RunnerJudy vs Sugar Dragon, Round 1

[RunnerJudy]

I resisted the idea of doing a Whole30, after all, I wasn't addicted to sugar, really.  To prove it in January I "gave up" white sugar along with grains.  I've really enjoyed some grain-free recipes that I tried like the pumpkin pancakes by detoxinista.  Lately though, I found myself taking a spoon to the syrup at the bottom of the plate to get every last drop, but I'm not addicted to sugar, really.  Last weekend was my husband's birthday, the only day of the year that I make cakes--his favorite cake and a gluten-free cake--and I ate the entire GF cake in two days.  I am REALLY addicted to sugar.

 

So here I am, ready to do battle.  I've been cooking paleo-ish for quite a while.  I adore veggies and grow a few....although with all this rain they are struggling.  Not having dairy, milk in my coffee and a weekly gelato will be a bit challenging.  Not having maple syrup, honey, handfuls of dates and raisins will be really, really difficult.

 

I made it through today; here's what I ate:

 

M 1:  half of a huge sweet potato & a grilled chicken/apple sausage.  Next time I will add the coconut oil to the potato.

M 2:  grilled chicken breast, 1/2 spaghetti squash, roasted red pepper.  Again, I need to add fat because I was starving soon after.

M 3:  marinated london broil (olive oil, balsamic, garlic, S&P, fresh thyme), carrots, eggplant/red pepper/cherry tomato salad.

 

Last but not least, the dreaded day 1 picture.  Here's me, 183#

[amberino21]

I hope you can kill your dragon!!

Well done for identifying the need for fat - it'll really make a difference to your hunger, and is necessary for energy!! Don't be afraid of it

[RunnerJudy]

Day 2--not bad!  DH and I went to the dealership to pick up his new office car at 4 p.m. but we ended up leaving there at 6:45.  Home made dinner plans went right out the window (of that very pretty new car!)  Fortunately our fav date night spot serves up seasonal fresh food (yeah, why we go there), so choices were fine, just not quite enough veggies on the day.

 

M1 -- sweet potato with a chicken sausage, kale & onion sauté.  

M2 -- leftover spaghetti squash topped with a roasted red pepper, some raw sauerkraut and a can of sardines.

M3 -- grilled calamari in vinaigrette, roasted red pepper, salmon, asparagus and a "sauce" made from diced fresh tomato.

 

 

Going to finalize a shopping list for tomorrow a.m. and place an order with our local pastured meat farm for pickup on Sunday at the farmer's market.  

[RunnerJudy]

Day 3--tired, cranky and hungry as predicted!  Despite 8 hours of sleep, I was exhausted today.  Took a 40 minute nap before making supper which didn't really help.  Normally, I would have had a handful of dates (or five) to give me an energy boost.  Instead I overate and then kept eating pistachios all evening.  Still, I made it through and tomorrow is another day!

 

M1 -- London Broil, sauteed with cabbage, carrots and onions in EVOO.

M2 -- Smoked salmon on cucumber slices and a medium apple

M3 -- pork chop, acorn squash and beans

endless snack after dinner -- pistachios

 

BTW--tried the wonderful mustard marinated pork chops from http://www.thefreckledfoodie.com/mustard-marinated-pork-chops/ 

[RunnerJudy]

Resetting my 30...went to my mother-in-law's 80th birthday party and had two glasses of wine and a creme brûlée.  Weak.  Navigated the rest of the day/meal very well and am looking forward to jumping right back on the horse.  

[RunnerJudy]

Day 1 again but really don't think my discretions had too much effect as my "symptoms" still feel like day 4 & 5.  Really sluggish and hungry.  My body is trying to trick me into having something carb-y as a pick-me-up.  I tried having a few walnuts & when I was still hungry after a few minutes I had a small bowl of roasted beets.  That's enough.  I think I'll go to bed now before I get hungry again!

[RunnerJudy]

Day 6--I had more energy today.  Went shopping with my daughter and ran a 5k tonight.  My time was off but I expected it from reading the forum.  I've had an earache all week...allergies I guess.  Read the Whole9 take on supplements, probiotics, etc. Was really glad to see that kombucha, water kefir, and other ferments are a part of Whole30.  I'm letting my water kefir ferment an extra day to be sure to convert all the sugar.  I've been holding off on it for that reason.  If I feel a sugar rush after drinking it I'll back off until the 30 days are over.  Kombucha hasn't been a problem at all.  I got a nice daikon radish at Whole Foods today and will make some kimchi tomorrow.

 

So after a week of following the program I find that I can live without sugar, fairly easily, thank you!  I am looking thinner, except in the dressing room at Anthropology where I looked 10 X bigger than I think I am.  More importantly, I really am enjoying the food and can see myself living 80% like this going forward (excepting Friday night date night...the hubs and I do like us some wine with dinner and gelato after)!

 

Forgot to mention my biggest discovery.....bulletproof coffee.  As a diehard, homebrewed espresso latte lover, a black americano wasn't cutting it.  I've been playing with throwing the americano in the vitamix with two tablespoons of coconut milk and a half teaspoon of ghee and blending for 30 seconds.  This has saved my Whole30 cuz I don't know how many more mornings I was gonna win the no-latte battle.

[RunnerJudy]

Day 7--still hungry at night so I'm going to try to add more meat & veggies in.  I just bought the spiralizer to make zucchini spaghetti.  I am eating way too many nuts; trying to get enough fiber.  I miss my prunes & dates for that!!  Went to the trainer today for an hour of HIIT; functioning around 80%.  Tired now & going to bed.

[RunnerJudy]

Day 9?  Spent a lot of the day cooking...made the kalua pork from nom nom paleo.  I NEED emergency meat!  I did track calories tonight after I had binged again on macadamia nuts; I had only eaten 925 calories for the day before that.  Unfortunately I ate about 1,000 calories in nuts.  I will be more diligent at eating more earlier in the day.  I did have some prunes this evening, uh, you'd think that will all these veggies I wouldn't need them?

 

Made a great quick meal....spaghetti squash with lox, a hardboiled egg and capers.  It was delicious.  no workout today, big T-storms still, clearing out tonight though.

[RunnerJudy]

Day 10--Feeling GREAT!  On my feet all morning doing chores and then went on a 5-mile hilly trail hike! 

 

 

• M1--Pork, sweet potato, kale, green beans, bulletproof coffee
• M2--Mussels, sautéed with onions & garlic in olive oil & ghee then tomatoes over spaghetti squash.  1 lovely fig
• M3--Grass fed beef burger, sweet potato topped with jalapeños, crimini mushrooms/onions/garlic sauté mixed with tomato
• snack--prunes

 

So...good day...can't wait to see what TIGER BLOOD feels like cuz this is wonderful!

 

 

[RunnerJudy]

Day 11--the prunes were not a good idea!  tried the Natural Calm for tonight so going to bed!  Good day tho!

[RunnerJudy]

Lucky 13!  I've been feeling so much perkier that I haven't had to take several hour computer breaks each day!!!  Sleeping is still a problem so I'm going to head up to bed.  My plan is to be in bed by midnight every night.

[RunnerJudy]

I cannot believe we are halfway through the month!  I was really concerned about my lack of power running uphill during my runs; thinking I wasn't eating properly.  After checking out some ideas on the Whole30 for Athletes forum mentioning the Carb Curve, I read up on it in It Starts With Food, starting on pg. 241.  Since my high intensity bursts are so short and my health status is pretty poor (overweight & chronic inflammation), they suggest no additional carbs and to limit high intensity work to 20 minutes.  That is such a relief to me as I have felt that I wasn't up to doing really high intensity stuff and would be absolutely exhausted after such attempts (even before W30).  Now I see that my leaky gut & inflammation really did get more out of balance when I overdid things....that's sure what it felt like.

 

It's amazing how easily I have fallen into this eating pattern although I've always loved meat and vegetables.  I do get hungry between meals but not crazy ravenous-snarly-beast type of hungry!  I still am having trouble going to sleep at night due to being hungry.  I am trying to get myself in an earlier pattern (I am a nite owl).  I know that is supposed to help with inflammation too.  In the meantime, I took a melatonin last night because the Natural Calm didn't do much.  I also am going to make up some valerian capsules.  Chronic sleep deprivation is the next bad habit on my list, now that the sugar dragon has slunk away! 

[RunnerJudy]

had a minor set back but stayed on plan... worked out too hard on Thursday with the trainer and then crashed on Friday and didn't feel like cooking or eating.  Ate too many macadamia nuts and finally rallied to make a 10 pm supper.  Still had a light appetite today but made some awesome meals.  Tried ground lamb (sourced locally) with curry, cubes of butternut squash, onion and bok choy.  I could have eaten the entire pan full (but I want some for breakfast!!!)

[RunnerJudy]

YAY!  My first whole 30 is complete!  My friends are stopping me to tell me how great I look.  I am down 8# but more importantly the bloat is gone.  I did experiment with adding milk back into my coffee a couple of days ago.  After the second day I could tell it was a big mistake as my tummy went right back to balloon status.

 

It took 3 weeks but my GI system is what I would call normal... solid & like clockwork.  I haven't had that since I quit smoking 2.5 years ago.

 

First food back was paleo pumpkin pancakes from detoxinista (mentioned in my first post).  I will be hyper-aware of how much syrup I put on top.  Today was about 1 teaspoon for each of the three pancakes.  This last week I added more fruit back in which has made my weight loss stop but my fatigue subside.  I will continue to play around with amounts.  Tuesday (day after Labor Day) marks the beginning of the Fall session at the Y and I will go back to two H.I.I.T. workouts each week.  I'm thinking that will help me start to shed pounds again.

 

My running is progressing.  I really do like the new endurance-workout energy from burning fat instead of relying on carbs.  I still don't have much in the tank when running up hills but am fine now walking them (my daily hikes have some serious hills).  This summer I participated in a weekly summer 5K series and the last one was last Wednesday (I course PRd) so I have a good barometer as to running improvement.  Now I'm thinking about slowly adding distance.

 

I consider my Whole30 experience a great success!  I look better, I feel better and I am performing better during my workouts.  Since I realize I am off dairy for good, I see no reason to not start another Whole30 and include sleep into my focus.  My right arm is still giving me fits...the tennis elbow pain is causing muscle spasms up & down the arm.  Sitting for hours late at night on the computer MUST. STOP. NOW.  Last night I took a melatonin at 9:30pm but the pain woke me up so I took an advil too.  Slept 9.5 hours.  I am anxious to see who I am after a month of sleep.  I haven't had normal sleep since the 90s.