Zyrie's Log

[Zyriel]

Spent day 0 doing a bit of shopping, setting my goals, working with my SO on a meal planning spreadsheet, and browsing the forum.

 

Goals:

• Nutrition: I will drink at least two full pint glasses of water a day.
• Sleep: I will be in bed by 11pm on Work Nights, 4/5 nights.
• Exercise: I will go on a walk of no less than 30 minutes at least once a week for the next 30 days.
• Fun and Play: I will complete my book and begin another over the next 30 days.
• Personal Growth: I will try one new recipe a week for the next 30 days.

 

Meals:

• Breakfast - I don't tend to eat breakfast, it makes me nauseated
• Lunch - scrambled eggs, bullet-proof espresso
• Snack - a couple of green olives and cashews while prepping dinner
• Dinner - Grilled seasoned chicken (from Well Fed), Curried Cauliflower Soup from Paleo Grubs with some extra cashews because we thought they were going to be IN the soup and decided we liked that idea.

 

Other:

Set up a Meal Planning Google Spreadsheet where my SO can put things he'd like to eat and I can pull them into a weekly menu. There's a prep section each day, which I like and have already put to use.

 

Made a basil oil that I plan to garnish the soup with. I've always wanted to try to make an oil garnish, I'm very excited.

 

Giving mayo a try tonight, although I don't think I have enough neutral flavored oil on hand.

 

So far I've only hit 1/4 of my water goal. Going to target another half of it with dinner.

 

Felt a little bad when my SO woke up and said "You didn't plan anything for my lunch did you?" and I hadn't. BUT, he works a couple blocks away from a Paleo Food Cart so he will be JUST fine.

 

I learned that adding crushed nuts to a soup you plan to puree with an immersion blender doesn't work the way you think it will. Paste (blending it first?) is probably a better option. My soup is a little... textured.

 

Took my measurements today. Eeegads. Need to find time for a photo.

 

[ShannonM816]

Hi, Zyrie!  Welcome to Whole30.

 

Just so you know, we recommend you try to drink 1/2 oz of water per pound of body weight -- so if you weigh 120 lbs, aim for at least 60 oz. I suspect two pint glasses full is probably not enough, so you might rethink that goal a bit. Try adding a squeeze of lemon or lime juice to your water if it's a flavor thing that keeps you from drinking more, and always keeping a bottle or glass of water with you so that it's convenient to drink regularly.

 

Work on breakfast too -- it's best if you eat within an hour of waking. It Starts With Food has an explanation of the science behind it, and this blog post has a little explanation too, but basically, eating breakfast soon after waking helps get your cortisol levels where they should be. Ideally, you'll wake up hungry, and then by the time your final meal of the day rolls around, you'll eat that meal and then not be hungry for 8-12 hours, however long you go between supper and breakfast. It will help with your sleep as well. You may not be able to eat a full meal at first, but I'd encourage you to keep working toward having a full template meal first thing in the morning. Whether you do that or not, keep in mind that three template meals in a day is really the minimum amount of food you need just to carry on with your daily life, so if you skip a meal, you're shortchanging yourself on the amount of food you're getting, and that will catch up with you, leaving you tired and moody at some point.

 

Nobody expects you to have all this down perfectly at the beginning, but it's good to know what you need to be working toward. I know some people feel like we get kind of nitpicky about things here, but the rules all do have reasons behind them, and we want you to have the best experience you can with Whole30.

[Zyriel]

Thank you for the feedback!

 

On the water, I have a hard time drinking much of anything, so I set what I felt was a reasonable goal that I wouldn't be failing at so bad that I wouldn't even try. I can use larger glasses at my desk, perhaps that will help.

 

For Breakfast, yeah... I know    I do genuinely get nauseous thinking about or smelling food first thing in the morning. Particularly eggs. I've had good luck with leftovers for breakfast in the past and I'm hoping to make that work going forward. I'll give it a try in the morning and see if I can stomach it.

[jmcbn]

Thank you for the feedback!

 

On the water, I have a hard time drinking much of anything, so I set what I felt was a reasonable goal that I wouldn't be failing at so bad that I wouldn't even try. I can use larger glasses at my desk, perhaps that will help.

 

For Breakfast, yeah... I know    I do genuinely get nauseous thinking about or smelling food first thing in the morning. Particularly eggs. I've had good luck with leftovers for breakfast in the past and I'm hoping to make that work going forward. I'll give it a try in the morning and see if I can stomach it.

Here's a linky to a really good thread with some ideas for breakfasts.... 

You could also google 'Whole30 non egg breakfasts' for lots of other suggestions - it's been discussed many times before on the forums!

Hope this helps 

[Zyriel]

Thank you. I'll take a read through that. I'm definitely on the hunt for ideas and recipes. It's been too long since I really cooked, much less cooked Paleo.

I'm a-ok with non-traditional breakfasts, and I love eggs, they just smell terrible first thing in the morning.

 

Thanx again!

[Zyriel]

Day 2

 

Today, I ate foods that were acceptable. But I didn't eat well. I failed to prep my mayo last night and decided it was better to do it right than rush it. So I ate cauliflower soup and chicken for all of my meals. And by all I mean both, since I didn't convince myself to eat breakfast.

 

At any rate, I'm satisfied with how I did. I ain't mad. And I have a plan for tommorrow

 

 

Meals:

• ....: bullet-proof coffee, code liver oil and vit. c.  so..., not food but some fat.
  
• M1: Curried Cauliflower Soup with a grilled chicken thigh and basil oil garnish.
  
• Snack: 2/3 of a naval orange. I rarely eat fruit, but had two oranges due to a guest. It was so sweet, definitely more treat than food. I'll eat the other but won't be buying oranges for "food".
  
• M3: Curried Cauliflower Soup with chicken and basil oil again. Also a couple of grapes and pumpkin seeds and the last of the orange..
  

 

Other:

Prepped the mayo and katsup I need for meals tomorrow, and some of the veggies I need.

 

Met my water goal yesterday, had to sort of force the issue tonight but I met it.

 

I would have liked to have blueberries today but it appears the birds got into my blueberry cage and cleaned me out. Pests, the lot of them. I think I'm going to re-hang the mesh next year. I've never had it, but blueberries and coconut cream sounded like a pretty tasty idea.

 

The mediocre soup reminded me of a Cauliflower Leek soup I used to make, creamed with white sweet potato chunks and bacon added. It's delicious. Going to have to put that on a future menu.

 

Because I saw no real hits when I searched the forum, I want to mention that I have Achalasia. I assume my post will show up on searches, so this way anyone coming along later can find me. I had a laproscopic heller myotomy about 10 years ago and am ok most days. But had an episode on Day 1 where my meal didn't stay down. I'm hoping that was more hormone related than anything, as it's more likely to happen at certain points in my cycle. In addition to the achalasia I have some unknown/undiagnosed digestive issue. I always thought it WAS the achalasia, but I now think it's separate although perhaps related. On occasion, typically cyclical, I get massive amounts of air coming up from my stomach. Due to the myotomy and lack of muscles in my esophagus, this causes me immense pain. The air gets caught, causes pressure, and induces spasms and other unpleasant effects. Aside from hormones, I've long suspected it's in some way food triggered. So I'm curious to see if this elimination will help me identify what causes it. I've tried to pin it down unsuccessfully before with food monitoring.

 

And with that, I'm going to play a game and get to bed on time. I have to get up early to put together my meals for the day since I'm working in the office.

[Zyriel]

Apparently, the harder I try to go to bed by 11, the more I fight it. Not doing well on that goal. I went to bed /later/ than usual last night. Which meant waking up early to prep food and get to work early didn't happen the way I planned. I did get the brisket going, and even made breakfast, but I didn't pre-make lunch.

 

Woke up cranky but that subsided through the day. I suppose breakfast might be attributable to that.

 

Meals:

• M1: (which was in the morning, YEAH!) handful of country sausage, handful of blueberries, thumb of coconut cream. Too much coconut cream, flavor-wise, or too thick or something, less next time. I didn't love the country sausage either, probably for lack of sugar and such. I might buy just sausage and mix my own seasonings next.
• M2: 2 Hard boiled eggs with mustard. (the mayo was a no-go, but the eggs cooked up perfectly and tasted ok with just mustard), hand full of baby carrots and a handfull of blueberries. Tea with nothing in it.
• M3: Brisket (Paleo Leap recipe but without non-compliant ingredients, which means also no worcestershire because I didn't realize I needed to make that one), roasted baby carrots with cinnamon and ghee that were to die for and I wish there were more. And a handful of blueberries because my Fiance cleaned up my dinner before I was done with it, oops.

 

 

Other:

Wholy craptastic, the mayo I made is terrible. I used avocado oil because I have found it to be super mild to cook with, almost no flavor. But I bought a different brand because it was a little cheaper and... didn't taste it or try it out first. It's terrible. I have a bit of the oil left I'm going to try and cook with but I suspect the extra 3 bucks ($7 versus $10 for 8oz) is worth it for the spendier oil. Yuck. Which totally ruined my egg salad plans. Which were already my tuna salad backup that failed because I didn't have compliant tuna on hand, which I thought I did.

 

Eating breakfast put my lunch later than usual. I usually eat lunch around noon, but as early as 10. Might have a very small snack in the afternoon (generally nuts or chocolate... yeah). And then dinner some time between 6 & 8. This is pre-whole30. With Breakfast today at 8:30am, although it took me a good long while to get through it. I then at lunch at 2:30, and dinner at 8. It's worth noting that I take a long time to eat. It can take me an hour or more to get through a meal. In part this is due to a medical condition related to swallowing, although to be honest saying that's completely it might not be wholly true.

 

Took a nap today, because the Whole30 e-mails told me I should. I never ever ever ever nap. I hate napping because I always wake up groggy. And because the worst part of sleeping is waking up, so why would I want to do that twice in a day? But anyway, it worked out. My alarm failed, but it took me forever to fall asleep anyway so I would guess I slept about a half hour where I meant to sleep about 20 minutes.

 

Need to come up with some ideas fo what to do with leftover brisket.

[Zyriel]

Meals:

• M1: handful of brisket, handful of blueberries, bulletproof espresso, heaping handful of baby carrots
• M2: tuna salad lettuce cup (a palm of tuna there). (I made handfull of baby carrots and ranch but only ate a few).
• M3: Brisket, two handfulls of roasted ghee & cinnamon carrots, a bite of white sweet potato, black tea

 

Used a very dark espresso today; my fat blend wasn't enough to combat the bitterness. Medium blend going forward I think.

 

It seems that I keep forgetting about vegetables for breakfast. When I sat down to note what I put together I thought about what comments someone might make about it and realized  I wasn't thinking fully about the template. So I had to run and grab some carrots. It's not perfect but it's better.

 

Still struggling to get Mayo right. Threw out the avocado mayo and made safflower mayo. It's nutty but better at least. The tuna salad came out pretty ok with it, I forgot about the nuttiness after a while. I think I should have put garlic powder in the mix though.

 

Due to swallowing issues I ate half of what I intended for lunch and it took for-ever.

 

Had to head to the store last night for mayo supplies and my Fiance, let's call him D, asked me to pick up a "Paleo" dessert for us. I'm proud to say that I said no, I'm not looking at "desserts" right now though I'd be happy to get him something specific if he named it for me. In the end we had no dessert. Although I did have a handfull of blueberries because he dumped the rest of my dinner while I was at the store. He ended up making himself an egg with kalamata olives later in the evening. I think that was a much better choice, clearly he was still hungry. D isn't specifically doing whole30, but is returning to Paleo and I think he's doing low carb for meals I'm not preparing. I think it'll work out pretty well. He's on board and supportive, though scoffs at a few of "the rules" like the amount of alcohol in vanilla extract. And he's willing to go in search of recipes for things he wants to eat, which is super helpful to me even if I have to modify some of them.

 

Had a food dream last night. There was a cracker with some creamy cheese on it that was passed to me. The cracker was easy to pass up, but in my dream I guiltily licked the cheese off. This sensation stuck with me through the rest of my dreams and waking up. Weird. I wasn't expecting to dream like this even though the e-mails suggested I would.

[Zyriel]

Day 5

 

Woke up around 11:30 today so meals were a little condensed.

 

Meals

• M1: Tuna salad lettuce cups (two palms of tuna I think), handful of carrots and ranch, bulletproof espresso
• M2: 3 Applegate Big Dogs and a heaping handful of Farmhouse Culture Caraway Saurkraut. Black Tea

 

Other:

Learned a lesson about bullet proof coffee today. Mix the fat in while it's still very hot, don't let the coffee sit while you make food and then blend in the fat. Chunky coffee, blech. I would like to try a bit of coconut cream in my espresso but I'm not thrilled with the brand I have open right now so we'll do that later in the week. I can drink it straight as well but I'd gotten into the habit of heavy cream so I need to shift myself back toward black.

 

Today got away from me and there were something like 8 hours between M1 & M2. I was out shopping for the week's meals and it just wasn't going very quickly, too many stops. In the end, I went to bed hungry, but I elected to do that rather than eat and go directly to bed.

 

This Wednesday we're entertaining for a board game night. It'll be the first time I've cooked for a group in my new house. These folks are accustomed to alternative approaches to food. Ones Gluten and Dairy intolerant, one tries to eat Paleo-ish, and the other is the guest I had over last night. He eats what we all feed him.

 

Found my favorite grapes (champagne grapes) at the store today, but didn't buy them because I knew I had a slew of grapes already, as well as blueberries. I just don't eat that much fruit. But D agreed to dig into the grapes on hand so I can go get the ones I want. Apparently he'd been going easy on them thinking they were "mine" for the Whole30 specific stuff. Nope, you eat that sugar bomb baby! I'll go get myself some itty bitty ones that are more about the fun than about the sugar.

[Zyriel]

Day 6

 

Meals

• M1: scrambled egg and a palm full of sauerkraut. Black tea.
• M2: egg salad (2 eggs worth), heaping handful of raw spinach with red onions and Tessamae's balsamic vinaigrette, couple of cornichons, and a handfull of champagne grapes. Iced Tea.
• M3: two heaping handfulls of Shakshuka (2 Eggs, onion, garlic, tomato and tomato paste with seasoning), handful of beet greens with onion and garlic

 

Other

Apparently the shakshuka smelled so good it chased my room-mate out of the house in search of food for himself. Niiiiice.

 

Finished my book! And an additional novella. Moved on to a third book now.

 

Was still a little hungry after I finished what I made for dinner. Thought about having a banana but waited too long (waiting to see if I'd turn full). But, going to bed a little hungry just means I might do better at breakfast.

[Zyriel]

Day 7

 

Meals

• M1: palm of grilled chicken, heaping handful of raw spinach with Tessamae's balsamic vinaigrette and some red onion. Black Tea.
• M2: maybe 2 oz of grilled chicken and a few bites of cabbage and carrots.
• Snack/M2.5?: 1-2oz of grilled chicken and more than a few bites of cabbage and carrots
• M3: palm and a half of rib-eye with a little bit of ghee on it, 1/3 cup of almond milk with cinnamon, heaping handful of cauliflower & leek soup.

 

 

 

 

Other

I'm doing ok with the eating of breakfast thing, but I'm still struggling to figure vegetables into it. I set aside a chicken thigh last night for breakfast and called it good. Then stood in the kitchen this morning going "oh... vegetables, darn .... banana?". A Banana sounds amazing but I can't figure out how to work it into a meal. It's so dense and carby, it's like a dessert.

 

Wasn't hungry for lunch. I made it last night, had it all ready to go, then wasn't hungry. I waited an hour and then got it out of the fridge and tried to eat it anyway. Didn't get very far. I'm not really fond of the concept of eating when you're not hungry. I don't think that's healthy at all. It doesn't fit the idea of listening to my body. I kept it standing by so that if I felt peckish I had it rather than nuts or a banana or whatever that was true snack food. Did end up eating some more of it an hour and a half later.

 

Still really struggling with complete meal planning. I have dinner planned and purchased for most days this week, but the Breakfast and Lunch fields on my meal planner are totally blank and even dinner falls off on Friday. Additionally, I keep finding that my meals are half baked. I had no protein tonight and had to send D out for something to make with the soup. I need to get on the forums about this. And I need to probably do a bit of a weekly cook-up. Ugh, I wish I could find my cookbooks! We have at least 12 boxes of books from the move and I swear I've looked in all of them and I can't find my cookbooks, namely my WellFed books.

 

I went through Worksheet #2 today. The most interesting responses I found were:

• When I eat breakfast I feel: smarter. I had the answer out in my head before I even really gave the question consideration. So I'm going with that. But I also feel like my mood through the day is more stable and cheery.
• Since I started my Whole30, I've noticed that my digestive issues: are more common. This one is unfortunate. It could be related to my cycle, but usually that's only one day. This has been every other day the whole week, which is unusual. I think it's because I'm eating more food in a day, and eating more times in a day. Maybe my liver and/or pancreas just need to get their motor running better still?

[Zyriel]

Also, I'm leaving the house for essentially the first time tomorrow. I am heading into my office to work downtown, rather than my home. I /think/ I have breakfast and lunch planned out. I've had it easy so far, being completely in my own managed environment.

 

Here's my plan, listed to help me be sure I really have one:

• M1: palm of steak, a bell pepper. Maybe make bulletproof coffee to go.
• M2: palm+ of chicken and brisket, heaping handful+ of cabbage and carrots. Maybe bring a tea-bag to make tea.

 

Not sure if I should grab that banana and a little bag of nut butter. I feel like the above it enough food, but I had so much trouble with that same M2 today I'm nervous its a palate issue.

 

What I need to avoid:

• Getting a latte on the way
• Getting coffee from our cafe because I don't think I can hack it black yet.
• The afternoon mini-cupcakes from the cafe. I'm hoping two square meals will mean I don't have low blood sugar mid-afternoon, which is generally when the chocolate/cupcake hunt would begin.
• The thai tea powder mix and the lavender milk tea mix that are in my desk at work. I think if I have a teabag with me this won't be tempting.

[Zyriel]

Day 8

 

Meals

• M1: palm of steak, a bell pepper, black tea
• M2: palm of chicken and brisket, heaping handful of cabbage and carrots, black tea
• M3: palm+ of Hawaiian Pulled Pork (includes pineapple chunks), heaping handful of roasted Brussels sprouts with bacon (a la Nom Nom Paleo), half of an asian pear, half a banana

 

Other:

Went to bed way too late again last night. D suggested that we could plan to go to bed early together. I really appreciate his support.

 

Went into the office for work today. I brought my two meals. I also brought a banana, some nut butter, and some grapes. I wanted to be prepared if I hadn't brought enough food so I didn't have to hunt something down and possibly make a mistake. I even passed through the cafe. I glanced at the pastry box, but people were in front of it and blocked the cupcake view. At any rate, it wasn't a terrible temptation even if my mind wandered that way. I also had a moment on my lunch walk where a latte sure sounded like a good idea. But that passed quickly as well.

 

I'm finding I'm not struggling with cravings very much, perhaps just not yet. When I do have a sort of thought about something off-plan, it's brief and passes easily and I don't have to satiate myself with something on-plan instead. I'm relieved for that, and I really feel for the folks I read are having trouble. Even D is battling cravings, though I think he's not eating enough and not eating a proper breakfast and that's hindering him.

 

I find myself thinking "it's only 30 days" when I am faced with something that I would otherwise have thought "its a treat (which I deserve, right?)". "It's only 30 days" has been super helpful, but I need to think about changing my perspective for longer term management. What happens when I'm at a coffee shop on day 31 faced with a decision between an unsweetened iced tea (which I do like) and an iced vanilla latte?

 

I've been thinking about Day 31 (I know it's early). I do plan to do reintroduction. I'm planning on taking my time with it and spacing these things out more than the 2 days between that the Sample Schedule suggests. I may do more than one day of each as well. I think this is the order I'll try. I'm thinking putting the most desirable things last is likely to be easier to stay on track

• Soy - I don't plan to start consuming tons of soy, but I'd like to know whether soy sauce, soy oils in foods I'm served, and other "trace" amounts are actually a problem or not.
• Corn - I'm not a fan of corn. It has no nutritional value. I've never heard of anyone being sensitive to it, but after reading the Grains Manifesto it seems plausible. And once again, since it's an additive in everything, I'd like to know how it rates for me.
• White Rice - I could give a damn about brown rice so that doesn't matter. But I desire to eat white rice when consuming Asian foods
• Non-Soy Legumes - A blood test revealed I have a reaction to peanuts. Some day I might have an anaphylactic reaction, who knows. But I do enjoy kidney beans quite a bit, in chili for example, so I'd like to know if they cause me undue distress.
• Gluten/Wheat - I'm not sure I want to know. I feel like I'd rather assume I don't tolerate it.
• Diary - I might break this up into non-lactose and lactose dairy. I don't think I have an issue with lactose, but seems like the right time to find out.
• Alcohol

[Zyriel]

Day 9 

 

Meals today did not go as planned or desired, not even worth listing out. Dinner was solid though. The poor eating definitely affected my mood and excitability while I was trying to prepare dinner before our guests arrived.

 

It's a good lesson, though I honestly would have eaten properly had I been hungry.

 

I finally have a ton of leftovers to choose from. I wasn't even worried if D wanted to take what I had set aside for breakfast cause I knew I could throw something else together without effort. Bit more relaxing. In fact I had to run some thing through the food saver to put in the freezer.

 

Still on track, just didn't do well with template and cadence until dinner time.

[Zyriel]

Day 10

 

Meals

• M1: handfull of ghee roasted brussel's sprouds with bacon bits, moroccan mint tea
• M2: Hawaiian Pulled Pork and Sauerkraut. Together it was a heaving handful, bout 50/50 of each
• M3: Hawaiian Pulled Pork, cauliflower soup with white sweet potato and bacon

 

 

Other

Almost made a mistake with Gen Mai Cha this morning. I had it all brewed up and then started to type in my M1 and was thinking about describing what Gen Mai Cha is and it hit me. Glad I didn't take a drink. It's green tea with popped rice in it.

 

Had another food dream last night. In it I was picking up some candy for D and as I was carrying it around I mindlessly popped a piece into my mouth. I didn't feel guilty so much as resigned to starting the clock again. Relieved when I woke up though.

 

Just wasn't feeling the soup for dinner, nor able to force much due to a foul mood as a result of burning my hand right before dinner. So dinner was low on veg, but breakfast was high in it so I only feel a little bad right now.

[Zyriel]

Day 11

 

Meals

• M1: Banana and black tea
• M2: handful of curry goat, handful of spinach
• M3: curry goat and spinach again, two heaping handfuls all together

 

Others

Wasn't in the mood for "food" for breakfast. Not so much a stomach thing, as it was before Whole30, really just mood. My hand is a lot better, but I was bitter about the whole thing around why it got burned. Better now though. The banana lasted me from 9 to 11:30 before I felt hungry though. And I put myself to work for another hour and then made lunch so it turned out alright, though not ideal.

 

Skin congestion has been increasing. Particularly today, though I noticed it before. I need to look up whether that's normal for this stage in the process or later than normal.

[Zyriel]

Day 12

 

Meals

• M1: 3 pieces of bacon and a palm full of beet greens with shallots and clarified butter. Moroccan Mint Tea, then peppermint tea
• M2: Palm of steak, handful of roasted broccoli and garlic, about a half cut of cauliflower soup with white sweet potato. Also had a strawberry and a couple of champagne grapes while I cooked. Waited too long apparently.

 

Other

Woke up not feeling well. I made more greens than I was able to eat. It's irritating that my stomach issues seem more frequent now rather than less. Mint tea helped.

 

Found myself thinking about fruit that I'd like to eat while I was eating dinner.

 

Clearly having trouble with 3 square meals on weekends. Part of the problem was I wasn't prepared. We had leftovers but we were tired of them. I have picked up some applegate dogs to keep around for quick and dirty protein. We have carrots and peppers and spinach handy most of the time. I'm hoping this will get better.

[Zyriel]

Day 13

 

• M1: Chicken Apple Sausage and a red bell pepper
• M2: Asian Short rib (most of a small one), half a handfull of carrots

 

Had M1 a little before noon, shortly after crawling out of bed. Intended to have M2 around 6 but we had unexpected dinner guests and I messed up cooking the veggie side. All in all we ate almost at 9.

 

My achalasia was causing me trouble at dinner. I'm not sure how much of it stayed down. So I essentially ate M1 today. Right now I still feel like crap so I'm not even sure how much I care. Still frustrated that digestive problems are worse rather than better. I /was/ doing fine 27 out of 28 days. Now it seems like every other day I don't feel well.

 

Gonna log another book completed on Goodreads and then head to bed.

[Zyriel]

• M1: couple bites of Asian short rip, bout a quarter cup of carrots, couple of blueberries, black tea
• M2: maybe a palm full of Asian short rip, handful of carrots, couple of blueberries and two strawberries, bulletproof decaf espresso
• M3: palm+ of goat curry with white sweet potato, handful roasted carrots, small handful of cornichons

 

 

Still having trouble swallowing. The food I made intending it to be breakfast, which was already a little small on protein, ended up being both breakfast and lunch. I was able to go back and make more for lunch and eat it though. 

 

Put up a separate post about my swallowing issues in the Medical Conditions sub forum, just to vent. Thankfully I have D's sympathy in real time. It definitely sucked getting sick with guests over last night. I hate people thinking I have anorexia when I don't.

 

With lunch I took code liver oil and made a bullet proof coffee, just to get some additional fat in.

 

Felt down and depressed all day, still feeling that way. Probably partially attributable to poor nutrition. I did eat a full dinner (so far so good). I think I consider the cornichon addition a little snack-ish. I ate it because I wanted the flavor, sour sounded good. It was definitely an addition after I finished my prepared meal. Although it was immediately after, not some time after so... I dunno, probably ok. I've been doing pretty well about not snacking and I'm sensitive about it since its one spot I feel successful.

 

[Zyriel]

I FOUND MY COOKBOOKS!!!!!

 

I only had to go through all of the book boxes 3 times. Good grief, I'm so relieved. And of course the Well Fed ones were the last ones I was able to locate.

[Zyriel]

Day 15

 

Feeling better this morning, and ambitious. Made sort of a large breakfast. But forgot to note the rest of meals. No idea.

[Zyriel]

Day 16

 

• M1: palm of rib-eye and half a bell pepper, black tea (rose scented, mmmm)
• M2: half a palm of ground pork, handful of bell pepper and onion
• M3: palm+ pork shoulder two heaping handfulls of raw spinach topped with balsamic vinaigrette, kalamata olives and red onion 

 

Made breakfast and dinner in 15 minutes this morning. Having some vegetables pre-chopped is super awesome. All I had to do was throw things in the crock pot and turn it on. In this case it was just jalapeno, but still.

 

Didn't eat enough lunch. I got distracted while I was eating and by the time I realized I was still eating it was nearly two. I decided to put it away and wait for dinner. I'm going to try and make an effort on this. Anyway, I was definitely hungry by 6, but didn't get to eat until 8. It all turned out alright though.

[Zyriel]

Day 17

 

• M1: 3/4 palm of Hawaiian pork, couple bites of spinach and a kalamata olive (not feeling well so didn't eat my whole veg salad)
• M2: raw spinach salad, Tessamae's balsamic Vinagrette, Kalamat olives (maybe a palm full), sprinkle of red onions (still not feeling well)
• M3: Palm of beef roast with two handfulls of carrots and turnips, fist of figs and strawberries.

 

I think I had a lung collapse this morning. I've had them in the past and used to know when it was bad enough I needed to go in for it. But it's been so long, and this was on the "good" side. Ugh, why are all of my old medical conditions revisiting me?

 

Then after that subsided enough that I didn't think I was in danger, I realized I was also having air come up from my stomach. So all around I'm just not feeling great. Discovered that my dinner had Coconut in it, which has been suggested in my Digestive Mystery thread as the possible culprit. So glad I had it for breakfast too. Yay. :/ http://forum.whole9life.com/topic/30586-achalasia-and-other-digestive-mystery/

 

Basically I've felt terrible all day between chest pain, nausea, headache, fatigue, and just not feeling right. I'd like to fast forward now to when I feel fabulous and can experiment with re-intro, can we do that instead? I think I'm going to cut coconut products from the second half of my whole30 and approach them with a re-intro. Frustrating.

 

I still find the measurements a little challenging. I think I have over-estimated the size of that part of my hand (the thickness mostly). I keep feeling guilty that I don't always have what I think is a palm sized portion of protein for breakfast, and sometimes not at lunch.  And I want to do it right and not feel guilty. As I was contemplating whether my shredded pork was a half a palm or 3/4 a palm today I really looked at it and my hand. I feel a little better about the minimum now, and that I've been closer than I thought. I know these are guidlines and it's not like baking. But I don't want to sell myself short, especially now that I understand what breakfast can do for me. Some days I still have to really force myself to eat it, even knowing I'll have a way better day if I do, because I just don't feel like eating. So if I can stuff 3/4 of a palm of protein down, and get some vegetables in, it's still better than eating nothing.

 

A while back I bought an electric pressure cooker from an estate sale. It turned out to be missing the pressure thing, and a condensation catcher. I put those bits on my wishlist and then sort of forgot about it. I've never used one before. But now I keep seeing everyone just raving about them on the forums. So I went to my wishlist and ordered the bits. They aught to be here some time next week. Considering that I've twice now not started my slow cooker when I wanted to, I'm hoping this will give me an alternative option. One person on the forum even said the pressure cooker makes the food taste BETTER than the slow cooker. I'm super interested to find out.

 

We have a fig tree. I've only ever had a whole fig once in my life, and it was the big green kind. Our tree has the small black ones. They're amazing. I'll need to be careful to only pick a few at a time because apparently I can eat as many as are available. We also have two types of plum trees but I haven't tried them yet.

 

Also proud to say that D cut up an asian pair about 2 hours after dinner last night to share with me and our guest and I didn't partake. I vacuum packed my portion so I can enjoy it today with a meal. I passed on dessert and late eating. YAY

[Zyriel]

Day 18

 

• M1: 3/4 a palm of beef roast, couple of turnips and a handful of salad veggies (tomato, cucumber, peppers, basil) with a little bit of Tessamae's balsamic on it, black tea
• M2: ground pork with peppers and onions, cupped hand of veggie salad as above, cupped hand of figs
• M3: Tuna salad lettuce cups, handful of veggie salad as above, handful of figs

 

D decided he wanted to make a veggie salad. And to my delight it was totally compliant. He suggested I add some to my breakfast, so I did.

 

I made sure to not have fruit for breakfast today even though I had some set aside for me. And I made sure to eat my food before my fruit at lunch. I can't say fruit is a trigger for me, I'm not really sure. But I can say I perceive it as a treat.

 

I am still having problems with breakfast though. I'm eating it but:

• I sometimes don't start it within an hour of waking. I do make an attempt at this, but I need to be more mindful of it as a specific goal.
• I usually sit down to work with my breakfast, leading me to eat over the course of the next 3 hours. This is totally normal for me. But isn't within Whole30 guidelines. I'm not giving my body a chance to digest that, use it, then move on to fat stores. I'm positive this will affect my weight loss, I have more potential that I'm going to see I think.

I'm also realizing I have some odd cadence in my meal timing. I'm not sure if I should fix it, or just ensure that my meal sizes make sense for the cadence. M1 and M2 are close together.

• I crawl out of bed shortly before 9 most mornings and eat M1 while beginning work at 9. It's often not a full palm of protein because I just don't eat that much food before it's time for my next meal. Part of that is this eating over time thing and part is just that I don't need or want that much food for M1. I need to find a way to eat this meal discretely. I need to eat before I start work and complete eating before I start work. It's just so hard to eat this meal fast when I'm already sort of forcing it down.
• M2 tends to be around 12:30 or 1 right now, in part due to eating when my co-workers do. So that's maybe 4 hours between. But not if you consider how long it takes me to FINISH eating M1. M2 is usually true meal sized. I'm still struggling with the idea of "ruining my dinner" by eating a lunch that's too big. But I'm getting over that. Some days M2 takes me a while to get though, but now that I'm paying attention I cut myself off at 2pm. If I'm still nibbling, I stop and set it aside. I am going to put more discreet effort into eating this meal and stopping.
• M3 tends to be between 7 and 9pm. So that's 6 to 8 hours later. I'm not snacking. Some days I'm most definitely hungry when dinner rolls around. Some days it's whatever. So, I think my M2 is serving me well here, despite the large gap. Not much I can do about timing here as it depends greatly on what's happening that evening. So I guess I'm not changing anything here, it seems alright.

 

[Zyriel]

Day 19

• M1: 1 egg, 3 pieces of bacon, handful of swiss chard with shallots
• M2: chicken with cabbage, onion, garlic and bell pepper with heavy seasoning

 

Victory! When I started my whole 30 I had one pair of pants that fit, and those just barely. Today, I have two pairs that fit. The difference is subtle, even visually, but that's alright. Outgrowing my "fat clothes" is not alright.

 

Grateful for D and my good friend, M. D is on board with the eating plan, and M is a good sport about feeding what I make when he comes over. He grew up in a vegetable-less house and thinks he hates veggies. I had previously asked how he felt about greens and he indicated he didn't like them slimy, but he agreed to have some of the chard this morning. I gave him less than a quarter cup but he ate it and said it was alright. Proud of him.

 

Went to a knife skills culinary course tonight. It was good. I definitely felt like I learned things I can apply. I'm looking forward to taking more courses at this little culinary school.

 

Only 2 meals today. M1 was around 11, M2 at 5, we got home after 8 and I wasn't sure when I'd head to bed so I made the executive decision not to eat another meal. In retrospect I probably could have. But I also wasn't hungry so, I feel alright about it.