heb2014

Day 19....Random thoughts It is hard to cook pasta (for the kids) and not eat a bite to test for doneness....but I have managed to, twice. I have no idea if it was al dente or mushy. They didn't complain and ate it like it was the best food I've ever made. My husband made a fruit salad with some fruit that was about to go bad to go with dinner and put coconut oil on it = FANTASTIC. This will become a thing (not that we make a lot of fruit salad, but if I need something to carry somewhere...). I don't do coconut flakes so I was surprised to figure out it was a texture thing and that I love the taste. Would have been good with some pecans and walnuts added. I love having fruits and vegetables stocked and I can pull a bunch out and roast whatever I feel like at the time. Planning is a necessity but this allows for some flexibility. My husband wakes up in the mornings pumped about Whole30. This morning, he declared that "WE ARE DOING WHOLE30 FOREVER, I love how chiseled I look". My husband complains constantly in the evening about Whole30. Last night, he was groaning "Look at my belly, why is it so big? This is making me fat". Every.Day. (but apparently he's experiencing bloating for the first time in his life ) I feel really good this morning - like REALLY GOOD (but still had trouble waking up).

It's taken me a while to get to this point...and it will be a test as we move in to Food Freedom. I had previously thought I could make my own decisions, like not eat dessert when he did....but my will power was rather weak and I'd often felt "left out". I think that's what was different about the night we got ice cream - I still went, I still had something I love (coffee), and most importantly, I chose not to see it as "this sucks that I can't have what they're having". Looking ahead to Food Freedom, I'll probably limit the amount of "dessert" I have - like only special occasions AND homemade (probably will need to define what "special occasions really are...not every time we go to someone's house for dinner...). I will try to keep that mentality (that this doesn't suck that I can't have what everyone else is) and if there are times that I know my will-power is going to tell me otherwise, I may choose not to go. Just thinking out loud....

My mindless eating shows up a little differently, but I get you! This experiment has definitely shown me how much I was doing. I didn't realize how often I would eat a bite(s) of what my kids were snacking on, finish their dinners when they didn't, or lick the top of their yogurt container lid before throwing it away. I thought treats at work would be hard too, but I've noticed I need to stop and think before automatically popping something in my mouth. I can see how this will be a good habit to develop, Whole30 and beyond. if I had to pick a word to describe my first two weeks, it would be "consciousness" or "mindfulness". And I'm glad you shared that comment about being forced to finish dinner. As a parent, I pretty much question everything I'm doing (though you'd never admit that to your kids). It's hard to distinguish sometimes whether my kids just don't want to eat what I cooked or if they are legitimately full/not hungry. Regardless, if they've eaten a reasonable amount, we don't force them to finish everything on their plate (and we also try not to give them snacks after dinner so that they learn dinner is the last meal and they need to eat if they are hungry). Long rambling, but I guess what I've learned is to give them small portions and they can always have more if needed. I know "seconds" is generally frowned upon in dieting mentalities, but I think if you're trying to work on that guilty feeling/need to finish the food on your plate, it might worth a try and help you listen to your hunger signals (though I know you mentioned it in context to mindless eating...not necessarily meals)

We haven't tested it yet, but I asked him if he's ever noticed it when eating cooked greens (because I was really wanting to make these twice baked potatoes with spinach that someone shared on here and we had eaten homemade kale chips that a friend made not too long before starting this) - he doesn't think cooked greens do it.

After my hitting the snooze button 5 times yesterday, this morning was equally as hard, as I turned off the alarm clock, intending to get out of bed...but I'm going to lay here one more minute....waking up 30 minutes later when my husband's alarm went off. It's got me thinking a lot about "Tiger Blood"...and how timely. Today's reading (Day 17) and the Whole30 email that just showed up in my inbox both talk about Tiger Blood...and managing expectations. I was really hoping it would be like a flipping switch - where I wake up one morning with boundless energy, but maybe I need to manage my expectations a little. I've NEVER been a high energy person and I have ALWAYS hit the snooze button. There was a time before kids when I did like getting up early and having a little more time in the morning (or even now, just to have 20 minutes of quiet time to myself), but I'm pretty sure I still hit snooze a couple of times even then. Maybe I'll always hit the snooze button and I should get rid of that measure of success. Here's what I am noticing: my brain fog is getting somewhat better, my mood is better, and I do feel better (even if I still run out of steam at 7pm). My rings are easier to take off, my face looks slimmer, and my belly looks less bloated. We have eaten great food and I don't feel deprived. I've exercised a couple of times (and signed up for a TMAC Fitness free trial to take me through the rest of the Whole30 and see how it goes). And I'm extremely motivated to "spring clean" the entire house. (it feels like "nesting" again....)

Hang in there! Day 5 or 9...it took me a little longer to adjust...as in I still am; even yesterday - Day 16 - I was out of energy by 7 and just wanted to crawl in to bed before even getting my kids in theirs and doing the things I had planned to accomplish. This may not help since you only have one serving left, but we like to make loaded potatoes with chili...white potatoes or sweet potatoes. Not sure if the chocolate chili would be good that way, but might change it up a little. But I know what you mean. I made a summer squash and broccoli soup for lunches this week and it is lacking in flavor. I mixed today's with some leftover curry I had saved (from making this recipe: https://www.thebewitchinkitchen.com/coconut-curry-chicken-meatballs/ ) and it made it better, but I'm sure I'll be sick of it by Friday.

I ran a lot before having kids too - it feels like a lifetime ago! Way to go on getting back to it!

Welcome back! I know I have more to learn from you, since you've completed a Whole100 (!!!) and I'm only on Day 16 of my first Whole30, but I just shared some struggles of having a partner who is "on board" on my latest post (Anew in Arkansas on the YourWhole30 Log board). IF/THEN planning has been extremely helpful and I would highly encourage it for any situations you can think of that could get a little complicated.

Thoughts on Days 9 -15 Well - I've stayed complaint but didn't get around to logging here. It hasn't been very exciting - not too many challenges and no major breakthroughs (but some things I will share below); I was really busy at work last week and since I sit in front of the computer most days, I don't get on it at home (or as little as possible) so no logging. I even fell a few days behind on reading/responding in the Day by Day book, but caught up last night. And I'm pretty sure if my day numbers didn't match the actual date, I wouldn't know what day I'm on... More of the same. Good meals; no cravings. Have not reached the point where I can get up without hitting the snooze button (5 times this morning...but I did stay up a lot later than I should, trying to finish something before today). Husband goes back and forth between loving this and being cranky about it; he's very active for work and after catching up in the book, I'm thinking he probably falls in to that "needs a few more carbs" category discussed on Day 12; I also think he's getting sick - a head cold seems to be making it's rounds at our house, and you know, man flu is a thing. I feel like I'd probably be feeling super fantastic (maybe even no-snooze-button fantastic) if I wasn't battling the crud, but I at least feel "normal". A few things to note: One night, after dinner, the four of us ended up sitting in the kitchen floor, talking about our day and almost eating an entire bag of grapes. Our two year old helped himself to the bag of grapes in the fridge as we were putting up leftovers. I guess this is proof our taste buds are changing because those grapes tasted like the BEST.THING.EVER. I didn't eat more than a handful, but the rest of my family (husband included) devoured them. Our kids were invited to a birthday party yesterday afternoon. There was pizza and cupcakes. My kids loved it; my husband and I drank water. It helped that the food portion of the party was very short and the majority of the time was spent (prior to eating) in a gymnastics center. My two year old had never eaten pizza that wasn't cut up, so I had to TOUCH THE PIZZA to help him. Oh man, it smelled good. I said I haven't had any cravings, meaning nothing has really popped in to my head that I have missed and wanted to eat, but that doesn't mean I didn't have a daydream about shoving my face full of pizza. Backing up a little, my daughter asked if we could go for ice cream Friday evening. This isn't something we do very often...like once every other month or so. We could have just said "no" but we did need to run to my husband's work for an even that he was prepping for on Saturday and our favorite ice cream shop just happens to be a couple blocks away. My husband and I discussed it: I said that I could go and have a coffee and be fine (even if I had to feed ice cream to our two year old so he didn't get it all over EVERYTHING); my husband said he would be eating a dairy/soy/gluten free (but loaded with sugar) ice cream they have. We talked about why sugar is included in the Whole30 and how this might affect him. I ultimately left the decision up to him. We went. They ate ice cream; I drank coffee (and avoided licking my fingers where my son's ice cream dripped on me - #winning). I know this paragraph has all sorts of poor choices and things that could have been done differently, but in the end, we each have to make our own decisions. My husband has been looking at this experiment as "let's clean up the food we eat" - pretty much skipping the 30 days and moving in to a Food Freedom mindset. That's his choice and he has the ability to do that; I'm not going to nag him about it nor monitor every item of food he eats: we discussed it and he made a conscious decision to have one scoop. He already knows what foods he has issues with and he's never needed to "diet" a day in his life (not only that he doesn't need to lose weight but really meaning that he has a much healthier relationship with food than I do). This is my Whole30 and his choices don't have to determine mine. That was day 13 for us, so I guess he made it past the statistical hump of Days 11 and 12 before indulging; he went back to eating compliantly Saturday and Sunday. And on another note, I went to the grocery store three times last week. THREE TIMES! This wouldn't be noteworthy if I had been buying items for a few days with the intent of going 3 times, but no, I fully expected to have gotten everything for the week in the first trip. I guess I'm having a hard time judging amount of food we will need to eat (especially husband - active for work) and how far the leftovers will go (or won't go, in our case). I spent a little over twice our normal weekly grocery budget, and I'm a little frustrated with that fact. This week, even though I had already planned meals, I'm going through what I can make from our freezer instead, trying to spend as little as possible.

Honestly, I don't use it very often anymore either - I think I used to build some of my recipes in it to try to figure out calories per serving way back when I did Weight Watchers 10 years ago. I just remember it had that "on sale" feature and thought it could be helpful, especially for someone who might have limited time to plan and grocery shop.

Allrecipes.com is another good website - you can search "Whole30" and find a lot of compliant meals AND I think there's a way to enter your location so that it can tell you if any of the ingredients are on sale at the stores near you (I can't exactly remember what you have to do to get the site to do that....it's been a while since I set it up).

I was having trouble finding compliant nuts - tried two different grocery stores and it seemed like everything not topped with sugar was roasted in oil that included soy or peanut oil. When I got home, I found half a bag of pecans that I had previously purchased to use when baking something....and it was only then that I realized I was probably looking in the wrong section of the store. I was looking at the snack type nuts but a better place to look might be at the nuts down the baking aisle...they are generally not roasted or flavored. Haven't tested this theory out yet though....next shopping trip.

I am wondering if anyone has had constant stomach issues with leafy greens (lettuce, kale, spinach, etc). Prior to Whole30, my husband has always complained about eating salad because it causes stomach issues. Knowing that, when I was planning, I only included salads for myself but he has ended up having one Friday for lunch as a side and then Sunday for lunch as the main meal. We are first timers, on day 9. We ate fruits and vegetables before, He doesn't have any diagnosed issue (but clearly this is an issue). Nothing else seems to bother him. I guess my question is if anyone else has had something like this, does it get better in the later days of Whole30? Or could there be an underlying issue that he should mention to his doctor? Sorry if this has been posted before - I did a couple of searches and didn't find anything.

Ok - this makes complete sense. Thanks!

Sometimes, doing what is best for ourselves is the hardest thing. Break-ups are never easy, even when there is plenty of reason. I don't think anyone would call you a failure for choosing to stop and start again later...and you shouldn't see it that way either if that's what you chose to do.