Milkphobic's Whole30

[Milkphobic]

Day 0:

 

weight: 157

waist: 36

hips: 42

bust: 32

bicep: 11.5

thigh: 22

 

Thoughts:

Over the past 10+ years, I have tried different methods to losing ("releasing") weight.

1-- low-fat diet with lots of cardio & strength training at the gym

2-- Atkins diet with little to no exercise (yoga once a week)

3-- dairy-free/ gluten-free with lots of exercise (MMA or BJJ 3 to 5 times a week, mixed with yoga, jogging, and bike-riding)

 

The first two "diets" worked the best with me but they did not suit my sensibility. I'm not a "gym rat," so going to the gym and working the machines was a pain. Eating the exact same thing every day was also boring but I got results. After a few months, I was the fittest I'd ever been in my life.

 

For Atkins, the food was amazing but it really limited my options in the "real" world as I hovered over the meat & cheese platter at parties. I also felt uncomfortable with the amount of artificial sweetners I was using, especially Splenda. After having spent most of my adult life believing I was lactose intolerant, eating that much cheese was a delight but made me feel decadent and debaucherous! Once I got pregnant with my son, I stopped doing Atkins, but believed in its basic principles (ketosis, etc) so I tried to eat healthy but allowed myself to indulge in whatever was available, since I didn't want to miss out on anything like I did with Atkins (like pizza at meetings, Tuesday ice cream cones at Baskin Robbins, etc.).

 

The 3rd try made the most sense to me physically and mentally. Despite studies proclaiming gluten-sensitivity is all in the mind, I have noticed physical manifestations of even the slightest gluten-- mostly through eczema and itchiness. Unfortunately, despite how much I was working out, I still kept plateauing at a certain level. Now, after having read It Starts with Food, I think it was that the dairy-free, gluten-free choices I was making weren't the best for me, like drinking cider instead of beer, eating rice and green curry (even though I had been off rice because of Atkins for years), eating all sorts of gfcf treats like Lara Bars, etc. and that I have a problem with portion control. Even though I was eating cleaner, I am still a "clean your plate!" kind of gal. I go for seconds and thirds on a regular basis. I would rather finish off a dish even if I'm not hungry, than put away a portion that's too small for leftovers.

 

I heard about Whole 30 through Pinterest as I was looking for ways of sneaking vegetables into meat dishes for my picky 9 year old. I found a dish with turkey sausage and zucchini, and I was intrigued. It was like the best parts of Atkins (meat, vegetables, recipes that satisfy) without the bad parts (artificial sweetners, dairy, buying cheap meat in bulk to save money). I've been researching Whole 30 for about a month now. For the past two weeks, I've been doing a test drive-- I haven't eaten out, I stopped snacking between meals, and I'm using fruit as my dessert (instead of processed vegan ice cream). In the past two weeks, I've lost 7 pounds already and I feel pretty great. Even though I have had half-n-half and raw sugar in my coffee and I did eat a cupcake to be a part of a celebration, I feel satiated and proud of myself. I'm ready to do the full Whole 30 now, starting tomorrow.

 

My fears:

I am a kombucha fiend! I look forward to it as a nice kick when I need it, so I get nervous about the pscyhological implications between my drinking it. However, instead of just drinking from my continuous brew, I am going to bottle the batches for a longer 2nd ferment, to try and get more of the sugar out of it. All the research I've done says kombucha is ok for the Whole 30 but I think they may be thinking of store-bought kombucha which has been fermenting in a bottle for weeks, not a CB where the fermentation is just days.

 

I don't want this to be another flash in the pan. I remember committing to Atkins as a "lifestyle" choice, not a diet, so I'm feeling like this just may be another attempt to choose a healthier lifestyle but that I'll backslide and be on to the next fad in a year or two. I do believe that the science makes sense, and that the nutritional problems I've had in the past (Cheese is weird. I can't be raw vegan because I need animal protein to stay grounded. Splenda seems evil.) are satisfied by this program-- and that they acknowledge that it's ok to eat Gramma's ziti at Christmas and I appreciate that.

 

Oh! So I'm figuring out a conclusion and I see "Attach Files" below me-- as if I should attach a "Before" picture. I'm not feeling it right now. I'll spill the details but I'd like to remain a bit more anonymous for the time being.

 

Thanks for reading. xo

[ShannonM816]

 

My fears:

I am a kombucha fiend! I look forward to it as a nice kick when I need it, so I get nervous about the pscyhological implications between my drinking it. However, instead of just drinking from my continuous brew, I am going to bottle the batches for a longer 2nd ferment, to try and get more of the sugar out of it. All the research I've done says kombucha is ok for the Whole 30 but I think they may be thinking of store-bought kombucha which has been fermenting in a bottle for weeks, not a CB where the fermentation is just days.

 

 

Welcome to the Whole30!

 

I make my own kombucha with a continuous brew as well. I usually bottle mine and do a 2f with some juice or fruit or herbs/spices, but occasionally have it straight out of the brewer. I don't know for sure the sugar content, but even though you only ferment a few days in continuous brew, since you only ever take out 1/3-1/2 of it (at least by the instructions I was given), it ferments faster, and automatically will start off less sweet than if you filled the container with all new sweet tea. Mine typically tastes less sweet than the store bought stuff, unless I drink some out of the brewer within a day of pulling some off and refilling with sweet tea.(In a 2.5 gallon container, I usually pull off a gallon at a time, every 3-5 days.) Part of that may be the amount of juice/fruit they use in their 2f compared to how much I use -- I've been trying to figure out how little I can use and still have something I find palatable, to reduce the sugar content. Just yesterday i was at the store and saw that a local brand of kombucha had a new flavor I'd never tried, so I bought one to see what it was like, and was shocked at how sweet it was compared to what I'm used to having at home.

 

Anyway, there's a whole (very long) thread about kombucha here that might have more information, or where you might direct any questions you have about it, if you want more discussion.

[Milkphobic]

Awesome! Thanks. I'll check it out.

[Milkphobic]

Okay, time to reflect...

 

Days 1 & 2-- it's true! I thought, "What's the big deal?" since I've done Atkins & gfcf for so long, I don't think I'm having as hard a time as other people. The biggest changes: no rice and no corn products (like tortillas). I already started using fruit for a snack a few weeks ago and stopped eating out. The only other major difference is my morning routine: my usual get-me-through-this stand-by is coffee with halfn'half and raw sugar, so no more of that. I also used to eat whatever I wanted when I wanted because I didn't want to have any hang ups about food. So most of the time I ate clean but I wouldn't say no to a slice of cake if it was somebody's birthday.

 

Day 3-- I woke up groggy- just like the kid in the photo from the newsletter-- but I figured it was because I was up at 3AM with sleeplessness. I didn't use coffee or a protein shake as a crutch like I normally would. I trudged on with a nice omelet. Here comes some tmi-- I noticed that I was pooping more and that my poop was pea green. It didn't bother me because I knew a vegan who proudly bragged about his green poop but then I Googled it and read that my body may not know what to do with all this protein, but I don't know if I agree with that. I don't think I'm adding more protein-- but I am eating a ton more leafy greens. Normally I would do a salad for dinner, but because I haven't had time to cook I've been eating spinach twice a day. In any case I'm so glad that one of the rules is NOT to weigh yourself or measure yourself because I know I was bloated, and I know that I am the kind of person who would quit if I don't see immediate results right away so I was content to interpret the bloat as a restructuring of my intestines now that I am eating clean, whole food and nothing but.

 

Day 4-- I was a little miffed when I looked up protein snacks and found all these recommendations for Lara Bars and almond milk protein shakes, because those are staples of my old habits, but I figure that a Lara Bar with the right ingredients will be nice in emergencies. I also had a beautiful but probably too sugary pre-workout snack of sliced banana with almond butter on top. I was shocked to see that my stand-by almond butter had milk and sugar in it, but ecstatic to see that the other, more fancy ones I already had were completely compliant and totally tasty.

 

I drank a coffee with coconut milk today, and initially I was so bummed because it was missing the sweetness that I love so much, but I added ice and after a while, I started to really love it. It gave me a nice lift today as I'm dealing with Back to School Night and all that joy, so the caffeine was a nice treat. I also made a frittatta with kangaroo meat (Yay Sprouts & your weird freezer section!) this morning, and now I'm eating my old Atkins fave of cajun pork chops but with broccoli/ sesame seeds/ coconut aminos, and surprisingly I am enjoying the veggies way more than the meat. Usually the meat is the best part of any dish but today I am savoring the veggies. So weird.

 

By the way, I like to follow recipes but I'm not a creative person when it comes to cooking; however I thought of a great name for Whole30: NOW WE'RE COOKING WITH GHEE. I'm no stranger to ghee because of my love of Indian food, but brother, this is the first time I'm going to finish a jar in a week.

[Milkphobic]

Okay, I had my first food-related dream! I was at an amusement park and I got a bowl full of vanilla soft-serve with lots of whipped cream, chocolate sauce, and chopped almonds. I took a couple of bites and then I went, "Crap! Whole30!" Then I decided, well, at least I'm only on Day 5 so it's easy enough to just start over. Better to mess up early on than get to day 20 and have to reboot.

 

I think it may be related to eating without thinking-- last night I took a bite of my son's teriyaki chicken-- I always take a bite of his food to make sure it's the right temperature, and I didn't even realize how automatically I do it. I felt silly spitting it out but I don't think it counts as a real slip-up.

 

Tmi-- my poop is back to normal, so maybe it was the bile thing... or maybe it was the spinach thing because I'm eating more diverse vegetables-- I made sweet potato coconut soup last night so that may be getting me back to normal.

 

Another weird thing is that I itched a lot last night/ this morning like I do when I eat gluten so that was really strange. Maybe it's not the gluten that's making me itchy after all? My eczema is still rampant and I'm still pretty bloated; however my boss did tell me he noticed I'm smiling a lot more and that I look "great," so there's one anecdote for the "It's Working!" side.

[Milkphobic]

Super tired yesterday but it's been an exhausting week. Dreamt of snickerdoodle cookies! My student had brought a bunch in and I had eaten one with lots of sugar and cinnamon on top when I realize, "Oh no!" and then I was mad because I was already a week in and one cookie didn't seem to be worth starting over for.

 

Still itchy.

 

Hoping to see some changes this coming week because right now it's an interesting experiment and I appreciate how it's changed my eating habits but I don't see anything remarkable going on.

[Milkphobic]

Day 14 check-in!

 

The dreams about food are dissipating. It was weird how for about a week, I dreamt about automatically eating some (forbidden) food and not even realizing what I was doing. There's definitely a Freudian connection about automatic eating.

 

In general, the symptoms I thought would be clearing up are actually ramping up-- my eczema is way worse, the itching is bad, for the past couple of nights I've been waking up constantly. At one point I woke up at 1:30AM and just got up and cleaned the house. I have a history with insomnia so the worst thing in the world for me is to just lie there and try to sleep. Also I have canker sores in my mouth, which is normal for me, but usually only last a day or two every once in a while, but these guys were pretty bad and didn't seem to improve.

 

That said, last night I slept pretty well, my inflammations seem to have gone down, and I noticed that I seem overall more stream-lined. I seem to be a bit smaller in my butt, thighs, stomach and chest. I put on a pair of shorts that used to be tight and now fit normally so it seems to be working! 

 

As far as food goes, I am loving vegetables now. I used to be just somewhat tolerant of them-- the meat was always my favorite part of the meal, but now it's flipped. I find myself adding more and more veggies to compensate for the large amounts of meat. Right now I am in love with sweet potatoes! For 40 years I have thought they were mushy and gross, but now I am digging them big time.

 

I am a little sad that not all the dishes I've tried are amazing-- that's one thing I miss about Atkins-- every meal was fantastic! But with this, I'd say maybe 1 out 3 are awesome, the rest are just ok. That said one saving grace in this experiment is that it is just for a limited time. Whenever I think, "Damn! I miss my oatmeal almond butter chocolate chips bites!" I just think, "It's not forever," where other "diets" I've been on are like, "This is it. This is your lifestyle change forever." so whenever I think about how much I miss coconut milk ice cream, I just think about how I can make it a few more weeks.

 

I am tired of cooking, though. I cooked all day yesterday-- shrimp frittatta, bone broth, pho, roasted sweet potatoes, wet sauteed eggplant-- and I still feel like I'm just keeping my head above water. Today I'm making sweet potato hash, green curry beef, and I'm looking for fish recipes to mix it up a little. I made a huge batch of Damn Fine Chicken and it's wasn't very fine so if I never see another drumstick again, it will be too soon. 

[Tina Marie]

check out Well Fed and Well Fed 2... a good website is www.nomnompaleo.com and www.thepaleomom.com  both have great recipes.  I got my Well Fed from Amazon.  read front to back, love that she gives suggestion on what to make with that recipe.  Check it out - she has a free sampler on the website  www.theclothesmakethegirl.com

 

I'm on Day 11 and I agree, all the planning is hard and I'm getting slightly tired of cooking too.  BUT then I get out my cookbooks or browse websites and then I get inspired and I'm good to go !!

 

Happy cooking !

[ShannonM816]

 

I am a little sad that not all the dishes I've tried are amazing-- that's one thing I miss about Atkins-- every meal was fantastic! But with this, I'd say maybe 1 out 3 are awesome, the rest are just ok. That said one saving grace in this experiment is that it is just for a limited time. Whenever I think, "Damn! I miss my oatmeal almond butter chocolate chips bites!" I just think, "It's not forever," where other "diets" I've been on are like, "This is it. This is your lifestyle change forever." so whenever I think about how much I miss coconut milk ice cream, I just think about how I can make it a few more weeks.

 

 

What kinds of meals did you have on Atkins? Can they be adapted to Whole30? Really, there are so many things you can have, you should be able to have lots of fantastic meals. Think about the things you like and try to figure out what you'd need to do to adapt them, or post them in the Cooking section of the forum for suggestions. There are also tons of recipes out there, so if there's something you miss, you might try googling Whole30 and the name of whatever it is, and see what comes up -- you might find someone else has already adapted a recipe you can use.

[Milkphobic]

Yes, it's been easy to adapt a lot of things-- like lamb chops, pork chops, lobster tails, etc. And I have a pinterest board with all the recipes I've found doing a Whole30 search. It's just tiring cooking so much, slaving over something and having it not be fantastic. But I'm persevering! I really should buy a cook book, though... I'm just lazy.

 

One triumph-- I went out last night for the first time in a month. I drank club soda with lime and it was fantastic! I never drink club soda so it really was nice and refreshing. I didn't even miss my pint of cider, and it was only slightly annoying to keep my back turned to the fries my friends were sharing

 

Just about an hour ago I accidentally found where my husband "hid" the scale. Man was it hard not taking a peek, but I know things are just starting to change, so it'd be much more rewarding to wait and hope for an even bigger change if I can just wait.

[Milkphobic]

Day 20-- Just got back from Whole Foods. I was amazed how many things I used to eat that I can't anymore (for 10 days, anyway). I'm used to shopping the perimeter at Sprouts and Ralphs, but usually I buy all sorts of goodies at WF. I did find that fish sauce that they recommend so maybe I'll try that chicken leg recipe again. Felt like a proud ordering all that fresh meat at the counter instead of slinking around the frozen foods aisle.

 

I skimmed the Troubleshooting forum today because my husband has put on a lot of weight and is complaining about a headache and bloating. I figure it's because he's not doing the Whole 30 but he's eating Whole 30 when I cook it for him, so either he's detoxing slower than I did or the regular food he's eating is giving him grief because he's combining it with the clean food. I read a bunch of posts about people not losing weight and I got bummed. Honestly I ate pretty well before so I'm mainly doing this to kick-start some weight "release." If it doesn't work, I'll be disappointed, but I'll also be grateful for learning about how to go through an entire month without eating ice cream or sneaking a slice of pizza. I still have my doubts that it will work that well for me since I am still drinking kombucha-- I'm not patient enough for an entire 2F so I've been drinking if after 2-3 days 2F which is probably too much sugar. I also love to eat fruit, so I'm glad that I replaced eating processed treats with natural treats, but I'm not as strict as I should be. I love me some banana with almond butter on top, and if that means I'm breaking the rules because it satisfies my sweet tooth, I guess it's worth it. It's only one banana or one mango or one pluot so it's not exactly 'food without brakes' imo.

 

I think this detox works best for people who eat a lot of processed food and who have never given up dairy and gluten before. They're the ones who are flying the flag high and raving about all the miracles they're experiencing. But me? I still have my itchy eczema, my headaches, my 2pm nap, my groggy 5AM mornings. But I'm going to finish this out just so I can say "I did it!" I will say it was a huge triumph to make it through my period without one soy mocha or one dark chocolate candy bar, so small victories are definitely worth bragging about.

[Milkphobic]

Day 28-- I wanted to post today because I remember reading a lot of people quit on Day 28 and I just couldn't figure out why. Is it that bad? Is the idea of 3 more days that excruciating? What temptation could there possibly be to wreck 4 weeks of dedication? Even if you don't like the program or aren't seeing results,why would you throw that all away so close to the end? Just to be able to say "I did it!" And you can even say "I did it! And it didn't work!" doesn't that sound a lot better than "I gave up 3 days from the end because I just didn't want to do it anymore?"

 

My biggest achievement this week was going to a friend's "Pampered Chef" party. She caught me off guard by asking what I could and couldn't have, which was so sweet because I do not post about Whole30 on my Facebook and I don't talk about it either. Then again, she knows I'm always doing something-- limit carbs, no gluten, no dairy, raw vegan, etc., so maybe she knew I'd have some dietary restriction because I always seem to.

 

I was impressed with the meal she made, too-- chicken breast, corn-on-the-cob, salad with baby spinach and tomatoes, and pomegranate margaritas. I subtly passed on the corn and the salad dressing (soy!) and the margaritas, but was so happy with the other ladies there who were raving about the food. I wanted to say, "See? Eating whole foods isn't that hard and it tastes good!" but I didn't. No need to be a brat.

 

The Pampered Chef presentation was pretty crazy. I liked a lot of the tools she showed us, and mostly bought stuff that had to do with eating fruit (since fruit is my new vice, thanks to Whole30), but so much of it had to do with microwaving and baking, and all this other stuff that made me pause. She made these cheesecakes made with Keebler cookies, cream cheese, and chocolate chips. Of course I politely said no, but it made me think about my eating habits-- how if I was making the cakes, I would have eaten a few cookies, licked the spoon a hundred times, chomped on some chips, and probably would have eaten half a dozen of the minicakes. So it was nice to distance myself from all that and know that "no" helped me because otherwise I don't think I would have been able to eat just one and say "Thanks. That was good." I would be there ready to polish off the tray so that there were no leftovers.

 

And speaking of "food with no brakes," I came across the term SWYO-- sex with your pants on-- and the idea behind it, before I read up on it, made sense to me. That you can't have pizza but paleo pizza is SWYO, which means it's good but it's not as good as the original, but even sex with your pants on is better than no sex. But actually the explanation behind SWYO is that the substitute makes you long for the original, so you're better off without it. This makes absolutely no sense to me, and I can attest with my raw vegan brownies, which I guess are paleo-- dates, walnuts, cacao-- I love them. I love them almost as much as a tray of brownies from the box-- and when I make them at parties, people swoon for them. Vegan prostrate at my feet and omnivores just alternately nod and shake their heads in amazement. So to me, those vegan brownies are amazing and if you can't have regular brownies, these brownies will not remind you of how delicious old brownies were. Instead, these new brownies will take the place of the old and you can feel good about eating them, instead of feeling guilty after binging on Betty Crocker.

 

In any case, I have pulled down my box of tight pants, and now am wearing the jeans I haven't been able to wear for a year, and I'm debating going for a Whole45 or a Whole60 because this has been easy (as far as planning and shopping) and healthful (I started cleaning out my pantry so I could make more room for vegetables since my fridge is overflowing). But I'm dying to know what the scale says, so maybe I'll take a peek and then I'll keep right on going. Or, I will allow myself more SWYO recipes, since that's all I'm really missing-- I miss ice cream and cookies and crackers, and not Breyers and Chips Ahoy and Ritz-- but the coconut milk kind, the raw vegan kind, the sweet potato kind. And when I start feeling lumpy again, I know I have something to restart my system that is sustainable and reasonable.

[Milkphobic]

Day 31

 

weight: 155

waist: 34

hips: 41

bust: 32

bicep: 11

thigh: 22

 

Welp, there you have it! I lost 2 pounds and a couple of inches.

 

What I have gained:

the knowledge that raw nuts give me gas (I ate a bunch of almonds yesterday and was wrecked for hours! I never knew that)

a love of fruits and vegetables

an appreciation for cooking fresh organic meat asap because that shiz goes bad hecka fast in the fridge

a couple of decent recipes (cauliflower rice will become a mainstay in this household, next to cauliflower mashed)

 

If I had to do it all over again:

I wouldn't drink so much KT (I still think my ferments weren't long enough, even though I tried to keep it bottled for longer)

I would not eat fruit

 

That said, I refuse to live in a world where I can't drink kombucha or eat fruit, so so long, Whole30! Maybe I'll see you again when I'm feeling bloated and toxic. It was definitely a great exercise in willpower and an eyeopener about how expensive eating organic is.

 

Disappointed I didn't lose more, but it's been a theme in all my posts, hasn't it? I was already eating pretty clean so this just made me be strict 100% of the time. My weight loss probably wasn't so drastic because I did prepare for the challenge for two weeks prior-- by not eating out and replacing all processed snacks with fruit, so if you count that, which you shouldn't, because I was still eating rice & beans, it would be 9 pounds total in 6 weeks of mostly clean eating.

 

Disappointed my skin condition didn't clear up. I was convinced it was a dairy/gluten thing & by going 100% I thought it would clear up during this month.

 

Happy that I can fit my old pants again! Happy that I broke my weight plateau. Happy that I'm at my original weight before I started training jiu-jitsu (I was lighter when I trained MMA). Happy that I got a bunch of cool cooking gadgets: santoku knife, onion chopper, bamboo utensils, a smaller slow cooker, colorful measuring cups and spoons, and all that Pampered Chef gear should be coming in soon.

 

I went through 2 bottles of ghee, 2 jars of coconut oil, almost an entire bottle of coconut aminos, and probably an entire avocado tree and the side of a cow and an entire generation of chickens.

 

I spread some peanut butter on an apple slice this morning. Meh. I gave up peanut butter months ago. So miso soup for lunch (yes!!!!) and some beans for dinner tonight, and we'll see.

 

What I'm most looking forward to: EATING PALEO WITHOUT TRIPPING OUT. I can't wait to try the frozen banana ice cream and all the replacement junk food I kept finding every time I typed in "Whole30" on Pinterest. I also can't wait for SUSHI with my husband and POPCORN at the movies.

 

Thanks for the experiment! See ya next time.

[Milkphobic]

And physically, my butt is smaller and my face looks thinner, so even though I'm shocked by what the scale says, I would swear on a stack of cookbooks, I had lost 10 more pounds.