Lorna from Canada

I buy high quality coffee and drink it black like I always have - lucky me.

What a great weekend - super sunny camping in our Airstream in the snow. -10C but so much blue sky! Love me some blue sky in January. We did have to leave paradise and take our trailer to the dealer because a squirrel had made a nest on the bathroom towels - 4 hours of driving and 4 hours of sitting in the dealership while they plugged all possible entry points under the trailer. This kind of frustration usually leads both of us to mindless eating - especially since our dealership always has a group lunch on Saturdays to which we are always invited. Even pre-W30, Steven and I generally eschew processed foods in our diet but, sitting in our dealership on a Saturday usually means we succumb to whatever's on offer. Not this time - all that grocery store prepared lasagna, cheese bread and drenched salad looked really, really unappetizing. For the first time ever, I headed out to the trailer and found the leftover mexican inspired chicken I had made for the previous night's lettuce wrapped tacos, added some stock to it and made soup. It was a delicious lunch. We were sated and high fived ourselves. The secret to turning down food and moving on is remembering that you do move on. There were no lingering memories of lasagna and cheese bread - by the time we were back in paradise making a delicious dinner, all thoughts of our dealership's offerings were long gone. Sometimes you just have to remember ahead. This isn't going to make a difference to me 2 hours from now. Dinner Saturday night: Compliant lamb sausages; ghee garlic green beans; thyme roasted carrots and parsnips; oven roasted brussel sprouts, roasted red pepper and avocado sauce - now that's food!

Hi @mwolfnm Easy peasy latkes. Grated 1/2 cooked potatos bound with an egg yolk fried in ghee is the basic re ipe. I added carmelized onions for extra zing. I used a ring mold to make them have firm edges so they'd hold together as a sandwich. These were about 1/3 inch thick. Let me know if you need more info! I am finding myself full more often on the W30! Definitely a big NSV.

Thanks for coming by! Always happy to commiserate with someone going through the same thing. Slaying that Sugar Dragon (what a great name!) is an ongoing process. Continued good luck with your program Meg!!

Too much fruit. Well, 3-4 small pieces per day - not so much in the grand scheme of things but eaten as a snack and at the end of a meal as a dessert and I know that's not the intent but it's happening. Awareness is the first step to change. I have an outrageously powerful sugar dragon who is also outraged at the moment but fruit isn't the answer. So, done today with fruit. Those 2 clementines, that banana and that apple are all she wrote for today. Tomorrow is another day - I commit to 2 pieces of fruit as part of my meal - period. Team FamJam is otherwise going strong. Hubby navigated a work dinner out last night feasting on the interior cuts of his meat (lest they be bathed in non-compliant sauce or marinade) and dry salad. A Larabar filled in the gaps on the way home. Good for him - those dinners out with him are "reward" dinners for the winners of staff challenges and tend to be calorie laden, drink sodden affairs. While a unique experience for the winners, DH does them a couple of times a month! They have been causing him some trouble. Not this time - I'm so proud of his commitment! Me - I'm in coast mode - can't quite believe what I am eating - haven't had this much red meat in 20 years! Trusting the science and the experiences of others. I know the low fat/cholestrol; chemical substitutes and starvation methodologies haven't worked for me to feel healthy so - I am 100% sticking with this - fruit not withstanding And, it's Friday night - one more wineless, beerless weekend to face. Hoping it will be easier this weekend than last.

Today I woke up late after an interrupted sleep thanks to our 18 year old demented cat (yes, she has dementia - who knew cats could become demented? Totally physically well but completely disoriented at night) - anyway - firstly, 2 weeks ago, no matter what hour I went to bed the previous night, I would not have been able to get back to sleep at 6:00AM when Noonie woke me up. So, sleeping in until 9:45 is wild!. Secondly, when I did get up, I automatically reached for my morning piece of fruit but realized I didn't want it. That's different too - usually I want to eat something immediately upon rising so, not eating anything at all - or, not wanting to eat anything at all is quite different. Last night was crazy busy. We arrived home late and there are 2 cans of very cold beer sitting at the back of the fridge that were so tempting - I'm not even primarily a beer drinker but MAN those were tempting. Nope. I made us tea instead which was just fine - although not what we wanted Today is bright and sunny and winter wonderland-like. I have new boots to take out for a walk - I've been off all major exercise endeavours for 3 months now and need to start getting back into it mentally. I want to return to running again when I get to Australia in early February. So - time to ge tmoving. No change in my chronic pain issues yet - trying NOT to focus on my concern about that. NSVs so far: Decreased mindless noshing. Decreased stomach pain/bloating. Better sleep quality and length. Less anxiety - my brain is more calm. Only someone with disordered anxiety would know what that means. Personal sense of accomplishment and commitment. I couldn't cheat on this plan now if there was a stockpile of non-compliant foods I love sitting it front of me.

This week has flown by - well, most weeks do anyway - time speeds up as we get older. But, I was expecting more of a drag. Yes, there's been some brain fog and low energy and lack of motivation but, overall, this has been a great week. Today I decided to make a big breakfast since Steven is working from home and I had an early class (to teach) so I generally eat a little later on Wednesdays. My daughter told me about egg sandwiches she had made earlier this week using grated potato and egg yolk bound latkes for the english muffin so I decided to try that. Since I used 2 potatoes, 2 eggs, 4 strips of bacon and an onion, I ended up with 4 sandwiches. Not a lot of food really. Well, despite how amazingly delicious the sandwich was (2 thin, salty, crunchy latkes with a slice of bacon, carmelized onions and a fried egg white in between), I could only eat one. And I was fine with setting the second one aside (we'll see if it's still edible tomorrow morning!) This ALSO happened last night with my marinara covered meat stuffed portobello mushroom from dinner. Despite its deliciousness, I was full half way through and stopped eating. I stopped eating. Seriously, I STOPPED eating. THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED TO ME BEFORE. I have a huge appetite and love food. I eat a lot of salad and vegetables as a general rule so I fill up and don't leave the table hungry for more food. I always clean my plate. Despite the veg load, I have a very hard time stopping after I clean my plate - seconds are the norm for me. I can eat a lot of food! hence the struggle with obesity. But today, at breakfast, I stopped eating. It was even a decision, I'd just had enough. I have never been so sated by a meal before. This is really, really interesting to me. I am writing it here as a way to revisit it as time goes on. I'm also uploading a photo so I don't kid myself into thinking that I stopped eating because it didn't taste good

Hi @hollysmokes - Thank you for stopping by and for the recommendation of Katy Bowman - I am not aware of her. I have an amazing physiotherapist who specializes in biomechanics and manual therapy but I can only see her once a week - this sounds like it would be an awesome addition! I plan to start exercising again next week so I will definitely check her out. We're really enjoying our W30 program so far - no crankiness or KATT. I absolutely do trust the program and am excited to see what every week releals. Lorna

My name is Lorna and I am 58. I describe myself as an obesity survivor as I lost more than 85lb between 2004 and 2009 and maintained it for many years. Menopause started 2 1/2 years ago and really snuck up on me - I regained 30lbs in 2 years and had so many different injuries and so much joint pain from working out (I'm a marathon runner, long distance backpacker) that I decided to take a break from it at the end of October 2018 and figure this out. I tried to return to Weight Watchers which had helped me lose the weight originally but it was not gelling this time - making Greek Yogurt a "free food" ended up with me eating a 500 ml tub every. single. day. I've had to deal with anxiety around this weight gain and pain. I generally eat clean but realize sugar was creeping back in big time - the sugar addiction is real. I also love wine - have studied wine and am quite knowledgable - I'm the one people want to order the wine when we're out together - but, I also realize I was drinking too much - 2 glasses everyday - sometimes a whole bottle over the course of a Saturday! This was partly because I love it but also, full admission, because I was anxious and sad about my chronic pain issues and inability to workout without feeling crippled immediately afterwards. I had never heard of Whole 30 before I went to visit my daughter in Colorado at Christmas and saw the label on one of her Thrive Market products. I had just had a colonoscopy done a few weeks prior and, during the prep days for that, I was thinking how easy it was to be told exactly what you could and couldn't eat - no cheating for your colonoscopy prep! It was easy for me not to eat for 24 hours during that process so, I was thinking about how to replicate that in my diet. I do believe the universe colludes to give you answers - within a couple of weeks - I had mine - Whole 30. I thought I'd be doing it alone but, within minutes of telling my husband and youngest daughter (29) about it, they said "I'm in" so we're doing it as a family - that does make it easier. We are on Day 6 and are 100% compliant although not perfect We're fortunate that there is no financial burden to keep us from buying all the good food we need. I am sharing prepped food with my daughter who lives 6 km away as she has some disabilities left over from an autoimmune disorder and would find the food prep taxing. SO FAR: None of us reports any hard challenges - I miss my wine and my husband misses his beer but, we're grown ups, we can manage it. We're not craving it like we thought we would. I'm an excellent cook so the meal prep is no problem at all - being creative has interjected some fun into our meals. All 3 of us have been very hungry a lot of the time despite our substantial meals. We know this is normal so we are powering through it with appropriate snack as necessary. My daughter has discovered that unsweetened almond milk in her coffee is excellent and has grown to like the flavour of coffee without sugar so, I think that is a permanent change for her. I feel less bloated and my face is thinner. I have been reading a lot of posts from people my age who report less pain from inflammation after 2 weeks so I have my fingers crossed that happens for me. I am putting a lot of stock on that happening actually - this is something that I am already aware of as being a potential emotional problem for me - if I don't get reduced pain... I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. If you've read this far - thank you. I'll be checking in daily for the next little while