Patti M's Whole 30

[PattiM]

I guess I'll start off by detailing why I finally chose to start The Whole 30. I've been gluten and relatively grain free for several years. I have not seen signfigant improvements in my health I suspect because of my spotty compliance.

I am 39 years and 10 months old staring 40 with the evil eye. My list of issues are a mile long but have one very interesting thing in common, they are all linked to inflamation. Here are my favorite ailments:

• Hypothyroidism
  
• @ 80 lbs overweight
  
• Psoriatic arthritis
  
• Anxiety with the occasional bout of depression as a tasty side
  
• and the new kid on the block Piriformis syndrome
  

I have read pretty much all of the Paleo books on the market but ISWF had enough science, practical advice and snark to keep my interest. The hormonal and emotional components resonated especially.

On Sunday, I went shopping and stocked up on what I though would be a week's worth of food. In the afternoon, I:

• Roasted 2 whole chickens
  
• Roasted 6 bone-in, skin on breasts and shredded them for salads and slaws
  
• Cubed 3 lbs of steak for kebabs and marinated them for Monday
  
• Roasted and shredded 2 spagetti squash
  
• shredded a head of cabbage
  
• steamed all of the veggies that would stand still
  
• made marinated cucumber salad
  
• boiled 8 eggs
  
• prepped kebab veggies
  

And then I died.

No, not really, more like could not decide what to eat and ended up drinking a bunch of wine instead.

My intention was to start day one on Monday but had forgotten that I had to fast for a blood test at 1pm so I knew after that I could not be responsible for appropriate choices. So yesterday, Tuesday July 10 was day one.

I want to thank appolgize everyone that made it through this, and respectfully request spell check be added to this forum so that I can pretend I can spell.

[PattiM]

Day 1

Breakfast: Chicken salad and marinated cucmbers, coffe with coconut cream

Lunch: Beef kebabs with veggies and chimichurri sauce

Snack: Mac nuts and a spoonfull of coconut butter, coconut water

Dinner: more leftover kebabs

I felt fine yesterday, no complaints except for weird pain in my left arm in the morning. This will be relevant in my next post.

[PattiM]

Day 2

Breakfast: 3 scrambled eggs with salsa and green beans on the side, coffee with coconut cream

I'm going to pause here and tell you about my jacked up morning. On the way to work, with my 2 boys in the car, I started to get a pain in my shoulder that radiated into my chest, alone I would brush the pain off but I started to get dizzy and light-headed. I managed to get to work, but by then, my entire chest was on fire/tight. I thought back to the arm pain form yesterday and proceeded to freak-the-f&%!-out.

Long story short, I went to see my doctor who is way closer than an ER. Vitals, EKG, glucose test, chest X-Ray, clear. I had a panic attack. A real one, not a metaphorical one. I have dealt with my anxiety for 25 years and what I thought were panic attacks, nope! Those were anxiety attacks, evidentally they're not the same thing.

I was stoked to not be dying but not stoked to find out that there's nothing I can do to prefent these "panic attacks" She said I should Ativan up and ride out the crazy.

Interesting to note however, is that we ran through all of my dietary changes to try to nail down a trigger, because, I guess panic attacks are driven by brain chemistry. My MD thinks that my daily glass (or 2) of wine were acting on my brain chemistry to manage the panic attacks and that stopping the wine may have disrupted my chemistry enough to cause the attack. Hormones! Pesky little crapmonkeys!

Anyway, all the stress of the day manifested in some less than optimal food choices as noted below....

Lunch: Chicken and Apple Slaw, coconut water, green tea with coconut cream

Snack: Kombucha, well sort of, it tasted so sweet to me that I figured it could not be Whole 30 approved so I stopped at 1/2 a bottle.

Snack: 1/4 cup coconut milk, 1/2 cup blueberries, handful of mac nuts

Dinner: chicken salad, 1/2 cup blueberries with 1/4 cup coconut milk mac nuts

I must stop grazing!

Tonight, I have a headache. I can't decide if it's the dreaded day 2 hangover or a hangover from today's firedrill o' crazy.

What say you Whole 30'ers?

[Laura Jeanne Penrod]

Wow! Interesting on the pain factor. I agree that you may have been relying on it for your panic attacks. Great insight on the first few days. I am only in day 3, but based on your log I'd say Kombucha is approved because of the good probiotics, just stick to the ones that are no more than 2g of sugar per serving. The coconut water is what I'd cut back on. It has more sugar and isn't really Whole30 approved. Overall, I think your doing well and your gaining insight in to what you are doing and why, that's more than half the battle.

[PattiM]

Days 3 & 4

No more coconut water!!!!!

Day 3 started out fine, felt a little better than normal.

I don't really remember anything other than lunch and dinner which were Everyday Paleo Chicken and Sundried Tomato Slaw and spagetti squash and bolognaise (sp) respectively. What I do remember is a whole lot of late afternoon indescretion with approved foods but a serious lack of moderation. I have no idea what happened.

Day 4 in comparison was a triumph! I felt fan-freaking-tastic all day.

However..... I was not hungry in the slightest. I had to force myself to eat my chicken salad for lunch and was not really hungry again until late evening.

Dinner was especially kick ass because it was my first social occasion without wine. I worried about my ability to refrain around guests that were drinking. I made myself a soda water in a fancy glass with lots of lime and called it a night. This was an enormous emotional hurdle for me.

Dinner was pork tenderloin, my savory mustard cole slaw and sauteed summer squash with mushrooms. Dessert was a spoonful of coconut butter and blueberries which I shared with my pint-sized dinner guests. My best friend's kids are a bunch of adventurous paleo babies!

What is bugging me right now is that I did not sleep peacefully last night. I woke up feeling sluggish and a little depressed. I'm having a hard time being tolerant of my family and my husband is feeling sulky because he thinks I "mad at him", and wants to fix it and I just want to be left alone. I would feel bad for him but I just don't have the bandwidth to deal with anything but me right now.

I dreamt that my boss gave me toast. Weird, because she does not eat toast and it's not something I ever crave anymore. It would make more sense if she tried to get me to eat pupusas or chocolate (our "emergency foods").

I read this blog post and it seems like my body is on the Whole 30 cafeteria plan. I cannot claim to be following the typical pattern but I do have a lot of the described symptoms. (Perhaps it's because my Paleo diet history is so....disordered?)

I hope everyone has a great day!

[PattiM]

Day 5:

Breakfast was late again. Chicken salad and coleslaw.

Snack: almonds

Dinner: green beans, mashed cauliflower, and slow cooker braised short ribs.

I don't feel exhausted but it's not zippy energy either. The one thing that has changed is when it's time for bed, it's time for bed. I am so tired by 7pm. Last night I nearly fell asleep in my dinner.

Day 6:

I made a very modest breakfast of 2 eggs and veggie hash with poblanos

Lunch was the last of the coleslaw and I just tossed some shredded chicken in the slaw.

Dinner was 3 Applegate farms beef hot dogs and mini bell peppers dipped in white basalmic ( the hotdogs expire tomorrow)

I killed a large carton of blueberries as a mid afternoon snack and had an apple with almond butter for dessert.

I've been eating what appears to be normal portions today but always feel over full. I'm going to cut the portions again tomorrow.

I did my big cook for the week over two days so I have lots of prepped food ready for the week. Now I'm going to flip the laundry, wipe the counters and give the rest of today the finger.

Night all!

[PattiM]

Day 7:

I'm feeling pretty good today. I would probably be much better but the wind here is spectacular, resulting in more allergy symptoms than normal. I looked in the mirror today and was shocked. I have not noticed my clothes fitting better but my face is thinner. It's pretty motivating.

For the first time in a long time, I was HUNGRY. Like hungry, hungry with a grumbly tummy. This was not a craving, not a time or habit induced compulsion to eat, but real, honest hunger.

I made sure to eat within an hour of getting up, and I've got to say it's still really hard choking down anything at 7am. My schedule between 7am and noon is crazy and eating before noon is really hard to do with my job. I know we are not supposed to snack or graze, but would it be appropriate to add a little something in the morning so I'm not going 5 hours without eating?

So far today:

Breakfast: 2 eggs scrambled and 3/4 cup veggie hash 2 cups coffee with coconut cream

Lunch: steamed broccoli and spaghetti squash with meat sauce.

For dinner I'm planning for a little steak with herbed ghee, veggies and some sweet potato, but considering the spaghetti squash I ate for lunch I should probably skip the potato.

[Laura Jeanne Penrod]

Nice job staying on plan. Have you considered adding more healthy fats? Like avocado or olives? Don't see much in your diet and may help with hunger levels. I agree on skipping the sweet potato, unless you are working out prior. I tend to reserve my sweet potato for after I workout. I tend to work out and eat dinner so my sweet potato usually comes in at that time. Overall all my other carb sources throughout the day come from veggies and some fruit.

You should be eating enough to get you from breakfast to lunch even with a five hour block. I would up your egg to 3 and maybe add some sausage or turkey meat, etc. and FAT. You don't have a lot of it in your diet. Per ISWF breakfast is also the area you can afford to eat a bit more. I eat at 6 and don't eat until 10:45-11 and tend to be fine. I do add a snack in the afternoon because I can't seem to make it from 11-6:30/7 without one. I tend to eat it as a pre-workout meal and it's ALWAYS protein and fat, never fruit alone. Sometimes I add a raw veggie.

Hope this helps.

[PattiM]

I had intended to have avocado with breakfast, that may have made the difference. I put olive oil on my broccoli, but it probably was not as much as I should have.

I'm not very hungry and dinner is almost ready. The good news is I did not snack today.

[Lalalana]

Nice on the no snacking!! I'm still working on that, mid-afternoons are always rough for me! Maybe I need more fat at lunch too, or maybe it's a psychological "here's a reward for being done with work" thing?

Anyway, congrats on 1 full week!!

[PattiM]

Had a crappy night sleep last night(nightmares...and not about food) aaaaaaand I'm clearly overdoing on the Natural Calm. Yikes!

Breakfast same as yesterday but with 1/2 an avocado. Lunch was chicken salad on lettuce cups. Dinner was steak salad with homemade, compliant ranch dressing, salsa and guacamole.

Today was a snacky day a handful of almonds, blueberries and an apple with almond butter. And yes, Lana, all in the afternoon. It's a habit I must break.

I'm a little off from my sprints yesterday I still want to do some kb swings and maybe some burpees.

Found out my sister is on day 16! I sent her a text about some $50 a pound meat she ordered off of the Internet! Those better be some killer steaks!