Tom Denham

What you have been doing is technically acceptable, but the exact opposite of what we encourage you to eat.

With your history of ankle injuries, I am concerned that the pain is related to your body and not what you are eating. You are not eating nearly enough. You are skipping meals. Eating small snacks in place of meals. And maybe not eating adequate size meals when you do eat a meal. You talk about exercise sessions without listing any post-workout meals. You are drinking enough water if you weigh between 60 pounds on days you drink 30 ounces and 140 pounds on days you drink 70 ounces. We recommend 1/2 ounce of water per pound of body weight per day. Regarding meals... How much to eat http://whole30.com/downloads/whole30-meal-planning.pdf Skipping breakfast is one of the worst things you can do if you want to make progress doing a Whole30. Eating within one hour of waking has a powerful influence on your hormonal rhythms. By not eating meal 1, you are encouraging negative hormonal rhythms.

Here is the relevant rule: Fruit juice as a sweetener. Some products or recipes will include fruit as a sweetener, which is fine for the purposes of the Whole30. (We have to draw the line somewhere.)If you drink the juice, you are not using it as a sweetener. You would be violating the Whole30 rules. Don't do it.

I used to use avocado oil and my mayo had a green tinge. I liked it fine, but some people can't stand it.

Do not consume carrageenan, MSG or sulfites. If these ingredients appear in any form on the label of your processed food or beverage, it’s out for the Whole30. - See more at: http://whole30.com/whole30-program-rules/#sthash.C6BaiCg7.dpuf Sodium metabisulphite is a form of sulfites. Your coconut milk has been irritating your gut meaningfully and has been pressing the restart button on your Whole30 every time you ate it.

Technically this product is not non-compliant, but it is far from what we want you consuming during a Whole30. By combining coconut cream and monk fruit extract with almond milk, this is sweet. We want you eating whole foods or as close to whole foods as possible and this is a processed product that is sweet. Just don't go there. This is too much like conventional foods and if you consume conventional foods during your Whole30, your results will be lame.

I order Solgar B-12 and Now Foods D3 from Amazon.com. The D3 includes glycerin, but I don't care about that in a supplement.

I've never heard of anything like this during a Whole30 before. For that matter, I've never heard of anything like this at any time.

I've never heard of anyone having an experience like yours. Hopefully some others will have more experience with such a reaction.

There is nothing about eating meat, veggies, and fat that would accelerate hair loss. If anything, we have reports of better hair health during a Whole30. This would be worth consulting a doctor about.

The sale of GMO products does not bother me if they are clearly labeled as GMO. However, our government has been bought by big business, so GMO status is hidden from consumers.

Getting inflamed late in the 30 days suggests the issue is not food. Maybe it is the stress. The few things you might do to rule out the likelihood of the issue being food would be to eliminate all nuts and nut butters. I don't think you are eating enough. You are working out 5-6 times per week and adding no food to account for the extra energy demands. You are eating light for a sedentary person and you are very likely undernourished for an an active person. This might be causing physiological stress. You need post-workout meals and they are best consumed immediately after you complete a workout. We say there is a "window of opportunity" to feed hungry muscles within 30 minutes of completing a workout. The best approach is to eat fast digesting lean protein as soon as you catch your breath so that there is time for the protein to reach your muscles before the window closes. Note: The window of opportunity is really longer than 30 minutes, but if you wait longer than 30 minutes to eat, the protein probably won't reach your muscles in time to achieve its ideal effect.

Lime juice might not be "strong" enough. You could try adding a little apple cider vinegar.

I am one of those people who needs starchy veggies every day to keep me sleeping good. I've also had a great experience with taking magnesium. I used to take Natural Calm, but it provoked diarrhea for me. I switched to magnesium aspartate supplements - 200 to 300 mgs per night. It is working very well. Actually, when I first saw a functional medicine doctor, she gave me an injection of magnesium and I enjoyed great sleep that night and for the next several nights.

Not stepping on the scale is not a suggestion. It is a rule. Something that we have found to be important through experience with 1000s of people. You were not an exception. You short-changed yourself by weighing. You let the scale guide your behavior and you did not learn important lessons that you still need to learn. I am glad that you had a positive experience over all, but frustrated that you did not fully engage with the Whole30 process.

Your eating two sweet potatoes per day eliminates the likelihood that you are feeling increased anxiety/depression as a result of your diet. People who go low carb and avoid eating starchy veggies are at risk, but two sweet potatoes per day should be enough to keep that aspect of things well supplied. Your meals sound good. I don't know what is going on. Are you eating plenty of food so that you are not hungry for more than a short-time before meals? Are you drinking plenty of water? We recommend 1/2 ounce of water per pound of body weight per day. I don't know why being low in these regards might make you anxious or depressed, but people do often fail to eat and drink enough.

You cannot use ANY of that cooking spray while doing a Whole30. You can use coconut oil, ghee, or EVOO all the time with excellent benefit. EVOO is not a good oil for high heat, but I have used it for that a little.

Let me elaborate.. a syrup made from dates is not acceptable during a Whole30 and a crappy idea at any time because sweetening your food with such a product erodes health. It does not make anything better. Making a puree with dates in order to sweeten your food is maybe 10 percent more acceptable than using a date syrup. You know where 10 percent better leaves you? Ninety percent away from where you belong if you want to be healthy. The person behind the dessert recipes thinks eating a frozen date helped her during her Whole30. This is not true. Feeding a sugar craving keeps the craving healthy and strong. The Whole30 approach to sugar cravings is to starve them unmercifully until they die. There is no room to negotiate with a sugar craving. They are cunning and powerful. Trying to placate a craving with just a little something has ended many Whole30s prematurely. Don't listen to the soft crowd. Listen to the old timers. Go cold turkey regarding sweetness. Let me explain where it really is okay to use something to sweeten your food... when you are making pickles. Here is a good recipe for making quick, refrigerator pickles... Submerge your sliced cucumbers in a mixture of half apple cider vinegar and half apple juice plus spices like salt, garlic, peppercorns, etc and let soak for 12-24 hours. Making pickles is an acceptable time to use a sweetener during a Whole30. Seriously.

The McCormick website lists the only ingredient as garlic and onion, so that means they are fine. You have to look for an ingredient list because some garlic or onion powders may have additional ingredients that are not okay. It is amazing how often vendors include sugar.

If you are snacking on nuts, you are not eating enough food at meals. What you need to work on is not simply controlling yourself when it comes to nuts. You need to increase the protein, fat, and veggie content of your meals so that you are not tempted to eat nuts.

The burger is a great choice. The fries, however, are not okay. The rules of the Whole30 specifically call out French fries as a food that is not okay. These are made with sweet potatoes, but they are still French fries. In another Whole30 article where we say it is okay to eat white potatoes, we clarify that you can bake or fry fries at home, but no commercially prepared fries are acceptable during a Whole30.

You should not eat this thing.

This looks like a fine product.

I often go 6 hours after lunch before I eat supper and going 7 hours is surprisingly easy. However, I have been doing this for almost 5 years now. During the first year, I ate 4-6 meals per day.

According to the template, your protein portion should provide as much meat as the area of the palm of your hand and you can eat as much as two servings of that size. Most chicken thighs would not match the size of the palm of my hand. I would need to eat 2 or 3 chicken thighs to get enough protein. Whether your chicken thigh will be enough depends upon the size of your hands and how hungry you are. Your vegetable medley sounds good as long as you cook it with some fat to boost the taste and ability to keep you satisfied. The gold standard post-workout protein is chicken breast. Most people can happily eat chicken breast cold. I frequently eat canned tuna as a post-workout protein because it is easy to take on the go. I actually carry my own can opener with me! Tuna packed in water is sufficiently lean to be a post-workout protein.