Am I eating too much?

[CarolinaVol]

I started my first Whole30 yesterday, and I am really excited. But I am worried I might be eating TOO much. I've always depended on the scale to help me regulate my eating, but with the Whole30 rules, I can't do that anymore. After my first day yesterday, I was feeling stuffed and like I ate A LOT. I know that may just because I'm not used to eating lots of veggies, which can give you the feeling of being full, but I'd just like a little help/guidance to make sure I'm doing this right (also for reference, I am a 5' 8 female, 137lbs, workout pretty regularly with crossfit and other cardio). This is what I ate yesterday:

 

Handful of cashews before crossfit

 

2 eggs, splash of almond milk scrambled with spinach, red pepper and onion (used coconut oil to sautee veggies). Hand full of blueberries and raspberries

 

Baked chicken breast, onions, red peppers, small handful of cashews, half an avocado over a bed of spinach with homemade balsamic vinaigrette. Half an apple.

 

Salmon filet rubbed with olive oil and spices, mashed cauliflower (about 1-2tbs of coconut oil in the whole batch, but I have leftovers), a lot of roasted brussel sprouts (4tbs of olive oil for 1lb of Brussels, I probably ate half of them)

 

Am I doing this right???

[jent103]

Looks pretty good to me, though you could probably use more protein at breakfast. A serving of eggs is as many as you can hold in your hand - I'm a little shorter than you (with tiny hands ), and if eggs are my only protein, I eat at least three. You don't list quantities for the vegetables - make sure it's between 1-3 cups at every meal. Two questions though:

 

- Is your almond milk compliant? A lot of them have sweeteners or carrageenan, which is a no-no.

- Are you planning to include post-workout meals? Crossfit is so intense that that's probably a good idea. I'm not an expert, but there are lots of threads here about post-workout nutrition.

 

For the first week or two, keep it up and trust the meal template. At first it's hard to trust the full/not full signals because a) you're not used to trusting your body for that, you're used to the scale, and this is a huge change and your body is all "what's going on?!" Eventually, your body will start to adjust and tell you when you're satisfied and when you need more. Which is pretty awesome.

[CarolinaVol]

Thanks for the reply! The reassurance that I am not just totally gorging myself is helpful...because that's kind of what it feels like right now  

 

I did double and triple check to make sure that my almond milk was compliant (I checked the ingredients and then I checked info on the "can I have" forum just in case there was something I missed)

 

I definitely got 2-3 cups of veggies for lunch and dinner...I may have gotten a cup for breakfast, but I can work on increasing that amount. The whole eating veggies at breakfast thing is new to me but I'm working on it!

 

I don't have a post-workout meal after Crossfit because I do it at 8AM, so I just eat breakfast when I get home. That's been fine yesterday and today...so I think I'll stick with that if that's ok? Crossfit doesn't make me as hungry as a pure cardio workout (like running or doing the elliptical), so I may include a post-workout meal after those activities.

 

I will say that I did not expect anyone to tell me I should be eating more! Yikes! Is it normal to feel this stuffed on the first couple of days???

[mercuryhime]

Are you used to eating this much protein?  When I started, I was used to eating animal protein maybe 2 times a week.  At first, I felt a constant weight in my stomach and I'd feel so full it would almost hurt.  Towards the beginning of the third week, my stomach figured it out and I felt amazing.  So it might be a matter of getting used to this type of diet.

 

Good luck!

[jent103]

Re: veggies at breakfast - it's new to a lot of people! I have kale salad pretty much every morning. Weird at first but now I love it.

 

Re: post-workout meals - the idea is that you need some lean protein, at minimum (+maybe some starchy vegetable), FAST so that your body can replenish and recover faster. It's the only "meal" that should be very low in fat, because fat slows digestion and your muscles need that protein stat to get the max benefit. A lot of people take some chicken breast slices and sweet potato, or something like that, to eat immediately after a workout (within 30 minutes) - not a ton, just a bit. Then later you could have your "real" breakfast, fat included. When I was doing a boot camp in the mornings, I'd have a little protein waiting for me in the car and ate it on the drive home, then showered, etc and ate breakfast right before I left for work.

 

One more egg isn't THAT much more - but yes, people have all kinds of different responses to eating this way. Personally I was ravenous my entire first week, which probably speaks to how many grains I was eating beforehand. Everybody's body is different!

[Carlaccini]

Also as a side note - Go easy on the nuts.  They go down well the first week - I know - but they cause a lot of bloating and discomfort for many.

 

I worked my way up from 2 eggs to 3 eggs.  2 eggs + a half of a sweet potato used to fill me up pretty good for breakfast.  Now?  I will be hungry by 11 am. I am 5'9" myself but quite significantly heavier than you so I was chronically undereating in order to lose weight.  Little did I know that I was going about it all wrong. 

[Tom Denham]

You've gotten a lot of good advice here. Yay participants!

 

Here is a link to the meal template: http://whole9life.com/book/ISWF-Meal-Planning-Template.pdf You really can't go wrong eating according to this plan.