Embarking on my maiden whole30 journey! (Any advice?)

[An_marcach]

Hi all!

I spent the last week reading "It Starts With Food" and am hands-down ready to embark on this journey. But I am incredibly nervous, and would love any suggestions for success, stories, tips, or anything!

As an intro, I'm a 25 year old female. I work in construction and am relatively active; my job requires lots of walking, climbing, pushing, pulling, climbing, lifting, carrying, did I mention lots of climbing? As well as that, I and my dear best dogfriend go hiking multiple times a week, I ride horses once a week (hopefully more as I may start leasing - fingers crossed!), do daily yoga, and from time to time I go jogging.

I don't suffer from any health complications *that I'm aware of.* (ie no allergies, aches, pains, illnesses, etc). All things considered, I'm in decent health...

But my diet needs serious work before that good health gets worse.

Somehow, within the last few months, I've fallen into a typical sugar-madness-bad-cycle. Over the last few weeks in particular it has grown worse and worse, I have caught myself in uncontrollable sugar-driven binges, and I hate even admitting it; I knew it was a problem when I realised I was hiding my consumption of these things from my family. I feel sick to my stomach when I think about it, I am ashamed of myself, and I am terrified of what will happen if I continue this way. Tonight was a breaking point for me; after a binge and a good cry, I gave all of the sweets and trigger foods (ice cream, chocolate, and almond butter) to my brother and decided I was going to put my foot down.

So tonight, armed with a list of foods and a rough meal plan for the week, I am headed to the shop to restock the kitchen, and tomorrow I am planning on taking the plunge into my first whole30.

But I can't say I'm not nervous. Very nervous.

I realise my binges are not only fuelled by the terrible cycle that I've started within my body, but also by anxiety. I'm going to do my best to make sure that I find other ways to aleviate those situations that aren't food driven (such as taking the dog for a walk, going on a cycle, or doing something productive that is also pleasurable.)

So hello and here I am! For those of you who had your own sugar dragons to slay (surely, I am not alone in this), how did you do it? How did you cope with cravings through the first while? How did you ignore them, and what did you do to aleviate any stress or anxiety that caused or resulted from them?

Also, if anyone else is planning on starting tomorrow, or if there's a thread for a sept 8 start that I've overlooked, give a shout!

[wheresanita]

Planning, preparation and variety!! Cook a bunch of stuff in advance for quick and easy meals, check out the recipe thread and try out new fun stuff. If all you plan for and prepare are baked chicken breasts the boredom monster and the sugar dragon will conspire against you! Have a great 30 days...

[jmh]

Did not know if you checked out the day to day timeline http://whole9life.com/2013/01/whole30-timeline/ it helps to understand what you will be going through. For me the first 8 days were the hardest. Once I got past the 8 days it was sooo much better. I totally agree with the fact that planning is really important. Cook some stuff ahead and try to have some sweet potatoes, HB eggs and some other stuff on hand for quick meals. The worst time for me was at night. I am a big night snacker:) It helped me to drink tea at night just for something to kind of look forward to. Sweet potatoes, avocado and spaghetti squash really helped filled me up. Make sure to follow the meal template and to get enough fat so you will feel full also. Those are just some of the things that helped me. I am excited for you!! It totally changed my life and the way I look at food. Good luck!

 

Also just to let you know if you do like tea make sure to look out for soy. Could not believe they put soy in so many teas. Also make sure you read labels. There are things in food you would never expect to be there.

[Trineoty]

I struggled with sugar addiction for most of my life. It is something you will always struggle with because it is like any addiction.....it is an addiction. An addiction works on us mentally, physically, and emotionally.

For one, maybe you are too active. At one time I was extremely active.....rode my bike 150 to 200 miles/week, ran 25 miles a week, strength trained, yoga (power yoga), martial arts twice a week, on top of a very active job as an ICU nurse where I would be on my feet for 12 hours a day. I was as addicted to activity as I was to sugar. But the constant activity makes you crave the sugar because your cells are calling for glucose.

To slay my sugar dragon, I had to scale back my activity level. As Primal Blueprint author, Mark Sisson, says: "It is an experiment of one." Basically you have to figure out what is right for you based on trial and error. I still run, I still cycle, but in moderation. I focus mostly on strength training. I am still very active in my daily life. I keep all sugar out of my house. Anything the kids bring in that will tempt me, I tell them either hide it or it goes in the trash. I fuel with the butternut squash recipe in ISWF, sweet potatoes, and as JMH posted, make sure you eat plenty of fat. I was at one time low fat queen of the universe. But low fat = constant carb craving.

I began this Paleo journey almost 3 years ago. I struggled with sugar addiction most of my 46 years. It was not until I went Paleo that I was able to kick my addiction to the curb. BUT, it has been a journey, I have fallen off the wagon, but I always get right back on because when I am 100% compliant is when I feel and look my best.

I wish you luck! I think you can do this!

[An_marcach]

Thanks so much for the encouraging words everyone. I'm going to sit down today and plan out recipes for the week - which can be very tricky when I live with my parents. I expect that they will be understanding, and I'm lucky that neither one of them is terribly set in their ways and tend to be pretty open to trying new things, especially mam. But they don't tend to eat until around 8 at night, which has always been an issue with me because I'm hungry by 5 and ask myself "do I eat my own meal and disregard whatever they're cooking and just have something small, or do I wait to eat that freshly grilled salmon at 8pm?" and of course when I just have something small it actually becomes about 8 somethings small and then I don't end up eating the dinner anyway! So planning the week it shall be.

 

I bought a wee cooking pumpkin for 50 cent yesterday, and I'm thinking pumpkin and grassfed beef chili sounds like a pretty fantastic first week autumnal recipe.

 

As far as activity level, I don't mind cutting back a bit if I feel like I need to. I've read some of Mark Sisson's stuff as well, and if I have to cut anything back it would be the running as I much prefer the frequent lower level and relaxing hiking with my dog, and the horse riding (which isn't always low level by any means, but is extremely cathartic for my overall sanity =] ) to it any day.