Day 21: Morning Slumps and Disappearance of Tiger Blood

[zeenoda]

This is my first Whole30 and I’m currently on Day 21 and I feel dejected. I’m not about to give up especially since I’ve stuck to this for 30 days but I need some advice.

 

Somewhere in between Days 17 to 19, I felt more energized and geared up which I thought was that elusive Tiger Blood we’re all looking for. However I noticed that for the past 2 days, I’ve been having cases of morning slumps. I feel sleepy somewhere around 1030am at work and it feels a lot like carb coma. Is this normal? For the past 2 days, I’ve lowered my fruit intake in the morning. I used to have 1 whole dragonfruit with blueberries or 2 kiwis with blueberries but I thought I might’ve been getting too much sugar in my system so I decided to cut back.

 

My usual weekday goes about like this:

 

7am Workout

*Note: I never eat before my workout because I'll feel nauseous 

 

8.30/9am Post workout meal/Breakfast: Sweet Potato and Salmon Patties (contains egg) and 1 cup of blueberries + 1 kiwi (or ½ dragonfruit) with unsweetened coconut flakes

*Note: my breakfast has to be portable because I eat at my desk at work.

 

1030am Midmorning hunger strikes (when I had a larger morning fruit intake, it happened less)

 

1pm Lunch: Huge mesclun salad with 5 oz chicken breast, 1 hardboiled egg and ½ starch (sweet potato/butternut squash) and guacamole

*Note: Sometimes I throw in a quick 30 minutes pre-lunch workout in the gym with 15 minutes HIIT and 15 minutes weights

 

4/5pm Mid afternoon snack: This has been my kryptonite. I usually have a mid afternoon snack pre-Whole30 but I’ve been trying to avoid this. However if I’m really hungry, I’ll have a Larabar or Nakd Bar

 

7pm Dinner: Pulled Pork burger with Portobello “buns” and side salad with fried egg in coconut oil and guacamole

 

 

For the first week of my Whole30, I snacked a lot of nuts post dinner but I’ve since stopped doing so. Would this in any way affect my timeline/progress? I intend to extend my Whole30 by a couple days more but it is getting a bit dejecting to feel such a slump when I was hoping to get more energy out of doing the Whole30 and especially when I’m more than halfway through this!

 

PS. Sorry for the long post!

 

[ladyshanny]

Did you cut the fruits out right around the time you started to feel the slumps? I would think maybe you weren't fully fat adapted and you're going through a mini "low carb flu" now that your body is actually learning not to count on the fruit for quick energy.

I still see you eating more fruit for breakfast than you do veggies, fruit is fine but don't let it push those veggies off your plate. You should be aiming for 2-4 cups per meal. I also think you could afford to be eating quite a bit more at breakfast for sure. Salmon patties, if they are the ones I'm thinking (Well Fed or ISWF) are pretty small, how many are you having?

Also, give the Larabars the boot, they are doing nothing for you. They are meant to be emergency food (stuck in traffic for hours, late meeting, travel etc) and not at all meant to be planned into your regular consumption. They are as close to a candy bar as you can get on Whole30.

Snacking on nuts isn't cause for extension unless you feel you want to. They are very calorically dense so some people who eat too many of them might not see as great a weight reduction....if that's a goal of yours. They can also be hard on your stomach.

Overall I think you need to eat more protein, more veggies and possibly more fat. If you are needing to snack every day then you know your meals aren't big enough. If you do really need a snack between meals, it should be protein and fat at least but ideally also veggies.

Keep us posted!

[zeenoda]

Thank you ladyshanny!

 

I plan on cutting the fruit and adding carrots and some beetroot and nut butter for breakfast tomorrow to see how things go. I eat about 6-7 of those patties which are about the diameter of a golfball.

 

I've been increasing my breakfast and lunch intake, but I guess there's still room for improvement, especially since pre-Whole30, I was consuming approximately 1,400 calories daily which was far too little! 

[Tom Denham]

Yeah, I would try cutting the fruit at breakfast, increasing protein and fat at breakfast and lunch, and adding some veggies at breakfast. And if you need to eat a snack, eat something like a can of tuna and some carrots. 

[Physibeth]

I'll also add that you should try to eat something before you workout within an hour of waking. This would actually be a fine place for a spoonful of nut butter if that is all you can stomach. It will help balance your hormones to eat within an hour of waking.