mdraeger

@Betsie_n I've been peeking into this thread from time to time and I'm so glad I'm not the only one. Congrats on the new InstantPot and the Primal Kitchens giveaway, how awesome. I'm a huge fan of my IP – such a game changer. I'm not quite ready for multiple sizes, but that day is coming... ;-) I hope your cold gets better soon and well before your trip. I didn't stay quite as compliant as I wanted to over the holiday. Hubby and I did a Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning and ended up with some "free" cupcakes. I'm learning that a huge challenge for me is eating things that are in the house so "they don't go to waste" Why I give a crap if some cupcakes that I didn't pay for get thrown out is anyone's guess, but it's something to work on. Other than the cupcakes, there were a few gluten and dairy containing things and too much wine. By Sunday, I felt so off the rails and far away from the W30 goodness that it was actually not that hard to get back on the wagon. I planned some easy compliant dinners for this week and am happy to be back on solid ground again. My plan is to be as compliant as possible at home and do the best I can at the various social engagements coming up. I also started a boot camp this week. It's been a while since I've done that kind of exercise, so it was definitely challenging and EVERYTHING is sore. But it's nice to start the day with a solid workout and it helps motivate the clean eating for sure. Hope everyone is staying on track and doing well!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! @laurenmccracken I'm so sorry to hear that you're having such a struggle finding reasonably priced compliant options, how frustrating! @halfpint_aggie I chuckled out loud at your rebellion. (And it's so true, there always ends up being more dessert.) My prediction, your veggie dish is going to get gobbled up in no time flat... The hubby went to the store unattended yesterday to pick up our turkey and a few last-minute things and came home with a pie! It was a mini-pie, but still! I was so mad. (Especially since it's a fancy brand that I know is expensive... ) I should have just let him eat it, but ended up eating it "so it didn't go to waste" which was a huge bummer. Luckily, the gluten effect wasn't as bad as last time. But it still wasn't worth it and the whole thing just made me super annoyed. I'm tired of feeling like I have to be the grown-up all the time. Gah. Today has been better and I did some solid food prep to make tomorrow easier. We're going to do a Turkey Trot in the morning and then host my brother/sister-in-law for a low-key dinner. It should be fun. Hope everyone has a great holiday.

@Betsie_n Very impressive on making it to day 50 without wine. (And you are so right about the minefield of grocery shopping the weekend before Thanksgiving. Oy vey!) I do want to try the blood testing, but I think I'm probably going to do it in January after all of the holiday craziness. I want to have at least two fully compliant weeks so that I can have clean results. December seems like a good month to try and cement some of the Food Freedom Forever process, so I'm going to take that opportunity. I reintroduced gluten on Saturday which was interesting. It was really hard to think of gluten that I missed that didn't also involve dairy (pizza, lasagna, heck even butter on bread... ) but I tried to isolate gluten as much as I could. We went out for breakfast at one of my favorite local places and I split one of their delicious pecan sticky buns with my hubby – it was heaven and I enjoyed every bite. I was otherwise compliant except for a mimosa, which I know isn't ideal, but it was too hard to pass up. Then I ran a few errands and did the grocery shopping where I picked up a nice-looking pretzel out of the bakery case and some fresh pasta to pair with a complaint meat sauce and salad for dinner. (I only ate a couple of bites of the pretzel at lunch, it just wasn't that great.) The pasta tasted better, but honestly, not that much better than zoodles or spaghetti sauce. My stomach was gurgling and unhappy all night and still didn't feel great the following. So, gluten is definitely going to be one of those things that I'm going to keep an eye on. I'm going to keep the next couple of days really compliant and then see how Thanksgiving goes. My menu is mostly compliant with the exception of a sweet potato recipe that has some dairy in it, and then gluten in the stuffing and my brother's pumpkin pie. This will give me a more real world example of when I might choose to indulge, so it will be helpful to see how it affects me. From there, I can look into making gluten-free substitutes. (In the past, I've had bad reactions to some of the gluten-free flour mixes, so I don't want to open that can of worms quite yet.) It has been so interesting to see the differences in this go-round of W30. I don't feel as stressed out by the gluten reaction as I would have in the first one. (I do wonder if my desire not to have an issue made me overlook symptoms or if I've just changed my gut flora enough to have a different reaction now.) Honestly, even facing the gauntlet of holiday parties/Christimas with my in-laws and parents isn't that scary. (It helps to have the safety net of a January Whole30.) I hope everyone is doing well and looking forward to a wonderful holiday weekend! M

@Betsie_n I think it's good to reintroduce the thing that you missed the most. And it sounds like it was completely worth it. I am very relieved at the dairy result – I didn't have issues when I last did the reintroductions a few years ago, but the fact that so many people have issues made me question my findings. I took a Cultural Anthropology course in college where the professor said that folks with Northern European ancestry tend to have fewer issues tolerating dairy. A big percentage of my background is Norwegian, so I've always assumed that had something to do with it. (my parents and siblings drink shocking amounts of milk to this day. I don't, but more out of personal preference vs. tolerance level.) I have ethical issues with commercially produced dairy, so I'll continue to limit my consumption along those guidelines. Enjoy your weekend wine! I'm blazing through that Robb Wolf book I mentioned and it's really interesting. He recommends a 30 day paleo reset (similar to the Whole 30 but minus the white potatoes and with recommendations for grams of carbs/proteins, etc.) and then in place of the reintroduction, has you do a period where you use a blood glucose monitor and test specific carbohydrates to see how they affect your blood glucose. It's a pretty rigorous sounding testing protocol, but it would be cool to have a clear guideline to see what foods you could work into your regular rotation and what you should generally avoid. I'm still a little unclear on a few points, so I want to do some more research on it, but I'm definitely considering trying it out.

Dairy reintroduction went pretty well for the most part. The only problematic part was that the ice cream had little pieces of gingerbread – so a gluten/dairy combo. Not ideal, but I didn't really notice any side effects, so hopefully it's okay. I do think the sugar rush at 7:30 at night messed up my sleep. I woke up at 2 am and had a hard time falling back asleep. It's been a while since that's happened, so it could be related or just be coincidence. Just to be safe, I'm going to lay off the sweet stuff during the week. (I've made it this far, I can certainly continue the trend.) I think hubby caught my cold, so I think it's going to be a challenging few days...

@Betsie_n Huge congrats on Day 45! That's major! I'm reintroducing dairy today and it was soooooo weird to have yogurt with breakfast this morning. (Siggi's icelandic yogurt coconut flavor. SO GOOD!) I'm planning to do cheese at lunch – probably on a lettuce-wrapped burger, because it's the easiest thing I could think of that didn't involve other food groups – and then ice cream after dinner. The whole reintroduction thing is so funny to me – it's strange to be clinically assessing the effects of ice cream on my life. I also stepped on the scale this morning and am another ~1.5 lbs down. Again, it's hard not to want those big numbers, but I keep reminding myself that slow and steady is better for the long term. I also started reading an interesting book by Robb Wolf called "Wired to Eat." I'm only through the first chapter, but his process calls for a 30 day reset (that I'm betting is very similar to the Whole30) and then a 7 day period where you use a blood glucose monitor to see how foods affect you. I'm definitely intrigued by the concept. I'll report back when I've finished reading. I am also glad folks have stuck around on this thread. It's nice to hear how things are going for everyone!

@Betsie_n I've never ordered from them, but I've seen Barefoot Provisions mentioned in the Whole30 newsletter, so I peeked at what they had. LOTS of nut-free options: https://barefootprovisions.com/collections/whole30 I'm also a big fan of packing a lunch/snacks in an insulated cooler bag that I can bring with me to work functions as needed. (Pro-tip: stash a couple of ziploc bags in there and fill them from the ice machine.) There are a number of Whole Foods in Manhattan where you can grab deli meats, veggies, fruits, etc. New Yorkers tend to have microscopic kitchens, so there should be a good supply of prepped stuff for you to choose from. If your room doesn't have a fridge you can sometimes request one or have them empty the mini bar for you to use. Worst case, keep stuff in the cooler bag with ice from the ice machine And while in NYC, go to Hu Kitchen. It is THE BEST paleo friendly restaurant I've ever been to. I feel quite confident that you could take a totally non-paleo person and they'd love it. https://hukitchen.com/ Before our last visit there, I got a lot of good restaurant ideas from Nom Nom Paleo's blog. But honestly, New York is like any big city in that they encounter all sorts of issues and food sensitivities. As long as you're at a reasonably high quality place, they should be able to modify things for you without too much difficulty.

@Betsie_n Sorry to hear about your meltdown. I wonder if it might be some form of decision fatigue? Whole 30 commands so much of our brain space, it seems logical that you could reach that point where your mind and emotions just need a break. In any case, I think it's very commendable that you were able to coax yourself back to your original 45 day goal. Like @TerriN said, it's progress not perfection. I'm sure there was a time where you would have just been like "Eff it, 40 days is good enough!" @halfpint_aggie It sounds like you're doing really well! Co-hosting a baby shower 12 hours after a camping trip AND staying compliant? Amazeballs! @TerriN Congrats on wine season being over. It's great to hear that you're figuring out your Food Freedom journey. I'm of the same mindset re: wine on the weekends and keeping more compliant during the week. Good luck on your return to running, I hope it goes well. The cold is much better today, thank goodness. I'm still a little tired/rundown feeling, but I'll bet how I feel now is exactly how normal felt pre-W30. It's funny to think about, but very motivating to stay on track. I was just talking to a co-worker about how next week is Thanksgiving, which is shocking. Luckily, we're hosting/cooking for a small group, so I'm able to control how compliant it is. (And thanks to Nom Nom Paleo, most of my standard Thanksgiving recipes are also compliant.) It feels good going into the holiday with a plan, but it's also the start of all of the holiday parties, so I need to get my strategy together. Is anyone else nervous about the holidays? Plans? Strategies? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

This cold kicked my butt. Spend all weekend basically on the couch. I did make it out on Sunday evening to a commitment with my sister-in-law and her friends. Dinner had some dairy in it and I indulged in a glass of white wine, but the rest of the weekend was otherwise compliant. Hubby was a rockstar this weekend and did all of the food shopping and prep. We're a little less organized in terms of having recipes picked out, but I think it will be okay. I'm still feeling run down, but better than yesterday. @laurenmccracken Congrats on the pants, that's always a great indicator of progress. (And double congrats on resisting the muffins, that is tough!) I hope you have a great CA trip!

@laurenmccracken It sounds like you are doing so well in your post W30 life! Your Friendsgiving sounds like the very definition of Food Freedom. I think the key is focusing on how good you're feeling when you're eating well and thinking about what foods are really worth going off plan for. For me, the slip away from this way of eating always starts when I lose focus on those two things. It's the thing that I most appreciated from the Food Freedom book: she basically says that we will inevitably slide back into old habits and to just acknowledge the slip and go back to the reset until you're feeling good again. For me, framing it this way takes some of that "I'm a failure" out of the equation. It's just part of the process, so deal with it. I think I'm coming down with a cold, so my goal today is to get the grocery shopping done and then hunker down on the couch. My biggest challenge is that my favorite soup for when I'm sick is a chicken dumpling soup that is all about the gluten, so I'm going to make a paleo version of Avgolemono (Greek Chicken & Rice soup). My recipe calls for some egg in the broth, similar to an egg drop soup, so it's really nice and comforting. Thankfully, I don't have too many plans this weekend, so I can take it easy. Hopefully, the rest of you are doing something more fun for your weekend plans...

@Betsie_n I'm intrigued about the food sensitivity/pulse test. Definitely let us know what you find out. Happy Friday everyone! Today is supposed to be non-gluten grains day, but the only thing I really miss from that category is corn, so we're doing fish tacos on corn tortillas tonight. I think hubby is a little frustrated by the slow pace of things because he keeps asking when we're introducing gluten. I had to remind him that he is free to do things on his own timeline and that settled him down. (I suspect he wants to know when he's cleared for bourbon/beer drinking but doesn't want to say so.) This weekend will be a tiny bit tricky to navigate, reintroduction-wise. On Sunday, I've got dinner plans with my sister-in-law and two of her friends that I haven't met. My plan is to stick as close to plan as I can and enjoy a glass of wine with dinner. Then I'll go back to W30 for a few days just to let things get back to normal and pick up reintroducing dairy mid-week with gluten test next weekend. That will give me all of the info I need to navigate the holidays without too much damage and (hopefully) roll into the new year on the Food Freedom train as opposed to the typical fat/bloated/feeling terrible train that I usually find myself on at the beginning of the year... Hope everyone is doing well!

@halfpint_aggie 41 degrees and a million conversations about what you can't eat. Bless you for hanging in there for your hubby and kiddo, that sounds horrific. (And as someone who also comes from Nordic stock, you can take comfort in the fact that your ancestors would probably not do well in Houston's heat, so you're just a different kind of hardcore... ) ;-P @laurenmccracken My grocery bill is shocking on the W30 for sure, but you are absolutely right – we used to go out more often or get takeout because we were too lazy to cook. Like you, I'm hard-pressed to think of places that are worth it, because I'm making some really tasty food these days! And man, those sneaky emotional cravings are the worst. I'll be humming along and one will pop into my head out of nowhere. I've had a few random snack cravings Thankfully, these couldn't be met with anything in the house, so it was pretty easy to let those go by. Sorry cravings, once I'm in my pajamas/sweatpants, I'm not getting dressed again until work tomorrow! Wine is a harder temptation to resist, but I've been holding firm to my no weeknights rule.

@TerriN Those olive packs look great! I like exactly one kind of olive (calvestranos – the least olive-tasting olive on the planet), but they are my go-to snack when I need a little something. I am exactly the same as you where a few olives will perfectly satisfy me where I'd otherwise eat many more nuts. Maybe they'll expand their options to include calvestranos and black ones for @Betsie_n @Betsie_n Oh. My. God. What a harrowing experience! I am very impressed that you didn't glug down a huge glass of wine after that. I have a very similar fear of any kind of unstable/slippery driving. Unsurprisingly, I am a huge baby about driving in snow. (California girl, what can I say?) If I can't avoid it altogether (my first choice), then hubby has to drive and I basically hunker down in the fetal position, cover my eyes and deep breath/pray until it's over. And if there's any kind of skidding/sliding, it's pretty terrifying. Thankfully, that doesn't come up too often since we moved back to NorCal. Also, I love basset hounds – they are such fantastic dogs. My uncle had one when I was a kid and he was such a character. They are on my future dog rescue short list. :-) I definitely think that pork recipe would work with the country style ribs. (Honestly, they might be a better choice than the pork shoulder.) But the sauce gets nice and thick and the spicing is pretty subtle. It's definitely going to stay in my repertoire. Hubby did really well yesterday. He focused on dairy and didn't seem to suffer any adverse symptoms. In the past the only real side effect we saw from dairy was an increase in his snoring. His snoring wasn't necessarily worse, but it was a little different sounding than normal. I introduced legumes yesterday, so he partook in the refried beans we added to dinner, but beans haven't been an issue for either of us, so it wasn't a super high-risk enterprise. I haven't noticed any symptoms either, which is nice. I like to add beans to chilis and soups to make them stretch a little further. I didn't really include any soy in this introduction, because I generally don't use a lot of soy-based products at home. I did make a mental note to pay attention next time I'm eating at a sushi place or asian restaurant, in case some weird symptom pops up.

@halfpint_aggie I can only imagine how frustrating it must be to have to throw perfectly good food away because people can't be bothered to label/prepare things correctly. I definitely can see how takeout would quickly stop being worth it. Strong work on the camping food! I had to laugh at the poop thing and the relatives marveling at how much you guys eat. Been there! It's funny how when you don't fill up on chips and other junk, you eat a lot more of the main dish... And the grocery bill comment... ugh. There's a quote "Pay your farmer now or pay your doctor later" that I usually invoke at times like those. (Depending on whether or not I feel like getting into it.) But it sounds like it's going as well as can be expected and I hope you guys are able to have some fun. @Betsie_n Portion size is a tough one for me too. I've been trying to follow the meal template more closely and err on the lower end and add if I'm still hungry. And it's hard to resist the white potatoes this time of year, I can only imagine that it's doubly hard when they are home grown! @TerriN Congrats on finishing the 30 days! I've been stuck on that stupid pass for 3 hours, so huge props for surviving EIGHT! That's horrible. I completely agree about how nice it is to be a little less OCD on ingredients. During reintroductions I'm still trying to stick to stuff that's compliant, but I'm less neurotic about small amounts of added sugar, especially if it's of the honey or maple syrup variety. That's probably the most difficult thing about W30 for me (aside from wine, of course). @Ena2 Welcome! And congrats on your 30 days, it sounds like it went really well. I think we all have to learn the hard way about indulging after the 30 days is up – I know I did. Yesterday was kind of a mess, due to my early wake-up call. I somehow forgot to bring the bottom half of my running clothes, (Kind of important!) so I couldn't go out for a little lunchtime run. Gotta love feeling like a total dumb-ass! Thankfully, I'd made an experimental Gingerbread Pork Stew in the crockpot on Sunday, so dinner was an easy matter of making some side dishes (I made the boiled potatoes and cranberry sauce the recipe suggests). It was pretty tasty, definitely a very comforting fall-friendly dish. I think I'm going to try it with stew meat next time and see how it tastes. Today was another early wake up, but I slept a lot more soundly, so I feel better about it. I have the full running outfit today, so I should be able to get out for some mid-day exercise. I'm super proud of hubby who told me this morning that he was still going to avoid gluten at his lunch meeting. He'll likely indulge in dairy and possibly other off plan grains/legumes or whatever, but the fact that he's not using this as an excuse to go nuts is huge progress.

Ah, stupid DST! Body woke up at 4:30 this morning (despite going to bed at my usual time, which should be an hour later.) GRRRR! Yesterday was fairly successful. Went for a run with the hubby – it was his first run in two years, so that was pretty great. (He's been battling foot/hip issues) Had a nice compliant lunch of leftovers and then went down to hang out with my brother for the afternoon. We grilled steaks and I made some roasted potatoes and broccoli to go with them. I did indulge in another glass of wine, which wasn't part of my plan, but it was a really nice bottle so I made a conscious choice and stuck to one glass. The wine is definitely my biggest temptation and it was hard to stick to that one glass rule, but I did! I'm reintroducing legumes on Tuesday and then non-gluten grains on Friday or Saturday, depending on side-effects. Hubby has some sort of work lunch on Tuesday that he'll probably end up going off plan for, so it will be interesting to see how he navigates from there. I'm totally fine if he opts out – he's good at eating what I make and being aware of possibly sabotaging my progress. I just read about a new Paleo-friendly restaurant in SF, so we may go do a weekend outing and check it out. It would be so great to be able to go out for lunch and have more than one entree to choose from. (Chicken on a dry salad or lettuce wrapped burgers, am I right?) Hope everyone is hanging in there!