Day 17, exhausted and dimmed vision

[bookgirl32]

This is my first Whole30. I got through the first week almost exactly as the timeline says. Week 2 was close as well. I've hit week 3 and I'm exhausted, like it feels like major effort just to move my arms and legs exhausted. My sleep habits this past week haven't been ideal, late to bed, but I have had time for naps most days, so I don't know how much that would have to do with it. Earlier in the week I thought maybe I wasn't eating enough carbs, had gone about two days without a significant source, so upped the sweet potato and potato and carrots. This past two days (including today) I have been so busy with kids activities that I haven't been able to get to the store to replenish supplies of solid leafy greens, but up until then I had had servings of spinach almost every day. My cycle has started (TMI, I know) and it is relatively heavy. I had my hemoglobin checked at a yearly dr. appt about a week and a half ago and it was slightly low, 10.9, he said he wanted it at 12. I've added in a pretty basic multi-vitamin. But I've had plenty of red meat and, again, leafy greens so I don't think I'm getting low iron. 

 

My eating habits prior to this weren't completely awful, but really high on the sugar side. I haven't cheated even once, and I honestly don't necessarily miss the bread. Here's and example of a typical day:

 

Breakfast: 

three eggs with spinach (although missing the spinach past two days)

Maybe a few nuts or raisins

 

Lunch:

Big spring mix salad with crushed almonds and a few raisins, a whole can of tuna canned in EVOO, oil and balsamic vinegar dressing made myself

 

Sometimes a snack, usually a handful of cashews or a few coconut chips

 

Dinner: 

Spaghetti squash with ground beef marinara sauce made at home. A few bites of pineapple after dinner. 

 

I've been adding more salt but I usually don't add much salt at all to food, and I'm still getting used to cooking with more spices. 

 

Two days ago I started adding potato or sweet potato to lunch, which seemed to help. But I'm exhausted again today and even had a few small yellow potatoes with my eggs this morning. 

 

Also with the tiredness comes a little bit of dimmed vision, just seems like the lights aren't very bright, if that makes any sense. I do wear a mouthpiece for bruxism and haven't been wearing it for a couple of weeks, and sometimes that can effect my vision like this, so it may not be related. 

 

All in all I can tell I've lost weight or at least my body composition is changing, clothes are much more agreeable at this point. 

 

But I'm really getting sick of how tired I am, and starting to worry (I'm a little bit of a hypochondriac) that something else is wrong. My husband and I went to a late movie last night and had to walk a few blocks each way to the car, I felt like I"d run a marathon. 

 

Any input would be helpful, thanks!!

Molly

 

[Tom Denham]

You are not eating enough. Seriously. 

 

Three eggs is borderline okay for protein at breakfast, but you are not eating veggies. Even when you eat spinach, a handful wilts down to a tablespoon or two. You say you haven't eaten any for two days. So your breakfast is way too light.

 

At lunch you are eating raw salad with a can of tuna. You report the can of tuna as if it is lot, but "a whole can" of tuna is not a generous portion. It is pretty basic. And raw salad is like spinach. You need to eat a bucket of raw salad to get real bulk. 

 

I bet your supper is too light on ground beef and probably too small on the amount of spaghetti squash that you are eating. 

 

Not eating enough makes you tired. Not only do you need to increase the size of your meals, you probably need to eat starchy veggies twice per day. Back when you were eating sugar and bread/pasta/etc., you could pack in a lot of energy quickly. Now that you are eating real, whole foods, you have to eat more to keep your energy up. And you have to be consistent about it. You can't make up for eating too light at breakfast and lunch and make it up at supper or with a few bites of nuts, coconut, or fruit. 

[bookgirl32]

Thank you Tom! It's been hard for me to change my ideas of food portions and fat intake for this as well. I so easily default to smaller portions and lowering the fat. The past two days I've been giving myself license to use more EVOO and avocado oil (basically up to the recommended amounts in the template) as well as adding veggies at breakfast, half of a banana during the day and a serving of either sweet potato or potato at lunch and dinner. It is helping quite a bit. I still don't have the "tiger blood" sensation but energy is more stable. I have been struggling with sleep schedule since I've had some issues with kids waking in the night or getting to bed late and have had to sleep some during the day, which feels like it helps at the time but doesn't when I wake up from the naps as I sleep so much harder now. So that will be my next goal.