So this gets easier?

[monicav]

I mean, in some ways it's easy.  I'm a good cook and I can make decent meals.  And we've been eating plenty of fats and not hungry.  And I've been losing weight (I weighed myself).  I already turned down an invitation to come to a friends house tonight cause she wanted to grill and have cocktails (no, sparkling water with a strawberry is not a cocktail, it's a SWYPO cocktail.  actually it's not even that.  It's just water) And we have two birthday parties and a housewarming party to go to this month and I won't be able to eat anything except maybe nibble off the veggie platter.  And my husbands birthday we will probably just postpone.  Plus, yes I feel a little better.  Probably because I eat my weight in veggies each day.  But I'm so freaking sleepy in the morning I don't want to get out of bed.   19 days to go.  But then what?  I really don't see this as a long term way of life.  How do you do holidays and family gatherings and birthdays and events?  

[Tina R]

Congratulations on making it to day 19!. This is not a long term way of life, this is just a challenge for 30 days. Then you do your reintros to see what ingredients bother you. Then you decide how to ride your own bike for the rest of your life. http://forum.whole9life.com/forum/20-life-after-your-whole30/.  

 

For example what if when you ate gluten you had immediate stomach cramps and felt misserable for hours, you probably would avoid gluten when in public.  What if when you ate dairy you got gassy about 4 hours later, you might decide it's worth it for that icecream cone.

 

You said you were really sleepy, are you eating according to the meal planning template? http://whole30.com/downloads/whole30-meal-planning.pdf.    Are you eating starchy veggies like sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, etc.? Are you drinking 1/2 your weight in oz of water each day? That should help. You might want to post some of your meals so we can offer suggestions. Most people do not eat enough on their whole30. I hope you feel better soon.   

[GFChris]

It does get better for many.

First off, some tough love: please please please hide the scale for the rest of your Whole30.

If you post 2-3 days worth of your food log here, along with the amount of water you're drinking daily, your nightly hours of sleep and your exercise routine, folks here can give you feedback on possible tweaks on the energy front.

I did my Whole30 last year and was gluten-free for 6+ years before that.  My family and friends know I'm gluten-free, so that's not an issue. If I'm going to someone's house, it's now second nature for me to bring up the food stuff.

I'm militant about being off gluten, as it's totally not my friend - never worth it.  On my Whole30, I didn't have wine and did the soda water and lime thing: worked for me. Event/holidays: I now drink a lot less wine than I used to. If there's a really special/unique dairy or non-gluten grains at someone's house or out to a restaurant, then I might have it.  I keep my house free of gluten, soy, non-gluten grains, dairy and legumes.

[monicav]

I eat a ton.  I eat starchy veggies at every meal (I'm already sick of sweet potatoes and all squashes).  I'm breastfeeding a toddler too.  I eat fat at every meal and a ton of veggies.  

 

for breakfast today I had a plate of sauteed spinach, three eggs fried in coconut oil and half an avocado.

 

for lunch I had BLT lettuce cups with grilled chicken and avocado and half an english cucumber.  

 

dinner last night was acorn squash and bacon patties and nom nom paleos cracklin chicken and brocolli.  

 

I already know I have some type of dairy intolerance.  If I drink milk or half n half my stomach hurts for about 3 days.  so I avoid that.  And yes, I can drink black coffee, but I will always love coffee with half n half a lot more.  So when we reintroduce  than I guess I will see what I have to ditch.

[monicav]

I'm really not getting the not being able to weigh yourself thing.  Honestly, if I hadn't weighed myself I probably would want to quit the whole thing.

[GFChris]

Not weighing yourself, along with not measuring yourself, is a fundamental rule of the program. The idea is to get the focus off a number, and more on changing your relationship with food.  How eating this way makes you feel, noticing any changes in psychological response and otherwise, etc.  Take a look at this article on Reasons to Break Up with Your Scale.

You may not eating enough. Especially as you're breastfeeding - you might want to try 4 meals.

Breakfast and dinner looks ok. Lunch was light on veggies: lettuce and a half cucumber isn't very filling.  Aim for 1-3 cups of veggies at every meal.

Also make sure your bacon is compliant: no sugar, sweeteners or other non-compliant nasties.

[monicav]

Yesterday

 

Breakfast - Fritatta with sweet potatoes, eggs, kale

 

lunch - roasted zuchinni, baked mahi mahi, baba ganoush, jicama.

 

dinner, acorn squash and bacon patties and nom nom paleos cracklin chicken and brocolli.  

 

Day before -

every morning is a fritatta with veggies, sometimes bacon, maybe some nuts.

 

lunch - canned salmon mixed wih avocado, over salad greens with left over roasted veg

 

chicken fingers breaded in ground coconut, fried in coconut oil, brocolli, and parsnip fries baked in the oven.

 

mothers day

 

procioutto egg cups, mashed sweet potato with rosemary, broiled zuchinni and mixed berries

 

lunch: burrito bowl with shredded pork, sauteed veg and lettuce

 

dinner, steak, grilled veggies, parsnip mash...and maybe berries, can't remember.

 

I don't track my water.  I've always drank a ton of water.  That's all I drink all day except for coffee in the morning.  

[monicav]

I saw that I should look into four meals.  I feel like all I do is cook really boring food all the time.  I really don't feel like choking down more food while chasing a toddler all day.  I'm not really hungry anymore.  see, relationship with food, solved.  I hate it now.  

[Robin Strathdee]

monicav -

 

Yes, it gets easier. But only if you take the time to make it a part of your life. If you isolate yourself and pout your way through social situations you will feel deprived and it will not feel easy at all.  BUT, if you bring your Whole30 with you into the real world, you'll see that it's not as difficult or divisive as you think.  Go join your friend and grill tonight! Bring a great piece of meat and a side you can share.  Grab a bottle of kombucha to throw in a cocktail glass. Sit and enjoy your friend! Certainly it's not the alcohol that makes you friends...

Go to those parties prepared with a dish (or two) you can eat and share, and a great list of reasons you're giving this experiment a go.  No one is asking you to stick to Whole30 for the rest of your life, but at the same time, what's the point of doing this at all if you're not looking to make meaningful changes in your life when you're finished?

[monicav]

I do plan on going to the 2 birthday parties and the housewarming. I don't feel like hanging out with everyone drinking while I am drinking kombucha. I'd rather stay home.

I guess the meaningful changes are what I am currently struggling with. I suppose I will have to a it for reintroduction to see what my post whole30 life is like. Then evaluate from there . I don't feel much physical change except for getting out of bed is harder.

[AmyS]

If I'm reading your schedule right, you have 19 days to go so you're on Day Eight.  I'm not an expert on the Whole30 Timeline, but I believe this is the place where many people want to Kill All The Things (I defer to Robin above for the precise timeline info, but I think I'm right).  So I think you're probably right on track.

 

Also, it's important to remember that Whole30 is about the food you eat and also about the psychology of change with relationship to that food.  So if you are a person who pursues change, and engages with it by resenting it while you're going through it, then you're probably doing fine.   

 

If, on the other hand, you generally embrace change wholeheartedly and you're feeling this down about the process of Whole30 (plus the sleepiness in the morning), I'd suggest being as gentle with yourself as you can right now.  Chasing a toddler and nursing is a monster of a job, and the fact that you can even do Whole30 successfully is AMAZING.  Sure, many moms of young ones do, but I'm totally impressed every time.

 

If you're concerned about sleep (I'm guessing you get very little uninterrupted sleep) you might try bedding down with your nurseling for a few days - sleep before midnight tends to rest us better than sleep after.  If you're concerned about food boredom, you might try varying your sauces - Frank's Hot Sauce, mustards, mayo with spices, etc.  When you have exactly no time for food prep, then changing the flavors of your food can help.  If you're concerned about feeling down about how friend get togethers and parties will go, and down in general, then it's worth looking at your starchy carb intake - even if you feel like it's enough, you might do better with more.

 

Nursing mamas are superheroes in my book, and you certainly deserve to have as positive an experience with Whole30 as possible.  I hope that you find some support and help and ideas here on this thread and on the forums, and I wish you peaceful rest (try not to laugh too hard at that) and yummy food.  Who knows, maybe some friends will decide sparkling water is more fun than wine too?  Stranger things have happened. 

 

Hang in there.

[monicav]

Thanks. I do cosleeping so I suppose that helps. I guess part of it is I'm looking forward wondering how people can adopt a paleo lifestyle long term. Trying to figure out what life after whole 30 will be. A life where I never eat pizza sounds so sad.

[monicav]

I'm on day 12, which should be boundless energy.

[ShannonM816]

A life where I never eat pizza sounds so sad.

 

You don't have to never eat pizza again. Do the W30 (or longer, if you choose to go longer) but then do reintroductions carefully. If you have no reactions to dairy or gluten grains, then occasionally having pizza could be an option. Most people aren't paleo 100% of the time, they have foods that they decide are worth having that aren't paleo.

 

Having said that, I can tell you that, while I've had pizza and burgers and other totally not W30 foods after my W30, I mostly don't like the way they make me feel. Eating them now is just not as rewarding as I used to think it was. I find now that I feel sluggish and lethargic when I eat pizza, not to mention bloated and swollen and just gross.

 

For more about what life might look like post W30, you should check out the Whole30 blog posts Melissa did recently about how she eats every day. Part 1 is here and Part 2 is here.

 

Like you, I have foods that I just can't imagine living without. But I also know that I have a lot of weight to lose, and health issues I need to take care of before they get worse, and I know that some of my favorite foods (like cake and ice cream and anything topped with gooey, melty cheese) are really not good for me. So I am slowly coming to the realization that this may be something that I just have to put my big girl panties on and deal with, as the saying goes. Unfortunately, part of being an adult and having responsibility for my own health means that sometimes I have to eat veggies when I really want cake.

 

This is not to say I'll never ever have cake or ice cream or whatever other foods I might miss, but I do feel like I need to be more mindful of whether they're worth it at the time. Like, ordering pizza because I'm too lazy to cook something, probably not worth it. But having really good pizza when I'm out with friends at some place that makes theirs from scratch? Maybe that is worth it. I'm not sure, and I don't have all the answers, but I know that what I was doing pre-W30 wasn't working for me, so I'm going to have to make some kind of change. Now it's just a matter of trying to figure out what that change will look like. And I don't expect to know right this instant what will work best for me forever. All I can do is try to make the best choices I can make at each meal and try not to stress too much about any of it.

[Brewer5]

Thanks. I do cosleeping so I suppose that helps. I guess part of it is I'm looking forward wondering how people can adopt a paleo lifestyle long term. Trying to figure out what life after whole 30 will be. A life where I never eat pizza sounds so sad.

I looked back through your posts to see if you posted an intro where you talk about what brought you here.  We all have a unique story, but I could not find yours.

 

I am going to speak in general here -- I realize not everyone feels the same way.  I think there are a ton of different reasons that bring people to Paleo, but I think what makes people stick with it long-term is simple:  Because it feels good.  And because it makes sense.  

 

There is no way I could read all the books I have read, looked at the science, tried it out for our family, and then been like "Ah, forget it.  Let's just go back to hitting the drive-through at McDonald's".  

 

We switched over to Paleo 1.5 years ago, and we will never go back.  My kids "get it".  They know more about nutrition and how to take proper care of their bodies now at the ages of 7, 9, and 12 than my husband or I ever did, and I cannot think of a better gift that I could possibly give them.  After all, if we don't have our health -- if we don't have our LIFE -- what else matters?

 

I have figured out how to make a wicked "Paleo" pizza that my family loves.  And it brings us together, because we all have a part in making it.  Sure, it's time-consuming, but you can bet it is MUCH more appreciated than having Pizza Hut show up at our door ever was.  We also found a couple of restaurants that serve gluten-free pizza on our vacation, and boy was that a treat!  No, these are not Whole 30 foods, but no one says this has to be a Whole 365.  No one says life without pizza.

 

I hope you are able to turn things around and see the bright side soon!  

[monicav]

Didn't know I was supposed to intro myself. I mainly want to lose weight. And I had gestational diabetes so I am at greater risk for diabetes. My husband has high blood pressure even though he's a beanpole. So I guess that's why I am here. I wanted a kick start to eating healthier more Consistently. I mainly cooked healthy before. Well, it was different. I didn't eat so many squashes. But we ate a ton of veggies. Food was just more convenient. Eating out seemed like an option then. Or letting my daughter have waffles and peanut butter for breakfast instead of fritatta all the time.

[AmyS]

Regarding your comments about never eating pizza again, you can have a giant supreme pizza with a side of buffalo wings and dipping sauce with garlic bread for breakfast on the morning of Day 31.  I mean, it's not something everyone does, but once your 30 days are up, you can do what you want.  I ran (literally RAN) into Starbucks and bounced up and down (literally, again) while waiting for my Day 31 Mocha Latte.  And dang it was delicious.

I'm on day 12, which should be boundless energy.

You are nursing and you are chasing a toddler.  You get to have boundless energy in about five years.  You are probably sleep deprived to such a degree that you don't even recognize yourself as sleep deprived.  You're probably sleepy in the morning because if you didn't have a toddler around you'd sleep about 16 hours straight and then sleep about 12 hours a night for months, just to recover.  This is your reality, and your timeline is going to be a little different when it comes to energy.

Didn't know I was supposed to intro myself. I mainly want to lose weight. And I had gestational diabetes so I am at greater risk for diabetes. My husband has high blood pressure even though he's a beanpole. So I guess that's why I am here. I wanted a kick start to eating healthier more Consistently. I mainly cooked healthy before. Well, it was different. I didn't eat so many squashes. But we ate a ton of veggies. Food was just more convenient. Eating out seemed like an option then. Or letting my daughter have waffles and peanut butter for breakfast instead of fritatta all the time.

You don't have to introduce yourself, it's OK - some folks post an introduction and a food log which other folks then refer to when a troubleshooting question comes up.  The point is that folks want to respond in the context of your life, and not give ideas or advice that don't fit for you.

 

Losing weight while nursing is a dicey proposition - some women struggle to keep weight on, and others of us can't really drop weight until our periods come back and then have to wait even longer until the nursing subsides (I nursed twins for 3.5 years and didn't drop weight until well after their second birthday.  I know other people who just couldn't keep the weight on.  It can be pretty extreme, and while our bodies are making milk we are just different hormonally than non-lactating women, so as hard as it might seem, we kind of have to go with it.)

 

It's really hard to be extremely sleep deprived, concerned about immediate and possible future health issues, and dealing with a beautiful high energy tiny person all day.  That much is definitely coming through in your posts.  Again, if this is your way of dealing with change, you're golden.  But if you're struggling with this more intensely than you struggle with other aspects of your life, then I'd just suggest, again, being as gentle with yourself as you can.  Day 31 will come, and you will be able to eat foods you are not eating right now, and the bonus is that you'll get to decide what to keep of your Whole30 eating patterns and what you don't need to keep.  I keep the occasional mocha latte in my life when not WholeSomething-ing (though I tend to have to eat really clean for a while after indulging because those dratted things don't like me as much as I like them), others drink wine weekly, some people discover that certain grains are fine - you get to see how you feel.  And on Day 31 you get the relief of having completed the program and of getting to make your own rules going forward.

 

You won't fix long term health problems in 30 days, and you won't fix toddler nursing sleep deprivation in 30 days, but you'll get to determine what works and doesn't work from this program and keep what you really find helpful.  You get to be the expert!