lexibelle5110 Posted August 24, 2012 Share Posted August 24, 2012 Day 1-4 Victories - I haven't eaten anything that's not W30 approved off my son's dinner plate (bad, bad habit I've developed). It's been tempting and when I made him chocolate milk yesterday I was envisioning squirting the chocolate syrup directly into my mouth. The sad part? I don't even normally like chocolate syrup or chocolate for that matter. I think I was craving something sweet. - I had quad-shot mocha level energy yesterday, out of nowhere. I was practically jumping around while doing my morning meeting. It eventually tapered off, but not until much later in the day. It did eventually taper off in the afternoon, but not to the point of needing a pillow. - I'm slowly reducing the amount of fruit I eat. I started off having a lot of fruit with almost every meal. This wouldn't have been a problem but a) I realized it was triggering a headache and it was replacing my gum chewing habit. Today I only had a handful of berries, an avocado and a banana. Much better than Day 1. - I'm fairly sure that everything we've eaten thus far is compliant. I've been reading labels like crazy and my husband and I are both disturbed with how many products contain sugar. I think I almost cried when I saw sugar on the ingredient list for my beloved Siracha. Challenges - I'm starting to get headaches. I connected some of them with the sugar I was getting from fruit (especially grapes), so I've cut back to berries, green bananas. I've also got some green apples, but those are going to be an occasional treat or something we add to other things. Unfortunately that hasn't killed them completely, so I'm sure it's partially related to sugar, carb or caffeine withdrawal. - Staying off the scale. I'm really torn on this one. I understand the need to go through this and focus on what my body is telling me. On the other hand the little successes I might see on the scale help get me through the headaches and (like today) the overwhelming brain fog. It reminds me that I'm doing something right. I don't know if this is a battle I'm going to fight this time or if I'm going to save it for my second round. That's probably very defeatist to say, but right now it's a helpful tool for me. Overall I think things are going well - we're keeping our food relatively varied and I've been reintroduced to the wonder that is farm-fresh eggs. Thank goodness my MIL has chickens, so we get our eggs for an amazing $1.50/dz. The chickens get to forage in the back pasture, so I'm pretty sure that makes the eggs OK. Breakfasts: - Egg bake with sausage, peppers, onions, kale, broccoli and mushrooms. Next time I'll skip the broccoli and probably halve the amount of coconut milk we used - 'Cereal' I made out of chopped walnuts, slivered almonds, blueberries, blackberries and strawberries. I add a bit of coconut milk and we're good to go. I think this is going to be a once-in-a-while treat though because I barely wanted to eat it this morning. - Hard Boiled Eggs Lunch/Dinner - Roasted chicken with red and gold beets, sweet potato, carrots and onions. This wasn't a W30 compliant chicken, but I couldn't justify spending $5/lb on one when I already had 4 in our chest freezer at home. Hopefully that doesn't mess things up too badly. - Beef & Turkey Coconut 'Curry'. I'm putting curry in quotation marks because it wasn't quiet there yet but it was still good! It was a mix of ground beef, turkey, peppers, onions, ginger and garlic all floating in a yummy coconut milk broth. Definitely some tweaking, but this gave us dinner and two lunches, so definitely a try-again. Oh, and it's really good with avocado mixed in. - Sausage and Peppers (and onions and spinach) made with Aidells Chicken & Apple sausage. SO good and I can't wait for the leftovers. Snacks - Berry 'pudding' / yogurt. Hubby threw this together and it was DELICIOUS. He took some berries, a banana, a couple of grapes and some coconut milk, threw it in our Ninja and voila! We had this awesome pudding-texture mixture that even my son ate. Still have some in the freezer but I'm saving it for tomorrow I think. I know I'm only 4 days in and have a long way to go, but so far I feel really proud and happy with what my husband and I are doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Tom Denham Posted August 24, 2012 Moderators Share Posted August 24, 2012 You can get good, hot flavor without Siracha. You just have to use peppers and spices in your cooking. The scale is not a helpful tool for you. The scale is a backstabbing liar. Some days the scale goes up and some days the scale goes down. The information is meaningless day to day. Conventionally raised chickens are Whole30-compliant. Pastured, grass-fed meats are better, but not required, so using what you have in the freezer is fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lexibelle5110 Posted August 24, 2012 Author Share Posted August 24, 2012 Thanks Tom - I think I'm going to stock up on some jalapenos and other peppers the next time we hit the store. We normally don't cook with them a lot because they cause awful heartburn for my husband, but last night we were both reaching for the hot sauce (W30 safe based on the ingredient list), so I think we may be okay to kick up the heat. Just have to remember to keep a bit aside for our son, who really dislikes spicy (but will eat raw lemons). I've got a lot of experience with the scale and her lies. The reason I originally got into weighing myself every morning way-back-when was to get it through my head that the # on 'weigh-in day' was just luck of the draw. I know my weight can easily go up or down several pounds over the course of a couple of days based on what I did, ate or how much swelling I have going on. The first day I did it this week was totally unconscious - it's part of my morning routine. The next 2 visits were intentional, fueled by what the scale showed me that first day. It's such a change in mindset though, because when you've been 300lbs+ for years it's ingrained in your head that you measure success by weight, the rest is secondary. Still those are just excuses and I just need to suck it up and have my husband remove the batteries and hide them and the scale somewhere until September 18th. Thanks for the confirmation on the chickens We're getting the best meat we can afford / find but to be on the safe side I'm also having my husband and I take some Omega 3 supplements. Day 5 is here and so far so good. My energy seems more even, though I could do without the lowgrade headache I have going on. I'm amazed at how much easier it's getting to recognize that 'full' feeling. My biggest problem has always been that I'll eat past that point because there's food left or it tastes good or because I just sped through my meal so fast that my body hasn't had a chance to register. As someone that's been morbidly obese for most of her life it's a huge step to be able to push a plate away even though there are a few bites left. Oh and no snacks so far today, even though my day is going excrutiatingly slow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lexibelle5110 Posted August 28, 2012 Author Share Posted August 28, 2012 Finding time to log is quite difficult when chasing a toddler, so time to play catch up! Overall I think the weekends are going to be the hardest, between the running around my husband and I normally do and being in a house full of non-W30 compliant foods. Honestly I can get around the running around - we just make sure to eat before we go out, but being in the house full of carbs and forbidden foods is so hard. My parents live with us and since they (my mother) refuse to try and improve their eating (although they need to - Dad is Type 2 diabetic and Mom has so many health problems it's ridiculous), there's still tons of food in the house we can't eat. On the plus side my Dad's shared some of our food and has liked it, so if push came to shove I know we could get him on board with eating dinner with us. My mom, on the other hand, refuses to believe that a bowl of salad could be better for her than a plate of rice and meat swimming in grease (not the good kind either). I'd be happy if I can get my Dad at least partially onboard - the way they eat is definitely not good for him. The other night their dinner consisted of latkes (potato pancakes) with sourcream and apple sauce - that's it. Aside from that I've been feeling half-way decent. My energy still seems a bit up and down, but I didn't have my normal afternoon crash yesterday, which is a plus. Day 5 Breakfast 3 eggs scrambled in coconut oil 1 Aidell Chicken & apple sausage link Handful of raw carrots 1 Green Banana & some peach chunks Lunch Leftover chicken & sausage w/ peppers from Day #4 Dinner Chicken & Shrimp in coconut milk with veggies & a salad Day 6 Breakfast 3 poached eggs Sweet potato 'hash' with spinach, peppers and onions Lunch Skipped - wound up taking a nap and sleeping through lunch. whoops. :\ Dinner Grilled Steak Baked sweet potato fries Tossed salad w/spinach, romaine, tomatoes, cucumbers, olives and a garlic vinegrette Day 7 Breakfast 3 eggs fried in coconut oil 2 pork sausage links Sweet potato hash w/other veggies Lunch Leftover Chicken & Shrimp from Day 5 Dinner W30 Egg Foo Young w/gravy (bean sprouts, cabbage, carrot, ginger, onion, spinach) Cucumber & Jicama salad with homemade mayo, cider vinegar and pepper Day 8 Breakfast Leftover egg foo young Green Banana Lunch Crockpot Roast Beef w/sweet potatoes, carrorts and onions Leftover Jicama/Cucumber salad Dinner Chicken nuggets ala http://www.multiplydelicious.com minus the BBQ sauce Homemade Russian Dressing (attempted to make ketchup, failed miserably, so mixed it with some Mayo and voila! Palatable sauce ) Steamed Green Beans Hubby's version of a Portuguese Cucumber salad w/mayo, onions and cilantro Looking at all that I really think I need to up my veggies but it's going to have to wait until we go shopping this weekend. Apparently we undersestimated our produce consumption when we went shopping. I see a lot of frozen vegetables and the need to start building a farmer's market fund so we can restock between pay days. I do have to say that it feels really good to know that I know 100% what went into everything that we've eaten in the last 8 days. I'm also happy that we've been able to get our son to eat most of our dinners. Ultimately I want to get him off the processed foods as well, but circumstances require a slower change there, mostly because of my parents (again). They take care of him during the day and just don't understand why I'd be opposed to a bite of ice cream right before bed or him having a lunchable for lunch. One step/battle at a time I guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lexibelle5110 Posted August 29, 2012 Author Share Posted August 29, 2012 So since I'm going on 5 days without the scale - some NSV's to remind me this is working: - I've gone from a B to more of a D, and I'm not talking about bra sizes here (I wish!). Most people will have no clue what I'm talking about but maybe there's a woman or two who've experienced the dreaded B-shaped belly. I have no explanation for it, but it basically looks like I'm constantly wearing a really tight belt right around my belly button, so I have an upper and lower belly. Well there's a shirt I wear once in a while that has an elastic bottom and then a ruffle (it's not nearly as hideous as that sounds) and whenever I've worn it the elastic usually hit right at the indent on my belly, so it made my already horrible stomach look that much worse. Well last night I noticed that the indent seemed smaller, so this morning I put on my shirt and low-and-behold, it fits a lot better. So either things are re-arranging themselves or a lot of that was being caused by stomach bloat; or all of the above. Either way it's kind of nice. - My husband's shirts are fitting a lot better. He put on a T-shirt this morning that used to strain against his middle, and now he's got some room to spare. He had the same experience with a button down shirt. His results clothes-wise are definitely more dramatic than mine, but he always has an easier time up to a point. Darned male metabolism! - I'm actually having fun cooking. Prior to starting the Whole30 my husband made dinner 99.9% of the time - not because I can't cook but because I hated it, didn't have the energy and well - he's a trained chef and comes up with good stuff! Since starting the Whole30 we've been cooking together and trading off on who cooks. It's definitely a new dynamic in our relationship (yes, yes - I'm spoiled) and it feels good to actually have the energy to do it. - Speaking of - feeling awake is awesome. I know I'd feel better with 8hrs of sleep every night, but during the week there's just no way to make it happen (bedtime for my son is between 8-8:30 and have to wake up at 4:30am), but still I'm feeling good with what I'm getting. There are still moments when I'd love a nap, but they're not nearly as frequent or as bad. Day 8 Breakfast Leftover Egg Foo Young over raw spinach Banana Lunch Leftover chicken nuggets Green beans Cucumber salad w/ spinach thrown in Dinner Ginger beef: Ground beef, ginger, garlic, onion, red & yellow peppers, sweet thai green peppers, basil, spinach, olive and coconut oil and coconut milk Romaine lettuce (for lettuce cups - need to get bibb for a milder flavor) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derval Posted August 29, 2012 Share Posted August 29, 2012 Great change is afoot! Well done Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aberrantatavia Posted August 29, 2012 Share Posted August 29, 2012 Great job, Lexi! It must be a huge challenge to have lots of non whole 30 foods in the house. I have a few things here because my college aged daughter lives with me, but it's not things that I would normally gravitate to. Although I had to move the frozen Reece's cups to the door of the freezer where I wouldn't see them so easily lol I've combatted this a little bit with having the offroading map and the food list on the fridge, which is a really good reminder for me. I focus on what I can have, can accomplish, can do. And it makes it a little easier. And congrats on the change in body shape, that's fantastic! Tom, I'm totally putting a sign on my scales that says "I am a backstabbing liar". If I ever want to weigh myself, I'll have to peel the little sticky note off of it to even see my weight. I love it!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lexibelle5110 Posted August 30, 2012 Author Share Posted August 30, 2012 Melissa - that's a good idea. Fortunately I'm not much of a snacker, so the only time it's an issue is right around meal time when my head is in the fridge and we don't have a plan for dinner. I've also been battling the cravings with water or a frozen grape or two. Day 9 Overall a good day - high energy and ate well and my mood was okay. I'm a little disappointed in myself for skipping my workout (Curves) but we got home later than usual and I did something to my shoulder, so it wasn't totally because I was being lazy. I want to go today, but it looks like it's going to be another late night, so I'm torn. I really wish we didn't live at the top of two steep hills so I could go walking, but right now those hills kill my back. Well, at least they normally do - haven't attempted them lately. I think veggie intake and activity are my two biggest struggles. The veggies are easy to fix and I'm on my way - had veggies with all three meals, but the exercise is still a challenge. I know it's not a bad thing to take it slow in that area but I just keep hoping some magical switch will flip and I'll look forward to or look at workouts as a normal part of my day. I'm working on it. On a more positive note, my supervisor told me today that I'm looking fabulous and she really noticed a change the other day. Granted, I've been on this journey (not W30) since March-ish, but I still think the W30 is helping. When you're 350+ pounds it takes a while for weight loss to 'show', but the shape changes are helping make it more apparent I think. Breakfast Scrambled eggs w/ peppers and spinach - over a bed of baby spinach. Not my favorite - I still dislike peppers in my eggs and raw spinach isn't my thing before 11am. Lunch Leftover Ginger Beef Dinner Chicken & Apple sausage with peppers Steamed green beans and eggplant. Still not a huge fan of eggplan unless it's breaded, fried and covered in sauce and cheese. I need to find some other ways to cook it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aberrantatavia Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 Oh frozen grapes! I love those and forgot about them... Thank you! Sounds like you are trying a variety of veges which is really good. Are you still eating some veges that you do like? Don't forget that certain spices and flavors can make all the difference Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lexibelle5110 Posted August 31, 2012 Author Share Posted August 31, 2012 Melissa - the grapes are new for me, but they're awesome! What's nice is I'm usually good after one or two. I'm definitely getting plenty of veggies I normally like, but I'm trying to use this whole experience as a reason to expand my horizons. I think one huge goal of this whole thing would be to find a recipe that makes Brussel sprouts palatable. They are one of the few veggies I just won't touch. I think my problem with the eggplant was the way my hubby made it - it's not designed to be steamed. I just have to find a good recipe. My bigger challenge with the veggies is reminding myself to include more of them with breakfast and lunch. In my head they're more of a snack and dinner food. We're planning on going out this weekend and stocking up on more herbs and spices, because we realized this week we don't have nearly enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.