booksandcoffee

good morning all! I've been away from computers for a while, and just trying to chug along and stick to my routine. As you might remember this is only day 6 for me as I had to start over, but so far so good. I'm trying to be more relaxed when telling coworkers about it and not give tons of information when they don't ask for it, but it is a struggle. Especially when I hear "you shouldn't diet.. you're fine the way you are" "you shouldn't deprive yourself of food groups" "but cheese is healthy, especially cottage cheese"... the list goes on.

Hi all. I am sad and ashamed to say that today is back to day 1 for me . Last night I went to a coworkers house and just trusted that I would be fine without eating till I got home at 10pm.. I ended up buying a salad at Panera which had cheese. I am happy to say I didn't eat the cookie or the bread or the lasagna that my friend offered, even though it was tempting to have that "everything is ruined anyways" attitude. So just dairy, and today back to square one. My biggest lesson is that I think I got a bit cocky after my prior 3 whole30s and I for sure did not prepare as much as I should have for this week. Lesson learned. Back to basics and meal planning for every meal! Anyways I wanted to come here and fess up and hope you don't mind I stick around this forum! lori_vt and ladyshanny - nice to see you as well!

starting as well! It'll be my 4th whole30, last one was in may 2015. so happy to be back! I've been far removed for too long.

Guys.... I am here to fess up. I broke some rules yesterday Long story short I started a new job this week and have stayed late every day... I had been managing with late dinners and probably fewer veggies. Finally yesterday I was at work till about 10pm with lots of pizza, cake, cookies in sight, and starving. So I made a decision and had corn chips with compliant salsa, and guac. Though I am not proud at all and feel I should have just sucked it up, I am proud at not having cake, cookies and pizza and recognizing that they would have made me feel awful. I am considering this as my day 1 reintroduction of non gluten grains. I will keep on being compliant now and in about a week or so might introduce another food group. So while I do feel like a let down, I don't think it was a total failure. I messed up reintroductions on my 2 prior whole 30s by diving straight into pizza and I REFUSE TO LET THAT HAPPEN. I am also somewhat proud that it was not difficult to refuse the rest of the junk food. Lesson learned again... always always have compliant food around

Hi everyone! Again long time no see. It has been really difficult for me and I've been feeling very blah with food and overall. I guess I haven't been feeling too proud of my meals which has kept me away from the forum, which then holds me less accountable. No issues with compliance, but meals have been messy this week, sometimes 2 and sometimes 4 a day, and a couple of days snacking on apples and bananas. Didn't help that it was my time of the month, which made me crave bananas like crazy. Overall I am just patting myself on the back for sticking to compliant foods non the less. But I definitely will have to prolong my whole30 to starve the sugar dragon, since I walked by coldstone today and almost ran in for an oreo sunday (which would have made me feel terrible). My graduation is June 11th, so for now my plan is to stay compliant throughout, and have some wine that day with my compliant meal. After that I will pick a day to introduce dairy. I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!

Back in the game! Hi all! Just read up on everything. I missed some good kombucha talk! This weekend was pretty crazy, but I only have myself to blame. I picked up extra shifts Friday and Saturday night, in addition to my regular mon-fri job, so Friday ended up being a 30 hour work shift. I packed a LOT of food which saved me, but over the weekend I've been more permissive with the meal plan and have snacked a bit on veggies and hardboiled eggs to get me through long days, as well as apples I found in the hospital. today I finally made it to Trader Joes and stalked up for the week, and have cooked up a storm. Meal prep has been: butternut squash soup, cauliflower rice, a beef/brocoli/spinach fritatta, ground beef. There should be enough protein to last me about 8 meals. I usually pick up side salads at work to go with the meals and prepped veggies. Tomorrow I'll make some sunshine sauce and mayo, since I'm too hot and tired to cook any more tonight. Thank you for posting your experience with results so far.. I too have felt that the results are different this time around, and I don't think any weight has come off at all. Which is fine.. but occasionally I feel bloated and puffy. Nuts are now out for me, in anything more than tiny quantities sprinkled on salads. Strange because during the last whole30 I had a bunch of almond butter and it seemed to sit fine. Garlic is also causing a bit of trouble, I think, because after a garlic-heavy mashed cauliflower meal I could feel it bouncing around in my stomach all day (TMI.. sorry). Haven't posted my meals in a while. Today: M1 (post shift at 8am) beef chill, carrots, roasted brocoli M2 (sometime around 4pm) spinach salad with smoked salmon, mustard/lime dressing. Not nearly enough food, I soon realized. M3 (7pm) big bowl of butternut squash soup, ground beef, some berries and red cherries, snacking on everything I was cooking (which is how I know the previous meal was not enough). Today while walking around TJs I found myself craving all sorts of little candy they had around the store, caramel chocolate, cookies.. etc. I had to stop and give myself a pep talk, remind myself that I probably don't really want them and i would just feel kinda crappy if I ate chocolate. Which is true. But while checking out, I grabbed one of their fruit bars (compliant) and ate it mindlessly on my way to the car. wAy too sweet and not very satisfying. Ayayay.

Hi all! Just wanted to drop by and say I'm alive! Wprk has bren craaaazy so still haven't had time to read up. Still going strong. Bronny thank you so much for the encouragement!!

Today was one of those days for me as well! Things are slow and it is difficult to shake the weekend off. M1: Steak, cucumber, tomato, lettuce salad with olive oil and avocado dressing, 1 apple M2: Failure. I had put together a smoked salmon and arugula salad and in my mind it was amazing. But when I tried it the smoked salmon was way too salty, the arugula was dry and I had not put enough olive oil on the whole think. I managed to find a couple of hard boiled eggs at work, and ate half a banana with it. Didn't get home until very late and had no dinner prepared in advance. Had an apple with almond butter, while I made pad thai. M3: FINALLY sat down with a huge bowl of pad thai from The clothes make the girl (http://theclothesmakethegirl.com/2011/05/08/paleo-pad-thai/). Paleo comfort food indeed. This is the way the cycle goes: no meal prep -> get hungry -> have too much fruit -> not hungry until late at night, late night meals -> wake up late -> no meal prep. I am a little disappointed in myself for slipping back into old "bad whole30 habits" but am trying to not be so hard on myself. After all, these are the hardest days. Bring on day 12!!!

Hi friends! Bronnyd and claws.... I needed to read that! It truly is none of my business what other people think of me. Of course what I eat is none of their business, but that I already knew! Lori: For me it is ice cream! Though I have proven to myself over and over that it makes me feel terrible and is not actually that wonderful. But today we went for a park picnic and I kept thinking it would be lovely to walk around the park with an ice cream cone. Though now that i know how good I feel, I just think those days that I thought I felt fine, I was probably pretty bloated and miserable. Alaya: I hear you... also need to rectify the same mistake. No more bananas for me. This was a lovely weekend. It is finally summer here in Pittsburgh. Spring was completely skipped over.. it went from 40s to 80s in about a week! I fell off the structured meal schedule and have snacked a lot on fruit. I was at two social events for lunch and for dinner yesterday and at both I had already eaten at home, but grabbed a plate of fruit to get me through the event. My husband who lives 5 hours away () was visiting for the weekend and today we had a lovely whole30 compliant picnic at a park. Day 10 (wooooot!) M1: spaghetti squash frittata, sweet potato, melon, coffee M2: Picnic! This was delightful and I highly recommend it either for a picnic or lunchbox. We made: salad (tomato, cucumber, lettuce, guac dressing), roast beef (bough remade at trader joes, only ingredients are beef, salt and pepper), and took sugar snap peas and baby carrots, and prosciutto wrapped melon. I made sunshine sauce and we sat at the park and ate veggies dipped in guac or sunshine sauce, and beef dipped in guac or sunshine sauce. And a lot of water. M3: leftover beef, salad, ½ banana with blueberries and almond butter. I know... so much fruit. Back to good meal planning tomorrow. We'll power through the hardest days and make it out on the other side!!

Hi all, and happy mothers day to all the whole30 moms!! I honestly am so impressed by you, it is difficult enough doing this with only myself (and my cat) to worry about!

http://paleomg.com/crispy-chicken-thighs-with-pineapple-honey-mustard-sauce/ That is the yummy crispy chicken I tried to make. I however did not have pineapple chunks (somebody put an empty bag of frozen pineapple chunks back in the freezer!!!!!) so I replaced pineapple with mango, and left out the honey. It was amazing. And for the butternut squash soup: i cut it in chunks (or rather bought it pre-cut from Trader Joes ) and boiled it for a while until soft, then in the blender with a tablespoon of ghee, ¼ cup coconut milk, a tablespoon of curry powder, and salt and pepper. Highly recommended! Though I'm certain you can find a fancier recipe online.

Hi friends, long time no see!! It has only been a day of not posting but it feels like forever. I too feel extremely fatigued and with no energy. I've gone back to crossfit so have increased my carby veggie intake and think that helped. I also could barely zip my pants today, right on with the timeline. I second guessed myself and got angry at myself for eating so many carbs and fat, then I had to remember everything the webpage says and talk myself out of it. Then I had an entire sweet potato. With ghee.. Lol I guess that talk ended quickly. M1: chicken thighs with "honey" mustard, no honey. I'll find the recipe and link it! Sweet potatoes and zuchinis that I roasted in a rush before leaving for work. M2: the last of the chocolate chili, sweet potatoes and zuchini, cauliflower rice M3: three hard boiled eggs and a sweet potato, no yummy green veggies. Oh and two grapes that I stole from my roommate's plate. Win for today is that my friend celebrated her birthday at a mexican restaurant, and I didn't even crave margaritas, burritos or cake. Not so win for today was my other friend's comment: Her: you're so healthy! And cooking your own food daily! Me: thank you! I'm trying to be healthy Her: you don't eat or drink, you're becoming so boring!! Me: awkward silence... Followed by "actually I still have fun.." I have forgotten the details of yesterday's meals but there was some of this chicken with mustard and a lot of butternut squash soup as well as carrots and an arugula salad.

Finally read all of the posts! Nice job everyone, and kudos to those recognizing their off roaring and sticking with the program and with us. I know it is not easy! M1: tons of frittata with broccoli, a little blah since it was steamed broccoli but I was on the go M2: chocolate chili (again!) with sweet potato, broccoli, a banana and some berries M3: a humongous plate of impromptu curry (I mixed á can of coconut milk with a couple baked chicken thighs, curry powder, chili powder, coriander, cardamom and cinnamon) over cauliflower rice, broiled zucchini and broiled fennel. I am spoiling myself. I definitely miscalculated the coconut milk to chicken ratio since my curry is more like a stew. Oh well, more for breakfast. Bronnyd, a whole30 convention sounds delightful! Does anybody else feel like they have to pee 458274537 times a day? i don't remember this from prior whole30s!

Lori, that's really tough, I'm sorry. I am a physician and will admit I am surprised at your doctor's suggestions, but would not dare contradict him/her without more evidence in the matter. To my knowledge calcium from other sources (including supplements) is equally beneficial but I am not a bone or metabolism specialist. I agree you should look into this a little further. If you do decide to eat dairy, you can still reap tons of benefits from following the rest of the program even though it would not be a "whole30". Either way stick around the forum and keep us updated!

Hi friends! Quick check in as I haven't been able to read all the posts yet. Yesterday was really hard, got stuck at work until 9pm. I ended up having a huge plate of fruit and veggies and a larabar as a snack to hold me over and had dinner at 9:30pm, went to bed at 10pm. Not ideal but I'll be more prepared next time. I'm feeling ok, a little impatient but no huge cravings, no terrible GI upsets.. My body so far feels pretty happy with me. I did dream I had tons of non compliant ranch dressing though. I'll try to catch up with all the posts later, so thankful for this group!!!

Phew! Today is really hard. I'm hungry!! It feels like I am eating A LOT and get hungry again about 3-4 hours after what seems like a huge meal. Today M1: Got up at 4:30 to volunteer at a marathon, breakfast at 5:30 of packed fritatta, 1/2 sweet potato, green beans and ground beef. Mid morning snack of carrots, snap peas and prosciutto. M2: Big portion of chocolate chili, 1/2 sweet potato, more green beans, fried plantains. Mid afternoon snack (Again!) carrots, snap peas and avocado oil mayo. M3 will be eggplant with chocolate chili. The protein portions are at least the size of my palm, and maybe a bit larger. I feel like I am getting enough fat in every meal. Why am I so hungry? Maybe it is the day 3 fatigue? It is actually difficult to tease out if these are cravings or true hunger.. though I am not craving sweets, rather fatty / protein full foods. I had not felt the need to snack until today.

We are glad you're sticking around! We are here for support Good luck!

Agree, I also am interested in seeing how differently we all eat and borrowing some ideas from all of you. I have mostly been combining chicken/ veggies and ground beef/ veggies without following recipes, but this time will be different . On Thursday I cooked for about 5 days and now am overwhelmed at all the leftovers in my fridge. I'm not used to seeing that many containers with prepared food, and I get a little anxiety that they will go bad if I don't eat them right away... which I know is not true. It is just from all the years of cooking one meal at a time. M1: fritatta (beef, broccoli) w/ guacamole, roasted chicken and snap peas w/ sunshine sauce, coffee with coconut milk, newspaper (gotta love Saturdays) M2: huge arugula/ apple/ prosciutto salad (autocorrect wanted to change this to prosecution ) with olive oil and mustard dressing, roasted chicken and baked sweet potato with sunshine sauce, lots of water M3: Probably will go back to chocolate chili with fried egg on top, big salad or roasted veggies. PS: I have to be careful with fruit. The one apple in my salad tasted way too delicious and sweet, almost like eating candy. Amazing how quickly our tastebuds adapt. PPS: Everybody should go make sunshine sauce. It is absolute deliciousness and makes chicken taste sooooo much better. Recipe here: http://theclothesmakethegirl.com/2009/07/21/sunshine-sauce/ klsnyder: Agree with taking it easy one meal at a time. If it seems daunting to try to get to only three meals, stick to the meal template for each one of your small meals (protein, veggies and fat), and increase fat as need to feel satiated for a few hours. I wouldn't stress about not eating enough, just pay attention to how you are feeling between meals and overall and you can troubleshoot as you go. Welcome

Good morning! This morning was hard.. Woke up feeling so groggy and tired. Fortunately I cooked up a storm yesterday (pretty much according to this wonderful lady's meal plan http://theclothesmakethegirl.com/2013/12/29/whole30-2014-week-1-meal-plan/)and I added a fritatta and guac which are my favorite breakfast foods. Chocolate chili for lunch and roasted chicken for dinner. Happy whole30 everyone!

Hi I all, I am starting as well on May 1st! It will be my third whole 30. My prior attempt at a third whole30 was unsuccessful and I quit on day 11, after which I have found it incredibly hard to get back on track. Meals at home are always whole30 compliant since I have grown to love cooking that way, but I have found myself mindlessly reaching for bread while at work or at restaurants.. and occasionally sweets and sugar cookies. I have learned that 1) my sugar dragon was not killed by my prior whole 30s, 2) there is no middle ground for me, and I still do not know how to successfully off-road, and 3) planning and more planning is the most important part. For these reasons I have decided that this time it will be a whole60.

Good morning! I also like making big batches of soup - love cream of celery, and also butternut squash soup. The butternut squash soup is especially easy to make with frozen squash which is already cubed I also usually have a big batch of roasted veggies - sweet potatoes, broccoli, zucchini are my favorites. Chopped in squares, drizzled with a coconut oil/ ghee mix and baked at 415 for 30min.

Ok guys.. Confession. I've been trying to work up the courage to go running for months! I used to run regularly and did the half marathon last May. Since then less regularly, and over the winter I've barely gone out. Yoga is much less intimidating to me so I've stuck to that, but now that the weather is nice I would love to run again. I know after the first two or three runs I'll be fine, but it's taking a lot of effort to go out on those first two or three. Does this happen to anybody? Any advice?

I forget to take pictures of my food before I eat it!! I remember halfway and then it's not a very pretty plate. It must be that I'm so hungry when it's mealtime. Happy to report big decrease in fruit intake, I've replaced it all with veggies and hard boiled eggs. Some strange looks from coworkers but oh well. I agree with the whole fatbomb thing... I've actually decided against making them because I don't trust myself with them in the fridge . Maybe after whole30 is done. Happy Monday everyone! Enjoy the sun!!

Omg that is adorable. I wished I had a toddler led dance class!! I went to yoga this morning at 9am. It was the basics class, but still pretty demanding for me. I did not make it to run today, but if I run or yoga tomorrow then we're still on track! Also, SPRING IS HERE!!!!! How was everyone's Monday?

Woohoo! Nice job guys. Going for yoga at 9am and maybe even a small run tonight... I'll report back!