Help! Day 17 and feeling worse and worse

[jules29]

Hi there and thank you in advance!

This is my first Whole30. My body's response to the first 10 days on program seemed to follow along your typical "timeline" and overall, went very well. By day 10, I had more energy, was sleeping much more soundly at night, and I was starting to feel good. But then . . .

Shortly after, I started feeling hypoglycemic, especially upon first waking up in the morning. Jittery, shakiness, an overall anxious feeling, even a few heart palpitations. So, I started eating a small snack of protein and fat an hour before bed at night. That helped immensely and for the next several mornings, I felt great waking up.

However, now I'm noticing different symptoms throughout the day: racing heart rate during and after eating meals and an increase in heart palpitations ("skipped beats"). More hypoglycemia symptoms of shakiness, jitters, and anxiety throughout the day. Yesterday, while prepping dinner, I was feeling clumsy and in a fog.

A few other things that are getting worse instead of better: My heartburn and acid indigestion, which had quickly become a non -issue after the first couple of days on program, is now back with a vengeance, especially between meals. My sleep at night is getting worse instead of better. Again, at the beginning of my Whole30, I noticed I was sleeping better and much more soundly, and waking up with energy and ready to start my day. The last few nights, I'm having trouble falling asleep, I'm not sleeping soundly, and I wake up feeling tired. Case in point, I'm awake at 4:45am writing this. I'm very fatigued throughout the day and have to take a nap to make it through. I've had several nights with horrible RLS, also.

Help! I feel like I'm falling apart and my anxiety is really taking off. Most concerning to me, of course, are the hypoglycemic symptoms. Do I need to see a doctor?

Thank you!!

[GFChris]

Maybe, and/or perhaps some food tweaks might help alleviate your symptoms.  My initial concern is that you're not eating enough overall, or you're not getting enough starchy vegetables or salt.

 

Are you salting your food?

Can you post your meal log from the past 2-3 days, with portion sizes, and water consumption?

[missmary]

yup. It could also be not enough fat and protein and/or too much fruit to the exclusion of those things. An example day or two of food and activity will help us figure it out.

[jules29]

Thank you so much.

Day 15 - Pre-W/O: Half banana and handful of cashews / Breakfast: 2-egg Kitchen sink omelet with diced ham and loads of veggies with a side of salsa, cup of fresh fruit (cantaloupe, pineapple, strawberries) / Lunch: Lettuce wrap with deli turkey, guacamole and salsa, carrots / Dinner: Turkey burger patty with spicy brown mustard, dill pickles, roasted sweet potato spears with Garlic Aioli and Brussels Sprouts with clarified butter. After dinner 25-min walk.

Day 16 - Breakfast: Blueberry smoothie with full fat coconut milk (1 c blueberries, 1 c coconut milk), cinnamon, chia seeds and walnuts plus a hard boiled egg / Lunch: Tuna salad with Best Mayo served in a tomato, with 6-8 green olives, 1/2 cup of cantaloupe / Afternoon snack: hard boiled egg / Dinner: Hand-size portion of Shepherd's pie (lean ground beef, veggies, tomato paste and mashed potato topping)

I do typically salt everything. I drink iced lemon water, herbal iced teas, and seltzer water all throughout the day, keeping a glass with me at all times.

Again, thank you!

Julie

[jules29]

P.S. Day16 too tired to work out.

[GFChris]

Ok, a few items stand out for me.

 

First on compliance: confirm that your ham, deli turkey and pickles are compliant. 

Secondly: smoothies are discouraged on a Whole30, especially fruit-heavy ones.  The idea is to chew your food vs drink it, as chewing is more satiating.  

Third: I wonder if you're eating enough? Have you seen the meal template? For best results, each of your three main meals should have 1-2 palms of protein (where a palm is the length, width and thickness of your palm), 1-3 cups of veggies and the appropriate amount of a compliant fat.  Don't let fruit push vegetables off your plate.  Pre workout meal is protein and fat (no fruit - nuts are a fat on a Whole30), and post workout meal is protein and carb.  I would start with bumping up the protein. When eggs are your sole protein, the serving size is the number of eggs you can hold in 1 hand without dropping them. For most folks, that's 3-4 eggs.

Do you like red meat?  Also try incorporating that in your protein rotation.



 

[jmcbn]

Yeah, you're not eating enough. That, and you're starting your day out with fruit, which after a night of fasting and when your cortisol levels are at their highest probably isn't the most sensible of choices.

 

A couple of things:

PreWO aim for protein & fat - so maybe a hard boiled egg, or some chicken & mayo. You may do well with a postWO meal too depending on the timing & intensity of your WO. Aim for protein & starchy veg here, not fruit. Think along the lines of chicken & sweet potato. Don't cheat your muscles out of food that it needs to recover.

 

Smoothies are really discouraged on whole30 for a number of reasons - they are generally high in fruit content, and also they send the wrong signal to your brain leaving you less satiated as your body thinks it has drunk something, not eaten. Fruit shouldn't push the veggies off of your plate either - fill up on protein, fat & veggies first and if you've still got room for more then reach for the fruit.

Your meals all look tiny to me - your tomato would need to have been the size of a pumpkin to have held enough tuna salad to fill you, and a palm sized portion of shepherd's pie would not have contained much in the way of protein to keep you full for any length of time.

Re-visit the meal template, and remember that these recommendations are minimums so you really can eat a lot more in order to fill you up. You should not be feeling fatigued, or shaky, or hungry, or anything other than satiated when eating this way.



ETA: Too busy typing to see that Chris had replied!!

 

[ShannonM816]

OK, a few things you can try changing here.

Pre-workout, have protein and fat. Skip the banana, if the cashews don't bother you, they're OK, but nuts can cause digestive distress for some. Add a few bites of protein with them. Or skip the cashews too and have a hard-boiled egg.

Double check your ham, it's really unusual to find any that's compliant, almost all have sugar in some form. Some people find they do better keeping fruit to later in the day.

The lettuce wrap with deli turkey, are you sure you got at least one palm-sized serving of turkey? That's the length, width, and depth of your palm. That's more than the one or two slices that most people would put on a sandwich.

Smoothies are really not recommended. You need to chew your food, no thanks to mention they tend to be very fruit heavy, which can set you up for a blood sugar spike and subsequent crash. Plus, one egg is nowhere near enough protein in that meal, and you had no vegetables.

Your tuna salad lunch seems light on vegetables too.

For the shepherd's pie, you say a hand-sized portion. You need a palm-sized portion of meat, and then a bunch of veggies,plus some fat. That may have been enough protein, but I doubt you really got enough vegetables with it. Add a side of some kind -- a salad or some other vegetable.

Edited to add: answering on my phone, so in the time it took to correct all the auto-correct suggestions, other people already answered. Sorry.

[missmary]

sorry if this feels like a pile on, we really really want you feeling better!

 

The other ladies got the primary items, but one more jumped out at me: by Best Mayo do you mean the one made by Best Foods (http://www.bestfoods.com/product/detail/96361/real-mayonnaise) or a recipe? If it's the best foods one it is not compliant due to soybean oil. If it's the recipe on the whole9 site you are all good, I just wasn't sure.

[jules29]

Whoa - I'm feeling the LOVE! LOL. Thank you all SO much.

 

Starting with the last post first, the Best Mayo is the recipe from the Whole30 book made with Light Olive Oil. I never knew I could make my own mayo and have it taste so good. My whole family loves it.

 

I know smoothies aren't recommended and I keep them to just 1-2 per week, when I'm getting sick of eggs. (I knew you were going to jump on that.) But it totally makes sense to me that I'm not eating enough food, esp protein and veggies. I will re-read all your posts, review the meal template and implement right away today.

 

I'll keep you updated on how I'm feeling.

 

Again, thank you all!

 

Julie

[Physibeth]

I know smoothies aren't recommended and I keep them to just 1-2 per week, when I'm getting sick of eggs.

 

 

Remember that you don't have to eat eggs for breakfast. You can eat anything you would eat for any other meal for breakfast!

[Jasminebre]

Just a question about what everyone said about smoothies. I bring a smoothie to school for lunch twice a week, is that ok? It has a ton of vegetables in it either spinach or blanched Swiss chard or blanched kale and celery, cucumber, carrots, almonds, chia seeds, hydrolysed bone broth powder and it does have berries and sometimes 1/2 a banana

[ladyshanny]

1 minute ago, Jasminebre said:

Just a question about what everyone said about smoothies. I bring a smoothie to school for lunch twice a week, is that ok? It has a ton of vegetables in it either spinach or blanched Swiss chard or blanched kale and celery, cucumber, carrots, almonds, chia seeds, hydrolysed bone broth powder and it does have berries and sometimes 1/2 a banana

It's not against the rules but it doesn't follow the recommendations at all. 

Smoothies: We’d rather you didn’t

This is a very popular question, with a very unpopular answer. Smoothies (generally made using lots of fruit) are technically compliant on your Whole30, but we strongly recommend against it. Food that you drink sends different satiety signals to your brain than food that you chew. So when you drink your meal, your brain isn’t getting the feedback it needs to tell your body that it’s had enough of what it needs. Plus, smoothies are generally really fruit-heavy, and starting your day off with a liquid sugar-bomb sets you up for cravings, hunger, and volatile energy levels throughout the day. In summary, we’d rather you just eat the food, and skip the smoothie.

Edited to add: @Jasminebre - I just deleted the post you created that is the exact same as this post I've responded to. Please do not crosspost identically within the forum, it makes more work for volunteer moderators and is against forum rules.