Anakei does Whole30!

[Anakei]

I am on Day 7 and I'm starting this late because I don't have enough motivation at the end of a long day to sit at my lap top and type.  Today i got home at a reasonable time and had a nap so I feel able to share.

 

My motivation to do the whole30 is twofold,  1, to really take control of my eating and 2, I want to stop taking antibiotics every day for my rosacea flare ups so I am hoping being dairy free will help.

Also I hare a bit of baby weight to lose - my baby turned 21 last week!

 

I am in a fast moving high stress job which means I am up at 5 am to get to work at 6 am.  I often don't finish work until 4 or 5 pm and then its shopping, home, cook a meal, do the washing and into bed by 9 - absolutely knackered. 

 

I started Atkins about 3 years ago and then morphed into paleo after stumbling across Marks Daily Apple.

I feel really annoyed at all my wasted years joining weight watchers over and over again ( the definition of insanity!) and never keeping the weight off, Atkins was a huge improvement but I was still looking for something that fitted with my more organic whole food approach.  Paleo was it!

I am 80/20 paleo with dairy being the majority of the 20% , and living with a non compliant family means I often have access to chocolate and chippies which are my biggest weaknesses.

 

Any way so far I have been on plan

 

meals are typically

M1 2 egg omelette with spinach

2 coffees in the morning with coconut milk.  drinks through out the day are green and jasmine teas.

M2 chicken thigh with home made coleslaw with homemade mayo

m3  Homemade chilli con carne, no kidney beans, on a bed of green vegetables.

Fruit  this week strawberries and melon

 

So far I have stuck to plan with  1 exception - I keep weighing myself. I know - still a cheat!! But I have lost over a kilo. 

I am just going to make a curry to put in the crock pot tomorrow morning so that will be dinner sorted tomorrow.

 

I'll check in again soon

[Nancy C]

Hi, Anakei! It sounds like you're doing great.

 

I'm curious about your rosacea treatment. Are you just taking antibiotics or do you use a cream? My doctor had me on permanent antibiotics a while back, but it made me uncomfortable because of the effect they have on gut flora. My doctor said there was no harm but I didn't buy it so I stopped taking them and just use cream twice day. I'm hoping this Whole 30 will result in some reduced inflammation as I have RA too but it's too early to tell. I'm only six days in.

[Anakei]

Hi Nancy

I only take antibiotics.  I tried the creams but nothing worked, and the gel one was drying my skin up without having any effect on the spots.  I have a little flushing and a few broken veins but mainly papular pustular.  I am also concerned about the effect of the antibiotics on gut flora so I do take probiotics and I haven't had any ill effects so far, but I still don't want to take them indefinitely. 

 

Today is day 11 and I stopped taking the antibiotics today so I am hoping there won't be a flare up. fingers crossed.

 

So far I have had no major problems. Being mainly paleo to start with means I have not had any withdrawal symptoms or cravings, though I have lost a little weight. My jeans have loosened up.  I am waiting for the other benefits to kick in because I could certainly

do with better sleepand more energy.  Here's hoping !

[Anakei]

Well, Its day 16 and no slip ups.

 

I haven't felt any outstanding effects - no burst of energy, no super sleep through the night, no clear headedness, in fact no changes at all to the usual way I feel.

I have been paleo with dairy for about 3 years so presumably I have already felt the major benefits.  I had hoped giving up dairy would give an extra boost but evidently not. 

I do feel disappointed but I will continue to the end - it may just be later kicking in.  Or there may be bigger issues in my life that need sorting out - the high stress job for a start.

On the positive side my jeans are still loose and there has been no rosacea breakout so far.

 

Menu for the day

breakfast 2 egg omelette with Kale

Mid morning coffee with coconut cream

Lunch leftovers from previous nights dinner - ratatouille with 2 eggs (lots of eggs today!)

Dinner - slow cooked shoulder of lamb with green vegetables.  I cooked roast sweet potatoes for the boys and had 2 cubes of those as well.  

Afternoon snack handful of mixed nuts

 

Weather here incredibly hot and humid which may be contributing to my broken nights.  Off to bed now

[GFChris]

Hang in there - just crossed the half-way mark!  At the very least, it would be interesting to see what happens when you reintroduce dairy after you're done.
 

Meals look good.

Snacks, if needed, should be a mini-meal including a protein and fat. Nuts are a fat source on a Whole30, so just don't snack on nuts alone - add a protein.

[Anakei]

7.30 am Saturday Morning and just starting day 18. I am drinking jasmine tea and have eggs boiling on the stove, which I will eat hard boiled dipped in  home made mayonnaise. No greens till I go shopping. Then its off to my Tai Chi class. New Years Resolution #2 is to get through the entire set by myself at home.  At the moment I can only do it with other people around.

 

Its my birthday next week and the people in the office were joking about what to do for my cake this year.  Last year I had a selection of cheeses with a candle stuck in it! There were crackers as well for the rest of the office.  I broke it to them that I am off dairy for the moment so now they are completely stumped. Then they said "Well what DO you eat?" which let me use the line " I just eat real food" and gave a list. They lit on the fruit and nuts so It might be a packet of nuts this year! Though there was a suggestion that they get a cake anyway but I don't eat it. Thoughtful!

 

Looking around the office there are so many chronic health issues that would benefit from a Primal diet that I feel like a snake oil salesman when I suggest it could help you and you and you. They look at me like I'm mad and then say " I couldn't give up sugar in my coffee/bread/pasta/cakes etc

 

Female #1 middle aged, obese around 140kg, buys breakfast chocolate muffin and lunch soggy white sandwich  from the 7/11 on the way to work. Dinner with partner at Macdonalds or sometimes a steak down the pub

Female #2 young  has Crohnes disease - lots of time off

Female #3 young overweight especially round the middle - poly cystic ovarian syndrome tries to eat 'healthily' on  low fat diet but keeps falling of the wagon  

Female #4 young generally overweight eats a lot of sweets and energy drinks

Male #1& 2 middle aged married skinny fat with little paunches. Eat MacDonalds for lunch. High coffee intake

Male #3 young single skinny, lactose intolerant. Often complains of stomach  upsets so I suspect other intolerances as well. Lives off takeaways and energy drinks

Female #5 obese middle age, doesn't eat in front of other people.

3 other people normal weight no obvious health issues.

 

This is just in one area of the building! They all know what I eat and when  cakes or sweets are in the office they laugh and say Anakie doesn't  eat that crap. ( something I have said in the past and is now parroted back to me)

 

Still I can only set an example and a maybe one day I'll get a convert.

[Physibeth]

Looking around the office there are so many chronic health issues that would benefit from a Primal diet that I feel like a snake oil salesman when I suggest it could help you and you and you. They look at me like I'm mad and then say " I couldn't give up sugar in my coffee/bread/pasta/cakes etc

 

 

When people say this to me I usually say something along the lines of "Well you certainly COULD give up (insert what they complained about here) what you meant to say is you don't WANT to (or WON'T) give it up." Puts it into perspective. I also then tell them I used to feel the same way but I am so glad I came around.

 

Aside from that you are right, you can just be a good example. Nobody will change if they don't want to. I have a friend who gave me the "that's great for you but I can't" about a great deal of things she is happily doing now. 

[Anakei]

On Sunday I went to breakfast with some friends I haven't seen since before Christmas. They commented on how well I looked so perhaps there has been some results but I'm too close to see them. I had an omelette with avocado and spinach.

 

Another positive.  I stopped taking the daily antibiotic on day eleven and on day 20 MY SKIN IS STILL CLEAR!  

[Anakei]

well I've just ticked the box to say I've  completed day 25.  Today I had 2 boiled eggs for breakfast, sautéed greens and tuna for lunch and roast chicken, green beans  and pumpkin. But late as I was doing the washing up I ate about 4 handfuls of currants that were left in the pantry.  Although technically compliant this was definitely giving in to a sweet craving.But I didn't eat the chocolate that has been sitting on the table for 3 nights! 

[Anakei]

Today is Sunday and I have just been for a long walk, done some stretches and intervals ( a stately jog but it gets my heart rate up) and had 2 scrambled eggs, spinach and a whole avocado for breakfast, which I think ticks all the boxes for a post exercise meal.

As I was walking I was thinking about what I would add back to my diet

1. the big one - dairy.  I gave it up so that I could see if it influenced my rosacea and the answer is a resounding YES it DID! Since going dairy free I've been able to stop taking the daily antibiotic  and have had no flare ups, only a couple of random pimples which I can live with, nothing like the lumpy, red, whiteheaded mess I had before. I am going to post the results in the general forum as I think this may be of real interest to other rosacea sufferers

BUT I went to the dentist for a check up and teeth clean. He lambasted me for drinking black tea as the tea stains on my teeth were bad and hard to clean up.The cleaning was really painful and  my teeth have been so sensitive since cleaning that I don't want to go back and have it done again in a hurry!

SO first on the reintroduction list is milk in my tea ( it mitigates the acidity of the tea and reduces the potential to stain)

I'm going to drink tea with milk as my only dairy for a couple of weeks before adding another item, probably yoghurt, for a couple of weeks then butter and so on.  I think my 2 danger areas are kefir and hard cheese which I was eating in large quantities before the rosacea started, so I want to make sure all other dairy is ticked off before I get to the problem children.  Its going to be a long process though.

 

After that I think I will relax the rules on Soy sauce as long as it is the real fermented stuff, not the own brand coloured water. I can get coconut aminos here but it is full of sugar so its a choice between a traditionally fermented food or a ersatz version that has other additives. I'll go with the traditional version.  Likewise Lea and Perrins Worcestershire sauce (English version), which is made to a 150 year old recipe and fermented. My favourite curry paste has maize flour listed as an ingredient (disappointing as all the rest of the ingredients are compliant) but I will add that back in as the amounts are so small and I don't have an issue with gluten.

 I can't think of any thing else.  I have already given up legumes, vegetable oils, grains and processed foods so apart from the odd low carb beer and a bar of chocolate now and then I am pretty clean.