Whole30 and the flu

[quinnNjesse]

I've eaten a veggie frittata at 6am, a orange pepper for lunch & a red & orange for dinner at 8pm, ALL I can stomache. Of course now I'm panicked that my hormones think

I'm starving. Advise? I'm on day 15 and unwilling to quit.

Symptoms;

-sore skin (I get that with the flu)

-freezing. Can't get warm.

-zero appetite.

-nausea

-unsure of a fever as I've been on a heating pad for 4 hrs.

Any advice or tips for tomorrow would be appreciated.

[ultrarunnergirl]

Bone broth with veggies and meat in it (ie, soup). If you're down and out maybe you can find a compliant chicken broth at the store (Imagine makes one, check the labels of course). Or buy a compliant roast chicken, strip off the meat and toss it in a crockpot with onions, carrots, bay leaf, etc.

 

Here's a helpful article on coping with illness on your Whole30 along with a recipe for chicken soup: http://whole9life.com/2011/02/stm-feed-a-cold/

 

Soup recipes that are really comforting:

 

Nom Nom Paleo's Curried Cream of Broccoli Soup, also includes links to other Whole30 approved soup recipes

 

Silky Gingered Zucchini Soup from Well Fed 2/Melissa Joulwan - one of my favorites

 

Hope you feel better soon.

[robinfowler2]

Okay. Here's the short version: Because I have no colon and no rectum (ulcerative colitis surgery in 2004 left me with a j-pouch, not an ostomy), if I get a GI virus, I can't rehydrate on my own. I have to have constant IV fluids for 48-72 hours, which of course means hospitalization. These "episodes" can happen as frequently as every 2-4 months, or as infrequently as 18-20 months in between them. I have no control over their occurrence, of course, because I can't prevent exposures.

 

So: on Day 19, I woke up (from an uncomfortable night) with constant nausea. I managed to stay W30 with what little I did eat, and I did do a decent job of hydrating. Unfortunately, by late afternoon I was feeling worse, and at some point in the night I puked. I think this was more related to dehydration than to virus by this point. So off to the hospital we went, where I was admitted and given IV fluids. My diet was restricted to clear liquids, so I survived on cherry popsicles and fruit juice. By Tuesday morning, my potassium was starting to drop, so they added IV potassium to my fluids. On Tuesday evening, they moved me to solid foods, and my gut managed fine. This wasn't W30 compliant, but it was still mostly veg and protein. They discharged me on Wednesday evening.

 

These episodes always mess up my metabolism and my eating. Going hungry for two to three days messes with my head as well as with my gut. Nothing feels really good in my stomach for several days, not to mention that comfort foods are definitely what my body craves. On top of all of that (I just now saw the blog post about eating Good Food when you're ill; thank god for it. I will work on these meals as a transition back to W30.), I have zero energy when I get home from the hospital. Zero. And I'm very weak. I can barely make meals for myself, not to mention my three kids. And I certainly can't muster the energy and focus required to live and eat W30. The focus, especially, is necessary for me to make Good Food choices. I had been doing so well on my W30. I love to eat Good Food, and I love to cook. I was finally getting in a rhythm so that I wasn't shackled to the kitchen!

 

So I'm sad. I have been planning all along to extend my W30 closer to 60, or perhaps even longer. With PCOS, I need all the detox I can get from sugars. So I'm not discouraged AT ALL from picking up Whole 30 and keeping on. I just forget, from one episode to the next, how long it takes for me to feel functional again. On top of which, my body/metabolism/taste buds/appetite/satiety/hunger cues are so so so messed up after each of these. This is the first time I've been super conscious of just how messed up they are. And with every day that passes when I don't have the strength, focus, and energy to commit to eating W30 compliant, I get more and more discouraged. It has taken me over a week just to get up the strength to post about this.

 

So: thanks for reading this, and thanks in advance for any encouragement you can offer. I am aware of the AIP version of W30; I was planning to give regular W30 plenty of time to work on my body, and then try a 14- or 30-day AIP, just to assess what the differences are to my metabolism and energy. Eggs will be very difficult to leave off for any amount of time!

[ShannonM816]

I hope you feel better soon. Please just take your time and be gentle with yourself now as you recover. 

 

When you do feel better, it might be good for you to cook some things to keep in the freezer for the next time you have one of these episodes, so that all you have to do is heat and eat, not actually cook. Broth, obviously, but precooked proteins could be helpful too. If you do a weekly cookup anyway, adding one thing each week that is specifically to freeze -- or even doubling a recipe you're going to make anyway -- shouldn't add a huge amount of work or expense, and then you'll have things ready when you don't have the energy to cook.