Day 55 and Frustrated

[Calypso]

I just posted in my personal log, but I thought I'd stop by here. Maybe you guys can knock some sense into me. 

 

My energy levels are all over the place, the beginning of the month I had no appetite and was pretty much using any means or combination of whole30 compliant foods to get my appetite going again. Once it got going I started not sticking to the templates as well (such as sneaking a handful of nuts because I hate breakfast and had only had two meals that day.) So I haven't lost any weight at all. Maybe I gained weight. But I've only eaten whole30 compliant foods this whole time.

 

Now I also have an autoimmune disease, so maybe I need to be doing AIP, but literally all my favorite foods are on there. I just want to cry looking at everything I won't be able to have. I honestly think I will fail if I try now... Maybe if I eat paleo for 6 months and THEN try AIP for a month? Maybe I'll succeed at that point. I tried giving up coffee but failed at that, too. Honestly, I'm afraid if I stop the coffee I'll just get fatter. Because I'll be eating even more. 

 

I'll try to remember what I ate today... I know I'm starting to lose my discipline but here it is:

 

TODAY:

Breakfast:

Coffee, coconut milk (or cashew milk?) dash of cocoa powder. 

 

3 free-range eggs, 1 russet potato baked and then chopped up and fried with a whole onion in olive oil. Tessamae's ketchup as a condiment.

 

Out  all day: Unsweetened iced tea and then some dried fruit. A handful of macadamias. Sigh. I know. It's a snack which I've been doing rather a lot for my third meal of the day.

 

After reading about the AIP protocol I got all mopey and made more potatoes lol... 
Dinner: 

6 tiny red potatoes fried with 1.5 onions in olive oil, palm size of free-range chicken, tessamae's chicken wing sauce and ranch on the side... and some dehydrated apples with cinnamon.

 

 

YESTERDAY

Coffee with coconut milk and / or cashew milk and a dash of cocoa powder (unsweetened of course.)

Um. I confess that I think I ate a bunch of dehydrated apples with cinnamon around here somewhere.

 

Breakfast:

1 russet potato baked and then fried with red onion in olive oil. Three free range eggs on the side with tessamae's ketchup on the side.  

 

Dinner

Free range chicken with organic fresh steamed broccoli with tessamae's wing sauce and ranch on the side.

 

I sometimes have carbonated La Croix water spiked with a dash of pom juice. Like a tablespoon, or equivalent to what I use if I squeeze fresh lemon or orange in there. Sometimes I also drink 1/3rd to 1/2 a bottle of raw Kombucha at night.

 

 

Other meals I like to eat on other days:

tuna or salmon with mayo over lettuce and tomatoes

egg salad (hardboiled eggs and mayo) over lettuce and tomatoes

(I get positively nauseous trying to eat all the tomatoes and lettuce and honestly didn't eat the veg some days when I was supposed to.)

a burger with tomato, lettuce, pickle, mayo, mustard, ketchup with sometimes a sweet potato chopped up and roasted in coconut oil in the oven.

Eggs and BACON + the potatoes sauteed with onions and peppers-- Ohhh I was eating a lot of bacon for awhile there and then using the grease to cook my potatoes in. That plus the extra nuts may have hampered weight loss. But that's depressing, since the whole point of eating this way is it is supposed to satisfy and help lead to natural weight loss. 

 

ETA: That while I understand snacking is no good... I don't think replacing a 50 calories of dehydrated fruit by forcing myself to go eat a few eggs (even more calories and cooked in fat) or something is better either. I need to figure this out. My dragon still seems to be asleep, even if I do miss chocolate and wish I could have some stevia in my coffee sometimes.

[Guest Andria]

Calypso, I don't think you can justifiably be frustrated when you are barely following the Whole30 recommendations.  Have you read any of the books, by chance?  Certainly, you do not have to read the books in order to complete a successful Whole30, but it may give you some context for the recommendations.

 

We really mean that we want you to eat 3 template meals spaced 4-5 hrs apart and skip the snacking.  Your hormones, energy levels and weight loss will all be strongly tied to this recommendation.  There are a number of reasons you are experiencing the problems that you described.  You are eating dried fruit and nuts outside of template meals, drinking coffee before breakfast (that is the way it looks to me from the way you wrote it above) and skipping meals.  Where is your lunch?? Consider moving the starchy vegetables to M3 and upping your green veggies for M1 and M2.  You may fair better eating more cooked veggies. Not sure why you are making yourself nauseous eating a lot of tomato and lettuce.

 

I will list some links for you to review.  Please consider doing a properly formulated Whole30 before giving up.  Oh, and by no means consider doing an AIP before you complete a successful Whole30.  Once you have a week of proper Whole30 under your belt, if you are still unhappy, come back and we will help you tweak from there.

 

http://whole30.com/downloads/official-whole30-program-rules.pdf

 

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

 

You can do this! Good Luck

[ShannonM816]

ETA: That while I understand snacking is no good... I don't think replacing a 50 calories of dehydrated fruit by forcing myself to go eat a few eggs (even more calories and cooked in fat) or something is better either. I need to figure this out. My dragon still seems to be asleep, even if I do miss chocolate and wish I could have some stevia in my coffee sometimes.

 

The biggest difference between dehydrated fruit and some eggs is that the dehydrated fruit is basically a sugar bomb -- it's going to spike your blood sugar, and then your blood sugar will drop, and you'll be cranky and tired and hungry, and your body wants more sugar to make you feel good again. (Super simplified summary of my understanding of how this works -- apologies if it glossed over anything important.)  Eggs don't do that.

[jmcbn]

My dragon still seems to be asleep

Kid yourself not - Your dragon is alive and well given that you're feeding it dried fruit on a regular basis.

As Andria said I think you need to review the food template recommendation & up your veg intake, particularly greens.

 

Go right back to basics & you'll cut out the need for a snack & start seeing improvements all round - weight, mood, energy, sleep.....

[LadyM]

I agree with the good advice you've been given above as well as with your instinct to hold off on AIP. I recommend focusing entirely on mastering the template and getting your mind right first. Your focus on everything you can't have rather than the glorious abundance of fresh, whole, real, deeply nourishing and satisfying food untethered from counting, measuring, and tracking is seriously hindering your success. Where are your veggies? You should be enjoying heaps and heaps of colorful non-starchy veg--and they certainly don't have to be salad!

 

Make no mistake, you may think you want weight loss, but what's in store in a Whole30 is nothing less than a food revolution. And for that to happen, you have to give it a fair shot. That means throwing out the old diet mentality and mind games in which you count calories and opt for dried fruit instead of eggs. The effort it will require to make this first mental and then behavioral shift will pay off in spades. I promise.

[missmary]

ETA: That while I understand snacking is no good... I don't think replacing a 50 calories of dehydrated fruit by forcing myself to go eat a few eggs (even more calories and cooked in fat) or something is better either. 

 

Shannon already touched on this, but for emphasis: a few eggs is 100% better. Scratch that, a million times better? SO MUCH BETTER.

 

The media has perpetuated an idea that a calorie is a calorie is a calorie, but in reality, your body responds very differently to fat and protein than it does to sugar. Your hormonal response will be different and your perception of hunger and satiety will be different and that makes a huge impact on energy levels and future eating choices that same day. Cumulatively, over time, favoring protein and fat results in better health than favoring dried fruit. For most people, this approach leads to weight loss as well. 

 

Why not give the three-template meals per day recommendation a try for a while (30 days is good  ) and see if it changes things for you?

[Calypso]

Thanks, guys!

Yes. I'm going to reread parts of the book and recommit. I DID feel really good during the first whole30. It all deteriorated with my appetite vanished near the end though. 

 

I was a huge binge eater before this--like a bag of mini oreos in an hour was something I'd eat. I'd also sip sugary coffee all day. Now I can walk down an aisle filled with cookies and not have to have them, and I can easily choose not to have any dried fruit. That's why I feel like my sugar dragon is gone. I don't feel ruled anymore or helpless around chocolate. In fact... I have a half a bag of vegan chocolate chips in my office right now... and I don't care! lol I hated dried fruit before this. Okay fine, I hated all the fruit and smoothies. So for me at the moment, it's the fried potatoes that actually seem more dangerous than a bite of dried fruit or a larabar. But I can't argue with the digestive distress (and lack of weight loss) fruit and nuts are causing. Cause they definitely are having that effect.

 

My plan going forward will be to ditch the coffee for crio bru (black) and tea, eat template meals, and try to limit my potato consumption to one a day (max, baked or roasted) and ban pan-fried potatoes. I'll look for new green veg recipes. That should help immensely. Unless my appetite and energy vanish again. Then I don't know.  I'm staying on whole30 compliant foods for 150 days whether I eat perfect to template each day or not. But I'll give the template another go before resorting to calorie counting and weighing again. Because I don't want to have to do that.