Day 27 - help needed, contemplating next steps

[rz2235]

 Hi all!  I am on Day 27 today.  Here is some information that might be helpful:

 

• I am confident that I have been 100% compliant with food
• I am less certain I have been 100% on point with the meal template.  I think I have been pretty close, but definitely think there could be meals when I had too much protein or fat and not enough vegetables
• I drink plenty of water (about 80oz/day)
• I am not much a of snacker, but do try and eat a pre/post workout meal
• I have had very little fruit (pretty much only when included in a recipe)
• I have about 25 lbs to lose and am fairly active (before and during Whole30)
• The Good - I am sleeping great (never really a problem, but still better), my sugar cravings are in check, my mood has been pretty sable and good.  In addition, I have survived these 27 days cooking for 3 teenage boys, all athletes that literally can not eat enough food to satisfy them, and have not even had one lick of the sticky finger after buttering banana bread, or indulged in a stray crouton.  I also have gone to about 15 lacrosse games at mealtime and managed around it very well.  Yay me!
• The Bad - Several of my major goals for my Whole30 have been elusive.  My energy in not great.  I get tired in the afternoons and struggle through my daily workouts and tennis (I do HIIT or play tennis everyday except Sunday), my clothes are not fitting better, my face still seems puffy, and my joint pain is the same.  I really do not FEEL better.  I have tried hard to stay positive and just forge ahead, but it is discouraging.
• Prior to Whole30, I did love sugar and had major sugar cravings, and I did not eat three meals a day regularly. 

So, here I am wrapping up day 27, and feeling...blah.  I so want to feel great.  I want to have Tiger Blood!  It just is not happening.  Today, I looked in the mirror and thought I actually looked a little heavier than when I started.  I did body composition measurements at my gym before I started, so I will have real data to know if there has been any positive effect there.  But I am now debating what my best next steps are.  Part of me want to stay on longer and see if all the magic starts to kick in, but I also dont know that I would change much, and it seems unlikely a different outcome would start now.  Part of me things I should go through  reintroduction to just see if I start feeling any worse (or better) with certain foods.  I am torn because I dont really want to give up on this.  Maybe some of the experts will have a suggestion or two.  Who knows, maybe all my magic is waiting for the last three days!  Wouldn't that be awesome!

 

Here is a sample menu from the last few days:

 

Pre workout - Hardboiled egg

Post workout - -few slices of chicken, leftover sweet potatos

Meal 1 - 2 links chicken sausage, 2 eggs, spinach and tomatos

Meal 2 - homemade chicken salad on romaine (chicken breast, almonds, 6-8 grapes, 1/4 apple, scallions, homemade mayo),         raw  veggies, avocado

Meal 3 - Lemon chicken, 1/2 sweet potato, asparagus, kale salad with homemade dressing, tomato, avo

 

Meal 1 - 3 eggs, 2 slices bacon, avo, salsa, on bed of greens with a little leftover sweet potato

Meal 2 - premade grass fed burger from whole foods (this is bigger than palm size) on bed of greens, avo, tomato, peppers

Meal 3 - Taco scrammble  - Beef, homemade taco seasoning, on top of sauted onion, zucc and squash, topped with fried egg and avocado

 

Meal 1 - 2 scrambled eggs, 2 links chicken sausage, leftover veggies, avo

Meal 2 - chicken salad (see above)

Meal 3 - spag squash, homemade meatballs, compliant sauce, salad with avo

 

Any suggestions on next steps, or what might be holding up my success would be greatly appreciated!  Thank you!

 

 

 

[Karen_Suep]

the first meal you listed has no added fat (chicken sausage tends to be lean). How much avocado are you eating when you have it? Maybe a little more fat can help

The day you had bacon, you may want to as another protein as bacon is considered fat (yummy fat, but still not protein really) (unless you have tiny hands. Then you can ignore me)

Are you eating within an hour of waking?

[Hiker*Girl]

Your story sounds very similar to mine. I just posted a similar question on this thread. It is discouraging to be so near the end and not feel the amazing changes so many others rave about. Sorry 

[jmcbn]

• The Bad - Several of my major goals for my Whole30 have been elusive.  My energy in not great.  I get tired in the afternoons and struggle through my daily workouts and tennis (I do HIIT or play tennis everyday except Sunday), my clothes are not fitting better, my face still seems puffy, and my joint pain is the same.  I really do not FEEL better.  I have tried hard to stay positive and just forge ahead, but it is discouraging.
• Prior to Whole30, I did love sugar and had major sugar cravings, and I did not eat three meals a day regularly. 

Ok, so in general your food doesn't look too bad, but a couple of things spring to mind here:

You've had 27 days of eating 3 meals a day - if you came from a background of over-restricting, skipping meals, and generally under-nourishing yourself with whole foods and over indulging in sugar it can often take longer than the 30 days for your hormones to rebalance and for your body to believe that there is no end to this new supply of wholesome nutritious foods without holding on tight to every morsel for fear of a famine.

Secondly, the puffiness and achey joints would lead me to believe that there is maybe some kind of food intolerance at play here - looking at your list of foods I'm thinking either eggs or FODMAPs specifically because you are eating a lot of both... I can see sweet potato, avocado, onion, grapes & apple for starters, and you have a few meals listed where you are more vague on the types of veg.

Eggs can be very problematic, and rather than removing both the eggs AND the FODMAPs which might seem a little restrictive to you at this stage, you might want to start by eliminating the eggs first to see if your symptoms improve, and take it from there.

Hope this helps.

[rz2235]

Thanks for the replies.  I had actually considered that my meal skipping and love of sugar prior to Whole30 might still be causing issues this far in, so its good to know that may actually still be playing a role.  I am on Day 28 now and actually did not have eggs for breakfast, maybe for the first time, so its probably a good time to try eliminating eggs for a while to see how that goes. 

 

Thanks for the time and suggestions. 

[tamxocolf]

Thanks for the replies.  I had actually considered that my meal skipping and love of sugar prior to Whole30 might still be causing issues this far in, so its good to know that may actually still be playing a role.  I am on Day 28 now and actually did not have eggs for breakfast, maybe for the first time, so its probably a good time to try eliminating eggs for a while to see how that goes. 

 

Thanks for the time and suggestions. 

 

How are you feeling without the eggs? Has your joint pain reduced any?