solve for me ;).

 

 

And now my husband is pouring himself wine  :unsure: I'm going to try to focus on the positive that I found out a good friend of mine started the W30 3 days ago in secret, and agreed to be my buddy! (Now if only my stomach would respond to positive thoughts like it does to the sound of pouring wine I'd be all set  :P )

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As someone who can't eat dairy or gluten (I still sometimes re-try dairy but the true answer is it makes me less well at best :( ), don't think because you like them that they can't be bad for your health.

 

I was a huge cheese fan and had eaten gluten every day of my life until Whole30 (even on Atkins, they tended to add gluten to low carb processed foods).

 

It's hard to let go of things of the past (and maybe you won't need to, wait until Reintroductions) but it's important to think about what's best for you rather than what other people eat. We're not special snowflakes, but things like muscle mass, fitness, health conditions etc do make us a little different.

 

It's actually good practice to have a non-compliant person in the house, because everywhere you go, there may be someone who can eat something you can't. It's good practice to focus on the positives and not what you're missing out on (that way lies madness, loads of studies on FOMO and it's not healthy). FOMO is Fear Of Missing Out.

 

There's loads of delicious food on Whole30, so you really don't need to be deprived.

 

I did however have to re-learn cooking a bit as so many of my skills were for unhealthy foods, so learning how to make zoodles and things was a little tricky at first, but also exciting as you have plenty of those OMG moments, where you create something amazing :D You can still be you, creating great food, even when it's healthy. Healthy food is the best as you can eat it all the time!

 

Mel Joulwan (Well Fed cookbooks and blog) is my favourite at this, especially with flavor combinations. No boring meals here! So many new ingredients too, I had never cooked plantains before. NomNomPaleo also taught me how to roast a chicken, Julia Childs style (roast two chickens at once for a bulk cooking kitchen hack).

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