Calypso's Whole...77 - Started: Mar 14 - May 29

[Calypso]

Updated: I did this for 77 days straight with some bumps (but no "cheats".) Now I'm headed over to the whole9 forum.

 

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Today's Day 7! I gave up social media this month, so I decided I wouldn't come on this forum, but why not? I've been lurking on here all week anyway. This will keep me accountable and excited.

 

5' 5", 177.6lbs at starting. Almost as heavy as I was a month after giving birth to my daughter. 

 

Why I'm doing this (for myself to come back and read):

I had cancer when I was younger and have an autoimmune disease. I'm only 30. I'm addicted to sugar and I can't take the highs and lows anymore. If I stay like this, I'm going to die young. End of story. I can't go back to how I used to feel. If I feel good on this and lose weight, I will continue past 30 days.

 

But... I did all the research and determined vegan was the ideal diet to help me heal and lose weight.

 

I felt AMAZING on the Dr. Fuhrman diet and lost weight (vegan diet, no oil, salt, sugar, or processed foods). But I could never stick with it. So I tried some vegan meal plans that were low calorie. But they focused too much on beans and grains and had added sugar. So I felt a little better than on a SAD diet, but not enough. I was losing a lb a week, but the improvement in how I felt wasn't good enough for me to stick to it. Then my dad told me he did whole30 for a month, dropped a lot of weight, and felt amazing.

 

To get healthy and feel better, I need to:

1.) Lose weight on a plan I can actually stick to. I'm basically obese which puts me at risk for everything.

2.) Watch how foods make me feel so I can ditch the awful cravings that lead me to ruining my diet and feeling depressed half the time.

3.) Start exercising until I'm in shape again.

4.) THEN I can decide what my ideal diet is. If it means less meat or no meat, lower fat, and beans and lentils... fine. I can experiment with how I feel and how my blood tests look. I need to lose weight first.

 

Sugar is my biggest problem, and I had a hard time eating the huge portions of veggies on the Dr. Fuhrman diet to reach satiety.  However, I think the secret to how I felt on the Dr. Fuhrman diet is the massive amounts of greens and other veggies. So I decided to try Whole30 out using what I know about how lots of veggies make me feel. Eat tons of veggies, but swap out beans and grains for meat and fat for satiety (that's essentially the whole30 template.) 

 

For the first few months of this year, I was mostly vegan with an egg and some fish thrown in once a week when we'd go eat out at our favorite Japanese restaurant. But I also had junk, too, near the end, like Oreos. But still, maybe that's why I didn't really have a hard time with week 1. I've been tired off and on, but I also had high energy days. No lasting headaches or migraines (which I've been getting a few times a month now for a few years), likely because I continued drinking my coffee. I used to deal with low-grade depression a lot, but this past week has been pretty good. Yesterday I felt it, but I inhaled half a sweet potato with olive oil and felt better.

 

I also just started taking 800mcg of folinic acid with 5,000mg of b12 every day (or every other day), because I suspect I have the MTHFR mutation. The b12 uses the tiniest drop of xylitol (which does not affect blood sugar) because b12 MUST be taken sublingually. B12 is non negotiable. My endocrinologist put me on that, D3, and iron, but I'm dropping the iron for now since I've cut grains and added meat back. I also took a vitamin C capsule once this week when I started getting the cold so many people get the first week (it went away).

 

Things I've learned so far as of day 7:

I really like my coffee with coconut milk from a can. Once the first whole30 is over, though, I'll probably start adding vanilla extract again or look for flavored coffees that use natural flavorings (not even sure those exist.) Or I'll buy some vanilla powder. It turns out I don't just like coffee for the sugar hit. I like to try out different natural and organic coffees and use a french press. I treat it like a good food. I also like having coconut milk with this herbal cinnamon tea at night. I'm a little worried because I'm going through a can of coconut milk every 2 days, but... trying not to think about the calories there. 

 

I need lots of variety. I can't eat the same meat for more than two meals in two days, but I don't mind eggs. I like them. The first grocery bill was $450. I bought good eggs, grassfed stuff, and wild-caught seafood with the lower amounts of mercury. But I had to buy "vegetarian fed" chicken and regular pork roast. I bought too much meat and not enough vegetables as it turned out. The second week was $150. I buy about half organic produce. But my bets are on this being cheaper than the months we were vegan and also ate out. We used to buy all our meat and eggs from a local farm that has all grassfed meat... if I stick to this, we'll probably drive out there and get meat there next month, even though it's pricey.

 

Breakfast: I have to wait an hour after taking my thyroid medicine to eat breakfast. Too much spinach or too much protein and fat at breakfast makes me so nauseous. I stayed away from fruit the first week so it wouldn't trigger sugar cravings, but I miss it. My dad ate as much fruit as he wanted during his whole30 and was able to do his long daily runs and lose 22lbs. This week I'm going to do more fruit--small serving of fruit with eggs, onion, peppers for breakfast. I drink the fat -- coconut milk -- in my coffee, and with the coconut milk and breakfast together, I feel full all morning.

 

Lunch: I need more greens, for sure. Lunch is the time for them. I need to experiment this week with making lots of salads I enjoy.  Or just putting everything over greens.

 

Dinner: Never eat dinner past 8pm! I woke up late and ended up grocery shopping at 9pm and eating dinner at 10pm. I was up until 2am last night. Then I woke up at noon today. Now I'm here drinking my morning coffee and it's past noon. I have to cut it off by 2. I may have to eat only two meals today to get back on track. Oh, well. If I want to get back on my 6am wake up schedule, I need to make sure I'm actually tired at night. So no eating past 8pm, and by 10pm go to bed with my Kindle.

 

Sleep: At first I was waking at 6am and crashing by 9pm. But not anymore. I'm letting myself nap with my daughter and sleep in if I need it this first 11 days so I can be successful at this. But then I'm cracking down and getting on a better schedule.

 

Surprises:

My tummy is flatter. I didn't realize how bloated I was from the old diet. Even though I'm still plenty fat, my stomach isn't as puffed out over the front of my pants as it was last week.

 

I expected to dream about cheat foods, but I didn't. One night I had a dream cavemen were attacking me in a glass house and someone ran over a giant hunk of raw meat in a car. Then in my dream I went to the grocery store and was excited because I found a box of muffin mix that was whole30 compliant. 

 

The only time I had cravings was when I went almost 48 hours eating green vegetables, protein, and fat, and didn't have enough sweet potato. I started wanting a quick shot of juice or white bread to save me. The sweet potato patched that up. I need to be sure to eat starchy vegetables every day.

 

My four year old used to eat all vegan food and eat well, but her habits went downhill with mine. But despite turning down lots of food this week, she's starting to eat healthier again and likes it.

 

 

Goals for Week 2:

*Salads for lunch (or a few handfuls of sauteed spinach on the side)

*Spend my days writing and cooking foods. No wasting time online.

*Try to get my schedule back where I wake at dawn by the end of the second week.

*Make sure I'm eating a nice-sized portion of potatoes, butternut squash, pumpkin, or carrots every day. Probably at dinner, maybe with my salad. The two days I didn't eat very much of those, I started feeling terrible. Adding fruit to breakfast and maybe after dinner might help, too.

*Continue to hit 5k steps a day on my fitbit. 

 

In week 3, I'm gonna focus on ramping up exercise to 7500 steps a day on my fitbit. I should have more energy by Day 15. Cutting back coffee will start in week four if my schedule is still messed up (and if I'm not losing weight, I would bet it's because I'm drinking all those calories of coconut milk instead of eating more food. But I can't think about that right now. I'm not weighing myself, but it will be obvious if my pants stay tight.)

 

 

My favorite meals this week:

• Chicken with cholula, avocado, homemade mayo ranch, and sweet potato (chunks roasted in coconut oil).
• Irish lamb stew (ground grassfed lamb, leeks, potatoes, carrots) - It was gamey, but I liked it. I'll use onions next time, and not ground lamb if I can get it.  I make a really good chicken stock from the bones of the whole chicken just by boiling them down in water all day. I used that here. Very hearty. Not enough vegetables, though.
• Tuna salad with green onion, homemade mayo, dill, and lemon. Side of dill pickle I could barely finish. Next time try it over spinach.
• Ground beef with taco seasonings, onions, and mushrooms - over mixed baby greens with whole30 compliant guacamole and salsa.
• Eggs with peppers and onions cooked in light olive oil with cholula and mashed fresh avocado and chopped tomatoes. 
• Garlic olive oil shrimp with broccoli (and lemon juice) and a white sweet potato with the skin. This was so so because the shrimp I defrosted were tiny, already cooked, and ended up adding water to the pan which ruined the garlic / olive oil "sauce".

 

Least favorite meals:

• Over easy eggs with spinach and tomatoes. I had that for two days, then couldn't stand the sight of it and still can't.
• Everything listed above... if I ate it more than twice I started to hate it.
• Whole chicken with carrots and leeks. It would have been good, except I cooked the vegetables with real rosemary and there was too much rosemary and WAY too much grease. It made me sick. I know from experience that true free range chicken has almost no grease. So next time I'll drain the excess fat and make the vegetables separate.

 

 

REWARDS:

End of week one: a bottle of an expensive perfume I really wanted. It'll be delivered this afternoon.

End of week two: ?? Maybe some work out clothes that actually fit me because most are too small / tight.

End of week three: ? I'd really like a new nose ring if it's healed yet. I got it pierced in January, and it's been so slow to heal.

End of first whole30: A haircut and color touch-up at a salon. I've been putting it off for a long time.

[Calypso]

Day 14!

 

So....  I feel like the food on this program is crazy decadent and delicious. I feel like I'm eating such good food every day... it doesn't feel like a diet or deprivation at ALL. Not even the few times I've craved sugar or bread or whatever (usually because I wasn't eating enough or desperately needed sleep.)

 

The last few days have been rough in terms of my sleep schedule. I only got 6 hours of sleep for three days straight and my energy completely tanked. So I decided to let myself start sleeping in, but that didn't work so well for me. I woke up really late and stayed up late. And because I woke up late I ended up eating only two meals a day. And because I didn't eat enough on a day I had a lot of errands to run (and maybe because I had 1/4 my usual coffee), I got my first bad migraine of the program (I've not had any before this while on it.) It was BAD. Really bad. I tried to ignore it for over five hours, but drinking late coffee and eating a bunch didn't banish it so I took Excedrin. And then was up til 3am and woke again at noon.

 

I wasn't hungry at all today really, yet I had lots of energy and a sharp mind. I made whole30 compliant homemade mayo, ketchup, and bbq sauce today, got some writing stuff done, but overall feel like it was a vacation day. I don't understand why I'm not binging on almonds or something right now. I'm a tad hungry, but I just feel meh about it. Because I had yummy full fat foods today... tuna salad with homemade mayo and lettuce... and whole30 compliant hot dogs with onions and breakfast potatoes with my homemade condiments. Plus my usual coffee with coconut cream. I KNOW it wasn't near enough calories, but I'll make more of an effort to eat three meals a day this coming week. 

 

Things I've learned so far as of Day 14

Always have some protein cooked in the fridge.

Also, I love this food. I don't really understand why people have a hard time with it... but it might be because I was trying to be low-fat, low-salt vegan before this. But even so... I regularly caved and ate tons of chips, sugary cereals, chips with dip... Oreos... TONS of sugary creamer in my coffee... this should have been harder than it was...
 

Eating a piece of pan fried cod with homemade tartar sauce and broccoli and potatoes with a generous amount of olive oil, salt, and pepper is just like... I feel like I'm pampering myself with every bite. It's so amazing. Gosh, one day I had a grassfed steak for lunch with a whole plate full of mushrooms and onions sauteed in olive oil, coconut aminos, and apple cider vinegar. And my usual potato. Wow. Just wow. Like eating at an expensive restaurant. (And it was expensive, which is why I ate it for lunch with my daughter, instead of trying to stretch it for a dinner.)

I like this way of eating.

 

My biggest issue with it right now is vanilla extract. Seriously. That's my issue. Vanilla powder and whole beans are super expensive. I want to be 100% whole30 compliant foodwise, but I'm really irritated I have to go without vanilla for as long as I do. I bought some Starbucks naturally flavored coffees... "natural flavors" is allowed, but who knows where they're sourced from? Vanilla extract is probably a better choice in my coffee. But for now I'm sticking to the rules. Honestly, quitting coffee might be something I need to do eventually. It's crowding out breakfast. But... I don't feel stressed out from it. I like it a lot, the way I like my other food. So... we shall see. It's best that I get more strict about not drinking it past a certain time so I can get my sleep schedule back on track.

 

I'm trying to be kind to myself and let myself sleep in or nap as much as I want so I don't feel out of sorts and crave sugar as a pick me up.. but it's messing with my other work-related goals. So I have to be more firm with myself about getting to bed early and waking up early.

 

 

Goals for Week 2 - Results

*Salads for lunch - - No I haven't done well at this at all, but It's fine. I just need to make sure I'm getting cooked vegetables that aren't potatoes.

*Spend my days writing and cooking foods. No wasting time online.   The past two days haven't been that productive, but I did finish a novella I started two weeks ago and get it to my editor and do her first round of edits. So, really, not so bad!

*Try to get my schedule back where I wake at dawn by the end of the second week.  Haaaaah. I keep waking up at noon. So. No.

*Make sure I'm eating a nice-sized portion of potatoes, butternut squash, pumpkin, or carrots every day. YES. I added more potatoes every day, but it's taken over my plate to where now I don't think I'm getting enough green vegetables.

*Continue to hit 5k steps a day on my fitbit.  I'm doing decently with this. The last full week came in around 4,500 a day.

 

 

New Goals for Week 3

*Wake up early! Go to bed at a decent hour.

*Eat breakfast every day before noon.

*Never drink any coffee after noon.

*Plot my trilogy (or make great progress), write the last episode of serial (or at least get the plot approved), finish all novella tasks.

*Clean my house.

 

 

Favorite Meals this week

Sea scallops with lemon, olive oil, parsley, chives, scallions, garlic (with roasted green beans)

Pan fried (in olive oil) cod with homemade tartar sauce and potatoes and broccoli with lemon and olive oil.

Grassfed sirloin steak with a giant plateful of sauteed mushrooms and onions and a baked potato

Tuna with lots of homemade mayo over lettuce with sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Pulled pork -- slow cooker, fat mostly drained. Eaten for three days straight. I ate it with breakfast potatoes (baked potato fried in olive oil with peppers and onions), hot sauce, and an avocado or guacamole.

Eggs with breakfast potatoes. 

Grassfed beef hot dogs with onions and homemade condiments (esp the wellfed ketchup)... but I need to brainstorm some better side vegetables. I abandoned the breakfast potatoes on this one because I've eaten them too much lately.

 

 

Least Favorite Meals

I'm getting sick of white potatoes the way I got sick of sweet potatoes in week one. I need to change it up. Baked potatoes and breakfast potatoes were a "thing" this week. A lot. I really was loving lightly sauteed potatoes with onions and peppers and some cholula on them.  But the other vegetables weren't always my favorite. I had some fails like roasted green beans that tasted great but I cooked them a smidge too long.

I need to work on roasting and sauteeing more vegetables that aren't potatoes.. and that aren't broccoli or green beans. We've had broccoli and green beans at every dinner because all our fresh spinach expired. And I'm not working enough veg into breakfast and lunch at all. Also, I was reminded this week that my mouth burns when I eat fresh fruit. So I'll be lightly cooking everything at this stage.

 

I started up our organic produce delivery again because it's so much cheaper than the grocery store, but there's collard greens and a weird cauliflower. I'm going to look for some cool recipes for those this week because it'll go bad soon if I don't. I pretty much hate collards, but haven't I been saying I need to force myself to eat more greens? I do.
 

 

 

Rewards

I got some workout / walking clothes this week and perfume last week. I guess I'll choose my nose ring this week maybe. I don't really feel like I need the reward anymore. I'm just eating this way because this is what I eat. But I'll be happy when I go get my hair cut and dyed on Day 31.

[Calypso]

Day 16 and I was feeling down yesterday. That's bad. I'm doing this partially to help even out my mood. I've had 3 bad days out of 16... which I'm certain is better than what I had before, but not good enough. I'm sleeping enough and I think eating enough, so I thought about it and realized my vegetable consumption has been too low. ​White potatoes don't count. It's because I've been pre-making potatoes and meat so I have something in the fridge, but I haven't been doing the same for vegetables.  

 

Also... I'm a little nervous I'm eating way too much fat. I'm not adhering to 1 thumb size very well. I somehow went through a whole cup of mayo in three days! That's terrifying and unnecessary. Who needs to eat a cup of oil in three days? The answer is no one. And certainly none of our ancestors if this is "primal". Getting oil from an olive is labor intensive. I'm not making any more mayo right now. I'm trying to just pay attention to my hunger, but if I reach the end of this and haven't lost much weight, I need to look at fat and veg consumption. 

Anyway, I've spent the day using up the vegetables in my fridge so I have a few days worth of veg to pair with protein. I wanted to put the stuff I made on here.

 

Made:

 

• 18 eggs for dying with natural veg dyes for Easter.
• homemade marinara
• roasted eggplant and portobella mushrooms with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and coconut aminos.
• butternut squash (maybe to use at breakfast with a compliant apple chicken sausage?)
• potato leek soup with carrots, celery, some cashews
• garlicky collards (maybe too salty / garlicky / spicy. I kind of hate them, but I just made myself eat a plate. I will eat them alllll.)
• I still need to cook some grassfed ground beef. Waiting for it to defrost. We'll have it tonight with the roasted mushroom / eggplant and basil tomato sauce.

[Calypso]

It's officially Day 19. I am feeling pretty great, and I think I am losing a little weight.

Buuuuut. I'm still staying up late and sleeping in, and as a result, I end up only eating two meals a day. I'm just not hungry, and since I have to wait an hour to eat after taking my thyroid medicine, I start writing, and I really don't want anything but coffee. That coconut cream is very filling.

 

For my coffee, I also bought vanilla powder (it has no flavor and is a huge disappointment), and cocoa powder that's a higher quality than Hershey's... and I've been putting it in my coffee with the coconut milk. I like it so much, I'm a little worried it's kind of a SWYPO kind of indulgence. Sugary lattes / creamers were an addiction of mine before this. But then again, I get just as much enjoyment out of homemade mayo turned into tartar sauce with cod... or fried breakfast potatoes... or pulled pork with homemade bbq sauce! So are they all SWYPO? It's hard to know if food I like is replacing something I used to be addicted to, or if I'm just enjoying my food. And enjoying my food is a GOOD thing. Because then I can stick with this. 

 

Logging my food today to remind myself what I ate on the days I only had two meals:

 

*3.5 cups of coffee with coconut milk (and some cashew milk once) and cocoa powder (woke up at 11am, wasn't hungry until almost 4pm.)

*butternut squash, onions, grassfed ground beef, two eggs over easy in olive oil for lunch.

*3 eggs, homemade mayo (lots), two handfuls of mixed greens, a compari tomato.

*drank home brewed Tazo passion iced tea and La Croix Cherry Lemon carbonated water.

 

That looks like not enough food, but some days I eat a ton and some days I eat less. I'm not forcing myself to eat when I'm obese. :-\ I'm staying on this for awhile, so one of my goals might be to cut back on the coconut creamer and coffee so it doesn't satiate me when I haven't eaten breakfast. 

 

 

I'm sometimes hungryish at night, I think I am losing weight. And I do have more energy most days, and my mind is SO CLEAR. The biggest benefit of this diet has been how clear my mind is. I used to cry because of the brain fog I'd get after I got hypothyroidism, but that feeling is gone... it's been gone for most of the 20 days. I feel sharp for most of the hours of my day, now, until I get tired or need a nap. My brain was slow before... like trying to wade through a thin layer of sludge. Now I can make connections and get things done when I focus... heck.. I can FOCUS. If any of that suffers, I know to eat more or eat more sweet potatoes.

 

 

Edited to add:

I'm eating three meals a day, honestly. I thought I wasn't, but I end up eating at midnight if I have to. So three meals it is.

 

Also... I spontaneously went on a walk today! I've been allowing myself to not exercise at ALL during this, but I suddenly really wanted to go on a walk and ended up jogging for a good third of it. It's a little over a 2 mile loop. I'm not questioning it or expecting it to happen again. But still... very surprising since I never have any energy or desire to exercise. Or didn't used to?

[Calypso]

 

 

Birthday today! Not mine, but I wanted to make something special and Whole30 compliant for my hubs. (He's not on this, but he's supportive, and I didn't feel strong enough to bake a cake!)

 

This is definitely NOT a cheat or SWYPO, at least not for me, because I pretty much hated fruit before I started doing this. But this was pretty darn delicious. I made a really filling dinner of wild caught cod, homemade tartar sauce, green beans, and sweet potato, and then we did dessert.

 

I defrosted a bunch of different fruit (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, peaches) and then used coconut cream for the top layer. For my coconut cream, I left it plain, but for my family, I added a touch of maple syrup and vanilla extract to theirs.  I took three freeze-dried strawberries (no other ingredients) and broke them into pieces for the red sprinkle decoration.

 

Also for mine, which was in a small cup, I had to microwave my fruit for over a minute so it wouldn't activate my oral allergy syndrome stuff. Then I layered a scoop of the cream between every layer of fruit and also used unsweetened toasted coconut in between the layers and on top. Honestly, it was divine. I could only eat half, which was.. maybe 1/2 a cup? Soooo very delicious. I think I might like to make this a side dish for breakfast in one of my small ramekins. It would be the perfect size.

[Calypso]

Day 25!

 

I have no appetite whatsoever, but I feel hunger at night, and then I'll down some egg salad or something. I know for a fact I'm not eating enough, but I can't seem to make myself eat anything. I tried making a big plate of sweet potatoes yesterday but they smelled weird to me, and I ate two bites. ;-\

 

It's 5pm, I got up at 11, and all I've had is coconut milk in my coffee. I need to fix this! I guess I'll stop by the help forum to see how.

 

Hopefully my appetite will come back because I think I'm tired from not eating enough. And I have no intention of quitting any time soon.

[Calypso]

Oh forgot to add this earlier: Lost 7.8 lbs on the first whole30, got rid of my brain fog, my depression lifted, I had energy (sometimes), but my biggest struggle has been no appetite since day 18 or so?

 

I’m on Day 34 and fed up with having no energy. I want what I had some of the earlier days on the program when I actually had an appetite. For the past two weeks I’ve been eating the equivalent of the following every day. I’ve been trying SO HARD to force food down, and I can’t. Part of me wanted to just accept it and ride the wave of rapid anorexic weight loss, but I really don’t need this to get dysfunctional. (But, oh, it's tempting. Because never in my entire life have I tried to lose weight and actually succeeded in having NO appetite. But I'm not getting any micronutrients if I don't eat!)

 

Two Days Ago:

Two of my meals added up to:

An entire medium-sized butternut squash

Half a pound of ground beef

Lime juice, salt and pepper

 

A larabar (I usually only eat these when I'm out and starving, but I just wanted to force some food into myself and wake up.)

A half a jar of Kombucha

2 cups (barely) of coffee with cashew milk (This is one small french press and I used to have two a day. I’m weaning off coffee, or trying to.)

 

Lack of energy this day, just like all the not-enough-food days.

 

Yesterday:

No energy AND my foggy brain returned, and getting RID OF IT was the biggest victory of this program! I kept opening gmail and staring at it… it would take me like 6 tries to remember what I was trying to do for everything by afternoon yesterday. It’s because for a lot of days I’ve been hardly eating no matter how hard I try to force the food down. Even though I LIKE most of the food, I just can’t muster up an appetite to actually finish my plates.

 

Forced down eggs with onions and peppers cooked in olive oil. I was so proud of myself for trying to eat breakfast. Made five eggs, probably ate two and gave some to my daughter. We had a lot left over and I dumped them because reheated eggs are pretty gross.

1 cans (or a little more) of tuna in oil with mayo and dill.

Rest of the jar of kombucha

2 slices of turkey and a larabar. I had zero appetite after my failed dinner.

 

(I made spaghetti squash, homemade sauce with the rest of the grassfed beef + portobella mushrooms. These foods used to be my favorite (well the sauce part at least.) It tasted horrible. Definite recipe fail. My second time trying spaghetti squash and hating it. I’ve had it before and found it tolerable, but not anymore. My tastes have changed in ways I didn't anticipate. Like my newfound appreciation for mustard. Anyway, I love the other squashes so I’ll stick with those, I guess. I forced down five bites or something and then dumped the plate and gave my husband the rest of my sauce for his real spaghetti.)

 

 

It’s been weeks like this where I’m struggling. I had a day three days ago where I made stirfry veggies with shrimp and ate as many veg as I could.. Probably ate half a cup of my dinner. I’m not getting enough calories OR micronutrients and the micronutrients in vegetables and fruit are the key to my energy. (And squash / potatoes but I’ve been trying to eat those and succeeding more.)

 

So my solution this morning was to make a smoothie. I don’t care if it's frowned upon. I consider myself following the spirit of whole30 and am only using compliant foods still. Esp because I HATED Smoothies before this. Hated them so much. They tasted sour or bitter to me because I was so addicted to sugary processed crap. I thought, hey, maybe my tastes have changed and I should try again. Maybe getting more food in me by blending it will help wake up my appetite again.

Also, I have OAS which is oral allergy syndrome, which means a ton of fresh fruit and veg cause me to get hives or my mouth and throat swells up and itches. It’s awful and makes adding them to my plate difficult unless I want overcooked broccoli and stirfry on my plate.  Apparently cooking them really well or sometimes having them frozen is a good solution.

 

So I had my coffee this morn (mostly black with a splash of cashew milk), but I also made a smoothie with a handful of frozen strawberries and blueberries, a handful of frozen kale, squirt of fresh lemon juice, an oz or two of pom juice, water, and coconut milk. It was probably 8oz of smoothie or something, but it worked. It gave me energy and woke up my stomach so I actually want lunch now. I feel good because of it. This program is all about finding out how to actually feel good. So— yay!!! I’m continuing. If it awakens my sleeping sugar dragon or I end up eating like a crazy person, I know what to do... stop making them. I all but gave up fruit the first thirty days, though.  

I’ll test to see which frozen fruits and veg I can handle in a smoothie. This one burned my throat but it wasn’t terrible and the coconut milk seemed to act a bit like a buffer. Might have been the strawberries. I’m really not sure. I know definitely that ragweed allergy cross reaction is my main problem, so these all bug me: Banana (my mouth peels and burns even when I cook this), watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew, zuchinni (i can handle cooked), cucumber (i can handle a bit of pickle but not an entire pickle), green pepper uncooked, sunflower seeds / oil (unverified), hibiscus or chamomile tea (I have to check this one.) 

 

Kiwi and mango are also a problem for me. Possibly grapes and pomegranate, too, but I have to check again.

 

But ALSO vitamic C apparently might mitigate some of the effects of OAS. Ironic, isn’t it? If I get enough of all the necessary vitamins and other micronutrients, it could actually bother me less and allow me to eat more good foods. 

 

 

That’s my new plan. Small smoothie for breakfast where I pack in some greens and coconut milk. If I can stomach it, pair the smoothie with leftover meat or eggs to sort of complete the template. And then slowly wean off the coffee. I ordered Crio Bru, but don’t know if I can replace coffee with it and avoid it suppressing my appetite. 

[MeadowLily]

Calypso - do you think taking a small break might be good for your appetite.   What do you think?  

[Calypso]

Calypso - I've been reading along....do you think taking a break might be good for your appetite.  Maybe it's food boredom. What do you think?  

 

Thanks!

Nope! All it took was adding that small smoothie. My appetite is back!  I'm doing half frozen kale, half berries, a scoop of canned coconut milk, a splash of pom juice and water.

I'm just... so happy again. And full of energy, too, for most of the day. My husband made a comment about me overfilling my coffee cup (because I often spill it lol) and I was all "Yup! That's how I like my cups! Overflowing!"

 

hahaha I am so obnoxious now. 

 

No but, truly, my husband is noticing how happy I am and how much energy I have when I'm eating enough. He and I both used to have similar levels of low energy and low-grade depression (just feeling down for no reason) and now I just... don't. And he still does. It's a big contrast. But we're getting along better because one of us (me) has more patience and is just more even-keeled overall. I can't quit this. 

 

I'm not pushing him to do this with me, but I see it happening eventually. Or at least him slowly moving over to this way of eating. I ordered a case of Tessemae's compliant sauces, including ketchup, and he and my daughter both loved it better than the Heinz they're addicted to. So... I'm happy.  Tomorrow I have to eat out, so I'm stressed, even though it's an organic restaurant with all these vegan and free-range meat options. I'll do my best to make sure I stay whole30 compliant, but even if I get a dose of something undisclosed... so? I'm on this, so my body will flush that crap out and get back to doing whatever it's doing.    (Which is to say, I'll do my best and try NOT to stress tomorrow and enjoy my family outing.) 

That's another thing. I'm going on a family outing, which I never want to do. And I scheduled a playdate with the neighbor and her kids for my daughter... and I usually never wanted to socialize. Depression was kicking my butt in so many ways I didn't realize.

 

 

ETA: I'm still taking folinic acid and a lot of b12 daily. I am wondering how much that's helping, but I'm doing a test and will find out soon if I really need to be taking that.

[genghiskhym]

I was on the Dr. Fuhrman diet three years ago. I lost 25 lbs. in four months and felt amazing, until I didn't. My hair started falling out and I got very fatigued. I went to the doctor and he said you need oil and protein. I went back to SAD and gained all the weight back (not the first time or the last that would happen). I completely bought into Eat to Live and it was so disheartening that it made me sick. I'm glad you didn't have to go through that. 

[Calypso]

I was on the Dr. Fuhrman diet three years ago. I lost 25 lbs. in four months and felt amazing, until I didn't. My hair started falling out and I got very fatigued. I went to the doctor and he said you need oil and protein. I went back to SAD and gained all the weight back (not the first time or the last that would happen). I completely bought into Eat to Live and it was so disheartening that it made me sick. I'm glad you didn't have to go through that. 

 

Were you on b12 while you did it?  If other people experience that, it's crazy to me that he and his whole family eat like that and seem to be fine. There's a whole movement of low fat vegan = reversal of heart disease, etc., and I don't know what I believe.

I really don't want to get cancer again, so I don't know what my long-term diet will be... but I know I feel good on this so far, so I will continue. Especially since I'm losing weight I really need to lose.  Honestly, I can't overanalyze this or I'll feel paralyzed again and go back to SAD. Because that's what kept happening before. There is a study to contradict every study, and the only thing anyone agrees on is that vegetables and fruit are must-haves for health. Not all types, apparently, but most.  My dad did this diet, and the idea that I can be an experiment of one and see how I feel really resonated with me, so I decided to go for it. Would I feel even *better* on the Fuhrman diet? I don't know! I never could stick to it. Whenever I reintroduce things later this year, I'll try grains and beans and then I'll have my answer. But I can also play around with the amount of meat and oil I have, and choose whether or not I want to keep baking / pan frying my potatoes in oil. But for now, I feel pretty good, so I will continue on, do my best to consume plenty of veg and fruit, and keep learning new recipes.

 

 

Update on yesterday:

First day out to eat was a little hard, because my daughter and husband had ice cream, and I could smell tons of food and was starving. But we found a fancy place that served grassfed beef and cooked everything in an olive oil / canola blend, so we stopped there. I had some arugula salad with balsamic and olive oil and shrimp. Then I had a big plate of lots of vegetables (peppers, summer squash, asparagus, cauliflower, onion, etc.) with an egg and potato wedges. I asked for garlic aioli on the side since the chef made the mayo there with the usual ingredients we use. I also had some of my husband's grassfed steak with chimichurri. The potatoes looked suspiciously fried, but I just tried to relax and enjoy the meal, because I make baked potato wedges coated in oil regularly, so whatever. They were *real* potatoes, I know that. Everything was from scratch there. The meal was delicious, but expensive enough to be a 1-2 time a year treat.

 

On the way out we stopped in a chocolate store for my little... lol it was like a freakin opium den. I got out of there real quick. I'm not sure my lifelong love affair with chocolate will ever die.

[genghiskhym]

I don't remember if I was taking any supplements during the Fuhrman diet. I may not have been. I've wondered how other people seem to do so well on it long-term too. I feel really good eating paleo and I think it's sustainable for me, so I'm sticking to it unless my hair starts falling out again. 

 

Opium den - haha.

[Calypso]

Yeah if you don't take b12 on a vegan diet, you definitely start to feel like death. But I'm still taking it and it gives me energy. 

 

Day 42! All is well. I'm drinking half coffee / half crio bru now with cashew milk... I'm wondering about this cashew milk, but the forum says it's whole30 approved, so I'm sticking with it. I missed it when I had to use coconut milk for a day. I'm not doing smoothies every day, but I'm still eating two big meals a day. Still struggling to get enough veggies in... I end up filling up on starch and protein and fat before I finish or even want the green veg. That's why the smoothie was so good for me. A huge handful of frozen kale.  I had some freeze-dried fruit and macadamia nuts the other day, but neither of them is a food without breaks for me. I can easily have a handful and stop.

 

I am not counting calories, but as a serial dieter, I don't need to count to know. I just... know. I can't help it. And I know I'm consuming at a level that will lead to continued weight loss. The thing with this way of eating is that I don't have those awful cravings that always derailed me before. Or the awful weird feeling of having low blood sugar and feeling sick all the time. So that's my update. Maybe I'll make another in ten more days.

[Calypso]

Day 55.

I have not lost a single pound. I think I might have gained a pound since my weigh-in on day 61. And yes I weighed myself because I could tell the weight loss is 0. And I am absolutely eating this way to lose weight. I also have felt down a few times and foggy brained this month, but I'm still sharper than before.

 

I'm feeling depressed about it. Today I was trying to grocery shop and just feeling really deprived. I think maybe I know why I haven't lost... too many days where I ate extra dried fruit and nuts... or maybe too many days where I filled up on fried breakfast potatoes instead of making sure my plates were mostly green veg. I struggled badly with no appetite at the beginning of this month and I was SO tired because of not eating enough. So I ended up forcing myself to eat more and even snacking because of how bad I was feeling. And I guess I went in the other direction.

Or, hey, maybe I *have* lost weight, but I'm bloated from some things I'm sensitive to. I had some raw cashews that were expiring this month, so I've been sauteeing them in coconut oil and salt. I think nuts and dried fruit mess up my digestive system. I look like I swallowed a balloon.

I have an autoimmune disease, so I've been researching the AIP protocol, but that's making me even MORE depressed about all of this. My favorite foods / condiments on this plan often involve eggs, potatoes, tomatoes and peppers. Literally, those four foods are probably the REASON I love this diet so much. And the freshly roasted nuts are crazy delicious. I can even get used to fresh fruit, dried fruit, and those fruit "chips" as my only sweet snacks if I decide to continue eating paleo / whole30 inspired. But on the AIP protocol, all my favorite foods... or the foods that make this way of eating taste good and make me feel like I can stick to it... are banned or severely limited.

 

I'm *thisclose* to returning to calorie counting (while staying on Whole30 compliant foods). I guess it's not really whole30 if I'm struggling so hard to stick to the template 3x a day, or if I start calorie counting, but I'm tired of being so fat. I feel better than before eating this way (most of the time...), so I'm not close to quitting yet.

[kirkor]

I think maybe I know why I haven't lost... too many days where I ate extra dried fruit and nuts... or maybe too many days where I filled up on fried breakfast potatoes instead of making sure my plates were mostly green veg.

You already know the answer, do you need someone else to say it?

[Calypso]

You already know the answer, do you need someone else to say it?

 

 

I guess... but I'm no longer confident in my ability to trust my hunger and this way of eating to keep losing weight, though, sans calorie counting. 

[Calypso]

It's day 56, but I can safely assess how my second whole30 went (not well).

 

How I feel:

• My digestion is messed up because of too much fruit and nuts.
• I have had a few "down" days instead of the wonderful even / amazing feeling from the first month.
• I had one migraine (which is fewer than the two or three I had the first month, though.)
• My mind is still clearer than it was before, but the past few days I had some foggy times. I may not be sleeping enough.

 

What I messed up:

• Eating the same foods over and over and cleaning my plate of potatoes and protein and ignoring the vegetables. 
• Too much bacon and frying potatoes in bacon grease. Bacon isn't the best protein, as it says somewhere on the whole30 site. It should be a treat or once a week thing, if that.
• Roasting potato chunks in coconut oil or baking them and drizzling oil on them is a way different experience than eating them panfried. Panfried makes them taste too close to french fries / hash browns and makes them a food with so-so brakes for me. So for me, I probably need to ban them for the rest of this 150.
• Slowly falling away from the template until I found myself eating fruit and nuts for my third meal.

What I did right:

• Well, when my appetite died, I drank a smoothie with kale a few mornings a week when I couldn't stomach breakfast and that actually fixed my appetite. I also suddenly felt REALLY good. Maybe it was the kale. Once my appetite came back I didn't need the smoothie anymore.

 

 

Okay. New plan. My second whole30 was kind of a bust in that I didn't lose weight and wandered away from the template. But I stayed whole30 food compliant the whole time. So I'm stumbling to the finish line and for the third whole30 (May 13th is Day 1), I have a new game plan. 

 

• Try AGAIN to ditch coffee. I bought criobru, so I can transition to drinking that and tea black. 
• Perhaps ban nuts and dried fruit except for "emergencies" aka I'm out for 6+ hours and need to eat?
• Limit potatoes. Including banning pan fried potatoes. If I eat potatoes they will be with a drizzle of oil or tossed with a tablespoon of coconut oil and bake. Not fried IN olive oil.
• Follow the template
• Attempt again to eat breakfast. I still face the problem of having to wait an hour after I take my thyroid meds. I also work in the mornings while my daughter is asleep, and there's no way in heck I'm gonna move pots around and risk waking her and losing the only time I have during the day to work! But... I'll try to get to 3 meals most days. No promises. Maybe I can boil eggs and have some veg precooked on the side? Eh.

We shall see how Month 3 goes.

[ladyshanny]

 

It's day 56, but I can safely assess how my second whole30 went (not well).

 

How I feel:

• My digestion is messed up because of too much fruit and nuts.
• I have had a few "down" days instead of the wonderful even / amazing feeling from the first month.
• I had one migraine (which is fewer than the two or three I had the first month, though.)
• My mind is still clearer than it was before, but the past few days I had some foggy times. I may not be sleeping enough.

 

What I messed up:

• Eating the same foods over and over and cleaning my plate of potatoes and protein and ignoring the vegetables. 
• Too much bacon and frying potatoes in bacon grease. Bacon isn't the best protein, as it says somewhere on the whole30 site. It should be a treat or once a week thing, if that.
• Roasting potato chunks in coconut oil or baking them and drizzling oil on them is a way different experience than eating them panfried. Panfried makes them taste too close to french fries / hash browns and makes them a food with so-so brakes for me. So for me, I probably need to ban them for the rest of this 150.
• Slowly falling away from the template until I found myself eating fruit and nuts for my third meal.

First, These things I have highlit are directly related to each other.  Second, bacon is not a protein, it's a fat.  Both the meat and the drippings.  Fat.

 

Third, if you are doing the Whole30 as an elimination diet ONLY to determine food sensitivities then you are probably succeeding since you haven't gone off plan.  If you are doing the Whole30 to gain energy, improve sleep, improve mental clarity, lose weight etc, all of our recommendations need to be followed.  

 

The hormone balancing, hunger signal balancing, blood sugar balancing brings the energy, good sleep, fat loss, happy mood etc and is directly tied to following the template and meal timing recommendations.  

 

Spending 30 days retooling your brain and your emotions and your habits isn't easy.  It's not.  It takes emotional and mental fortitude, it takes digging deep and sticking to the plan.  It takes making a commitment to yourself and believing that you are important enough to follow through with it.  Sometimes it's going to suck, sometimes you have to make the food, prep the food, buy the food, plan the food, pack up the food and clean up the food more than you want to.  But you will never get anything different if you never do anything different.

 

I like your "new plan" above and I hope you stick with it.  You're selling yourself and your Whole30 short by drifting through the days not learning and following the template.  

 

Good luck!!  

[kmg4805]

Hi Calypso,

 

You may have mentioned this before but are you exercising at all? Food plays a huge part (obviously) but I am the same height and weight and I was told that I have to work pretty hard to build up my muscle mass to really start seeing results. I also did measurements in addition to weighing myself at the beginning because I HATE SCALES. If you didn't beforehand, I would recommend measuring your inches and increasing/start weights to flip the body mass ratio. Don't give up! As a fellow former calorie counter, we both know that it leads to us feeling deprived and overeating. Don't hesitate to reach out if you need support!

[Calypso]

DAY 64

 

Ladyshanny

Thanks! Yes... I'm starting to think of this as a plan I need to follow for a very long time. Not 30 days, more like 150+.  I feel I need to work on one habit at a time. Every day--  just eating these foods and staying committed takes effort after a lifetime of eating processed foods and loads of sugar all day.

 

Kmg- Not yet! I want to, though. I'm trying to fix all my habits in lots of areas in my life. When I feel like I have a handle on one, I want to start another. Exercise is definitely on there somewhere. I tried starting a couch to 5k and went twice. lol. I think walking every day as a habit might be smarter than couch to 5k right now.

 

UPDATES END OF SECOND WHOLE 30

 

So a few things-- I found out I have the worst(?) MTHFR mutation-- compound hetero. We got 23andme done and my MTHFR and other related genes are just a sea of yellow and red (mutated genes). It's really not surprising I ended up with childhood cancer and my autoimmune disease (especially with the other genes I have, including several linked to celiac.)

 

I started taking b12 and folinic acid at the beginning of my whole30, because I suspected I had this. So that could have been something that really helped me.  My preliminary research suggests whole30 is close to an ideal diet for me, mostly because of the *vegetables* and omega 3 ratios. My daughter and husband have some mutations, too, so I'm taking us to see doctors who can help us with supplements and diet.

 

My goals aren't quite in line with the whole30 goals, so I'm not sure if I should keep updating here in this thread. But maybe it doesn't matter. This is my personal journey. My primary goal is weight loss right now. Once my weight returns to a normal range, my goals are going to be creating meal plans that are balanced and give me tons of energy to maintain my new weight. I believe in paying attention to serving sizes and calories. And weighing in so I'm not lying to myself. Since I started weighing portions (of nuts / coconut milk / measuring cooking fat) and going to bed slightly hungry I've lost another 4 lbs after losing nothing for weeks. I'm down 11.5lbs in 64 days. I started a low-fat portion restricted vegan diet in January-- My highest weight before that was 182lbs. So for the whole year I'm down almost 16lbs, and it shows. 

 

It's all about baby steps and every day just eating as healthy as I can and trying to form new habits and food preferences. If I keep going the way I've been, just being patient with myself, making small progress, sticking to whole30 compliant foods... I will easily be back in the 130s by next January, a year from when I started trying to get healthier.  It doesn't have to be fast... this is a lifestyle change and those take time. Exercise and finding more vegetables I actually like is something I want to also work on this year. I'm getting small bags of local and organic vegetables delivered every week now, so that might help me. (One of those comes with delicious smelling bread my kid sees as a treat, which I may have to tell them to leave out, given the whole celiac genes in the family thing. LOL)

 

HABITS AND GOALS

I have removed weight goals and writing deadlines from my life. It doesn't help me... but what does help me is daily goals. My favorite quote is from a whole30 blog and I have it above my writing desk:

"Act like the best version of yourself every day... and you will become her."

 

It's true. When I was younger (like every young person) I wanted everything to happen faster. Now, I know I only get what I want by doing the work every single day.

Since starting the whole30 and a challenge with an author friend of mine, every day I just wake up and do the work. I eat the compliant foods and I write. I averaged 150 minutes of work a day on my books last month, and so far I'm averaging over 3 hours a day this month. Choosing to make my life better (this happened sometime in march) and slowly change my habits has resulted in me finishing FOUR novellas so far this year. That's almost 80k written, revised, edited, and published. I'm about to tackle my longest novel ever, which will be 120k. I already have 28k written, but this will be a really tough book... but if I just keep waking up every day and doing my minutes and eating healthy, in a few months I'll wake up one day with a finished book and I will be much slimmer. So that's all I can do. 

 

Like I said, I'm not sure if I should be in this forum when I'm not focusing all my energy on mastering the templates, but... I do feel like I'm committed to the spirit of this program. I've kicked horrible food habits and cravings, and am committed to staying whole30 *food* compliant to lose the weight and get healthier. Chocolate, sugar, bread, alochol... these have NO place in my life... at least not "short term" which is however long it takes to get rid of all the excess disease promoting fat.  When I'm in a better place I can decide if I want to reintro anything. I'm most interested in seeing how rice, corn, and beans make me feel, because I think they can be part of a healthy diet if my body can tolerate them.

 

Also.. I am absolutely happier. Part of this might be because I'm succeeding at changing. And that's an amazing feeling.

[WholeMama623]

Calypso,

I am so glad to have found your thread, and I really hope you don't leave. We have a lot in common.

 

I have hypo thyroid, hashimoto's and celiac disease.I can so relate to the brain fog. It's AWFUL!  I am working with my Endo and I'm on vitamin D, and Iron too. I just found out about the hashi's in February. I also tried AIP TWICE and I just couldn't do, so I'm doing a whole100 instead. I started on May 1st. I love trying to find others who are on more "long term" plans for support.

 

I too, really hope to lose weight! I'm 5'3" and I was 167lbs at the start. I just had baby almost a year ago, and I've had so many issues with my health since her birth.

 

Anyway, wanted to say hello, and I hope that you stick around. I've really enjoyed reading your thread!

[Calypso]

WholeMama

Hey!
I'm sticking around, but I probably have to shut this thread down and move over to the whole9 boards.

 

I decided I was done with this today, and I had a choice of what I wanted to eat... it wasn't cookies or lattes or anything like that. I wanted beans and rice. Really. That's all I wanted--some beans and rice (and corn tortilla chips on the side, of course.)

 

So I went to Chipotle and got a burrito bowl with the whole30 compliant guac, pico, and pork, but then also added pinto beans and white rice. And I got their tortilla chips. Got iced tea... always, always got half and half sweet / unsweet, but just went for unsweet. Everything there is made from scratch and I didn't eat any gluten. The rice and beans tasted divine. Heavenly. The tortilla chips tasted like... paper. Cardboard with a hint of corn? LOL I don't know. 

It's HUGE  for me that I "broke" the whole30 with a meal made entirely from scratch / whole ingredients, and that I had no interest in adding a sugary drink. I probably shouldn't have introduced corn and beans on the same day, but oh well. I'll probably just go back to whole30 eating tomorrow... I normally eat the whole burrito bowl, but after about half of it I got bored. I am, however, still eating the chips. Mostly so I can eat the extra guac I bought. We'll see how I feel later tonight, but so far I feel fine (although a little sleepy?)

I have kept track of how I felt on various whole30 approved foods, and one thing I have noticed is that my stomach hurts almost every time I eat eggs, and I feel like crap after eating white potatoes. I bought the Paleo Approach book so I can learn the science behind the AIP protocol and consider implementing it. Or I might just stay away from eggs and replace the white potatoes with white rice sparingly? I don't know. I feel SO relieved right now that I took a break and the pressure to be perfect is off. I'm still thinking it's back to whole30 tomorrow, though. Do that for a few days and try corn all by itself and see how that goes. Then rice. Etc. 

[WholeMama623]

Good for you for being honest about what happened. I can relate all too much. I almost quit on day 31 but only because my dumb ass decided to weigh in and saw that I lost NOTHING in 30 days. I really wanted to give up, but for now, I'm going to keep going.