Day Four! No KATT, but weirdly up-and-down energy?

[AKM]

Hey gang! Started 1 September here! I went paleo pretty strictly in fall 2012 to help treat some horrible health problems, some that were a direct result of and some that weren't being helped by grad school, a practicum, and a full-time job. Think no sleep, gallons of caffeine, and dinners at 9:30 PM consisting of potato chips and Miller Lite. Oh, and spoiler regarding the paleo switch: it helped, big time. Since then, I've slipped here and there, thinking that I could because I didn't see TOO many ill effects immediately and I didn't regain the weight I'd lost. This year, I was also once again so busy and practically living out of my car driving from work to school to my second practicum that I didn't want to pick/plan meals or even take the time to consider what I was putting into my body. I was the protein shake queen because hey, no refrigeration and just-add-water, and then things got worse around May of this year when I even -- GASP! -- signed up for that big diet company that sends you all of that starchy, chemical-laden, prepackaged food. (GROSS!) I know, I know! Anyway, that nasty food is GONE, and then graduation came in August, and I found myself sick and exhausted again. I decided that it was time to dust off my beloved copy of Well-Fed, do the formal Whole30, and get back to what I knew WORKED.

Day 1 was lovely, albeit I did a big Well-Fed cookup since I was home for Labour Day and I didn't take appropriate breaks or wear good shoes on my hard kitchen floor so I really felt it the next day. (OUCH! I have fibro and osteoarthritis AND RA, among other issues.) Day 2 was BIG-TIME HANGOVER day, but there might also be some hormonal stuff going on right now, so whatever the reason, it was one day and I got through it. Day 3 wasn't as bad as Day 2, and today is even easier “hangover”-wise. My mood is pretty upbeat and I’m not even in Day Four Kill All The Things mode, heheheheh.

One thing that I'm finding, though, is that my energy level is oddly going up and down all over the place. I'm one of those people who tends to wake up slowly, peak in the afternoon/evening, and then keep going as a night owl. The last few days, though, I've been having really bad stiff/sore/painful mornings (due to fibro/arthritis, so not unusual nor necessarily Whole30-detox-y-based), followed by perky, jazzy mornings once I get to work (and I’m needing less coffee, even!), but then I have a huge crash after lunch, lasting until I get home and eat dinner. (And this crash is HUGE. If I put my head down on my desk, I could literally close my eyes and be out in less than a minute, I’m sure. It’s a fight-to-keep-my-eyes-open exhaustion. It’s sort of not unpleasant, though, if that makes sense; I kind of feel “drugged?”) Anyway, then in the evening I'm up-up-up again, almost too much so, but I just use it to my advantage and play in the kitchen and/or pack my breakfast/lunch for work the next day. And then I tend to fall asleep at a “normal” time (before midnight). So it’s up-and-down, up-and-down all day. Maybe this is a good thing, though, and I’m starting to get a normal bell-curve kind of energy during the day (slowly move up, peak, and slowly wind down)? The sleep thing will always be the health puzzle that’s the hardest for me, though; I just want to keep going and going and I actually don’t like to sleep!

At any rate, I’m looking forward to hearing from others and reading their stories as well.

-- AKM

[Carlaccini]

What you are describing is all very normal.  I have done 5 whole 30's and each one has been completely and utterly different.  That being said - symptoms getting worse in the begining is pretty normal too.  Keep with it and it should pass.

 

I remember my first whole 30 - I had moments of wonderful energy but basically my sheer and utter exhaustion didn't aleviate until day 21 or 22.  When it did - it was a beautiful thing. 

 

Are you eating any starchy veg?  If so when are you eating it?  Sometimes it matters when you consume it.  Some people it helps mostly in the morning, others - it helps them with their sleep if they eat it during their Meal 3.

[AKM]

I eat sweet potatoes pretty much every day, usually with chicken for breakfast.

Today is Day Nine and I gotta say that I am BOREDBOREDBORED! I don't want any more chicken, I don't want any more beef, I don't want another damn egg, I DEFINITELY don't want any more salmon...I know that yes, there ARE other proteins out there, but they're still all so similar and I'm tired of all of this. I was just rarin' to go even through the weekend, and now I'm all, "If I eat one more bowl of Chocolate Chili, I will throw it against the wall." (And I LOVE the Chocolate Chili.) I'm tired of cooking and I just want some grab-'n'-go stuff, and that's just impossible to find on Whole30, let alone paleo in general. When I was "just paleo," I ate a LOT of fast-food salads, whether they had some chemicals on the chicken/lettuce/whatever, and it was nice to just let someone else put the food together for me to snarf it down. I still have some food left from my cookup last week since I live alone, but again...chicken, tuna, salmon, eggs, chili, ground beef...MEH. I'd almost rather go to bed hungry tonight than eat one more of those items that I've been trying to rotate through three meals a day for nine days.

Any ideas? Even my go-to veggies have me bored, and I bought LOTS of variety of THOSE, too.

HELP.