demoralized but keeping strong

[ZEST]

I started my second whole30 14 days ago; on day 5 I got accidentally dosed with dairy (goat cheese vinagrettes are awesome, not so much when your host knows you don't eat dairy but didn't think goat cheese was dairy....) so I started over. 

I know from experience how awesome the whole30 can be...but it's day 9 and I'm still exhausted. I still get super tired in the afternoons and find it hard to focus. My athletic performance feels off (I'm a professional performance artist-athelte) and I get super emotional about it. There have been one or two breakthroughs in my training, but even though they are exciting I feel so low and down on myself that everything else feels sloshy. Last time this happened mostly in the first week...but second week its going strong. Also, between whole30s I've stayed mostly Paleo, though with a love of chocolate and the occasional scoop of coconut bliss. 

Help? I started this second time to feel better, get more energy...and it hasn't happened yet. I'm keeping to it, but I just want to feel energized!

[Physibeth]

Can you post 2-3 days of your typical food log, water intake, sleep, and activity? That might help us figure out what is going on. Is dairy something you know you are sensitive to from your previous Whole30? If so that dosing could have set you back further than expected.

[ZEST]

It depends on the kind of dairy--before, goat cheese was OK, but maybe eliminating it even for a few days (and I wasn't really eating dairy for a week or two before that) could have made it more obvious?

Also, in terms of exercise, I am a performing circus artist and train a lot, plus I have to bike commute

Day 1: 

Breakfast: 3 c. sauteed kale, 2 eggs, 3 oz sausage; 2 glasses water, 1 cup black d=tea with coconut cream 

8 mile bike commute; 3 glasses herbal tea

lunch: 4 oz pork, 12 sweet potato, 2 c. raw veggies

Work out: 2 hours handbalancing; 5 more miles bike for another hour and a half of handbalancing

5 mile bike ride; 2 glasses water during

Snack: harboiled egg, kale chips, 2 slices dried mango, 

work out: 30 minutes stretching, 2 hours aerial straps, 30 minutes flexibility work plus some conditioning, 2 glasses water

dinner: 5 oz burger, 3 c. salad with oil and vinager, 1 sweet potato, 4 glasses water

Sleep: 7.5

 

Day 2:

Breakfast: 3 c. salad with tahini-balsamic vinagrette (homemade); 2 eggs, 3 oz sausage (Whole30 compliant); 16 oz water, 1 cup blakc tea with coconut cream

11 mile bike commute; 2 glasses water

PWO snack: 2 oz chicken, homemade kale chips, 1/2 apple

Work out: 2 hrs handbalancing ; 30 mins active flexibility work; 3 glasses water over course of it

lunch: salmon cake from It Starts with Food with 1.5 TB homemade mayo; 1 c snap peas, whole bell pepper, 1/3 sweet potato; 2 glasses water and 1 glass herbal iced tea over afternoon

Second work out: 2.5 hours aerial straps; 5 miles bike ride home; 2 glasses water during workout 

Dinner: 6 oz chicken with enchilada sauce; 2/3 small avocado, 1/2 sweet potato, handful blackberries; 1 glass water before bed

sleep: 10 hours

 

That's about normal for me...any thoughts?

[Physibeth]

I think you need to eat a lot more to support the level of activity you are enduring. I would warrant that I eat more than you do and am a bit less active. I would especially focus on getting a lot more starchy carbs to help your energy level and go for 2 full palms of protein at meals if you can and more vegetables especially when they are raw. If you don't think you can handle more food at your meals than a bigger post workout meal for sure making sure the vegetable you have post workout is starchy and the protein is lean and a full palms worth.

 

You might also need more water than you are drinking because of your activity level. General recommendation is half your body weight in ounces but for people who train hard I would guess it should be more.

[ZEST]

Thank you! I will add these ideas and hopefully they will help!