Serious Help Needed: Starving Myself

[clairrock]

I'm prefacing this with the note that I've decided to quit Whole30 unless I can find serious help navigating my current situation. 

Why I’ve decided to quit the whole30 diet.

 

Because it is, for all intents and purposes just that, a diet. 

 

A change in the way I consume food, to a different way of consuming food, a change in diet. 

 

I made it to day 11, and that entire time was a struggle. Not the struggle laid out in the book however. I didn’t have sugar withdrawals, because I already do not consume that much sugar. I did have ‘the hangover’ because my body wasn’t detoxing, it was starving. I went from eating comfortably and rather health to eating in a very structured and not safe fashion. I have been consumer massive amounts of food at meal times, and will still find myself hungry after eating. I spend most of the day pretending not to hear my stomach gurgling and churning as I pine for something to eat. I do snack, I snack all the time because it is the only thing I can do to keep myself from fainting. I have spent the last three days feeling like I could fall over at any moment. I have had customers at my job ask me if I’m ill because I “don’t look so good.” 

 

My Fiancé, who was the one who decided we take on this task has had allllllll the whole30 symptoms. Before starting she had a high dependency on sugar, she had the hangover, and now she feels fantastic! I am BEYOND envious of her current situation, because I literally feel like I might faint as I sit at my computer typing this out. I went into this thing, slightly skeptical, but willing and ready. I have gone from having some faith in this program to none, because I have experience none of the normal symptoms and the amount of hunger I’m experiencing is beyond anything that seems healthy or appropriate. I am a runner, but since starting Whole30 even getting out of bed seems like too much of a grueling task. I can hardly stand for more than two hours because of how hungry and exhausted I am. Obviously, this exhaustion is caused by my hunger. 

 

I have always considered myself a fairly healthy eater, yes of course I eat pizza and burgers, but I also eat a massive amount of fruits and veggies. I was a vegetarian for six years, but started eating meat again about five years ago. I am very weird about eating meat, and tend to choose other sources of protein, but I have consumed more meat since starting Whole30 than I have in the year 2017 leading up to this diet. I am not a massive consumer of meat, and that is probably part of this issue with all of this. We found a compliant Shepherds pie recipe last week, we made two pies. I ate an entire pie by myself in one day (for two different meals, but still). My fiancé has one quarter of the other pie, and I finished the rest (in two separate meals). This doesn’t seem appropriate. 

 

Did I mention my fiancé and I are both graduate students? She’s finishing her thesis and I’m smack in the middle of finals of my second semester. I also have an astonishingly horrible job where no microwave can be found, so I can’t take anything but salads to act as entire meals to work.

 

[jmcbn]

26 minutes ago, clairrock said:

We found a compliant Shepherds pie recipe last week, we made two pies. I ate an entire pie by myself in one day (for two different meals, but still). My fiancé has one quarter of the other pie, and I finished the rest (in two separate meals). This doesn’t seem appropriate. 

Ok, so we don't want you to be starving. Actually we don't even want you to be hungry, and if you're eating meals according to the template there is no reason for you to feel that way.

Roughly how much meat was in the pie? Are you eating the recommended amount of protein at each meal, bearing in mind the 1-2 palm sized pieces of protein is the minimum range and it's perfectly okay to eat more? Are you eating 1-3 cups of veg per meal, with three being optimum? Are you adding a healthy serving of fat to each meal? Are you drinking the recommended half an ounce of water per pound of body weight, daily? And salting your food?

Can you give us a run down of a few typical days worth of food, giving specifics on portion sizes, liquid intake & activity levels?

[clairrock]

22 hours ago, jmcbn said:

Ok, so we don't want you to be starving. Actually we don't even want you to be hungry, and if you're eating meals according to the template there is no reason for you to feel that way.

Roughly how much meat was in the pie? Are you eating the recommended amount of protein at each meal, bearing in mind the 1-2 palm sized pieces of protein is the minimum range and it's perfectly okay to eat more? Are you eating 1-3 cups of veg per meal, with three being optimum? Are you adding a healthy serving of fat to each meal? Are you drinking the recommended half an ounce of water per pound of body weight, daily? And salting your food?

Can you give us a run down of a few typical days worth of food, giving specifics on portion sizes, liquid intake & activity levels?

The shepherds pie had one pound of beef, which caused us to split it into two pies each with about half a pound. I have been trying to eat the recommended amounts of protein, but again 80% of my time outside of my house or school I don't have access to a microwave so it's a lot of nuts, nut butters, jerky, and whatever else I can find that's protein. I cannot eat cold meat, with the exception of jerky (this goes back to my being weird about meat after not eating it for six years) and I cannot eat fish because the smell and texture are horrendous in my opinion. 

Yesterday I had grapes and cashew butter for breakfast - I was preparing dinner in the crockpot and running out of time before heading to work. For lunch I had braised beef with potatoes, broccoli, and a spring green mix that I grabbed from compliant restaurant. I had an eight and half hour shift at work where I ate some mixed fruit on my break. And for dinner I had chicken and veggie soup. 

I don't measure my food so giving specifics is a little difficult, I just know I'm giving myself larger servings than I did before starting this. I typically eat avocados with breakfast, if I can force myself I will eat two eggs, otherwise I'm having some fruit with nuts or nut butter. Lunch is usually a toss up of salad or leftovers from the previous nights dinner. And dinner is either a salad at work, or a full meal with meat and veggies once I get home after 10.30 at night. Snacks are usually some kind of jerky, fruit, or nuts. I am constantly drinking water or sparkling water 'adding' water into my daily routine is nothing new this is something I already do. 

I don't work late, but the train ride causes me to get home later than I'd like which means I tend to eat dinner really late at night. I don't wake up particularly early, because I don't have to, and lately I've been to exhausted to even try. I do like to wake up early so I can go for run, but that certainly is not the case lately. This causes breakfast and lunch to be very close together on days that I have to work. When I have class I can take lunch and dinner with me and eat before and between my classes no problem, but I only have class two days a week, the rest of the days I work. 

[jmcbn]

Ok so salads need to be HUGE to be in anyway satiating, unless you are adding some hardier veg in there too - think about how much spinach or other greens reduce down when chewed. Have you tried adding cold potato or sweet potato to your salads? Or some lightly cooked broccoli? What are you adding in terms of protein?

A serving of eggs when they are your only source of protein in a meal would be the number of whole eggs you can hold in one hand withot dropping - most females can easily hold 3-4, but if you don't want to be eating so many eggs you can always mix up the protein sources, which most people find to be more satiating.

Nuts & nut butters are a fat for Whole30 purposes and if you're trying to survive on those for some meals then it's no small wonder you feel hungry - nuts are not a meal, and actually we'd recommend that they are limited to a closed handful every other day, max, as they can be hard on the digestive system and are high in inflammatory omega 6 fatty acids.

Other than jerky is there any kind of meat that you can eat cold? Chicken works well at room temperature so you could do wings, legs, thighs, etc or add some cooked chicken into your salads... Pork also isn't bad eaten at room temp so things like grilled pork chops might work? What types of fish have you tried? some kinds are less 'fishy' than others and have a better texture. Tinned mackerel in particular has a much less 'fishy' texture to it and it's cheap & portable.

Really your meals need to be meals rather than snacks (jerky, nuts & fruit) in order to fuel your body effectively - protein, lots of veg & a serving of fat. If you have long periods between meals it's okay to eat, but again these should be mini meals rather than just fruit & nuts.

What did you eat previously?

[clairrock]

12 hours ago, jmcbn said:

Ok so salads need to be HUGE to be in anyway satiating, unless you are adding some hardier veg in there too - think about how much spinach or other greens reduce down when chewed. Have you tried adding cold potato or sweet potato to your salads? Or some lightly cooked broccoli? What are you adding in terms of protein?

A serving of eggs when they are your only source of protein in a meal would be the number of whole eggs you can hold in one hand withot dropping - most females can easily hold 3-4, but if you don't want to be eating so many eggs you can always mix up the protein sources, which most people find to be more satiating.

Nuts & nut butters are a fat for Whole30 purposes and if you're trying to survive on those for some meals then it's no small wonder you feel hungry - nuts are not a meal, and actually we'd recommend that they are limited to a closed handful every other day, max, as they can be hard on the digestive system and are high in inflammatory omega 6 fatty acids.

Other than jerky is there any kind of meat that you can eat cold? Chicken works well at room temperature so you could do wings, legs, thighs, etc or add some cooked chicken into your salads... Pork also isn't bad eaten at room temp so things like grilled pork chops might work? What types of fish have you tried? some kinds are less 'fishy' than others and have a better texture. Tinned mackerel in particular has a much less 'fishy' texture to it and it's cheap & portable.

Really your meals need to be meals rather than snacks (jerky, nuts & fruit) in order to fuel your body effectively - protein, lots of veg & a serving of fat. If you have long periods between meals it's okay to eat, but again these should be mini meals rather than just fruit & nuts.

What did you eat previously?

My salads are typically pretty big and the contain all sorts of veggies, broccoli, radishes, carrots, etc. 

Like I mentioned previously I was a vegetarian for six years, so cold meat is a very serious struggle for me. Eating as much meat as I have been while doing Whole30 has been a struggle for me. I just don't eat as much meat as what seems to be required for this diet. A few years ago, I had some friends who made me try a new fish every week with them, and I could only stomach swordfish and even though I could tolerate it, finishing it was still a struggle. 

Before doing Whole30 I ate a lot of rice with vegetables and tofu. Oatmeal with fruit, granola with yogurt and fruit. Eggs with toast and avocados. Bacon! (I have had ZERO luck finding bacon, I have eaten a lot of proscuitto however). I make pasta from scratch with homemade sauce and eat that quite often (Zoodles are probably the least satiating food I've ever experienced). Lots of rice and beans. Tacos, all kinds of tacos. 

I've basically switched to eating a lot of foods I'm not comfortable eating or don't tend to eat as they don't appeal to me that much. 

[jmcbn]

On 23/04/2017 at 4:37 AM, clairrock said:

I've basically switched to eating a lot of foods I'm not comfortable eating or don't tend to eat as they don't appeal to me that much. 

Unfortunately the only way to find new foods that you enjoy is by trying new foods - and not just once. Research suggests that it can up to 15 times before you will find a new food appealing and the recommendation with children is to keep trying. Obviously you're an adult but the same rules apply - keep trying. If you're struggling with the amount of meat you might try adding in a compliant digestive enzyme as it's possible your digestive system is slow to produce the specific enzymes required for processing meat - this should improve the more you  eat, but it may help in the mean time.

The other thing is that other than the nuts/nut butters & avocado you don't mention fats. The shepherd's pie for instance could have done with a serving of fat along side it for increased satiety. Do you like olives? Maybe you could add a handful of those to your salads? Or home made mayo for dipping might make some of the meats more palatable until your taste buds adjust. Or how about ribs? They are a fatty meat as they are, and with some kind of compliant sauce (BBQ?) maybe these would work? I'm not a huge fan of ground chicken or turkey, but they do make good meatballs which can be eaten at room temp and dipped in mayo or guacamole..... Or lettuce wraps filled with tuna in spring water (less flavour/odour) with some chopped peppers etc & some tahini for fat...? Something like this would make a change from an actual salad, is portable, can be eaten at room temp, and ticks the boxes for all of the macros too.

In short I'd say stop focusing on the negatives and look for the positives - think of the foods you DO enjoy and think of ways that you encorporate those into your day, in template meals, in a way that works for you.

Hope this helps.

[MeadowLily]

Some people live on ground turkey or chicken every single day on a bed of fresh greens with some cooked vege, too. They add a circle of a tasty compliant sauce or dressing, some avocado cubes and voila. 

[Kwagg]

On your salads, how about a homemade chicken salad?  Or just some cut up compliant deli turkey?  They have cool containers now that will keep foods hot for a long time, and also tiny little portable crockpots that can heat up food while you work.  I totally understand the whole not wanting to eat fish thing, it's been a slow journey for me to like any seafood (scallops and lobster and shellfish are still a big no for me).  This might just be me but when I cut up a couple cucumbers and use that as a snack, it seems to be quite filling, so maybe instead of fruit on your breaks, you should use veggies instead, that way you're not getting that sugar hit?  I have yet to try a compliant ranch dressing but am thinking about it, so that would be something you could dip veggies into.  Also, maybe add more veggie starch to your meals, I'm currently living on sweet potatoes, but now that regular potatoes are allowed, I'll be doing some of those, too!  If you can do hard-boiled eggs, maybe switch those out for as many fruits & nut butters as you can, and see how that makes you feel?  

 

I totally get your current "diet" is a 180 from your previous diet... maybe something else is affecting you too, sounds like you have low blood sugar, maybe a hormone issue or you just need some sort of supplement.  Maybe give yourself a break on the "i should be running" mindset, and let your body start to adjust... 11 days probably isn't enough time for your body to go through the crazy carbflu after eating so differently!

[AmyS]

On 4/21/2017 at 5:48 AM, clairrock said:

Did I mention my fiancé and I are both graduate students? She’s finishing her thesis and I’m smack in the middle of finals of my second semester. I also have an astonishingly horrible job where no microwave can be found, so I can’t take anything but salads to act as entire meals to work.

 

 

I know others have responded in detail to other aspects of this post (and the OP may have departed by now) - but I wanted to address this part of the original post.

I've been thinking about this a lot because I teach at a university and the time around finals week (including a few weeks leading up to it and a couple of weeks after) is incredibly intense. I can totally understand feeling starving, even when eating what might seem like a normal human amount of food. There's something about that stress that burns up all of that food. I find this to be true with regard to performances too (I'm a singer and choral conductor as well as a university instructor). The time leading up to and decompressing from the show, as well as the show time itself, is just really really intense.

I would recommend during these times that we, first, plan to eat to the upper end of the template; and second, add in mini-meals or additional full meals as needed in order to feel satiated. I tend to eat fairly high carb compared to many Whole30 folks, due to a thyroid issue that seems to do better with lots of carb-intense veggies. But during these stressful times, I eat even more carbs (with fat and protein). I used to wonder why I was "pigging out" on bread/pasta/cereal/anything carb-heavy in the cabinet. I think now that I just really needed to find healthier options for those nutritional needs.

So for anyone who comes along and reads this post, zero-ing in on this issue of stressful times and how much food to eat, the answer to that question is probably: "more!" And that's OK.

Also, folks who need to pack meals without access to microwaves can pack simple protein/veg/fat combos and eat them cold. It's not as yummy as eating a warmed-up meal, but it's possible, and with an insulated lunch bag and a blue ice pack, you can pack (and pack, and pack, etc.) food. Go simple - roasted cubed potatoes, microwave-steamed collard greens, and a rotating set of proteins including eggs, canned salmon, and ground beef, with a dollop of mayo, is my go-to this semester. It ain't fancy, but it's filling, and I'll eat it. You don't have to eat what I eat, in fact I think I eat really weird food so ya know... but pack lots, keep it simple, and eat plenty.

All the best to all those going through Whole30 and Finals Week at the same time!