Veromama after the first whole30

[veromama]

So.... this is day 32 And I did it! I stayed true to my commitment and learned A LOT!

 

I don't have the tiger-blood even though I already ate fairly good pre-w30, didn't loose buckets of weight (didn't have anything to loose except a little extra belly from my pregnancy, but hey, delivered less than 4 months ago, so I gave myself a break on that  ) and I'm still not too good in the whole planning and weekly cook-up. Also didn't develop an exercise routine.

 

BUT: (and this is really as capital as it can be!)

 

I feel like my head is clearer most of the times. There are foods that clearly make me foggy/depressed and give me some aches here and there: dried apricots that I ate yesterday for the first time after starting my w30 gave me tooth-ache, that I used to have but totally forgot about. So concentrated sugar -even from "natural" sources make my teeth sensitive. Good enough reason for me not to dive into anything very sweet. And they made my head foggy too. Extra reason for keeping my intake low.

 

I do need starchy veggies at least 3x a day to keep me going and keep my milk supply up. That should be a little more than sweet potatoes and squash, because a bigger quantity of those make me a little bloated.

 

Also FISH! Discovered that if I eat fish (especially salmon) my milk has more fat, much better quality. Top stuff! I'm slowly moving towards eating some fatty fish every day (now it's every other day) and at least two times a week salmon (stocked up on frozen ones that were on sale last week. Yay!)

 

Onions and cashews make me bloated and give me terrible gas. Cashews also make my baby spit a lot. I cut out all nuts except coconut, but will test them one by one to see if it's only cashews or nuts in general.

 

The planning part I still have to master, because we were often left with eating some quick meat and a big salad on the side. Not very good and my husband was complaining all the time that it's not filling for him (he is used to eating tons of rice in the evening and too stubborn to eat normal meals during the day  ) I now have Well Fed 1 and 2 and I am working on preparing side dish veggies beforehand, so they are ready to be heated up or cooked quickly in the evening.

 

The weekly cook-up is still a difficult thing, I just cannot find a time to do it. Baby and/or toddler often need some attention when I'm in the middle of it and than it's all unfinished. I need a better strategy. Already thought about pre-cutting as many veggies as possible (bell peppers, cucumbers, cauliflower, zuccini, cabbage, broccoli) and roasting sweet potatoes and pumpkins in the skin for the easy of it and than keep them in the fridge. I will also make veggie soup again for a quick meal with some chicken or fish. During the day I don't have too much time to cook up 4 meals.

 

Eating mindfully and chewing better is also something I am working on. I still have a long way to go with that, but as time goes by the little ones are getting more independent, so I can also sit and eat a little more in peace.

 

Day by day small improvements. I am ready to go on and make this way of eating a habit. My husband, who had a bad opinion and fell out at me halfway my w30, is starting to see benefits and is leaving the rice crackers more often. I hope he will come around any maybe do a proper w30 with me in the future. Until than I'm happy he is slowly easing into the paleo-style eating.

 

 

That said, we do have some dinner plans for this week that my husband made. He was a little frustrated about not going out too much for dinner or grab a quick lunch in the weekend in some random place. Tonight we eat out, tomorrow we eat at a friend's place and sunday we go to a sushi restaurant. I will ask for compliant food, but I won't be all stressed about it like I have been during my w30. I became quite paranoid about food that was not made by me. Still am a little, but I eased up on that.

 

In general, I am on board for a whole 9 life and I want to pass it on to my little ones as well. They are the future and only legacy you leave behind

[GlennR]

Congratulations! Love your successes, and look forward to your successes-to-be!

[veromama]

Thank you Glenn! I really appreciate all the nice words here I'm also looking forward to every small success to come.

 

The past 2 days I had the 2 dinners where I didn't stay compliant. I didn't go overboard either and made an effort, but I ate some non-w30 foods.

 

Monday it was some honey on my spare-ribs and residue of some god-knows-what-sauce on my salad. I asked for the dressing on the side, as I was not the only one eating the salad, but there was still something sprinkled on top.. I managed to avoid most of it, but still ate some. I had a rollercoaster evening. First I got dead tired, than got some energy again, than tired and so on. The lows were getting deeper every time. And I woke up with a hungover feeling on Tuesday and diarrhea.

 

Tuesday the whole day I was feeling like snacking. The morning I could resist, but in the afternoon I gave in and ate 2 bananas, 2 apples and 3 cubes of 85% chocolate (at least soy-free   ) Dinner at my friend's place was chicken mixed into white rice with a sauce. I think it was soy based. I got pretty bloated afterwards and woke up in the middle of the night feeling very hungry.

 

Today I started the day with a green soup and minced beef (thank god I cooked a big batch of those two yesterday!) I added some olive oil too and it started my day off well. I didn't touch any fruit until now and the craving is not nearly as bad as it was yesterday. I don't want to start, because I know it won't stay with only 1 piece of fruit... 

[veromama]

There was quite a big silence from me on this thread. I actually gained a lot of insights since my whole 30. After the initial 2 weeks of splurges in pizza, chocolate and cookies (things I actually barely ate before the w30) I got into a nice balance. I ate mostly clean with the occasional white rice (sushi) and some small things that had some natural sugars in them. No cookies, no baked goods either. I was happy with it. But I was also getting more and more information on good sources of food. Good pastured/organic/grass-fed meat, organic veggies and fruits. All the information was stressing me out, because I wanted to do the best of the best for my family and myself. In the meantime our budget started to be very much out of proportion and my husband started to comment that we eat great food and spend a lot of money, but there's barely anything in the house. And he was right. I was struggling with planning and I still bought too small amounts, so I couldn't actually cook ahead. When I thought I made enough for 3 meals and wanted to freeze, it just gave us enough leftovers for one more meal the next day for me and my oldest. The last 3 weeks I was stressed and it just got worse and worse. It was a downward spiral that I had before, but now paired with taking care of 2 small children and pretty much doing everything myself, I got a full on depression. I didn't want to admit it until today. Not to myself, not to my husband. But when this morning I had serious thoughts about either hurting myself or my kids, I knew it couldn't go on like this.

 

So I'm writing this entry to keep myself accountable. I am going to make some serious changes, not just food-wise.

I am going to make sleeping and playing a priority. I need time to recharge and do things that I like. Not just things that my family likes (can be the same, but not always  )

I also started to think that I might need to do AIP with low FODMAP since my reaction to gluten after reintroduction was quite extreme and my bloating, gas and indigestion problems never actually left. My anxiety -that I also never wanted to admit that I had- is still lingering and present. So here it is. My confession about some mental issues that I was always hiding, because I had to be the strong one and the perfect one. I need to start to be honest about them. At least to myself and my husband, so I can properly address them.