Severe mood problems

[allistrang]

My husband and I both started eating a Paleo diet.  We did the Whole30 in July (woohoo!) and continued with it's principals since then.  We both have had quite a distinct change in our mood.  Where we before were happy and content we are moody and grouchy and blah.  We really like the way Whole30/Paleo makes us feel physically.  But the mood problems need to change or it isn't feasible to continue.  My husband is one of the most easy going, happy men I know.  And he is short tempered and feels like he is losing his mind.  I have bi-polar depression and that could play into this.  However, I have been steady on my meds for years now with no issues.  I was actually hoping this lifestyle change would make me feel even better not worse.  I feel like I do when my meds are not working well.  Super irritable and short tempered.  It is so discouraging.  

 

Any help or direction would be so greatly appreciated. Thank you so much.  Food log of the last 3 days below.  We eat similarly each day.  Very rarely eat off plan.  And when we do it's things such as sushi etc. and not sugary nastiness.

 

Day 1

Meal 1 - all of our meal 1's are the same every day

2 eggs with orange pepper, mushroom, spinach and approx. 1/8 cup cubes yukon gold potatoes - fried in compliant bacon greese

2-3 pieces of compliant bacon

1/3 - 1/2 avocado

Meal 2 - left overs from dinner the previous night - this meal was turkey breast pounded and rolled with seasonings (complaint) mushrooms, spinach and garlic.  With roasted asparagus as a side.  

Meal 3 - turkey meatloaf (recipe from Make It Paleo cookbook)

green salad with homemade ranch (compliant) dressing

 

Day 2

Meal 1 - as stated above

Meal 2 - leftovers from meal 3 above

Meal 3 - ground turkey taco salad - ground turkey with all compliant ingredients and seasonings on bed of greens with cucumbers, red onion, tomatoes, red peppers with compliant ranch dressing

 

Day 3

Meal 1 - as stated above

Meal 2 - leftovers from meal 3 above

Meal 3 - walnut-crusted port tenderloin recipe from Whole30 book with roasted brussel sprouts roasted in olive oil with salt and pepper

 

 

[jmcbn]

By the looks of things you're eating very little in the way of starchy veg - I'm only seeing 1/8 cup of Yukon potatoes on day one...

Our recommendation would be for a fist sized serving of starchy veg* per day, which is known to help with anxiety, & stabilizing moods - you might like to increase your intake to at least that over the next few days & see how you go.







*All varieties of potatoes, squash, beets, yucca, yam, turnip, parsnip, rutabaga, plantains etc.

[ladyshanny]

It's hard to tell what the portion sizes are on the rest of your meals but your breakfast is small.  Bacon is fat, not a significant source of protein, so by only having two eggs each, you are short changing yourself.  Also it would surprise me that you and your husband are both satisfied on two eggs.  Eggs as a sole protein are as many as you can hold in your hand without dropping.  For women that is at least 3-4, for men it is significantly more than that.  Also your veggies there are probably lacking unless you are using an entire orange pepper each, a cup of mushrooms each and several large handfuls of spinach each.

 

Given the breakfast size I might extrapolate and assume that your other meals are not large enough either.  For you both to be having mood and attitude changes and you are both eating the same volume/things, it's probably a fair guess that you guys need to eat more.  Make sure when husband is serving himself that he (or you if you are the "disher") uses his own palm/thumb for metrics.

[Tom Denham]

I recommend you start with 3 fist-size servings of starchy veggies like potatoes, parsnips, rutabagas, plantains, etc. per day. 1/8 of a cup is not enough to make a difference. You can drop back to 2 fist-size servings per day after you feel better and then you could experiment with dropping back to one serving per day if you want.

 

Your meal 1 overall is too small. That makes me worry that your meals 2 and 3 are too small as well. Not eating enough overall could also contribute to your negative mood.