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Noelle's Whole30 - Ballet, Breastfeeding, and Bone Health


Noelle

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I'm not sure what number Whole30 this is for me, to be honest. It's in the high single digits. I've finished the program several times—Whole30 is my favorite anti-depressant—but this is the first time I can honestly say I'm doing it for my health. None of my goals is scale-related:

• I recently started taking ballet classes again, after a 20-year hiatus. I want to feel well (not sick and bloated) so I can enjoy dancing!

• My almost-three-year-old daughter still breastfeeds several times a day. My son is about to finish out the school-year and be home with me full-time. I want to be a strong, calm, vibrant mama to my nursing preschooler, and my energetic grade-schooler.

• I just found out I have osteoporosis in my spine. At age 32. But osteoporosis picked on the wrong girl! I'm taking my back back, Whole9-style!

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Wow good for you! This is my go around and it seems like you're a pro at this Whole 30. Best of luck to you!

I'd love to see meal pics!

 

I'm not sure I'm a pro per se, but I appreciate the vote of confidence, Steph! The actual food is pretty straightforward at this point; it's the mental/emotional/habit pieces that are still a challenge—and the reason I have so much trouble riding my own bike without crashing!

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I actually started on June 1st. Here's my food so far:

Day 1

Breakfast:

3 eggs cooked in coconut oil with arugula, green onion, and diced pear; topped with creamy vinaigrette

Black coffee

Lunch:

Salad with chicken breast, steamed bok choy, and 1/2 an avocado

Rooibos tea

Tea:

Canned mackerel (with bones)

Trader Joe's "Healthy 8" chopped veggie mix sauteed in coconut oil

Cranberry-lime seltzer water

Dinner:

Sockeye salmon fillet with baked sweet potato

Shredded romaine salad dressed with raw tahini and diced dried figs

Throughout the day:

3+ liters filtered water

Exercise:

Counter balance box squats (20)

1 hour ballet class

* * *

Day 2

Breakfast:

3 eggs cooked in coconut oil with mustard greens

Whole avocado

Black coffee

Lunch:

Beef meatballs

Trader Joe's "Healthy 8" chopped veggie mix, dressed with raw tahini and diced dried figs

1/2 medium banana

Tea:

Canned mackerel (with bones)

Broccoli slaw sauteed in coconut oil, topped with raw tahini

Cranberry-lime seltzer

Dinner:

"Turkey Chili Verde" - really just ground turkey cooked with onions and green salsa

Broccoli with creamy vinaigrette

Before bed:

Hard boiled egg with olive oil mayo

Throughout the day:

3+ liters filtered water

Exercise:

Counter balance box squats (30)

* * *

Day 3

Breakfast:

"Fisherman's Eggs" - Wild Planet white anchovies with green onions and garlic, topped with two eggs and baked in the oven

Mustard greens with almond butter (a surprisingly delicious combo!)

Black coffee

Lunch:

Garlic-herb chicken sausage

Cubed acorn squash and shredded romaine dressed with raw tahini

Tea:

Canned mackerel (with bones) rolled in seasoned coconut flour and pan-fried in coconut oil; topped with olive oil mayo

Steamed bok choy

Kimchi

1/2 large apple

Dinner:

No-Fuss Salmon Cakes (from It Starts With Food)^ with tartar sauce

Slow-cooked collard greens

3/4 small peach

Throughout the day:

Lots of water — not quite 3 liters today, though.

Exercise:

1 hour ballet class

^I swapped pumpkin in for sweet potato and coconut flour for almond flour in the salmon cake recipe—and I didn't de-bone the salmon! Canned fish is an amazing source of non-dairy calcium! I pulsed everything in my food processor, and ended up with a smooth, calcium-rich salmon cake texture. Pulsing the mixture seems to be crucial. Otherwise, you make salmon cake batter.

* * *

And that catches me up to today! Whew! It's been a bit of a rollercoaster already (emotionally). I was in full-blown Kill All The Things mode this morning. That's the one point in the Whole30 Timeline I hit every single time. I always apologize to my family profusely, but I still feel terrible turning into Mama Hyde when they've done nothing to deserve such wrath and snippiness. On the bright side: my mood and energy levels are already improved over where they were just a few days ago.

My body seems to have de-bloated a little, but it still feels kind of heavy and sluggish. I felt like every single correction in class tonight was for me—"Put your heels down as soon as you can!" "Draw the toes back! Aaand...toes back!" "Rotate from the hips!"—and while I could picture what my body was supposed to be doing, I just couldn't make it actually go there. So frustrating.

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I dreamed last night that I ate a whole bag of jumbo marshmallows and two slices of ice cream cake. The interesting (to me) detail was that I wasn't thinking about ruining my Whole30 in the dream. I was totally focused on how I was going to hide the evidence of my binge from my family and replace the cake.

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Day 4

I'm so tired. I understand the phrase "brain fog" on a deep level. My thoughts are blurry. It didn't help that my daughter wanted to nurse all day long. Most of the time, I'm happy with my decision to breastfeed her for as long as she wants to breastfeed, but today I was really wishing she would just wean already, so I could take a break!

Breakfast:

Eggs and collard greens topped with mayo

Black coffee

Lunch:

Sockeye salmon fillet with kale, ghee, and slivered almonds

Large orange

Tea:

Salmon cakes, creamy vinaigrette

Roasted sweet potato rounds, almond butter

Medium peach

Dinner:

Chicken Cacciatore (The Whole30) with riced cauliflower

Snack:

Hard boiled egg with mayo

Raw broccoli florets

Kimchi

Throughout the day:

Lots of sparkling water, both plain and lime—about 3 litres

Exercise:

Nothing so far. I'll try to do a few squats before bed, but I'm not expecting great things tonight. Counter balance box squats (20).

* * *

Tea (which I find more aesthetically pleasing to write than "second lunch") was a source of frustration today. Thanks to the aforementioned nurse-a-thon, I was absolutely ravenous by the time I could actually get up and eat. So I ate the things that required zero preparation—unfortunately, that meant no vegetables. I also wolfed my food down in about a minute and a half, and it struck me: I used to eat like this all the time, standing up in front of the fridge, quickly inhaling the first things that came to hand. Binges, certainly, but also just regular meals. This was normal, everyday lunchtime behavior for me just a couple weeks ago!

What to eat is only part of the picture. How to eat is another crucial component.

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Good morning, and welcome to Day 5!

Last night makes the second night in a row of terrible insomnia, and bizzare dreams. I'm thinking bedtime snacks are to blame. I've been genuinely hungry both nights.

Tonight I'll try upping my fat at dinner and/or drinking a cup of tea and just going to bed when I start to feel hungry.

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Some thoughts about cravings...

I see so many people around the forums (and in life) struggling with cravings, trying to find substitions for favorite less-healthful foods and habits, taking about "fighting," or feeling bad-wrong-weak for merely wanting a slice of cake. Or ten slices. It makes me sad.

There's nothing wrong with wanting to eat delicious things. It doesn't make you bad or weak, and it doesn't mean you're doing the program incorrectly. But it seems like much (most?) of the time, a craving arises—I want cake—and we get scared. Are we about to lose control, go off the rails, ruin our Whole30 progress and have to start over?! Time to fight!

The detail we all seem to overlook is that a craving doesn't have any agency. A craving can't do anything on its own. A craving, or Sugar Dragon, if you like the Hartwig lingo, can't do anything except yell at you and hope you decide to act.

My two-year-old was introduced to candy at Halloween last year. She friggin' loves it. Of course she does: candy was created for the sole purpose of tasting supernaturally good. Every now and then, she'll ask for candy out of the blue, and I'll tell her no. There's no way I'm feeding her candy (especially first thing in the morning!), and since I've made my mind up, there's no "fighting" to be done. She can yell and pitch a fit, but my job isn't to change her mind; it's to hold firm on my "no."

A Sugar Dragon can roar, and we've been led to believe that the roaring is intolerable. The roaring is a loud (sometimes painfully so) but the Dragon can't hurt you.

Cravings are not wrong. Cravings, by themselves, can't hurt you. Say "no"—or, better yet, say nothing. Remember who has the agency here: you.

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Day 5

Breakfast:

Eggs, kale, and diced green apple cooked in ghee

Black coffee

Post-walk:

Salmon cake

Lunch:

2 salmon cakes, cucumbers, radishes

Decaf with half a can of coconut milk

Tea:

Leftover Chicken Cacciatore

Belly Dance Beet Salad (Well Fed 2) with slivered almonds instead of pistachios

Cranberry-lime seltzer water

Dinner:

Turkey burger, roasted sweet potatoes

Romaine lettuce and cherry tomatoes dressed with raw tahini

Exercise:

Hilly, excruciatingly slow 2-mile walk with children

Counter balance box squats (30)

Ballet Beautiful - Classic Swan Arms

***

I took a nap today! It was amazing! I still felt tired afterwards, but I was hanging on by a thread this morning and lying down (with my daughter) was such a treat.

My bowels are all wacky from the extra veggies. Nothing bad or uncomfortable, just...unusual.

There was more I was going to write, but I still have the "fog" and can't brain because I have the tired.

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Day 6 is off to a good start. I slept last night! Thank goodness! It wasn't all the way through the night (I sat bolt upright at midnight for no reason I could figure out), but I slept soundly from 9:30-midnight, and then midnight-5:30 or 6:00 when my daughter woke up and got in bed with me to nurse.

I made myself a gorgeous breakfast reminiscent of something I had on vacation: Crab Benedict Florentine. I steamed 3 cups of fresh baby spinach, topped that with 4 oz. crabmeat, topped that with two poached eggs, and then poured hollandaise sauce over the whole thing. It was my first time poaching eggs and making hollandaise, and I have to say I nailed it. It felt very decadent and nourishing at the same time.

Even through the tiredness (and the crabbiness), my mood has been through the roof. I feel like a different person.

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Day 6

B: Crab Florentine Benedict

Black coffee

L: Decaf with coconut milk

Sardines with capers

Sweet potatoes with ghee

Half a medium peach and 1/4 medium banana

Sauerkraut (homemade using Trader Joe's Cruciferous Crunch—good, but strong)

T: Egg salad (hard boiled eggs, mayo, celery, slivered almonds) over kale

Half a medium peach, 1/4 medium banana, 1/2 cup grapes

Glass of kombucha

D: Ginger-lime chicken thighs

Steamed vegetables (broccoli, zucchini, asparagus) with mayo

Fresh orange

Closed handful of almonds

Exercise: Counter balance box squats (40)

Lots of cleaning, organizing, crawling around in the attic, and clothes-trying-on

***

Interesting day yesterday. My partner was exhausted all day (he's doing Whole30 plus legumes, which he knows from previous Whole30s don't bother him). I assumed he had the Day 6 sleepies; I busted my butt so he could have breaks from the kids and an afternoon nap. He later admitted to having indulged in doughnuts and ice cream on Friday. I wasn't prepared for how angry that made me. "Then I don't feel sorry for you!" I told him.

I decided to indulge too: my thrift shop sense was tingling after dinner, and sure enough, I scored a gorgeous pair of brown leather boots for $30.00. I also picked up a bottle of avocado oil (not at the thrift shop, obviously): green mayo, here I come!

I'm feeling ever-so-slightly Tiger Blood-y. I used the energy yesterday to reorganize my closet, pack up my fall and winter clothes (really fall/winter/spring clothes here in the Pacific Northwest), and try on some things I had in storage. I'm firmly, solidly a size 8 right now. All of my 8s fit like a dream. All of the 6s were too tight, with the exception of a couple more forgiving dresses. Everything bigger was, obviously, too big. I bagged up all of the too-big stuff, some of the too-small stuff, and all of the right-size-but-I-will-never-wear-this-again stuff. I'll make a donation run soon, which always feels so cleansing. Out with the old!

I spent a lot of time in front of the mirror yesterday. My body looks okay. I'm an out-of-shape amateur dancer/mother of two. I look it. Three prgnancies and four eating disorders have left their marks, inside and out. But I have some nice definition in my arms and legs from dancing. My face looks tired, but pretty. I'd like to be thinner and firmer than I am, but I think if I met a stranger who looked like I do, I'd think she was attractive. Maybe.

Body image is hard sometimes.

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It's Day 7 and I'm hiding in my daughter's room while my partner feeds the kids. I was up before 5:00 AM to breastfeed, so I think it's fair.

I had the most intense Whole30 food dream I've ever had last night: I was eating a medium-size movie theater popcorn with about 20 pumps of genuine artificial imitation butter-flavored oil-sludge on it. I friggin' love that garbage! And in the dream, I panicked when I realized what is done. It was so intense, I could feel the kernels stuck in my teeth!

Then the dream became semi-lucid, and I wondered if I was having a Whole30 food dream. I woke up very glad to not have to start over!

***

The kids are getting oatmeal with syrup for breakfast. There's so much whining in the other room. I think we're going to have to vote sugar off the family island.

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I'm baking a breakfast casserole for my partner, and I swear it smells like pastry. Raw broccoli (which I used to detest) now tastes almost sweet, oranges taste downright sugary, and now this. My senses have gone haywire.

You're messing with me, Day 7.

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Day 7

B: 2 poached eggs and "fridge-clean-out hash" (chicken sausage, kale, asparagus, raw mixed nuts) over mashed pumpkin with lots of ghee

Black coffee

L: Protein Salad: crab, cucumbers, radishes, raw mixed nuts, boiled Russet potato, garlic-herb olive oil mayo

Kombucha

T: Smoked sardines in olive oil

Sliced okra tossed with a little coconut flour and cooked in coconut oil

Raw mixed nuts

Small baked Russet potato

D: 3 baked chicken drumsticks, small baked sweet potato, whole avocado

2 glasses kombucha

Exercise: Nothing

Fun: Evening at the ballet!

***

I know I didn't get enough vegetables at dinner night, but I didn't realize until I looked at my meals all together (I record them as I go and then forget about them until I post here) that I relied so heavily on nuts and potatoes. Lack of solid planning equals lack of balance.

Teatime is my struggle right now. It butts right up against my daughter's nap, which she takes in my arms. Depending on how long she naps and how much she nurses before, during, and afterwards, I am either just plain hungry or ready to chew my arm off by the time she finishes. These past few days, it's been the latter, and I feel sort of panicky when I get that hungry. Then I end up eating too fast and past the point of "comfortably fed" to "overly full." If (when) I end up going too long between meals again, I'm thinking of experimenting with eating just a few bites at first when I get the chance to eat again, then continuing with my meal once the hunger-panic has died down a little.

The ballet was wonderful. Carla Körbes is retiring, which is very sad. I've never seen a ballerina embody her characters so completely. I absolutely believe every gesture. I feel so privileged to have seen her dance Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, and it was truly moving to watch her take her final curtain calls.

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You're the worst, Day 8. After not-enough sleep last night (ballet is always worth it) I woke with ear pain and a sore throat. In addition to the proto-cold, my fat roomy pants are uncomfortably tight. It's undoubtedly part of the process—and likely due in part to yesterday's nut-and-potato diet—but still: boo, hiss.

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Day 8

B: 3 eggs with bok choy, cooked in ghee

Handful of raspberries with shredded, unsweetened coconut

Black coffee

L: Chicken breast with olive oil, crudités, whole avocado

Half-decaf Americano

Gypsy Cold Care tea

Decaf green tea

Peppermint tea

T: Hard-boiled egg with garlic-herb mayo, cucumber

1/4 medium cantaloupe

D: Seafood-and-chicken "gumbo"

Half a large orange

A couple bites of kimchi

S: Mug of broth with minced garlic, ginger, coconut aminos, and vinegar

Exercise: 1 hour ballet class

Prisoner box squats (30)

***

My ears and throat are not happy, but I refuse to be sick. I really, really, really wanted a spoonful of honey for my sore throat today, but I stuck with tea and lots of water. I have some chicken soup in the freezer (modified slightly from the Autoimmune Paleo Cookbook) and I might just plan to have that for breakfast tomorrow. I don't know if it's the illness or the heat—it's in the 80s, which is HOT for Seattle and Friends—but I am so over food. I don't want to eat any of the things I have in the house. And I certainly don't want to think about feeding anyone else!

The gumbo was good, but I think I let the almond-coconut-ghee roux cook too long and it lost some of its thickening power. The gumbo was good, but soupier than I'd intended.

Ballet class was wonderful—except that I'm worried about my thighs. They're bulking up really fast, even with the super-beginner squat program I'm doing, and it's not a good classical ballet look. My quads completely ruin my line. When I stretch through the back of my knees, my legs still don't look fully extended! Obviously, I'm nothing close to a professional dancer, but I'd still like to have a nice line.

Whine whine, complain complain. It's the Whole30 Day 8 Body Composition Blues.

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Could you get your afternoon tea prepared before your daughter's nap time, and have it sitting on the coffee table next to where you rest so that when you get hungry (and are pinned down) you can just reach over and start eating? I'm sure she won't mind crumbs in her hair :).

 

Love the comparison of cravings to a 2yo tantrum - I think everyone knows that you have to stand strong against those little beggars or you're setting yourself up for a lifetime of giving in.

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Day 9

I'm beat. Awake at 5:15 AM, nursed 'til 5:45, breakfast, school drop-off, laundry, playgroup, housework, nursing-nap (I lay down with my girl and actually slept for 20 minutes or so), more laundry, more housework, sibling fight refereeing, dinner prep, dinner, dinner clean-up, more refereeing...it never ends.

I'll log my food tomorrow. It's 8:00 PM. I'm going to bed.

***

Good morning! It's Day 10! This is what I ate yesterday:

B: HUGE bowl chicken-vegetable soup sprinkled with shredded coconut

Black coffee

L: 3 hard-boiled eggs, 2 Persian cucumbers, an itty-bitty sweet potato, and 1 whole avocado

T: Garlic-herb chicken sausage

Broccoli-beet-apple salad dressed with tahini-olive oil dressing and raw mixed nuts

Glass of kombucha

D: Not-Quite Shrimp Creole (shrimp, onions, celery, bell peppers, tomatoes, garlic, ghee)

Glass of kombucha

Exercise: Nothing.

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Day 10

B: 3 eggs, olive oil, bok choy, butternut squash, garlic-herb mayo

Black coffee

L: Leftover gumbo

Cherry-chia kombucha

T: Smoked oysters in olive oil and homemade tomato sauce

Large carrot

D: Melissa's Chicken Hash (Whole30) with extra arugula mixed in

S: Hard boiled egg

Local(!) strawberries with almond butter

Kimchi

Exercise: 1 hour ballet class

***

I got my period, and it seems really normal, which is awesome! I'm pretty excited. My hormones have been off-the-charts low, so this is good news for my overall health—but especially my bones.

It was bad news for my family this morning, though: I was cranky, prickly, and just plain not very nice. But I got over it, got the shopping for the week done (a day early because we were out of everything), planned some dinners, made some ghee, tackled some organizational projects... I was wiped out by dinner time and thought about skipping ballet class, but I'm so glad I went!. I feel tired, but awesome. I'm singing the "Wonder Woman" theme song in my head.

I did not, however, time my meals well today or eat enough vegetables. I'm really enjoying kimchi as a palate cleanser; I don't think of myself as an "emotional eater" (a"binge eater" certainly, but not an "emotional eater"), but I can get into this weirded headspace where the food is good and eating is pleasurable...so I'm oddly sad when the food is gone and I want to keep going. Because there's more food. Because I can. But a couple bites of kimchi seems to put a stop to that. "Meal over," it says. Plus it's fermented and delicious.

Almond butter has been moved into the "treat" column, by the way. I can eat it in moderation, but my animal brain doesn't want that. It threw a big old tantrum when I spooned some almond butter over my strawberries tonight, instead of eating huge heaping mounds straight off a jar spatula. I know I am in charge, not my urges to binge, but listening to the lower-brain complaining isn't worth it.

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"The Hardest Days" are here on Day 11. I got awful sleep last night, probably through no fault of my own: fell asleep easily, up at 2-something to use the bathroom, up at 3-something when the kitty threw up, up a little before 5 when the girl woke up. Yuck.

Now I'm breastfeeding and feeling resentful because I spent all morning preparing everyone else's food, plus getting the pork in the slow cooker for carnitas tonight. It's hot, I'm sticky, and I'd really like a shower this morning, but it might not happen. My partner, meanwhile, is off at the gym—with a bag full of healthy food that he just has to heat and eat when the time comes.

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Day 11

B: Eggs, bok choy, and butternut squash cooked in ghee, topped with garlic-herb mayo

Black coffee

L: Cherry chia kombucha

White anchovies with mayo

Roasted Brussels sprouts

Raw mixed nuts

T: A couple sips of coconut milk chai (my daughter snitched the rest)

Hard boiled egg

Beet-carrot-cucumber-coconut salad drizzled with olive oil

A few bites of pork shoulder (straight from the slow-cooker)

"D": Pork shoulder (straight from the slow-cooker—3 or 4 palms' worth) and nothing else

***

It was a bad day. I thought about quitting. Specifically, I thought about eating two or three of my favorite truffle bars, which are currently on sale at my local supermarket, I happen to know.

I was overly tired, my daughter was especially demanding, but mostly I psyched myself out about the pork shoulder. I don't believe in "trigger foods," but I do believe in well-worn mental grooves, and that's where I found myself. The last time I made slow-cooked meat, I binged on it: straight out of the slow cooker, to the point of total miserable stuffed-ness. When I thought about making carnitas, my first thought was "delicious." My next thought was "I binged last time," over and over and over. And because I was tired, and I didn't eat enough protein or non-starchy vegetable at teatime, I gave in to the binge urge again.

Instead of beating myself up, I'll tell myself what I'd tell someone else: it's okay. Move on. You didn't eat in accordance with your goals, but you didn't do anything morally wrong. Food and guilt never belong together, ever (unless you steal it). So move on. Put it behind you, and make your next meal something you'd proudly serve the Hartwigs, your children, and your most cherished friends.

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Day 12

B: (Inspired by Melissa's Chicken Hash from The Whole30) Pork shoulder, kale, butternut squash and apple cooked in ghee and apple cider, topped with a poached egg

Black coffee

Sparkling water

L: Mackerel, avocado, cabbage, kimchi

T: Mushroom omelette

Cherry chia kombucha

D: Sardine cakes

Avocado-romaine salad

Kimchi

Decaf herbal tea

Exercise: Fitness Blender's Total Body Barre Workout (ouch!)

Mood: Awful. Super-depressed. No idea why. Maybe just "one of those things."

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