The Reappearing Act

[CrunchyLutheranMommy]

Hello!  Some of you may remember me from umm... months ago.  I did my first Whole30 back in January LOVED it, had amazing results and subsequently... fell off the wagon... badly.  Ahem...

 

I told myself I didn't have the time or the flexibility to do a proper reintro and so I failed big time.  Ugh... we have been going back to just what we were doing before and it's awful.  I feel awful.  I have no energy.  Food doesn't even taste good!  I'm just so sick of doing the same things because they're convenient and easy and I'm too busy to take care of myself.

 

Yikes!! Lies just lazy lies.  So yeah, I'm done and I'm doing myself a favor this Mother's Day and purging my kitchen again! This will be an interesting log because we are in the middle of an adoption and we will be traveling to Eastern Europe probably before this Whole30 is over!  But I don't care.  This is way over due and I am starting Monday, no more excuses.

Fun times, feel free to join in if you like!  The more the merrier I always say. 

[CrunchyLutheranMommy]

Officially started today!!  Feeling Awesome!

 

Breakfast: 3 eggs scrambled with peppers and tomato.  A carrot and some walnuts on the side.

 

Lunch: A big salad with homemade ranch (YUM!! I missed that stuff....) and boiled eggs on top.

 

Dinner: Going to make some grassfed ground beef with onions, tomatoes, summer squash and whatever other veggies decide to jump in the pan.  Might enjoy cucumber and some olives on the side.

[CrunchyLutheranMommy]

Ok, being totally transparent here.  I am right now (at 9 o'clock at night) eating a mini-meal.  I know I shouldn't eat this late, but I missed my mini-meal earlier (shame on me) and I totally need the extra calories with nursing!  Besides it will probably still be two hours before I get to bed.  Note to self... eat during the day and stop trying to convince yourself you only need three meals.

I am having some more walnuts (for shame! twice in one day... well if I eat them they'll be gone right?)  A carrot with a bit of ranch and leftover beef hash deliciousness from dinner.

[Physibeth]

Welcome back! I also started my 2nd Whole30 yesterday so we can keep each other company. No shame in eating a mini meal when you need it. If you check out my recap for the day you'll see I ate my meal 3 at 9pm because it was the only way my schedule would work today. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good. Yes there are ideal timings and portions and you should work towards that but sometime life happens and we have to handle it. 

[CrunchyLutheranMommy]

Thanks for the encouragement!  That does help me feel better

 

Day 2 Food Log!

 

I am feeling GREAT.  This is so much better than the Day 2 from my first Whole 30.  Even though I was eating pretty poorly, I do think that only having a couple of months for all the junk to build up in my system (versus years) is making this a smoother process.  Also, it is much easier mentally.  This last two months have shown me more than anything that I absolutely do not enjoy eating garbage, it doesn't make me feel better and it doesn't even really taste that good.

 

Except for a brief ten minutes yesterday evening I haven't been even craving sweets or junk at all.  I am still trying to find my fruit/starch/meal balance though.  Had a bit of a bout with low blood sugar this morning, but I'll up my starchy veggies and that should take care of it!  Also, we now know when we're traveling to Eastern Europe, it will be on Memorial Day!!  So I am going to go stalk the travelling part of the forum and see what I can glean from there.

 

Breakfast: Hash with compliant turkey sausage, radishes (from the garden!), onion and apple
Lunch: Salad again (lots of lettuce coming in right now) with ranch for the fat and boiled eggs for the protein
Dinner: I have a chicken on the stove for dinner tonight and stock for the rest of the week!  Going to serve that with sweet potatoes for the vegetable, and a generous helping of coconut oil to go with them.  Mmmmmmm......

[CrunchyLutheranMommy]

Anyone notice what was missing from my lunch?  I knew I was missing something! LOL  I logged my meals and still missed something.

 

I had no fruit or starchy veg in my lunch.  So now, right on cue, my blood sugar decided to take another nosedive.  I caught it quick enough though that I didn't even need to lay down, which was nice.  I opted for a second mini meal (I also had one in between breakfast and lunch with leftovers).  So even though I was not hungry I finished off the salad from lunch with one boiled egg and a handful of grapes.

I probably just could have eaten the grapes by themselves for this purpose... but oh well.  Now I certainly won't want to be eating anything until dinner time!  So full, haha....  Bonus though cause I did learn some things from this incident:

 

1.  I seriously can NOT skip my carbs while nursing. I need to be more careful about that.
2.  I do not need five meals a day.  During my first Whole30 I started off with that, but by the end I was doing well with four meals.  So that is settled!

3.  I am much more in tune with my body than I used to be.  My hunger/thirst/blood sugar signals used to be all jumbled but now I can tell them apart!

4.  If it happens again, next time opt for just the fruit... it's ok.  Really.

[Physibeth]

Actually I would not advice just eating fruit by itself even for a blood sugar drop because it enforces your bodies need for that quick sugar. I think what you did opt for was just fine though. How many eggs did you have with your 2nd meal? Yes you do need to keep your carbs up while nursing as you well know but stabilizing blood sugar throughout the day has much more to do with your protein and fat intake from what I've read and personally experienced. Shredded beets or carrots would make a nice addition to that already lovely salad though.

[CrunchyLutheranMommy]

In my first Whole30 I did just an apple, sometimes half a glass of juice, for my blood sugar drops.  I actually saw that advised in other threads!  It worked more efficiently and after the first week I didn't need it anymore at all.  I only had two eggs at lunchtime, which probably isn't quite enough but I was so full that I thought it'd be ok.  I did do shredded carrot on my salad, very yummy, but one carrot isn't quite enough starch I don't think.  I know I've been eating plenty of fat, I could probably always use more protein, I usually go on the light side there just because it's cheaper.      But the carbs are definitely what seems to regulate my blood sugar.  In my first Whole30 I did a couple days of LOTS of protein and fats and it didn't help at all until I started eating carbs with each meal.  Maybe it's a combination of both...

[Physibeth]

 Maybe it's a combination of both...

 

I would guess this is probably true. Keep playing with the portions and you will find it.

[CrunchyLutheranMommy]

Yesterday was wonderful.  I had no low blood sugar issues at all!  I am not really having cravings, unless I'm around bad things and then I, of course, want them.  Feeling really great!  Probably had a little too much fruit yesterday, I need to go get some more sweet potatoes and carrots to remedy that.

 

Day 3: Food Log

Breakfast: Egg, sausage, veggie mix with olives and strawberries on the side
Lunch: Salad with chicken and eggs, extra carrots for carbs

Mini-Meal: Chicken, walnuts and dried fruit (I know!!  I shouldn't have... so maybe I'm craving a little bit of sweet....)

Dinner: Roasted Tilapia with a cauliflower and asparagus "risotto" and cinnamon apple slices

I also had a cup of sweet n' spicy tea with coconut milk later in the evening.

[Guest Andria]

Just reading your log. Good on you for realizing eating poorly is not worth it(taste, convenience whatever it may be). I still find I can't get it through MY head and will STILL occasionally chose the M&M's or pizza when stressed.  Then when finished, I feel terrible and realize it didn't even taste good. 

 

BTW, what brand is that sweet & spicy tea? 

[CrunchyLutheranMommy]

Thanks Andria!! Let's just hope it doesn't take me a dozen resets to ACTUALLY remember what I've learned.    My favorite is the Good Earth, but Bengal Spice from Celestial Seasonings also does the trick if I can't find it.

[CrunchyLutheranMommy]

Victory of victories!!! So we went out for errands today, and we we came back home for lunch.  But Jake ran into a snaffu while me and the little guy were grocery shopping.  We waited like twenty minutes at the front of the store for him to come pick us up. Lol!  He was antsy and I was starving, so I share a banana with him.  (It was either that or a Lara Bar, I thought banana would be more acceptable?)  I only had three bites and he ate the rest, it was just enough to get me through until we could go eat.

Well.... I am super happy to report that I had no adverse side effects!!  Before my first Whole30 I couldn't eat bananas due to a sensitivity.  They always made me so sick, even a teeny bite.  I could get away with banana bread, or cooked banana with other foods alongside it, but not raw!  Three bites of raw banana on a totally empty stomach and I felt just fine.  I was SO EXCITED!!  I knew my first Whole30 had helped, and I'm really glad my sensitivity didn't return after two months of terrible eating.  Even more motivated to continue!

Day 4: Food Log

Breakfast: Eggs and raw veggies with ranch dip
Lunch: Chicken, leftover asparagus "risotto", walnuts and apple slices
Mini-meal: I will have a boiled egg and some carrot sticks if I need it, late lunch today so I might be ok
Dinner: Going to cook up a delicious taco salad!

[Noelle]

It's good to see you back at it! I too have had to come to terms with the fact that I cannot be a 3-meals-no-snacks person while nursing. Some days I don't feel the need for extra food, but that's the exception. Even with lots of fat and protein and starchy vegetables, I need an afternoon mini-meal most days.

 

How great about your banana sensitivity! Those small victories can feel so huge when we actually get to notice them. 

[CrunchyLutheranMommy]

Is it really Day 5 already?!  Wow!!  This is not at all slugging by like our last one did.  Maybe because we have so much going on, but I'm feeling great still!  Maybe I can avoid KATT this time   I already got gluten free meals for our flight, hopefully that means there will be something on the tray I can eat.  And next week I'm taking a day to make 50-60 healthy meals for when we come home so that we don't fall back into our old routines again!  

 

Feeling pretty good about it all. I have been really resisting the urge to eat nuts or dried fruit with my mini meals the last two days.  It's been a little victory for  me, as I know those can be trouble if I let them.  I also know I will get to have plenty of that when we're travelling in a week, so I absolutely don't need it now!  I do have to say though, I think I'm going through the bloating phase of my Whole30 this time around. Totally not fun, lol.  Oh well!  This too shall pass.

 

Also, something really strange, at breakfast I got full really quickly and couldn't finish my plate.  That's why two mini-meals today, I basically ate the rest of my breakfast a couple hours later when I was hungry again.  I was full sooner than I expected at lunch too.  Just now eating my second mini-meal so fingers crossed that the banana goes well today too!

 

Day 5: Food Log

 

Breakfast: Sausage & egg scramble; raw veggies and dip

Mini-Meal: Breakfast leftovers
Lunch: 2 Boiled Eggs, mashed sweet potatoes with coconut oil
Mini-Meal: Lunch leftovers, a few walnuts and half a banana
Dinner: Grilled pork chops & broccoli 

UPDATE: Moving my banana to dinner because that makes so much more sense! Lol

[CrunchyLutheranMommy]

Well... it's not gonna be a real Whole30, but I was more or less planning on that from the beginning.  I thought I'd get two solid weeks in before we were in a pinch though.  This is the last week we'll be available for anything for months (when we get back home with the kids we'll be doing some serious cocooning at home), so we were invited to dinner on Wednesday by our godchildren's parents.  Can't refuse the invitation and I'm not going to be rude by not eating

Today is a dinner benefit at church and I was planning on sneaking home for dinner, but we have to buy the tickets so now I'm wondering if I should just eat dinner there since Wednesday is not going to be clean either.  Sigh... feeling discouraged, but trying to look at all the bright sides!  We don't have to just destroy our diet because of two "non-compliant meals" this second Whole30 is for us to get back on track and it's definitely doing that.  I'm going to keep my goals in focus and not fall into the "Well if I can't stay totally compliant I'm just going to go eat a box of cookies" trap.  Wish me luck.  I'll post my meal log tonight... I know the suspense is killing you, right? 

[Physibeth]

This kind of brings us back to the conversation you and I had at the end of your previous Whole30 about finding the bridge between social eating manners/rules and your health convictions. This is only something you can really gauge and as it is not your first rodeo I'm a little less concerned, but I would definitely encourage you to eventually get a complete Whole30 and a proper reintroduction phase in one of these rounds so that you can figure out how to properly navigate all your social eating obligations while not feeling like crap afterwards. My advice would be to keep Whole30ing it and do the best you can at both of those obligations. Even offer to bring something to share to your friend's house. Maybe what you end up doing is a series of short whole somethings before you get a full 30 in but just keep resetting that clock until you can do it because we both know you can! And that attitude of not falling into the "well screw it" trap is a good one. That is how we eventually want to learn to live. Being able to indulge from time to time without falling off the wagon and face first into a box of cookies.

[CrunchyLutheranMommy]

Ugh yeah... and it just seems like we have a lot of social obligations.  So oh well.  I am planning on getting a real Whole30 + Reintro in before the year is over.  And, again, I kind of knew this one wasn't going to be it with the 6 week international trip happening, but I was so tired of the "If I can't be compliant 100% of the time I'm not going to take the effort to eat well any of the time" mindset that I decided to just go for it now and do as best I could.  If nothing else, the mental reset has been great, and logging is keeping me accountable to eating as well as I possibly can.  So we'll just keep going!

[Physibeth]

Ugh yeah... and it just seems like we have a lot of social obligations.  So oh well.  I am planning on getting a real Whole30 + Reintro in before the year is over.  And, again, I kind of knew this one wasn't going to be it with the 6 week international trip happening, but I was so tired of the "If I can't be compliant 100% of the time I'm not going to take the effort to eat well any of the time" mindset that I decided to just go for it now and do as best I could.  If nothing else, the mental reset has been great, and logging is keeping me accountable to eating as well as I possibly can.  So we'll just keep going!

 

I think this is all great! If you want to keep logging in this log just don't record your non-compliant meals and start your counts over. I'm guessing if you keep doing that for a while you will eventually hit a full 30 days and recording in this log vs post-W30 will probably keep you more accountable to stick to it in between transgressions. 

[CrunchyLutheranMommy]

That's kind of a neat idea!  I hadn't thought of doing an intentional restart each time.  Although if I know I'm not going to be trying for 30 days on our trip I'm not sure how motivated I will be to keep logging while over there, lol 

[CrunchyLutheranMommy]

Ok here's what I think I'm going to do.  I'll do an intentional restart every time there is a non-compliant day, and eventually I'll get to 30!  Haha... maybe not any time soon, but eventually.  I'll log at least until we are home with the kiddos, because my main goal with doing this now was to not go off the rails in all the craziness.  With my big meal freezer day we should be good on healthy meals for at least a month, and once those run out I'll perhaps gear up for a real Whole30 + Reintro.  I'm not going to be perfect, but I'll set a few goals for myself (including eventually getting to 30 whole days.)

 

Goal 1: 3-1 Compliance Ratio

 

For each non-compliant day I have I will have 3 consecutive compliant days.  So, for example, if I have two non-compliant days I will follow it with six compliant days.  If I have three bad days I'll follow it with nine clean days, etc...

Goal 2: Limit One Non-Compliant Meal

 

I know that I'll be getting into tough spots, but honestly, I think I can eat compliant almost all the time.  If I get into a pinch that should really only effect one of my meals.  Not going off the rails, so if I get off track, I'll stay clean for the remainder of the day.  Or if it's a planned non-compliant meal, I will be sure to do extra prep so that the rest of my surrounding meals are totally clean.

 

Goal 3: No Falling into a Box of Donuts

 

I know myself, and if I allow myself a non-compliant meal without actually thinking it out - it will be ugly.  Enough said!  So I'm also limiting myself to two non-compliant dishes per meal.  That way if I have to eat a sandwich for lunch I don't also drink the soda and eat the cookies and the chips.... 

[CrunchyLutheranMommy]

Ugh this is so hard I'm about ready to give up... lol.  It's not hard eating good food.  I'm really enjoying that.  It's just with everything going on and all the non-compliant things in my house that I'm tempted to eat before we leave and have to throw it all away... umm... yeah.  I guess I just feel like 100% compliance is not my friend at the moment.  It just feels useless, cause I know I can't do it the "right way" so I just don't want to track it at all.  Feeling discouraged....

 

Day 1 Log Again...

 

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, carrots and ranch
Lunch: 2 Boiled eggs and a Larabar (it was crazy hectic today so I was glad I had it on hand, although I didn't enjoy it, seemed too sweet...)
Dinner: Steak, salad, mixed veggies, cantaloupe and a handful of nuts