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Chronically sick - first whole30


sailbades

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Thanks for the article, you are right about the scale.  

 

The blueberries, I'm having a measured cup of them as a sort of dessert, which has occasionally turned into 2 cups.  Same reason I had to stop eating nuts on this program, no brakes.

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I really hope you feel better soon!

 

Part of the whole 30 is getting away from the need to have dessert. So if the fruit is filling that need for you then you should give some consideration to that. Perhaps your body really really needs all this rest. I need to go back and re-read your intro but if you are chronically sick as your title implies you may need a lot of energy to heal. 

 

On the constipation, are you eating more raw veggies than usual? Anything else that has changed recently? You might look into digestive enzymes and/or magnesium supplements.

 

I would probably advise you to not worry so much about your workouts when you are so tired. Focus on eating the template, getting the rest you need, and letting your body heal. And don't worry if you are not exactly on par with the timeline...not everyone is. I've read lots of stories where that energy didn't come until day 30 or later. I know for me one of the changes has been that I'm more alert but I also get tired at a reasonable time and sleep better. I used to be able to get by on 5-6 hours of sleep and now I need 7-8. 

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This is some tough love:

 

I re-read your intro. At 12-15% body fat with calipers (much more accurate than the scale) you are on the low end of athletic dipping into essential body fat. You are dangerously close to having too little body fat. In my opinion that would account for how tired you are if you are truly fat adapted at this point in your Whole30. You really don't have any weight to lose and in fact your body would be more healthy if you let yourself get into the 19-20% range (measured with calipers not your scale). If you get sick all the time it is because your body isn't being fed enough nutrients for your immune system to fight things off. I get the wanting to be in the athletic range for body fat but it sounds like your body is fighting you on this and it might be good to let it exist in the more healthy normal range for a little while so you can heal. 

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totally agree.  It completely freaked me out when I got such a low number from the calipers.  I'm going to ask my trainer to do it again this weekend possibly, because it could have been a erroneous reading.  I'm hoping to become more fat-adapted for the health reasons, but I'm also hoping it'll help distribute my fat around my body.  Right now it's a no fat anywhere situation except my stomach, literally, it's all in my stomach.  And I read in the book that fat around your stomach is the worst kind in terms of health issues.  I need to reread the book, I can't remember anything.  ha ha.

 

I do feel better today, despite falling down the stairs earlier due to clumsiness and aslo probably some imbalanced caused by a stupid ear infection caused by my stupid allergies, I'm not tired and it's past noon!  hooray!

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The tiredness of the past two days is nearly gone.  Possibly because of a massive amount of sleep and eating 3 sweet potatoes in two days.

 

For lunch yesterday I had a salad with hard boiled eggs, grilled chicken, beets, onion, spinach, carrots, and olive oil/balsamic then an apple.  I worked out, ran for about 15 minutes, then did an hour of a lifting circuit.  Then I went straight to band practice for 2 hours.  By the end it was 8:15 and I hadn't eaten.  I was super hungry.  I ate an apple with almond butter and a banana while cooking.  Then I had ground beef with a roasted tomato and red pepper plus some roasted sweet potato.  I probably should cut out the fruit all together because I clearly have issues with controlling my consumption (just yesterday alone I had 3-4 servings and already today I've had 2).

 

So today I've had an apple, 2 cups of coffee, 3 eggs, a sausage, 1/2 sweet potato and a bunch of cherry tomatoes.  Less veggies than I should have but I didn't have any at the house.

 

I plan on having a good lunch of sausages, rainbow chard, cherry tomatoes and NO FRUIT.  Plus a workout around 5, that way I can safely have some blueberries (yum!) after dinner tonight.

 

My kitchen is a disaster zone because of all this cooking.  Usually rather than "kitchen" its just the "coffee making room", so this is a big change.

 

Only 8 more days.  I'm counting it down because I really want red wine.  I thought I would want, I don't know, like bread or cheese or something normal, but no, red wine is what I want.

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Yesterday for lunch, I had two sausages cooked in olive oil.  A rainbow chard, cherry tomato salad dressed in olive oil and balsmaic, 1/2 a sweet potato and I think that's it.

 

I worked out, pretty good circuit for about 50 minutes.  Then I cooked a spaghetti squash, some roasted tomatoes, a sausage and sweet potato chips for dinner.  Had blueberries while cooking and after wards (I think probably 1 cup).

 

This morning I had 4 eggs, with basil and garlic, roasted beets, chard and cherry tomatoes and 3 strawberries.  Plus two cups of coffee.

 

I'm really full now, but here's the big thing of today.  I went to put on my jeans and wow are they tight, like not normal tightness.  So then I got worried and tried on my bridesmaids dress for the wedding I"m in the second weekend of July.  The thing barely zipped and I'm talking like I had to turn it around to have the zipper in front and pull to get it up.  When I tried it on 2 days before I started the whole 30, I had no issues getting thing zipped at all, it was snug, but no issues.

 

In short, while I put my scale away, I have expanded and I know it.  All the literature about this plan is that, while not the main goal of the plan, you will lose weight as a side effect.  Quite frankly, I don't care about my weight, I care about how my clothes fit and how my chin/face looks (so vain, sad face).  The weight number has always just been a pretty good gage about whether or not I'm making up that my clothes fit differently.  I'm pretty sure if I stepped on there it would confirm that my weight is up and not just by a little, which maybe I needed, it's possible I was too thin, but it's kind of irrelevant in my current situation: when I have to fit in this bridesmaids dress in 4 weeks.  The size of the dress ain't gonna change.

 

How discouraging with a week to go.

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When the literature says that weight loss is often a side affect that really assumes that most people coming to this program need to lose some weight. I think the more correct way of looking at it is that when you feed your body the nutrients it needs consistently over time it should eventually settle into a healthy weight range on its own. We have already discussed the probability of your being underweight. I have also seen lots of people temporarily gain a little when they feed their bodies more than usual and have it settle out. Give the program its last week. You will still have 3 weeks to determine about the dress. There is always alterations if necessary. Worrying about all this adds extra stress which certainly will not help you. If you really can't keep from being concerned you can look at your meals more closely. Ensure you are eating when hungry and just until you feel satisfied. I'm by no means saying you are eating too much as I really can't judge that. Only you can listen to your body. I suspect based on your activity level your portions are fine but I really don't know.

 

I hope a moderator with more wisdom will come and add some better insights for you. 

 

Hang in there!

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Thanks Bethany!  I don't feel super stressed about the gaining it's just the dumb dress.  If I have to get it let out I will but bla, that just sounds sad.  Definitely not going to stop the program now, I haven't gotten any magic yet, I got to keep going.

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Another tired weekend over and just 4 days left not counting today.  I tried on my bridesmaid dress again sunday and it fit a little better, so that's good.  Maybe I was bloated Friday morning?  But that will suck if all it takes is being bloated for that thing to be tight.

 

Anyway, here's how I got through the weekend:

Friday night, had plans of doing yoga but was so tired after hitting up Whole Foods, and depressed about how much I spent (210!) to get me through the next week.  The bf came over and we made roasted skin on/bone in chicken breasts which were marinated in olive oil and vinegar + rosemary.  I also made some sweet potato chips and then we had spinach and cherry tomato salads on the side.  We made two chicken breasts but found it was enough to just split one.  I had a half an apple after eating and some blueberries and cashews while we were cooking.

 

Saturday morning I made these prosciutto wrapped frittatta muffin like things from nom nom paleo.  They turned out ok, but the prosciutto was super salty.  I had 3, the bf had 2, and then we had spinach and cherry tomatoes on the side.  Next we went to EFT for a massively hard workout.  We shared a lara apple pie bar on the way home.  The bf went home and I ate post workout meal of 2 more of the egg muffin things plus spinach salad.  Around 3, I had "lunch" which was 3 chicken legs left over from last week and a salad.  Then I went and got my hair cut and dyed.  After which I met up with the bf for dinner and movie.  I had a burger with a fried egg, no bun or cheese and a side salad - which had dried cranberries and pecans.  We saw Much Ado About Nothing, it was quite good and then off to bed.

 

Sunday we went to the Flying Saucer (in chicago) for some Whole30 friendly breakfast.  I had a 4 egg omelette (cooked in clarified butter) with mushrooms, spinach, scallions and tomatoes and a side salad (which was just greens dressed with some fresh lemon juice).  I ate the whole omelette, wow.  Then we went to the farmers market and then I went to the spa.  I had a wonderful sports massage and a facial (much needed and a nice little treat to reward myself for making it this far).  By the time I was leaving the spa it was 3 o'clock and I hadn't eaten since breakfast.  They had apples in the waiting room, so I had one of those.  Then around 5 I went to the grocery and bought a sweet potato and a bag of macadamia nuts.  The macadamia nuts were gone by the time I'd walked home (2 and a half servings).  We had one blood sausage each plus roasted beets, carrots and the sweet potato.  Then I had a cup and a 1/2 of blueberries (ack!).  So I overate and I blame it on skipping lunch.

 

Today I had breakfast of 3 of the muffin thingers (2 left now) and a spinach and cherry tomato salad + 3 very very small apricots.  I only had one cup of coffee and am now having a tea.

 

This week is going to be an incredibly stressful work week, but it will be nice to close up some major projects for work at the same time I finish off the whole 30.

 

My plan for integrating other foods is slowly forming, but I don't really want anything on the no-go list except for red wine.

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No magic and not fitting the clothes is a real drag!  I'm still sporting the same pair of jeans.  There are times when they flirt with me and start hanging and then they just snug right back up.  It bums me out a bit, but I really do think that for me who was always sick and probably has lots of internal inflammation issues, that this is a long process.  I tell myself that at least I'm not exacerbating things like I was before.  I do have some digestive enzymes coming in the mail this week and I'm hopeful that those will help my digestive system do its work without these ups and downs in bloating.  It sure would be nice to feel sexy and slender - especially for a wedding which is such a fun time to dress up!  

 

I want to see Much Ado About Nothing!!

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Yeah, I've lighter and heavier just depending on the day and certainly it's going to take longer than 30 days to get me all fixed, but still, sad face.

 

It's now day 27.  Yesterday for lunch, I had a spinach salad with olive oil and vinegar that had probably 2 eggs worth of hard boiled egg and then an orange.  For dinner, I ate some mango strips (they weren't dried, but more like pounded down or pressure cooked, really good) and then had a whole sweet potato + 3/4 of the chicken I made on Friday.

 

I fell asleep really easily, but I started my period with some horrible cramps, so my sleep was fitful.  This morning I was able to get up at 6 with no issues, had 2 cups of coffee, finished the muffin things (2) + the remainder of the chicken + 1/2 a sweet potato and an apple.  I'm having tea now.  It sounds like a lot, but it really wasn't a big breakfast in terms of fitting on the plate, oh I had a handful of cashews as well to try and curb my lunch cravings (I read more fat with breakfast helps the hunger stay away).

 

I plan on having the same salad I had yesterday, today for lunch and trying to work out before a band meeting at 7:30.

 

Only 4 more days of full whole 30, still have no integration plan.

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The Whole30 June Group http://forum.whole9life.com/topic/10639-whole30-june-group/ will be creating a reintroduction thread in the Whole30 Reintroduction part of the forum starting on Monday July 1st.  Tentative name: JUNE WHOLE30 DOING REINTRODUCTION. 

Join us!  Speaking for myself, it's been great motivation going through the W30 with a group of other folks at the same time.

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I will start by saying, this is not going to be a happy post that makes whole30 sound like the super great thing it is for basically everyone else I read on this forum and don't get offended by that, my personal experience is just one person's journey.

 

Here's what I ate for lunch and dinner yesterday (exactly):

Lunch - Spinach salad with 2 hard boiled eggs, 1 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar, tomatoes, roasted red peppers, mushrooms, celery, and red onions plus one orange.

Dinner - 2 eggs, 1/2 onion, 1 orange pepper, 1 tomato, 1 chicken sausage (whole30 a-ok), 1/2 sweet potato

 

For breakfast I had:

the same exact thing as dinner last night except no tomato and added cilantro + 2 cups of coffee

 

It is day 28 and here's the deal:  I don't feel better at all, my mucus production is just as bad as it was when I started, nose starts running the minute I start to eat (spicy or not) and doesn't stop until probably 1/2 hour after, plus my chest is congested, my singing last night was laborious to say the least.  My period cramps are worse.  My sleep is the same (except I have to force myself to get up earlier to cook).  My skin looks the same and I've had more blemishes or the same throughout.  My stomach and digestive issues are not corrected at all, I'm still having trouble feeling bloated and with not having regular bms.  The past 3 days I've had a persistent, terrible headache starting around 9 am and lasting until roughly 3 (caffeine possibly causing this?).  My mood is obviously not great, I've started biting my nails again, a habit I kicked over a year ago.  My anxiety issues feel like they are returning.  My workouts have gone from 4 to 5 times a week and no question about it, I just went - to hopefully I get in 3 and I'm counting down the minutes throughout.  This morning, I had to go into my give-away bag to get something that would fit me, which it is a lot of clothes that I kept from before I lost 15 pounds two years ago with WW.  So it's basically my fat-er clothes bag, not that I was fat then and no, I haven't got on the scale but I could be all the way back to 145 right where I started that journey 2 years ago.  It took a year to lose that weight, I kept it off for a year, and now in one month it could be back.  Again, I realize weight is just a number and all that and that's fine, but it's a very general, albeit sometimes misleading measure of how your body is changing PLUS regardless of the number, I'm fitting in the bigger clothes.  It would be one thing to be underweight and then gain some and get all the benefits that go along with rightsizing, like more energy and more color in your skin, fingers not being constantly cold, but I haven't experienced anything positive only getting larger.

 

I'll finish the 30 days and totally get that this way of life has been miraculous for others and I respect that, everyone's body and starting points are different.  But for me, it feels like in one month I've potentially undone 2 years of work.

 

Maybe I'll feel differently later, but it's just completely got me so low and I feel idiotic.

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Another thought, it's possible that all the stress of doing the whole30 is upping my cortisol and causing me to get larger.  I'm over getting on the scale, but I can't throw away my clothes and they are a constant reminder (all day) that I don't fit in them.

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Elevated stress can be a problem. It sounds like you might be getting less sleep. Have you considered a food sensitivity that is in the realm of whole30 approved meals? What have you eaten more of than you did before.

 

I'm sorry you feel this isn't working for you.

 

Have you read through this article? http://whole9life.com/2012/10/six-reasons-why-the-whole30-didnt-work-for-you/

 

You are correct...there isn't one best diet for everyone and riding your own bike to best health may look different than for others. I hope you find what you need to make you happy and healthy.

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Thanks for the article.  I really did feel like I did all the things of the program.  I rarely snacked, really changed the way I ate, didn't drink.  I tried last night to think of good things that have happened and I did come up with a few:

1-I fall asleep in like 10 seconds - used to take like 15 minutes

2-My undereye circles are less dark - they are still there - but less dark

3-I learned to not be afraid of my stove or cooking meat

4-I'm over dairy in a major way, might not eat it again or very very rarely, just because I don't think I like it.  I like smelly cheeses on occasion but that's it.

5-Diet Coke isn't an everyday thing anymore.  I don't know if I can ever have it again though because it might happen again, and that makes me sad.

 

So it's not all doom and gloom.  My body is bigger, fits in a size six snugly where when I started I was a loose 4.  I can't find anyone else on here who's had this kind of weight gain and I really don't feel like I"m eating more than recommended.

 

Yesterday for lunch I had - spinach salad with hbes, beets, slivered almonds (a tbsp), carrot, red onions, celery and olive oil (tbsp) and balsmaic.  

 

I lifted for an hour after work, my knees were killing me.

 

For Dinner I had - 1/2 a sweet potato cooked in 1 1/2 tbsp coconut oil, 2 eggs and a chicken sausage in 1 tbsp olive oil, 1/2 onion, 1 clove garlic, 1 yellow pepper, a few mushrooms, and then an avocado.  After eating all that I was still hungry so I had a closed handful of cashews and 3 strips of pressed mango.

 

This morning I had - 1/2 a sweet potato cooked in 1 1/2 tbsp coconut oil, 2 eggs and a chicken sausage in 1 tbsp olive oil, 1/2 onion, 2 cloves garlic, 1 orange pepper, some mushrooms and a tomato then 2 strips of pressed mango.  I had 2 cups of coffee.

 

Today was a huge presentation at work which is now complete so I feel a lot of my stress is gone, except for the stress of growing a dress size, ugh.

 

Just two more days.  Not sure what to do afterwards still.

 

I'm trying to determine if I've been eating too much or my body is still adjusting to the new way of eating.  I know I can't keep up the not drinking wine for any more days.  I've set the goal, I'll reach the goal, but asking more of myself is just not going to work for me.  But keeping the eating by the guidelines most of the time shouldn't be too hard to accomplish. 

 

I'm going to a Japanese restaurant on Saturday night, so that'll be my first night of ability to eat other things.  I think I'll first just incorporate sulfates though and get a steak and some yum yum wine at the restaurant.

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Ack worst cramps/stomach pain right now.  I had a spinach salad with beets, hbe, cucumbers, mushrooms, carrots, red onion, olive oil and vinegar and a banana.  

 

I thought maybe I saw a piece of breaded chicken in the eggs (from a salad bar) but I couldn't find it when I was eating.  If that small of a piece of bread hurts me, wow.  But maybe it wasn't in there at all, then the only explanation is my cycle.  ouch.

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Headache issues this morning and major tiredness last night.

 

I went to bed around 8 pm after eating a 1/2 lb of shrimp mixed up to make a ceviche (recipe for Stupid Easy Paleo), some mango strips and 3 handfuls of cashews (whoops).  This was technically a post-workout meal because I did an hour of crazy hard circuit training that ended with sprinting 50 yards, 20 jumping jacks, 10 burpees, lunges 100 yards, 20 jj, 10 burpees, then sprint 50 yards, 20 jj, 10 burpees. After lifting for 40 minutes, that little "cardio burst" had me feeling pretty awesome.  Anyway the food was enough and I went to bed about an hour later anyway.  Woke up naturally at 5:40 (!) kind of amazing to wake up without an alarm, but considering I feel asleep at 8 or 8:30 that's almost 10 hours of sleep.

 

This morning I had 2 eggs cooked in olive oil with mushrooms and tomato plus 2 garlic cloves, then 3 leaves of rainbow chard with tomatoes. And one handful of cashews.

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For lunch I had a spinach salad with smoked chicken (not sure of it's origins but I forgot to pack and this was the only protein in the salad bar), beets, carrots, mushrooms, and slivered almonds with olive oil and balsamic.  I also ate an apple and a banana.

 

I feel incredibly tired and yet restless.  Plus I have the beginnings of a migraine (first one in this 30 days).  Not the best start to the last day.

 

I plan on doing yoga tonight and making a curry.

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I finished the 30 on Friday with the most wicked migraine I've had in years.  Somehow Excedrin Migraine killed it dead.  

 

I weighed myself on Saturday and my weight hasn't changed at all, so I think it's my body composition shifting around that's making everything not fit.  I'll do my measurements tonight to see what's going on because my pants are tighter to be sure.

 

On Saturday night I had a couple glasses of wine but I ate clean the rest and same with yesterday.  I think the wine just ruins my sleep, which ruins everything, so I'm going to have to -not quit- but really cut back on it.

 

Tomorrow I will start integrating dairy I think.  Although the thought of that just grosses me out.

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Red wine makes my turn feel burnt apparently.  I had 1/2 a glass last night and had the worst sleep in the world.  While I'm not going to quit wine, I think at least I'll know the consequences when I make the choice.

 

I'm following whole 30 today and then tomorrow will start doing diary, probably just cheese and some milk in my coffee - maybe, I'm over milk in my coffee, so just maybe - and I"ll do that until Friday.  Then non-glutenous grains, then glutenous grains, then sugar.  I will, however, probably have a couple glasses of wine during that time, but I think since I know what it does to me, I can isolate its effects from the others.

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I'm following whole 30 today and then tomorrow will start doing diary, probably just cheese and some milk in my coffee - maybe, I'm over milk in my coffee, so just maybe - and I"ll do that until Friday.  Then non-glutenous grains, then glutenous grains, then sugar.  I will, however, probably have a couple glasses of wine during that time, but I think since I know what it does to me, I can isolate its effects from the others.

 ~~~~~~~~

When you reintro, the idea is to reintro the food in question at all 3 meals for 1 day, see how/if you react, then go back to 100% clean for 2-3 days before reintroducing something else.

In other words, you wouldn't need to have dairy multiple days (unless you weren't sure of your response with 1 day and wanted to keep testing).

 

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oh ok, that's really helpful thanks.  I read the book when I started the program, clearly a lot of it went in and out of my brain.

 

I think the whites of my eyes are really white right now, I've had several people comment on how blue my eyes look.  I'd assume it's not my iris getting bluer but actually the white part getting whiter. weird.

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