Revelate

Nice Suzy! I actually fell down in the last few days of my first Whole30, all those working hours, an interruption to my meal plans, and my mortgage that literally went pear-shaped in the 11th hour and I just lost it. Another NSV that I had, the 28 days I made it I didn't have heartburn once, not one single time. I'm in the second day off and admittedly I haven't been eating well, and guess what, there's a little heartburn. Fortunately I got the meal service restarted this afternoon, so I will start eating somewhat better but I think I'm going to wait till I get this mortgage closed (allegedly clear to close is coming today, thanks for the miss and the dog ate my homework excuses) and then once I get settled in the new place I'll really focus on getting a full 30 days in but it's clear I'm just better with on Whole30 or a similar eating pattern (Paleo / Keto perhaps) and the junk I had for lunch today after the mortgage nearly going into a tailspin clearly isn't what I should be eating. Anyway my first couple days on W30 were not big deal, around Day 5 it started getting ugly and I definitely went through the KILL ALL THINGS! stage over the next several days. We'll see if I have similar when I get back in but as long as I'm mostly eating clean I shouldn't have fallen too far.

Hrm dupe my apologies.

So I blew it on Day 28. I was in transit yesterday moving to Houston and my meal service order went sideways and I wasn’t in a position to correct. Unfortunately I picked an Airbnb in what appears to be a food desert only a few miles from where the new place is because Internet service is being more challenging than it needs to be to establish and I can’t be without that as my paychecks are dependent on it. So fallback plan for my jobs, wasn’t really considering fallback plans for diet. I was planning to transition into Round 2 soonish anyway so it’s not like I have long term screwed up but it’s just unfortunate... ultimately I asked for no cheese on the omelet, it came with cheese and I ate it anyway. Fairly greasy too, admittedly not a high quality restaurant. That standard advice about having better quality food laying around is absolutely on point: hunger can lead even me to suboptimal decisions. If there is a silver lining to this at all, I just don’t feel as good right now post meal as I normally do so it’s pretty F’n clear to me that eating better has marked improvements for me physiologically and there is no reason not do eat similarly over the long term. Additionally trying to be rational, attempting to do W30 when you don’t cook and you are in process of closing on a mortgage, subsequently moving, and working 2.5ish jobs at the same time without much time off... it’s admittedly a little insane and was almost assuredly overly optimistic. So I will get settled in the new place, and I will be switching the meal service to delivery, two less things in my life and I will hit W30 again hard with a more detailed plan with the lessons learned from this one.

Day 26: literally no change from before. At this point not holding my breath to be experiencing TIGER BLOOD! but honestly I also don’t really care right now. I have had many NSVs through this expedition and while it has had it’s up’s and downs soldiering on. Packing up the month long Airbnb and headed for Houston tomorrow. Taking a cooler and plenty of snacks so I will make it through the last 3 days even if things are going to be awkward as hell this next week... so many things happening that it is going to be hard to keep things straight and then another busy weekend next weekend with at least one more trip this time Houston to Austin and back for my remaining stuff. I may take something of a cheat week before I get going on round 2: still eating the W30 meal service but I am nostalgic for the best cheesesteak I have ever had from a place near my dad’s house... one hoagie style roll and some dairy won’t kill me before getting back clean W30 style.

Good to know, thanks! I am actually using Snap Kitchen currently on their W30 plan and it’s been very good overall. No mess no fuss, just easy, tasty and simple. I don’t see much reason to not continue using a meal service, especially when I am moving to a place that is not healthy food friendly yet in the local neighborhood.

Just wanted to say thank you for posting this; I am not much of a cook so my culinary expedition during W30 has been zero, mostly it’s about getting restaurants to make slight changes to things to pull them into compliance. Between that and the meal service though doesn’t have your creativity and flair, and I really like the half and half option with HelloFresh that is a trick I am going to use whenever I do find time to experiment with cooking which it something I have been meaning to do for years. Anyway many congrats on the completion, I’ve already basically decided to take a slight cheat day and then kicking off Round 2 May 2nd. Trying to undo decades of neglect is going to take a while haha.

Get it Suzy! There will likely be a few days in there where you feel utterly miserable: just don’t give up and keep to it as it will pass. Also try to do better than I am doing in my first W30, get out and walk more than I did haha. Day 25 for me now but think going to keep with it after maybe a half day off, hasn’t been the profound energetic miracle that others have experienced but working 80+ hours a week probably ain’t helping haha. Anyway keep checking in!

I guess this is Day 25 now. I found the magic that is Lara Bars and various beef products for snacks. Beaten the hunger issues, been dragging but that’s because of working super hard through Wednesday (all three gigs wanted stuff Right Now! /sigh) and my sleep pattern has just been off. I don’t really see any reason to quit doing the Whole30 diet for now as I am getting enough variety of foods and the meal service keeps on rocking; I may take May 1 as half day off (I would still kill for a Starbucks mocha latte right now and honestly I was never a big coffee drinker) and the go another 30 May 2nd - 31 and re-evaluate June 1 but I may try low carbing it: I was eating more potatoes over the last week and change too. Didn’t get much exercise this week, could be a part of why I am dragging but probably would have exacerbated it. If I feel good tomorrow (please let me sleep 8 hours without waking up again) I want to strap on my shoes and check that NSV I posted on last time regarding my surprising VO2max estimate from my walk... when I looked at the health data, that silly little walk gave me a higher VO2max estimate than any soccer match I have refereed in the last two years. Have to go see if that was a fluke, a misread, or F’n awesome!

Indeed! I am working multiple jobs racking up more billable hours than I know what to do with right now so the additional expense is trivial. In this case SnapKitchen has been so convenient I may just stick with it as it fits the current life style of trying to squirrel as many nuts away as possible while the money is running. Almost done with the first 30 days but think I am going to double up. No real burst of energy TBH but I was a physiological sugar junkie and while I went through the withdrawal symptoms before I just don’t feel great now but my sleep has been off. Stress probably but getting things done so it’ll pass.

Yeah at times it’s been a slog and now working 2.5 jobs it’s even more awkward but I can’t imagine how I would be feeling if I were still eating the junk I was before. On the whole feeling pretty sane and still getting things done though been exhausted this week.

Day 20. Dragging a little but nothing to do with the diet which I am still over the moon with. I’ve been logging wins and losses in here, far more NSV than not but today I possibly had one that dwarfs the others. I‘ve run off and on for a while, and nobody including physiologists were able to explain why I only had a very narrow aerobic band and then it just shutoff. I could be running a 10k or half marathon at a 170-180 HR and just be chatting away... total sugar junkie getting energy anaerobically. It was so consistent that I learned to pay attention to my breathing patterns and trying to exercise where I was breathing the heaviest. Weird stuff. Anyway I was walking around, and I know I am out of shape, maybe I could jog a few miles, slowly, maybe. But what was interesting was going up a slight incline and my HR touched 100 or so and low and behold I was breathing more heavily than normal: well below my normal aerobic zone, at a low level of exercise. Use of oxygen means burning fat for energy and I haven’t been doing any aerobic training at all for months. It requires more testing, but this is truly profound. Got work to do and I need a nap but I hope I can find time to get out and jog a bit over the next week and play with this some more as if I have broken my sugar junkie physiology: that is an enormous win, like blue whale huge.

Hey Lauren, It’s actually going really well other than I can’t seem to retain water for enough hours to get me though the night. Something to trouble-shoot but next 10 days are going to be hell moving again and a bunch of work to get done between now and then. Day 20 is right, been hitting milestones on the 30 day calendar late, maybe I get that Tiger Blood surge around Day 24-25... I am dragging a little bit but not diet related, work, stress, blah. This forum is pretty slow, there are some boards which are busier but unfortunately isn’t much traffic in general. To be fair the forum I was a moderator on for the better part of a decade is down in terms of traffic too, forums may just be going away on the Internet. Anyway grats on the win at Whole Foods; I am still cheating with the meal service and supplementing with takeout from a few local restaurants that are easy to sub a few items to get it into compliance on... I think things will start opening up in terms of being able to find food, like you I am going to go for at least two extra weeks. Best of luck if we only inconsistently see each other here going forward ;)!

Day 18: Totally off, read a book, watched a pair of Netflix movies, focused on restoring sleep pattern, eating and drinking water regularly. Feeling pretty good for as awkward as falling asleep at 5 pm was the other day. Did take two naps today. No surge of energy but I do seem to be concentrating somewhat better and that’s nothing but a positive. Next two weeks getting moved to Houston is going to be awkward. Figuring if I can hold it together maybe Day 24 will be the hotness.

Smart! I'm in my first W30 and admittedly I'm outsourcing the meal prep (I'm probably not a lousy cook I just haven't much in a very long time) and I would've prepped more / better whenever I do it again. I apparently should've been putting my posts over here in a Log but whatever, forum haha. Anyway I'm interested to see how you progress with how detailed you are.

Day 17ish. Working hard and tired as a result but NSV: my tummy be tighter! Not sure if that's weight loss or just gut health, I know I'm eating less and better calories but staying the course in that I haven't even bought a scale for the new place yet. Also in general I have less flatulence than before too. I'm simply clearly better eating like this than I was before, there's no doubt in my mind on that front though I do somewhat expect to expand my diet post W30+Some. Though I must admit to rolling my eyes at myself, pretty sure my Day 1 reintroduction whenever I get there is going to be a Starbucks mocha latte.