Sarah's Post-Whole30 Log

[Littlelotte]

So yeah, it's been a little over two weeks since the end of my first successful Whole30. I've done my (partially-rushed) reintros, and have the gist of what I should avoid. For me, that's soy, dairy, and gluten. They may not be too terrible on their own, but if I have more than one at once, then ouch. Especially with my lower lungs, and it's like really? My lungs are what's affected? There are just two foods that taste just as good as I remember and are totally worth it occasionally, and those are chocolate (78%+ please, everything else is too sweet) and cheese. Pasta--meh. Ice cream--meh. Even tortilla chips--meh. When I'm not Whole#ing, I won't mind slipping a square of ~good~ chocolate.

 

Aannyway, Thanksgiving Break is over, school is back, and finals are next week. Meaning I am super-duper stressed and I just wanna go home (but I can't). Never have I ever been happier that it's Friday. And much like I'm learning that I can't healthy-eat my way out of sleep deprivation, I also can't healthy-eat my way out of stress-induced depression. I literally can't deal with the consequences of a bad diet during finals week, even though I know I'm going to want to eat badly because of all the stress and convenience. Also, I never did completely tame my sugar dragon during my Whole30 and I still have the nasty habit of multitasking while eating that I need to stamp out. 

 

Soo, I'm going to do a Whole14 now to let my body recover from the crap-eating I've done for the past half-week or so and try and reinforce those last few loose ends from my Whole30. I'll be using this thing for accountability, since it's so helpful, and then I'll use it to try and eat as cleanly as possible. Huzzah!

[mcjule]

Welcome to the group!

[Littlelotte]

Thanks!

 

Yesterday: day 1. 

 

M1: Deconstructed tuna cake (1 can tuna, 1 small baked sweet potato, some guac, pico, and spices). 

 

M2: Fish fillet of some sort, with tomatoes, onion, and olives, then the rest of the plate full of curried vegetables (carrots, summer squash, and either parsnips or ginger; some yellow vegetable that's fiborous...) and roasted tomatoes. Oh, and an apple.

 

M3: 1/4 a small ckicken (one of those cornish hens, I think?), and a few bites of sweet potato.

 

Yeeeaaahhh, so not enough veggies at meal 2, but I'm okay with one sub-optimal day because I still managed to eat three times and without distractions at all meals! Huzzah! It really is good that I ate three times, because when my depression starts to get bad, I end up skipping 1-2 meals every day, so I hadn't really eaten three times a day for about 1.5 weeks. Small victories, small victories. Also I don't know if I ate something bad yesterday or if all the crap I ate the day before was finally kicking in, but my gut went haywire at about 3:30. All kinds of puffy and crampy. It seems to be mostly recovered this morning, but man, not fun...

[Littlelotte]

Yesterday: day 2

 

M1: 3-egg onion omelet (1 cup), a pack of sesame seaweed.

 

M2: 1.5 grassfed hamburger patties (split with a friend--yum!) and 1 pan apple-cider-vinegar kale.

 

M3: A chicken breast, maybe some coconut butter (can't remember exactly), 1 bowl cabbage-cilantro (~1 cup?).

 

My stomach was still in chaos yesterday, and boy it wasn't fun. I even had a few painful jabs in my pelvic area which I haven't had pretty much since I was one month into my Whole30-attempting. I'm going to go ahead and attribute it to that one day of crap unless it continues for much longer; I've never had this kind of discomfort that I can remember, and certainly not while on my last Whole30, so I think it was the combo of soy-gluten-milk. That usually does me in, one way or another. Blech. Almost didn't eat dinner, but I dragged myself to food anyway. *pats self on back* So far, three meals a day and I haven't been distracted while I do it either! Huzzah!

[Littlelotte]

Yesterday: day 3

 

M1: 3-egg onion omelet and a sweet potato pan-fried in coconut oil.

 

M2: A nice bowl of leftover chili and a pan of kale.

 

M3: Melissa's comfort noodles with 3 eggs.

 

My stomach is still not happy and this is getting a bit ridiculous. Hoping it will clear up soon though.

[Littlelotte]

Yesterday: day 4

 

M1: deconstructed tuna cake(?), I think, and an apple?

 

M2: leftover chocolate chili and a pan of ACV kale (about 3 cups cooked down to 1?)

 

M3: a piece of "frizzled" ham, half a sweet potato, and a bit of broccoli.

 

Lots of starchies yesterday, I know, but I honestly wasn't in the mood for their overcooked broccoli. Also, yeah, uncertainty, because yesterday morning was forever ago and my brain is all finaled-out right now. And I ate the school's allergen-free ham. It probably had added sugar, but to their credit, I it wasn't actually all that sweet. Hopefully not, but there's only so much cooking I can juggle when I'm down to my last dregs of time and sanity so i'm not gonna stress too much.

 

On the bright side, my stomach is finally settling down after three days of great discomfort. And either tomorrow or Thursday is plantain day for breakfast, and I am SO EXCITED. Plantains, woot woot! And now I'm off to mentally rejuvenate from that 20-page final with a bit of coloring, jigsaw puzzling, and playdough playing. Peace out, yo.

[Littlelotte]

Yesterday: day 5

 

M1: deconstructed tuna cake...? Yep, pretty sure.

 

M2: greek-lemon chicken, grilled vegetables (SO GOOD FOR ONCE. SO PROUD, SCHOOL), green beans, compliant rooibos chai tea, and a snack pack of pistachios.

 

M3: leftover chili and ACV kale.

 

Night snack: orange.

 

I have a problem (with pistachios). I can literally feel the moment I have one too many but I just can't stop. Everything else going pretty well, except now I'm out of chili and kale. Also MY PLANTAIN WON'T FREAKING RIPEN. It is the saddest thing ever.

 

Actually, I didn't do so great with the no-distractions yesterday. Texted through most of lunch and dinner. 

[Littlelotte]

Today: day 6

 

M1: Oh my gosh, so good. I used a medium/large sweet potato to make sweet potato hashbrowns (half grated before I gave up and just chopped it into cubes) with some spices (basically Nom Nom Paleo's recipe with real onions, some cumin, and ground chipotle) and two fried eggs. I'm drooling just thinking about it...

 

M2: 1 cod fillet, about 2/3 cup of roasted plum tomatoes, and about 1/3 cup spinach. Also black olives. And a cup of black coffee because I couldn't afford to nap today (wasn't trying to avoid a food-related slump, but a not-sleeping-because-of-finals slump). Drank before 12, so hopefully no sleep disruption.

 

M3: 1 cod fillet, about 2/3 cup roasted plum tomatoes, one snack pack of pistachios, and about 1/2 cup red potatoes.

 

Yeah, too much starch again today, but I have so much studying to do still, and I'm out of non-starchy vegs (don't want to buy more because it's fridge clean-out week in preparation for break, soooo...), and they only had mixed vegetables with peas and lima beans, and I did not have time to sit there and pick them out, haha. So potatoes it was. Maybe I'll have an apple later tonight if I get hungry; we'll see. In terms of distracted eating, did better today. Wanted to text or read, but didn't. *pats self on back* Especially not for those sweet potatoes. Too good not to give my full attention.

 

Also I'm out of eggs. Sadface.

[Littlelotte]

So today was almost-day 7.

 

M1: A can of salmon (2 fillets) with mustard and a light coating of almond flour (I tried to be fancy and batter them; didn't work so great), and WAAAY too many sweet potatoes (2 small ones) turned into hashbrowns.

 

M2: Pulled pork and zucchini/bell pepper/tomato foods from cafeteria.

 

Aaaand here's why it's an almost-day seven, and an end to my almost-Whole7. M3: mini pizza, a larabar, a square of dark chocolate, and waaaay too many chocolate covered pretzels.

 

Here's the story: done with finals. No vegetables, don't feel like tuna, cafeteria doesn't have any vegs I can eat. I caved to cravings and got the cafeteria pizza (well, Godfathers, so not completely cafeteria). 

 

And I fully intend to go back on Whole[until Christmas Eve, I'm too lazy to count] tomorrow. Just one meal. And ugh. I am so disappointed in myself. I mean I'm not going to beat myself up over it, but I'm just disappointed. They're different, you know? I regret it, truly, but I'm learning a lesson from it, which is why there was some small takeaway. I won't lie; I used this crap-binge as a reward for finishing finals and because I've been stressed. Same reason I had the last one seven days ago. And here's what I'm learning:

 

1. 80% of the time it is not even worth it. The food is less than stellar, and I end up just eating it so I don't have to anymore. Then I stop eating it because, you know. I realize now that I can do that.

 

2. Rewarding myself with junk food is like saying "Hooray, I'm done with all that stuff I worked the whole semester for; time to ride my bike off a cliff in celebration!" Few seconds adrenaline, horrible crunch against the ground. Literally, I know I will feel like crap tonight. And my stomach had just settled out from last time. OH WELL, TIME TO DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN. :| At least I don't have classes that I have to sit through in pain because of my bad decisions.

 

I really do think I will save the more major off-roading (maybe white rice once or twice since I'm cool with that) for once-in-a-lifetime/emotionally significant events (like Christmas for me; it's tradition we have a nice huge Mexican dinner). Because seriously, I hate feeling as crappy as the food I'm eating. And I hate hate hate feeling like crap because I ate something I knew would wreak havoc on my system. Just, ugh. Did I mention how disappointed I am with myself? It's like, how do I even find an outlet for this kind of emotion? What can I do to make it go away?! I guess the best answer is to um...not do it again. We'll see how that goes.

 

So yeah, that's done. Also, I forgot to mention, but yesterday i stress-ate an additional pack of pistachios, and OH GOD MY SKIN IS ALREADY ITCHING I KNEW IT. Also it's return of the headache, and I just hope I can sleep well tonight. I still have a 500 word essay to write, and pack. Tonight. 

[Littlelotte]

For the record: god, my lungs. I can't breathe. Okay, well, I can, but it's like no matter how much I breathe I can't get enough air. And the mucous. GOD. These attacks were recently new to my summer (fun times), and AGAIN I am reminded that what I eat likely plays a part in them, because I stopped getting them after I started Whole30. And got them after eating badly. NOPE, SORRY CHOCOLATE COVERED PRETZELS, YOU ARE IN NO WAY WORTH NOT BEING ABLE TO BREATHE.

 

Morning update: Last night was awful. So much for this not affecting my sleep. I woke up like a minimum of seven times briefly through the night and spent like 80% of my time "asleep" in half-sleep with flashes of awkward half-dreams. I think partially it was because I watched too much of a horror game, but also because of what I ate because that is frickin ridiculous and it's never happened with that game before. -.-

[Littlelotte]

Yesterday was alright, but at least I managed to eat pretty cleanly. I'm finally on break from classes! Yyyeaaaahhh! I'm going to do all the crocheting, reading, cooking, and sleeping~

 

M1: SP hasbrowns with a baked cinnamon apple over 3 small grassfed sausage patties.

 

M2: A bag of leftover roast chicken.

 

M3: Not really much of one, since I ate it on the road. I had an apple, a snack pack of pistachios, then came home and had a carrot cake larabar, a fried egg, and a small bowl of leftover coconut chicken curry that my parents had made the night before. Oh and like a handful of pecans.