littleg

I'm finally pregnant!!! 
Before going into this I had completely given up trying. While only actively trying to conceive for about 8 months, I had really become discouraged. I wanted a change in my life as far as weight and food management goes, so I gave this a try. I ended my Whole30 on Tuesday February 5th. I dropped 15lbs, felt better, had more energy, was healthier, and two days later also got a positive pregnancy test!!!
They said the Whole30 would change my life and it did in the best way imaginable. I 100% believe that what this whole eating did for me was make my body a better place for a baby to grow. 
Thank you Whole30!!!!

I think a good strategy is always about foods that make you feel good and let you do the things you enjoy doing.  We have a 2 year old so he isn't asking yet why we eat the foods we do but we already talk to him about eating food for energy to play and foods that make your belly feel good.  For older kids I think it is important to spin the positive - so more about the foods you are including (vs excluding).  I'm eating meats and vegetables to help me get stronger.  I'm eating fruits and vegetables to get important vitamins and minerals... things like that.  

I don't know who published it but there is research to believe that there are "abstainers" and "moderators" (as mentioned above).  Both will generally do poorly if they chose the opposite method (which is why roomie won't do a W30 again).  I don't have a difficult roomie with an ongoing issue like this but I think the answer to "how I can get this subject dropped once and for all?" is to say to her - hey, I'm an adult, your way won't work for me, so drop it, ok?  
The other thing to keep in mind is that the W30 isn't meant to be a revolution with a totally obvious short-term physical transformation... it is about changing the way you view food.  Sometimes including where it comes from, how it was raised, etc.  A lot of mindfulness that I think often gets lost in trying to lose weight in 30 days.  And, in my - totally-bought-in-to-W30 view of the world - *not* eating Lean Cuisines is a heck of a lot more important for lifelong health than not matching her trajectory for weight loss.  I am a binge eater and may be one forever.  But that does not diminish the "right-ness" of W30 - it has more to do with neural changes in my brain that I think are just very hard to undo... There is TONS of research out there on addictive brains and how they are different from non-addictive brains.  You could look up some of that stuff.   Here is one I saw recently in a waiting room
 
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2017/09/the-addicted-brain/

I'm giving W30 another go in January, after another disastrous holiday eating season...
Thanks for sending over that interview, definitely looking forward to reading through it. I still haven't decided if I'm going to try the higher carb or low carb variety; for some reason I can't seem to decide well between the two with all of the conflicting information out there.
Re: sugar cravings, for me it's not so much that the cravings exist all the time, but sugar is my "no brakes" food, as in I can be totally fine with no pie, but then once I have once slice of pie I'm certainly going to eat the whole pie (and then feel physically ill after that, as well as mentally frustrated). So for me it's getting back to the mindset of "eat full, hearty / healthy meals" of W30 rather than keeping up the snacking / grazing well after dinner is done. I definitely need to work on mindful eating habits, the number of times I eat out of a container (versus setting a plate), eat standing up (versus at the table), etc....clearly something to target this month.
Hopefully the next 30 days will really help me figure this out! Definitely appreciate your personal insight, to be honest I'm not sure if the 30 days of restriction will be good or bad for me for the reasons you mentioned, and maybe the nightly chocolate is the right path forward, but excited to take the time to figure it out!

That article was great! Thanks for sharing, hopefully I can apply that "moderation mindset" to my training & nutrition.

Have you tried a middle ground for carb intake?  LCHF and keto are both super low.  And your current diet is super high.  Maybe somewhere in the middle could work for you?  So that way you'd only have to eat 2 lbs of sweet potatoes a day   I just put 200 g (which is only 7 oz) of boiled green plantains into Cronometer.  That is 62g of carbs.  Fry those suckers up in some coconut oil and if you have some metabolic flexibility perhaps you'd find that meals with mod/high carb and fat like that would manage to keep you out of feeling-like-crap land but also help you reach your health goals?

That's helpful @littleg, I definitely can fall into "food extremism" tendencies, which was one of my main reasons for a Whole30 (way moreso than losing weight). Appreciate the advice.

I just cook everything down more  If I make a stew or recipe with meat, once the meat is cooked through I take it out and just cook down the sauce.  Things are only runny because of excess water - so cook off the water.

Sort of.  We did baby led weaning with our 17m old and we eat 80-90% W30.  If he gets gluten, dairy, etc at my in-laws I don't police it but at home we don't ever have that stuff so he doesn't eat it.  He has yet to have liquid cow's milk (but I do still breast feed).  He's fine  In fact, I'd say he is thriving - but I am biased!

My husband and I (and our 17m old) probably go through 7 dozen eggs a week!  
If you start noticing a supply drop try adding in a bit more carbohydrate - your menus seem a little low (unless those are some giant sweet potatoes!).  And it seems like you've got the hydration under control.  The thirst of breastfeeding is REAL.  I think I was a year PP before could breastfeed without feeling like I had just walked through the desert!  
Keep up the good work - I think this is the best thing a mama can do for herself and her baby  But I'm biased
 

I know that Whole 30 isn't about losing weight, but I hit the 50 pounds of weight loss this morning!!!! About 20 of that has been with 2 rounds of Whole 30.  I feel like I have my life back after struggling my whole life with weight.  I was having a lot of trouble with my eating habits after my second baby about a year ago.  But now I am pre-wedding weight (6years ago) and still going strong! I'm just really excited and so thankful for Whole 30. I have been able to learn healthy food choices and re-train my brain on the foods that I should eat.  And that its ok to spend a little more money on food that is better for me because it will be better for my family in the long run.  I have about 15 more pounds until I meet my goal but I know that is possible with my new lifestyle.  

Happy Tuesday!
 
I’m now 30+ days post-Whole 30 and I literally do not think I have ever felt better. I mean, I am still carrying an extra 25-30 pounds that are slowly coming off, but I KNOW my body is getting healthier by the day. I learned that most dairy and gluten is not what my body needs, and have really only added grains sporadically. My sugar addiction is so far gone that I’ve stuck to black coffee!  I’ve learned that reading labels doesn’t take that long, and saves me from mindless consumption.
My entire relationship with food has changed, and I finally understand how freeing it is. In the past two weeks, I have traveled one weekend, went to a Major League Baseball game, ran a 5K, attended our oldest daughter’s wedding. I decided nachos were worth it at the game, and chose real food the rest of the time. I’ve loosened the strict Whole 30 rules, but not much. I just feel so much better eating this way. 
I didn’t do my Whole 30 to lose weight, but I have lost it steadily. 
I’m running, y’all. Running! 
I am so incredibly thankful for this program, the vast amount of information and support here and in the wide network of fellow freedom seekers. It sounds like an exaggeration, but this has saved me - saved me from myself, saved me from the rollercoaster dieting, saved me from the frustration of chasing one fad after another (shakes, pills, points, etc).
i will be 50 in about a year and a half, and it feels good to just know that I will be the healthiest me at that age instead of where I was headed. 

The recommendation is to start over. How were the skittles "life and death"? 

Make your own rules? Instead of having done reintroductions and then just drifting, make rules for yourself that address some of your problem areas. For instance: I do not eat sugar/drink alcohol alone. I don't drink the night before if I have gym in the morning. If I feel like I've gone out of control, I sit myself down and assess what happened so I get a better understanding of what goes on with me. 

I think I am keeping GT's Kombucha in business single handedly... Not taking any bottled probiotics.  Not a ton of fermented stuff these days either.  I should buy some.  Overall gut feels the best it has in a while.  But pregnancy seemed to have somehow done that - after getting over the insane post partum rabbit pellet poops I've settled into the least bloated/gassy I've been in a while.  I do have an appointment with a rheumatologist next week.  That should make my fingers heal up - making a doctors appointment usually cures me! 

Have you guys ever heard of Katy Bowman?  She is a biomechanist and pretty popular in the ancestral health "world".  She talks a lot about how we all "exercise" every day for 30 min, an hour, whatever... but that we "outsource" all our chances to have natural movement - doing dishes, hanging laundry on the line, moving the lawn without a sit-on (I don't even know what they are called!) mower... things like that.  If you fill your life with lots of little movement you don't need to "exercise" as much!  Just like the OP realized  
 
PS - even chairs/sofas/beds let us outsource movement.  Sitting on the floor uses your core.  Sitting on chairs and sofas, nope. Not to mention the effort to get up and down off the floor (want a good workout - try going from lying to standing 30 times - I'm not kidding - it is tough!).  

Have you guys ever heard of Katy Bowman?  She is a biomechanist and pretty popular in the ancestral health "world".  She talks a lot about how we all "exercise" every day for 30 min, an hour, whatever... but that we "outsource" all our chances to have natural movement - doing dishes, hanging laundry on the line, moving the lawn without a sit-on (I don't even know what they are called!) mower... things like that.  If you fill your life with lots of little movement you don't need to "exercise" as much!  Just like the OP realized  
 
PS - even chairs/sofas/beds let us outsource movement.  Sitting on the floor uses your core.  Sitting on chairs and sofas, nope. Not to mention the effort to get up and down off the floor (want a good workout - try going from lying to standing 30 times - I'm not kidding - it is tough!).  

If you had a French Vanilla Creamer addiction prior to your Whole30 then I would say to leave it off... in fact, my personal opinion would be to leave off the flavored Nutpods for the same reason as the home made SWYPO concotion.  This is one of those gray areas where we each take some personal responsibility towards our own context.  The item from ohsheglows is definitely called out in the rules as not okay (due to the sweetening).  Flavored compliant items are not called out... as the food industry catches up with making whole30 compliant items, there are too many hundreds of things that we would need to call out specifically as in or out.... that's not possible.  Littleg, I agree with the French vanilla eye roll... use your own judgement here with the nutpods... if you feel they are SWYPO, leave them off... 

haha. cute. and, i was just reading and now get it: this is on the behavioral psyche part of things--being able to do without creamy goodness...a crutch.

My understanding of SWYPO is that you are trying to (compliantly) recreate something that W30 is asking you to give up for 30 days.  Creamy delicious coffee is a big one around here (if you've been reading the forums for a while, like me, there are countless people who will admit that their morning coffee was more about the creamer they added than the coffee... lots of people just give up coffee altogether because the draw wasn't to the bitter brown liquid/caffeine - it was to the creamy, sugary stuff that was added).  
I just don't see how "natural flavors" vs dates (the only real difference between the two, besides some stabilizers and thickeners) somehow makes the Nutpods compliant and the recipe not.   I mean its FRENCH VANILLA CREAMER for goodness sakes.  I'm not trying to argue that I think the recipe should be compliant, I'm arguing that I call bologna on the nutpods somehow NOT being SWYPO.  FRENCH VANILLA CREAMER... eye roll  

So 3 dates (for a yield of 3 cups) is the deal breaker...? I don't get it.  I agree that the recipe is SWPO but I don't see how nutpods aren't...?  
3/4 cup raw hazelnuts
1/4 cup raw almonds
3 1/2 cups water
2 1/2-3 pitted Medjool dates, to taste
1 vanilla bean, roughly chopped
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
tiny pinch of fine grain sea salt (optional)
 
VS.
 
Purified water, coconut cream, almonds, natural flavors.  Contains less than 2% of acacia gum, sunflower lecithin, dipotassium phosphate, gellan gum, sea salt.

Well I guess you don't need success stories anymore since you've got your own
But here are a few paleo stories - not quite W30 but pretty close!
 
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/success-stories/age/12-17/

Well I guess you don't need success stories anymore since you've got your own
But here are a few paleo stories - not quite W30 but pretty close!
 
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/success-stories/age/12-17/

 
I've got that fat collection next to my stove!  I used to just keep coconut oil and ghee next to the stove.  Now there is a jar of lard too

 
I've got that fat collection next to my stove!  I used to just keep coconut oil and ghee next to the stove.  Now there is a jar of lard too