Whole 30 the "lazy" way - Oct 1 Start

[laurambp]

Hi, this is my Whole 30 log. I started on Thursday, October 1st. Because I am a grad school student and am very busy, I will keep all of my cooking very simple for this whole 30.

 

Background about me: I have a bunch of issues that I'm hoping to solve through Whole30. I have PCOS with insulin resistance and have an issue with falling asleep after almost every meal. I have hypothyroidism that I believe is linked to the PCOS. Also, since June, I've had GI issues that so far have been undiagnosable beyond IBS. I first tried Whole30 back in July but had to quit at day 6 because I felt so miserable. Turns out that I have a sensitivity to egg yolks and red meat, so that's why I was having issues before. Not fun. I also have latex fruit syndrome and cannot eat avocados or bananas.

 

I have a whole additional laundry list of foods that I can't eat, so honestly, it hasn't been much trouble cutting out a few more. I'm sick of being sick, sick of struggling to lose weight, and am more than ready to do something proactive to help heal my body.

 

I'm including a lot of the brands of foods I'm eating more for my own personal reference, but also because it might help anyone else who reads this.

 

Day 1 (October 1):

• Breakfast: Egg white omelette (Aldi egg whites from carton) with peppers, onions, spinach, and mushrooms (bought a pre-sliced and diced "omelette mix" at Whole Foods...such a time saver!)
• Lunch: baby kale, baby spinach, baby arugula salad (Whole Foods prepackaged greens) mixed with carnitas and mild salsa from Chipotle
• Dinner: Trader Joe's chile lime chicken burger with 1/2 gold potato and 1/2 bag steamable california blend of veggies (broccoli, carrots, califlower) from Aldi with Tessamae's southwestern ranch sauce. I cooked an extra burger and put all of the leftover veggies in a plastic container for tomorrow.

I found out that the chipotle carnitas is whole30 approved (yay) from this awesome blog: http://laurenhartmann.com/2014/07/the-lazy-girls-guide-to-the-whole30.html. Lauren is truly a lifesaver - I've borrowed a lot of her ideas for my own Whole30!

 

Day 2 (October 2):

• Breakfast: Trader Joe's chile lime chicken burger with 1/2 gold potato and 1/2 bag steamable california blend of veggies (broccoli, carrots, califlower) from Aldi with Tessamae's southwestern ranch sauce. (This is the other half of the food I cooked the night before.)
• Coffee: black decaf espresso americano at a wonderful cafe!
• Lunch 1 (really, more of a post-workout meal since I walked almost nonstop between breakfast and lunch 2): red delicious apple slices (apple from whole foods, sliced with one of those magical apple slicer contraptions) with almond butter (trader joes) and a cherry pie Larabar
• Lunch 2: grilled chicken breast on a bed of arugula and tomato slices with a side of sauerkraut (with mushrooms, pork, and ham)
• Tea time: cranberry autumn tea at another cafe...yum.
• Dinner: homemade chicken, potatoes, and carrot soup

 

Lunch 2 and dinner were meals away from home. Haha lunch 2 started as a chicken breast sandwich with the bread, cheese, and sauces removed with extra arugula added. Dinner was at a friend's house. I was very careful to ask and make sure the food was compliant.

 

I feel great already after 2 days. My only temptation is weighing myself on the scale!

 

Starting stats:

• 186.6 pounds
• bra strap: 36 inches
• breasts: 44 inches
• waist: 36 inches
• belly button: 41 inches
• hips: 43 inches

[ShannonM816]

Hi, laurambp! 

 

Seems like you're off to a pretty good start, but don't forget to add fat to your meals. It will help keep you full between meals and help keep cravings to a minimum. Try to make all your meals meet the meal template.

[laurambp]

Thanks, Shannon!

 

Thanks for the great feedback! I definitely noticed a difference in satiety for meals that didn't include any healthy fats (like day 1's breakfast) compared to ones that did (dinner 1/breakfast 2 with the healthy fat tessamae's dressing) 

 

Day 3 (October 3)

 

• Brunch (about 11:30 am): egg white omelette with with peppers, onions, spinach, and mushrooms; handful of almonds/walnuts
• "Lunch" (was hungry around 1:30, but not terribly so): apple slices with almond butter
• Dinner: Trader Joe's bison burger with 1/2 bag steamed California veggie blend, 1/2 gold potato, and unsweetened applesauce packet. Grilled an extra burger so that I can eat it with the other half of the veggies tomorrow. Added a tablespoon of Tessamae's SW Ranch to the burger and veggies. These burgers are PACKED with fat (46% of daily value) so I expect I will be pretty full tonight!

 

Notes:

• My George Foreman grill may be the best $3 I've ever spent at a flea market. I can cook two burgers at a time, which is perfect for leftovers. It takes less than ten minutes total to grill the burgers while microwaving the CA veggies and gold potato. 
• These dinners bring me a lot of nostalgia for my mom's home cooking. We often had dinners that were similar to this setup: meat, potatoes, veggie, applesauce. Of course, the meat was often breaded or fried, the potatoes mashed with milk, the veggie corn (if not the CA medley), and the applesauce sweetened, but the similarity is striking. I can see myself having this style of dinner every night and never tiring of it - I certainly never did when I lived at home for over two decades!
• Whole30 feels so much less daunting this time around now that I know that I can fit it in my currently busy lifestyle of over 50 hours a week of job/classes/homework. I do love cooking, though and hope I can find some time to make some more elaborate recipes after midterms.

[burgards]

you still out there Laura? following my fellow Oct 1 starters... I've been to grad school (though it was now awhile ago) so I know how it is (:  I'm a professor now, and it's better but some of the same lifestyle stuff. hang in there!