Day 11

[connie_m]

So I'm on day 11 of my Whole30, well, kind of.   I'm doing Whole30 with a group of friends who started on October 1st, and I really started a week before that in terms of foods.   I was reading the book that week and didn't really have the meal timing down that first week, but everything I ate was compliant.   So I'm either on day 11 or day 18 of a Whole37.     I had the occasional temptation to say, oh, not starting until next week so I should have one last... whatever, but didn't.

 

This hasn't been a huge change for me in terms of what I'm eating.   I started this year off in January doing the 4 hour body diet, which was no sugar (even no fruit), no gluten, but still included beans.    And that was really helpful for me - I lost about 10 pounds and felt great being off the sugar.   That diet allows for cheat days, but after about 3 of them I decided that I didn't want anything other than fruit on my cheat day because everything else made me feel like crap.  After a couple months - sometime in March, I noticed that my knees felt fantastic.   I've had 5 knee surgeries and have a lot of arthritis in both knees and my doctors have always said that the pain and swelling is just going to be an issue for me until I'm old enough to have my knees replaced.   Take anti-inflammatories or deal with it.   But they felt unusually great.   And then one day I was out with my husband and decided to have a beer with dinner.   Boom - knees swelled up (visibly) and hurt for 3 or 4 days.   Ugh.    First time I thought oh, that was random.   Second time it occurred to me that it's the most visible symptom I get of gluten intolerance.   My doctors never suggested that most of the inflammation I was dealing with could be due to my diet...

 

Anyway, after that I went to a more holistic doctor and started doing an anti-inflammatory diet starting in late spring.   Basically, no sugar, no gluten, no dairy, no eggs, no red meat other than lamb, no seafood other than fish, no white potatoes or rice, no vegetable oils, just coconut and olive oil and avocados, etc..    We did blood/urine/stool tests and after a month or so gradually started adding things back in.   I discovered that quinoa bothers me - go figure.   I'm okay with goat/sheep cheese, but not most other dairy products.    I lost another 15 or so pounds on this, and the more remarkable thing is that the inflammation factors in my blood went from dangerously high to right on the upper end of ideal.   My cholesterol dropped 35 points (34 of which was LDL).    I'd added back in things like rice and potatoes in very small quantities, but prefer not to eat them.   I was also allowed to add back in things like honey and molasses, but found (and I knew this from past experience) that I don't do well with trying to eat sugar in moderation.   I'd have a tsp of honey and all I could think about all day long was "can I have another yet?"    And then one stressful day at work I pulled the honey jar out of the office kitchen and ate like half of it over the course of the day and felt like absolute crap afterwards.   And then I decided I needed to take the sugar back out of my diet altogether.   I also was allowed to add alcohol back into my diet and I'd had a couple glasses of wine over the course of a month or two, but realized that it doesn't really make me feel good.   And to be honest, I've become more addicted to feeling good than I was to sugar, wine, or anything else that I might miss.

 

Anyway, a month or so ago a friend suggested we all do a Whole30 together as a group and I joined.   Figured it would be a good way to keep myself accountable with getting rid of sugar and alcohol from my diet.    Not that I was eating a ton before - talking a drink every other week and generally not more than a spoonful of honey a day.   And occasional chickpeas and lentils, and maybe an ounce or two of goat cheese a week.

 

Honestly, I didn't expect to see much difference.   Those are pretty small changes.    The biggest change for me is to quit snacking.   I'm a snack-aholic...   Granted, this year, where I've lost a total of 37 pounds now, I've had great success because my snacks are very healthy.   I'm generally snacking mindlessly on raw green beans...   But, after reading the book I figured I would give it a shot to get back to actual meals with no snacking - I do get hypoglycemic and the snacking probably isn't helping with that.   So I'm eating my meals at work in our break room/kitchen.   Hahaha, which is funny because it's a room filled with dunkin donuts, candy, popcorn, home baked items, etc.   But I go on and clear the donuts out of the way to eat at the table and eat actual meals and then go back to my desk.   It's easier than I thought it would be.   And I've lost another 3.4 pounds in the past 11 days.

 

I am still logging what I eat, though I don't stick to any set number of calories.   I just like having a record of what I ate, how I felt, what I did for exercise and what happened with my body composition over time.    It's been really useful in figuring out what foods are affecting me in ways I never expected.   Haha, I know I wasn't supposed to weigh in either, but everything was fitting loose and i couldn't resist...

 

Anyway, that's about it.   I've been exercising (running and doing yoga) and feeling great this whole time so far.   I had a day or two of cravings for sugar, but having been through sugar detox a number of times already, I knew it would go away and that made it easy to deal with.   My bigger cravings are emotional/habitual.   I drove up to an area for work and passed a few shops or restaurants where I used to get snacks and kept going but the cravings were there despite not being hungry, or even wanting anything in particular.   Just habit.   And that "I've been driving for X hours and deserve...." - silly.   What does that have to do with anything anyway??    

 

And the only thing I really want to add back in after Whole30 right now are chickpeas and occasional goat cheese.   That's about it.

[connie_m]

Also wanted to add that I'm pretty excited that eating healthy and feeling amazing has become part of my life this year.   I'm turning 40 in a couple months and it's kind of nice to do that at my lowest adult weight, with better cholesterol levels than I had when I was in my early 20's, feeling like I'm in better shape than ever before.    And this forum/community is really helpful - it's nice to have so many resources for recipes and support.  

[The Original Geek]

Hi Connie.

 

Nice to see another fellow 4HB doer in here. Came from Tim's 'school' myself and recognize the mindset. After a few "cheat days" we (me and my wife) started doing cheatmeals rather than whole days. The move from 4HB to Whole30 isn't hard - in our opinion at least - we are winenerds (not snobs though) so we have to 'clean' on that for 30 days but otherwise we've been mostly Paleo the last 6 months - we quit using beans & lentils then, felt it wasn't needed anymore.

 

We are on day 13 right now and I feel... different