AmyJ's Whole30 Journey - Beginning December 8, 2014

[AmyJanette]

I really like it to dip chicken in.

 

 

Day 12:

Breakfast:  Sweet potato hash with prosciutto and an egg, with salsa and half an avocado.  Gotta be honest, I really did not like the hash, so I smothered it in salsa and added avocado, and it was tolerable but still not my favourite.

Lunch: Almond breaded fish and spicy chicken, dipped in homemade mayo, with celery, carrot and cucumber on the side.  

Supper: Pork chop cooked in EVOO with Mrs. Dash, potatoes and onions fried in EVOO, steamed broccoli, cauliflower and carrots.

Snack: Kippered herring and a fruit smoothie with avocado and coconut milk.  Yes, I had fish and a fruit smoothie for a snack. 

 

Hubby's away tonight, and I'm struggling with trying not to eat away my loneliness.  I am starting to realize that it's hard for me to be by myself without wanting to eat. 

[AmyJanette]

So, I ended up boiling some eggs, and I had egg salad with my homemade mayo, atop my homemade sausage patties as a snack after I posted my update last night.  It got me to researching late night food cravings.  I ate my snack around midnight, went to bed around 4 am, when I could FINALLY get to sleep...still having trouble getting to sleep, even when I stay up really late.  Anyways, so, I had breakfast around 11am (my sleep is all messed up because I can't get to sleep when I am supposed to, so I was just waking up then), had lunch around 3, supper around 6, snack around 9 and second snack around midnight, to bed at 4am.  I suppose between 6 pm and 4 am is an awfully long time to go without food if you are awake, so I'm going to be less hard on myself about my snacks, and more hard on myself about my sleep habits.

 

So...in doing my research about late night food cravings, I discovered part of my problem may be that my first two meals are not as heavy as they should be.  So, I am going to try a little experiment, eating a bigger breakfast and lunch, and then a bit of a lighter supper, see if that doesn't help curb my appetite a bit more later on.  I am also going to try a tea to help me get to sleep by 10 or 11...early night for me tonight, hopefully!

 

As an aside, breakfast was yummy!  I discovered I really liked my egg salad with homemade mayo on my homemade sausage patty, so I had another for breakfast, along with a sweet potato and some baked Napa cabbage with olive oil drizzled on it, with a glass of almond milk.

[AmyJanette]

Day 13: 

 

Breakfast: Sweet Potato, Napa Cabbage drizzled with olive oil, Sausage patty with egg and homemade mayo, glass of almond milk.

Lunch: Pork Chop, homemade mayo for dipping, raw mushrooms and peppers

Supper: Roasted winter vegetables (carrots, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, and parsnips in EVOO and salt and pepper), pork chop with mayo, raw mushrooms and peppers.

 

 

Day 14:

Breakfast: 2 poached eggs, raw peppers and mushrooms, leftover winter veggies

Lunch: 1 can tuna with mayo and an avocado, leftover winter vegetables, raw mushrooms and peppers

Supper: Compliant sausages (that I finally found!!), sweet potato, salad with romaine lettuce, tomato, cucumber, green pepper, avocado, and compliant spring herb vinaigrette.

Meal 4: Salad with leftover sausage, avocado, romaine, tomato, cucumber, green pepper with vinaigrette.

[ShannonM816]

You probably need more than two eggs at breakfast. You should check out this thread about what a serving of eggs looks like. If you don't feel that you can eat more than two eggs at a time, try having some other protein with them -- some sausage or leftovers from supper. 

[AmyJanette]

i am upping my servings to three extra large eggs for now, and we'll see how that goes for me. Thanks for the link!

 

That said, I think I have finally found my go to breakfast:

 

Three eggs, 1/2 green pepper, one leek, chopped, four or five large mushrooms, sliced, cooked up in an omelette...then once on the plate, dice up some avocado, put it over half the omelette, and fold it over so the avocado is in the middle.  Serve with compliant salsa...Voila!  It's so yummy, if it weren't self-contained and making me completely satiated I could see it being a food with no brakes.

 

So, DAY 15!  Halfway through!

 

Breakfast: Leek, pepper, mushroom omelette with avocado, with almond milk mixed with the egg.

Lunch: Salad with various veggies and chicken and avocado, almond milk

Supper: Sweet potato, chicken, and coconut milk

[ShannonM816]

I think having a big breakfast makes all the difference in my cravings and hunger the rest of the day -- hopefully it'll be the same for you.

[TLaposi]

I would like your sausage reciepe.  And what brand of almond milk do you buy?  Im having a hard time finding some that doesnt have soy or dextrose, or other things I cant have.  I have noticed that my cravings are completely gone!  I could care less if I dont have bread, or even ice cream ( which I could never say no too).  Still having joint pain but the next couple weeks should bring some relief!

[AmyJanette]

I used this as a basic sausage recipe: http://www.primalpalate.com/paleo-recipe/breakfast-sausages/ but I tweaked it to my taste.  I added about four times as much garlic because I like garlic, and I also added some thyme.  You can pretty much add any herbs you want to sausage, though..., so next batch I may play around a bit more.  This sausage was good, but I ground the fennel, and next time I'd likely just leave it whole because I could really taste it in the sausage this time around.  But it was still yummy!

 

The Almond milk I bought is Silk unsweetened almond milk.  It's no cow's milk but it'll do...lol

[AmyJanette]

Okay, Day 16 (Family Christmas):

 

Breakfast: Three egg omelette with peppers, leeks, and mushrooms, avocado in centre

Lunch: Christmas Dinner: Beef roast, roasted winter vegetables, steamed broccoli/cauliflower/carrot mix.

Snack: Pistachios and fruit

Supper: Beef roast, sweet potato with coconut oil

 

I think I did pretty well, considering all the stuff my mother-in-law made for my husband's side's family Christmas.  I wanted a couple things (stuffing and a glass of milk, again!!!), but I didn't want them badly enough to blow all the work I've done so far!

 

 

Day 17 (Christmas for my hubby and me - our first since our wedding.  I only had two main meals today, because I knew the second meal was going to be very large as today my hubby and I had a romantic seafood dinner...had a third, smaller meal later on.)

 

Breakfast: Leftover beef, sweet potato with coconut oil

Lunch/Supper: Baked Salmon cooked with olive oil and ghee (OMG - the salmon turned out SO MOIST!!!) with avocado salsa on top; plain baked potato; mushrooms and garlic sauteed in ghee; shrimp; scallops sauteed in garlic and ghee, with lemon squeezed on after cooking; steamed vegetables.

Had a late mini meal after exercise - sweet potato and coconut oil, and about 6 shrimp

 

So, my sister-in-law and I got talking about all the changes in my life lately and it made me realize how much more flavourful my food is now.  Already my taste is coming back after quitting smoking December 7!  And I can't believe how easy it is to resist sweets...it's not really resisting; resisting implies you want it and hold back, whereas I don't even want them in the first place!

[AmyJanette]

Day 18

 

Breakfast: 3 egg omelette with leeks, green peppers, prosciutto, and asparagus, topped with an avocado and some salsa

Snack: Can of Tuna with homemade mayo and green beans 

Lunch: Cabbage Casserole that I pulled out of the freezer because I thought it was spaghetti sauce...over spaghetti squash; with a couple coconut chicken cutlets and some homemade mayo.

Supper: salmon cakes, roasted winter vegetables, and steamed broccoli/cauliflower/carrot veggies.

 

And I don't know if anyone has posted this link before, and I don't know what is Whole30 approved in it, but there are over 1000 paleo recipes.  http://www.paleofood.com/  I am going to check it out sometime (we have two more Christmases this weekend so will maybe get to it tomorrow, and if not then next week).

 

Also, I have been noticing that my face has been really puffy in the morning the last four or five days.  I have been a little fast and loose with portion sizes and template ratios for a couple meals the last couple days due to Christmas, but haven't really had anything that I've never had before, and haven't eaten anything that is not Whole30 compliant that I know of.  The only thing I have had different is the odd glass of almond milk or almond coconut milk.  I'm wondering if the almonds are causing me to bloat?  I have also noticed my muffin top is now an entire bakery...lol...as in I feel like I'm pregnant half the time.  This, despite an obvious dip (I'm sure I've lost at least a couple inches) in my natural waist.  Any thoughts???  Also, BREAKOUTS!!!  I have gotten at least ten large, painful pimples in the last week.  Not the little pop it and it's gone ones, but the deep, won't pop painful ones that linger and nothing you do can get them gone ones.  Maybe a detox thing???

[AmyJanette]

Another link to check out later: http://bravoforpaleo.com/recipe-index/  

 

It's all paleo stuff, but I'm sure there can be some adjustments for Whole30.

[TLaposi]

Sounds like a detox thing...I haven't experienced that yet...I did have my first dream of non compliant food and of all things I ate 2 butterscotch candies as I ate the first I said man this candy is sweet as I ate the second one I realized I ate sugar...haha weird dream. I did make the mayo and homemade each dressing they are delish! My husband even liked them. Hope you had a very merry Christmas!

[AmyJanette]

LOL...My first dream was milk...I took a big swig and it was sooo good, then I realized what I was doing and spit it out! Funny how our brains work, eh?

 

So, I posted my skin symptoms in the troubleshooting thread, and a couple people there thought it might be a food allergy.  I took some Benadryl to test that theory, and the puffiness disappeared!  So, I'm thinking I'm going to cut out the three biggest potential allergens (nuts, avocado, and eggs) for the rest of my Whole30 (ten more days!) and see if the puffiness and itch goes away.

 

Hope you're having a great Christmas, too!  Mine's been good so far - My mother-in-law gave me some sweet potatoes, avocados and spaghetti squash for Christmas (along with a greenhouse and a bunch of stuff to start my new vegetable garden in the spring)...she has been surprisingly supportive through my Whole30.  My hubby gave me a food dehydrator and the book, "The Paleo Diet"...I'm likely the first woman in history who was happy to get a diet book from her hubby for Christmas! lol

 

Day 19

 

Breakfast: Shrimp, Salmon patties, sweet potato

Lunch: Shrimp, steamed sugar peas, sweet potato with coconut oil

Supper: Sausage, Sweet Potato with coconut oil, mixed oriental veggies 

[AmyJanette]

Day 20: 

 

Breakfast: sweet potato, sausage, mixed oriental vegetables

Lunch: turkey with gravy (made with tapioca starch), winter vegetables, broc/cauli/carrot mix

Supper: Same as lunch

 

Snacked on raw veggies probably more than I should have throughout the day, but it was my family Christmas and I was sitting beside the sweets table (yes, my mean family made me sit right beside a table full of homemade treats!) so I sat the veggie tray in front of me and snacked on that.  No slips!  

 

Today is our last Christmas (thank heavens!!!) so just one more day of exerting my willpower and I'm home free!  Only 9 days left!

 

Now, since I am cutting nuts (including coconut apparently), eggs, avocado, and I'm thinking fish, too...that really cuts down on potential meals if you look back through my meal log...So, I am going to really have to think about what to eat for my last nine days.  (I only have 9 days left!!!  Crazy!!)  I will be winging meals today, as I will be really busy, so I may not have the best meals but they will at least be ingredient compliant, and tomorrow when the craziness subsides and I have time to go shopping, I will sit down and create a new menu plan for my last week and go from there.

[AmyJanette]

Day 21
 

Breakfast: chicken stirfry with peppers, mushrooms, onions (in ghee)

Lunch: turkey, potatoes with gravy (made with potato starch - much better texture than tapioca starch), sweet potatoes, mixed veggies with ghee

Supper: Sweet potato with ghee, turkey 

 

Day 22

 

All meals consisted of leftovers.  

 

 

 

I am so over this, as per Day 21 of timeline.  No tiger blood.  Eyes still itchy and runny, face still puffy, and I am so tired all the time.  I almost fell asleep driving twice today.  I NEVER feel this tired, especially after sleeping as well as I did last night.  

 

I have 8 days left, and I am so frustrated right now that I don't know if I'll last that long. 

[85MotherOf4AK]

Don't give up you are so close. Just hang in there. It says sometimes the Tver blood feeling takes longer to kick in. We've all spent years putting crap in our body's 30 days just may not be long enough.

[ladyshanny]

Oh, hey AmyJanette!  You are super close to the finish line, stay with it! 

 

Tiger Blood is a really fluid thing and not super easy to define.  For some people the "tiger blood" stage is crazy high energy and near euphoria and for others (in my opinion more frequently these others!) it's a basic decent feeling, like everything's come together.

 

Now that said, clearly everything has not come together for you yet.  I just cruised through a couple pages of your food logs and they look pretty good for content.  You're not listing quantities so I really hope that you are using the template and making sure you're actually getting enough volume of food, you seem like you're pretty in tune with yourself though so I suspect that's not the tiredness issue.

 

It really does sound like you are having an allergy attack but I wonder if it's maybe environmental and not food related?  I see snow in your profile pic and read "Canada" (me too, btw) so I assume you live in a snowy locale but that doesn't eliminate environmental allergies such as pet dander, mould and mildew, dust etc.  We run our furnaces more in the winter, the house is closed up and air & allergens get trapped and stale. If you store firewood outside and then bring it in, there's a high risk of having brought in mould which is a classic allergen.  Burning those "presto" logs could be an allergen too, those things are a solid mass of chemicals.

 

I saw that you mentioned the allergy attack on Day 7 but then I didn't really see a mention of it again until yesterday.  Has it been every single day?  Are any days worse than others?  One of my favourite things to do is "Sherlock" symptoms!  Did you ever have a reaction to something as a child?  Maybe something that you are all of a sudden eating more of than normal (eg, more coconut products or more eggs or more avocado)?

 

I really think, as miserable as it is and as frustrated as you sound, drifting off the program (especially when you're so close to the finish line!) isn't the answer.  Adding back non compliant foods isn't going to help you discover and clear up what is ailing you right now.  Stay strong! 

[AmyJanette]

Thanks for the encouragement, ladies!

 

Ladyshanny:  The hives on the eyelids thing has been off and on the entire Whole30...but they've been present the last week or so every morning when I wake up and sometimes through the day.  

 

It could be a food thing or an environmental thing.  I've had this kind of thing since forever, so it's hard to pinpoint just one thing that may be causing it.  I did go to an allergist several years back and I am not sure what exactly they tested me for, but they only found a slight allergy to dust - none to food, though I'm not sure what food allergies they would have tested me for.  Eventually they diagnosed me with cold urticaria when pregnant (weird, huh?  I get 6" wide hives when exposed to cold, but only during pregnancy).  I have also had dermatographism since childhood, which sometimes causes weird skin reactions, so that's kind of what I've been running with...but I also think that it's possibly a dust thing...It's never really caused this type of reaction; usually it's a wheeze thing...but I've been over at my brother's house helping him renovate - I just noticed this morning that my eyes were worse again with the hives and itch.  So I think this bout of symptoms is related to that.  Though it doesn't explain the earlier symptoms.

 

So, I have decided not to cut out the foods this time around.  I am going to finish this Whole30 - only a week left!! - and then I will cut out eggs, avocado, fish, coconut and nuts on my February Whole30 (i.e. Whole28).

 

As for the tiger blood...what you describe - the basic everything coming together feeling - is more in line with how I felt the first couple weeks on this.  These last few days I have been extremely grumpy and growly at the hubby, lethargic, foggy-brained, tired, itchy, bitchy...just in general wondering if there was a real purpose to all the effort, time and money I've put into this program.  I can see changes in how I look - small ones, but they're there - but I'm not feeling any better now than before I started, and it's possible I feel worse.

 

As for the food amounts...I eat until I'm not hungry, but usually I have at least 2 palms of protein, likely more fat than 2 thumbs, and I generally always have at least 2-3 cups of veggies with each meal and I've been adding in sweet potatoes on top of that most meals because I'm wondering if I'm not getting enough carbs (foggy brain).  This week with all the Christmases it's been a challenge and I think my veggie intake went down a bit...but I've still been eating enough to avoid being hungry enough to partake in goodies.  I think I've been doing pretty well the whole way along, aside from maybe a couple smoothies and a bit of snacking here and there.  And I think the fact that I've been pretty good is what seems to be frustrating me now...I feel like I'm not seeing the positive changes I should be at this point in the program.  I will finish it out, because it's a Whole30, not a Whole23...but if things don't improve in the next week, I'm not sure if I'll have the motivation to do the Whole 28 I was planning for the month of February.
 

[AmyJanette]

PS...The tiredness continues today...I had to have a 4 hour nap this afternoon I was soooo tired.  And I could have gone back for another after about two hours awake.  I feel just exhausted from the moment I get up to the moment I go to bed.  It's so abnormal for me.

[ladyshanny]

The dust thing sounds like you might be on to something, especially renovating-related dust, that's probably all sorts of irritants that you wouldn't normally come into contact with. Just a side note, my husband bought me a super expensive new feather pillow (it had feathers, fleece, down and was compartmented so it never would lose shape) and I had a serious allergic reaction to it in my eyes to the point that when the dr walked into the exam room her response was "What the hell happened to you?!". LOL! I removed the pillow, the hives/swelling went away, I returned the pillow and they came back immediately. And it was a hypoallergenic pillow. So go figure, who knows what the heck it was.

Your intake sounds good and you have an awesome attitude and seem to have a lot of knowledge of the program, the purpose and your own body. You're so on the right track! Maybe try wearing goggles and a dust mask at the brother's house?

[ladyshanny]

PS...The tiredness continues today...I had to have a 4 hour nap this afternoon I was soooo tired.  And I could have gone back for another after about two hours awake.  I feel just exhausted from the moment I get up to the moment I go to bed.  It's so abnormal for me.

Do you get seasonal allergies and is it the same sort of exhaustion? This doesn't sound Whole30 caused; I think maybe you might consider hitting up your doctor?

[AmyJanette]

I've never had seasonal allergies, so I'm not sure if this is similar to those symptoms.  But I will definitely have to wear a mask at my bro's!

 

I guess I should call my doctor's office as soon as I can in the new year.  I was planning on making an appointment with my doctor if I didn't get pregnant after a couple rounds of Whole30, in order to get on hormones (after being off birth control 3 years and turning 32 in January, I don't want to put it off much longer), but I guess I can move that up.  

[AmyJanette]

Day 23: Still eating leftovers...Pulled out some coconut chicken from the freezer for one of my meals, and had a flush of eyelid hives after eating that meal, which may or may not be related to the coconut, as I also had homemade mayo (with egg in it) and had contact with a potential environmental allergen.

 

Day 24:

Still on track.  In better spirits.

 

So, here is my new plan:  

 

Today is day 25.  The last day of my Whole30 will be on January 6.  I will reintro my foods slowly for the rest of January, and cut out eggs, almonds, coconut, fish, and avocado for the rest of January.  I will then do a reverse reintro on my February Whole28 - adding these foods back in to see if they are the root of a sensitivity.

 

Also, my exercise has been sporadic during this Whole 30.  I intend, starting today, to add in at least 1/2 hour of exercise daily, whether it is on my stationary bike or a workout to an exercise video or just a walk.   Also, I want to add in a body weight routine (lunges, squats, pushups, etc.) at least three times a week, so say Monday, Wednesday, Friday.  I am hoping to get into a good routine so that when my next round of Whole 30 (or 28 in my case) rolls around, I will have it established.

 

This is going to be my year to get healthy, lose weight, feel better and improve my fertility.  I can't wait to see what 2015 will bring!

 

Happy New Year!

[AmyJanette]

Day 25

 

Breakfast: 3 eggs, salsa, three roma tomatoes with salt and pepper, one banana, one kiwi

Lunch: Chicken breast strips (cooked in coconut oil, salt and pepper), raw broccoli

Supper: Roast beef, baked potato with beef broth on it, and steamed broccoli

 

Exercise: 1/2 hour on bike

 

No hives, and barely any itchiness today compared with the last week...I'm feeling much less stressed out about my W30, and feel like I'm more or less back on track.  We shall see what tomorrow brings.

[Augie]

Hi! I was reading your log and I'm so sorry you're having allergy problems. I did my first whole 30 last month and I had a similar reaction as you (only not as extreme as yours). I figured out with my doctor that I have a histamine intolerance. Once I cut out high histamine foods I felt better. I think going paleo triggered it for me because meat gets higher in histamines the longer it sits around. I just make sure I eat meat the same day I cook it. There are a bunch of other foods that are high in histamine like seafood, eggs, pork, spinach, herbal tea. I don't want to suggest that you have the same problem as me since I'm not a doctor, but I just thought more info might help. If you want more info you can send me a message. I hope you start feeling better soon.