Nausea and stomachache

[tuom0030]

Hello,

 

So I am on day 7 of my day 30 and every single day after I eat my final meal around 7 or 8 I feel extremely nauseous and sick to my stomach like I had binged at Mc Donalds... Has anyone else had similar symptoms and how long did it take to subside? I haven't eaten a ton of carbs and thought maybe that was the culprit.. If anyone has any insight it would be greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks!!!

[evaq]

Can you post 2-3 days meals (quantities, volume etc)? This will help give everyone some insight into tracking down the potential culprit.

[tuom0030]

Yesterday

Breakfast:

1/2 cup sweet potato

1/4 cup pecans

1 banana

 

Lunch:

Nori wrap with crab, cucumber and avocado

Fruit and veggie smoothie with orange, passion fruit, carrots, sweet potato, and squash

 

Dinner:

Chicken with homemade ranch

coconut imitation lara bar with cashews, almonds, and date paste

carrots

 

snack: tilapia with red potatoes cooked in olive oil (didn't bring enough food to work)

 

Friday:

eggs with compliant bacon, banana

 

lunch:

artichokes with lemon garlic aoli

salad with chicken, tomatoes, cilantro, and lime cilantro vinegrette

 

dinner:

salsa and pico de gao

chicken

lettuce wraps

and fruit

 

snack:

1/2 cup sweet potato and egg

 

counted calories just to see and I did 1700 yesterday ad 1500 the day before..

[EmilyK]

You need more food!  I can't speak to what may be upsetting your stomach, but you need to eat more at your meals.  Also make sure you're getting at least one palm sized piece of protein at every meal--two if you want.  You want to increase your main meal size enough that you don't need your snacks.

 

Don't count calories.  That's not the point--the point is to learn to listen to your body.  

 

Not knowing what kind of diet you came from before starting the whole30, your belly pain and nausea could just be your gut getting used to whole foods.  

 

But really.  Eat more.

[evaq]

Ditto Emilyk. The quantity, variety and ratio of your food seems waaay off. Also put the brakes on counting your calories! The whole 30 reset is about getting to an intuitive and positive place with your body, hunger and needs. If you want to document your macros, calories etc. after your whole 30, sure, it might be interesting. But during your whole 30, mitts off!

 

Eat and eat according to the meal template. The food you listed is compliant but not adhering to the spirit and philosophy of whole 30. There's not enough protein, veg or frankly, balance in the sample meals you gave us. Your body is giving you some clear feedback that what you're eating is not working. Why don't you try eating according to the template and see if you feel better?

 

http://whole30.com/downloads/whole30-meal-planning.pdf

 

Best of luck! And let us know if you feel better after a couple days of template eating.

[tuom0030]

Well I felt satisfied.. I just calculated at the end of the day an equivalent of how many calories because I was curious.. I don't know how to incorporate more food at meals.. I sleep better if I have a snack around nine so that's why I have been adding a snack in. I feel sick to my stomach around that time though and hungry at the same time.. I ate pretty healthy before although I did indulge on alcohol a bit more than I should have but I would already eat eggs, fruits and veggies, protein, just ate yogurt, cheese, cereal and whole grains as well... an

[tuom0030]

I forgot to add that I do add a fat mostly ghee because I hate the taste of coconut oil to each meal or have dressings that contain olive oil.  I do imitations of lara bars or smoothies because I literally do not have time to meal plan for every single second of my day. I chose to attempt this diet to become more healthy and help reset my body. I am making better choices already and because of a time crunch eating nuts combined with coconut held together with date paste or getting carbs from sweet potatoes in the form of a smoothie is the only way I can add in extra fats and carbs on the go.

[EmilyK]

Honestly, i would build your meals around the template and focus on that--at this point, you're early enough that your hunger signals aren't totally reliable yet.  I'll bet if you worked yourself up to eating a larger dinner and replacing your evening snack with some herbal tea, you would sleep just as well as having a snack at that time.

 

Perhaps today, really familiarize yourself with the template and apply it to foods you enjoy and have available. Then, tomorrow, try to eat just three template meals.  If you feel full before you finish a meal, save it and eat it when you get hungry again instead of having a snack.  But it doesn't seem like you're eating enough quantity or variety as Evaq says.  Maybe try eating more and sticking more closely to the meal template for a few days and see what difference that makes.

[AmyS]

I agree with the above posters. Since your time is short for food prep, here's what you do:

 

1. 1-2 palm-size portions of protein (length, width, and thickness of your palm)

2. 2-4 cups of veggies

3. 1-2 thumb-size portions of fat (nuts are a fat source, not a protein source, on Whole30)

 

Do that three times a day. The first time, which we call Meal 1 in Whole30Land, do the above within one hour of waking.

 

If you are on the go and don't have time for a full meal and you get hungry, eat a mini-meal of fat and protein. Hard boiled eggs are easily portable. If you have more room to carry food around, cubed roasted sweet potatoes are a good addition. You can also carry sardines or compliant tuna or salmon in cans. Many Whole30ers carry can openers and forks along.

 

Smoothies are extremely strongly discouraged on Whole30. They do not give your body satiety cues that it needs and they are almost always sugar bombs.

 

Lara bars are for true emergencies only, and easily replaced in most every-day situations by the above-mentioned mini-meal.

 

Your goal is to get to the place where you can eat three meals a day, each of which satisfies you for 4-5 hours. Snacks are discouraged, replace them with mini-meals if you are hungry between meals. Then the next day, add more to your meals.

 

Most women don't really eat enough, and then we snack all day to keep ourselves from going nuts. Whole30 lets us actually eat. I eat dinner out of my former mixing bowls these days. Eat up!

 

It's entirely possible that your nausea arises from the combination of hunger, nuts, and Lara bars. That's a potent recipe for gastric distress (and a possible sugar hangover the next day).

 

Since your goal is to eat more healthily, and since you're already doing that in this first week of Whole30, add these tips and see how it goes. Let us know how you get on.

[tuom0030]

I do suspect the lara bar as a possible culprit or nuts but then I am worried about making cream based soups from cashews or almond milk in the future.. I also do workout quite a bit 5-6 days a week with 2 days resistance (barre and higher rep low weight resistance training) and 4 days cardio (hiit, plyo interval and strength and zumba) (tuesdays 2 workouts in a day one resistance training and one cardio).. I know snacks are encourage pre and post workout but if I already feel full or have heartburn how do I incorporate those?

[EmilyK]

If you're that active, you DEFINITELY need to eat more.  I haven't really touched on whole30-ing and exercise, certainly not enough to require extra food than just 3 meals a day, so someone else can chime in on that one.

 

I would go back to the meal template, and cut out nuts and larabars for a few days and see if that helps your digestion.  Make sure you're getting enough protein and starchy veggies.  You need fuel, and you're going to feel icky if you don't get enough of the right kind.

[AmyS]

I do suspect the lara bar as a possible culprit or nuts but then I am worried about making cream based soups from cashews or almond milk in the future.. I also do workout quite a bit 5-6 days a week with 2 days resistance (barre and higher rep low weight resistance training) and 4 days cardio (hiit, plyo interval and strength and zumba) (tuesdays 2 workouts in a day one resistance training and one cardio).. I know snacks are encourage pre and post workout but if I already feel full or have heartburn how do I incorporate those?

If you work out a great deal, then you need to eat the three template meals per day, plus one pre-workout meal of protein and fat, and one post-workout meal of lean protein and carbs.

 

You will find out if you have issues with nuts by taking them out of your daily eating. If you are interested in cream-based soups without nuts, you can thicken with coconut milk or simply cook the soup down a bit. It doesn't make much sense to leave in nuts when you suspect they are bothering you, because later you might have problems with nuts in large portions in soups. Find out now.

 

So - three template meals, plus one pre-workout and one post-workout meal per day. These are meals, not snacks. This food is designed to fuel your life, not hide from your brain the fact that you're not eating enough (something snacks are specifically designed to do). Again, eat up.

[tuom0030]

If you work out a great deal, then you need to eat the three template meals per day, plus one pre-workout meal of protein and fat, and one post-workout meal of lean protein and carbs.

 

You will find out if you have issues with nuts by taking them out of your daily eating. If you are interested in cream-based soups without nuts, you can thicken with coconut milk or simply cook the soup down a bit. It doesn't make much sense to leave in nuts when you suspect they are bothering you, because later you might have problems with nuts in large portions in soups. Find out now.

 

So - three template meals, plus one pre-workout and one post-workout meal per day. These are meals, not snacks. This food is designed to fuel your life, not hide from your brain the fact that you're not eating enough (something snacks are specifically designed to do). Again, eat up.

 

 

Well before I started the whole30 I drank almond milk every day and ate lara bars and cocoa covered almonds and regular almonds, pecans, and walnuts, several times a day so I guess that is why i'm not sure why they would suddenly be bothering me. I assume the lara bar might be an issue because as a kid cashews were a migraine trigger but ive avoided them since I was 8 or 9 so I haven't had experience with them since.  

[tuom0030]

I guess the overall reason I am confused is because I literally feel great all day until around 8 or 9 and then I feel horrible.

[evaq]

Your lifestyle/fitness/nutrition level is unique to you but I can firmly attest that whole 30 can be done without snacks. FWIW, I did my whole 30 with a no-snacking policy. There might have been 1 or 2 days when I got home late and was cooking/eating M3 at 8:30 and the few cashews that were going into my stir fry ended up being eaten before the dish was done but that's it.

 

I do either one or two workouts a day for 5-6 days week (heavy lifting/CF style 60 mins 3x week , running 45 mins to 1 hr 2x week, rock climbing 2x week, yoga/pilates 1x week) and I don't snack. The odd post WO fuel (hard boiled egg) but that was rare.

 

What I'm sensing is that you want healthy changes but aren't/can't commit to the whole 30 eating template or philosophy. I don't think you have a single issue that's the culprit - though it is manifesting as a mysterious evening symptom.

 

It's not the nuts or the cashews in your soup, larabars, snacks etc. It's everything that you're choosing to do/eat - and everything that you're not doing/eating. I don't mean to come down hard and heavy, but there's been a lot of gentle and constructive suggestions already made regarding what to do but they're not getting through to you. Maybe that's why so many of your follow-up questions seem at cross purposes with the given feedback/suggestions. We're not trying to "talk around" your question about cashews/nuts/stomach aches. We're all giving you our genuine (and hopefully helpful) feedback about getting to the root of your problem - your current eating. Frankly, I'm a bit curious why you're so resistant to even trying to eat according to the food template. If I had a stomach ache every night, I'd want relief ASAP.

 

It comes down to this: If you truly want change (a healthier you) and to crack your hunger-stomach ache dilemma then you need to be open to change.

 

Best of luck with your whole 30 and I hope you get to the bottom of your stomach ache problem.

[AmyS]

I guess the overall reason I am confused is because I literally feel great all day until around 8 or 9 and then I feel horrible.

That does sound troublesome, and I can understand that you'd be in search of some immediate relief. I'd still suggest that you move in the direction of eating according to the template and see if your symptoms improve over the next few days. If you're looking for specific triggers that might be troubling you, then you can start a food log in our Logs section. You can include your daily food, exercise, water intake, sleep, stress levels, anything that might be relevant. Then you can use the log to help yourself troubleshoot everything from your meal composition to meal timing to specific foods that you might discover cause particular problems.

[jmcbn]

^^This.

Listen to the advice, cut out the nuts & larabars, stick to the meal templates, aim for the higher end of what's recommended portion-wise to fuel your training & just eat real food.

Honestly, it'll work.

 

But you will only get out of it what you are willing & committed to putting in. 


 

[tuom0030]

Your lifestyle/fitness/nutrition level is unique to you but I can firmly attest that whole 30 can be done without snacks. FWIW, I did my whole 30 with a no-snacking policy. There might have been 1 or 2 days when I got home late and was cooking/eating M3 at 8:30 and the few cashews that were going into my stir fry ended up being eaten before the dish was done but that's it.

 

I do either one or two workouts a day for 5-6 days week (heavy lifting/CF style 60 mins 3x week , running 45 mins to 1 hr 2x week, rock climbing 2x week, yoga/pilates 1x week) and I don't snack. The odd post WO fuel (hard boiled egg) but that was rare.

 

What I'm sensing is that you want healthy changes but aren't/can't commit to the whole 30 eating template or philosophy. I don't think you have a single issue that's the culprit - though it is manifesting as a mysterious evening symptom.

 

It's not the nuts or the cashews in your soup, larabars, snacks etc. It's everything that you're choosing to do/eat - and everything that you're not doing/eating. I don't mean to come down hard and heavy, but there's been a lot of gentle and constructive suggestions already made regarding what to do but they're not getting through to you. Maybe that's why so many of your follow-up questions seem at cross purposes with the given feedback/suggestions. We're not trying to "talk around" your question about cashews/nuts/stomach aches. We're all giving you our genuine (and hopefully helpful) feedback about getting to the root of your problem - your current eating. Frankly, I'm a bit curious why you're so resistant to even trying to eat according to the food template. If I had a stomach ache every night, I'd want relief ASAP.

 

It comes down to this: If you truly want change (a healthier you) and to crack your hunger-stomach ache dilemma then you need to be open to change.

 

Best of luck with your whole 30 and I hope you get to the bottom of your stomach ache problem.

 

I have never once said that I wouldn't try to follow the template more closely, when the link was posted I clicked the link and planned my meals around it. I have been on spring from school I travel back and forth two hours every week and haven't been in my own apartment I have been staying at my parents so I have tried to make due with the food and options I have available. I honestly answered what I ate knowing that there were two things on there that are not ideal. I didn't ask for you to compare yourself to me or insinuate that only people un open to change snack. I explained why I snack and the time in which I snack has been for the most part after a heavy workout, I explained why i'm confused about the stomach pain, and was hoping to get empathetic people who answered that experienced a similar situation. Surely not everyone does cross fit and is fine without snacking, surely everyone didn't follow the plan 100 percent perfect and had a similar experience as I and learned how to more closely follow the template and had their symptoms subside. Answering with empathy and personal experience is what I was hoping to receive not "I workout as much as you and I don't snack" a response like that is counterintuitive and has made me feel defensive. I see that how I was doing it isn't exactly how it should be done. However based on my posts it is completely unfair to assume by subsequent posts looking for more specific answers to suggestions that were given that I am not willing to follow the template.

[evaq]

Woah. I apologize if the post came across the wrong way. It was written with both empathy and (my personal) experience to help offer some insight. It wasn't meant to make you feel bad or come across as judge-y. Honestly, good luck with your whole 30.