fibromyalgia & a whole lot of food sensitivities...

[Free2live]

Hello... Newbie posting here...

 

I completed my first Whole30 & totally followed all guidelines with no slips.... What I did gain was food freedom for the first time in my life. I had peace for the most part.... My biggest struggles were that dang sugar dragon, no smoothies & BREAKFAST OR 1st meal... that mentality is still hanging out.

I read a lot of the posts & never posted... so I decided to post. I took a break after my first 30 & went back to no meat & I'm still not content, kinda slipped back into being unsettled again.... I gained so much insight from the program that it put me into conflict with all of the things I allowed myself to believe on eating no meat & how it effects my body.

 

A little back ground... I get bad inflammation if I eat any dairy, eggs, nuts or seeds, grains, sugars & my body feels really heavy if I eat a lot of meat.... I actually stopped eating meat for a while in hopes to heal my digestive track. I have that infamous lower abdomen "pouch" that won't go away & after I weighed after I was done I actually gained 6 pounds. I take HCL & an HCL activator after my meals & have sought holistic treatments to no avail. I follow a muscle testing regimen of holistic supplements & my body never seems to test for probiotics. We have spent so much money on trying to figure out what's wrong with me that I just finally gave up. I try to just avoid the foods I know effect me & pray for energy. Depression comes & goes & chronic fatigue won't go away. I kicked caffeine finally after probably 15 years of some kind of pre workout something(cause coffee never worked for me)... Now & days I crave a lot of fat & eat a lot of avocados & young thai coconuts, but I'm nervous that's not working with me either. 

I want to know if you can give me suggestions for breakfast that don't involve eggs.... OH! & I tried like butternut squash & other starch veggies & I find that I consistently yawn & get tired after my meals... I just want energy..... I started to yawn after all of my meals... almost like I was trying to "eat enough to hold me over" but it seemed like it was too much after the fact, I would get tired & that was following the suggested servings....        I need help finding balance with such restrictions...Diabetes is all around me in my family too so I was wondering if I should not eat so big & do a small snack in between?

 

no eggs, starches(?), nuts or seeds... & fat portions... Really whats a thumb size of avocado or coconut? I really want to figure out breakfast because I have been drinking green smoothies for so long that I hate how quick I bloat with anything heavier.....

 

Sorry I'm all over the place but I'd love to have even better results through my next 30 & would love to use this time before Thanksgiving to experiment & start right after...

 

Thanks for your response!

MK

[SugarcubeOD]

Hi;

 

Welcome and congratulations on completing your Whole 30.  I have a couple of questions... you say you've spent a lot of money trying to 'figure out what's wrong with you'. From what I've read, it doesn't sound like there's anything 'wrong' with you.  Lots of people are sensitive to the things you list being sensitive to (eggs, nuts and seeds are something that people with a nightshade intolerance generally feel very badly eating).

If it's the lower abdomen 'pouch', then, while I have not seen a photo of you, I would ask if it could be that you WANT it to go away but it's a reality of aging and life and that it's not actually an affliction that needs to be treated.  Most of us have areas we don't relish on our bodies... we almost all believe that the amount of weight we WANT to lose is the amount we NEED to lose... and that looking like a magazine cover is actually possible, which it is not.

 

You say that you crave and eat a lot of fats and that you're not sure it's 'working for you'.  What are you wanting to achieve?  Saiety? Weightloss? Kicking depression to the curb?  I see a lot of notes about how things aren't working for you and that you're trying all these things but it's unclear what you wanted to achieve with the Whole30.

 

Okay, that said, on to your food concerns.  Lots of people report that eating their starchy carb for their last meal of the day is more tolerable and actually helps them sleep.  Since you say it makes you yawn, I'd suspect that you're the type of person that would benefit from moving those foods to the latter part of the day.

 

As far as the quantity of fats, it's a thumb sized portion of oils, mayo, ghee etc... OR half an avocado... OR an open palm of coconut flakes... OR an open palm of olives...etc... it's not all based on thumb size and that info is also linked on the template in my signature below.

 

Non egg breakfast ideas can be easiest found by googling 'non egg Whole30 breakfast'.  There are hundreds and hundreds of comments, recipes and discussion around non egg meals.  Also remember anything that you can eat for lunch or dinner can be eaten for breakfast.  For some people it's easier to think of Breakfast as Meal 1 and Lunch as Meal 2 etc... 

 

It is not recommended to eat smaller meals in order to facilitate snacking between.  Your meals should last you between 4 and 5 hours.  I think if you move the starch to Meal 3, you'll feel better and more energized in the morning, but without knowing what you're actually eating, it's hard to say what else could be going on. 

 

If you like, post a few days of typical food intake including portion sizes, meal timing, fluid intake and other stressors/sleep patterns etc... and we can see if we can help you.

 

I do caution you to start thinking about your body and your health and ask yourself if what you WANT your body to do/be/look like is actually what it NEEDS to be/do/look like.

 

Edited to add: I see now that you have fibromyalgia, sorry I missed that before.  Some conditions take longer than 30 days to heal and need a longer commitment to eating well before results are seen.  Fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue aren't going to resolve themselves in 30 days, if at all but the accompanying symptoms may start to get better... it is just going to take longer than 30 days.

[Kimberly22]

Hello!  Congratulations on finishing your first Whole30!  I am currently on day 24 of my first round and I have an autoimmune disease.  This disease is one of the biggest reasons why I am doing Whole30.  Honestly, my diet has been evolving over the years and most recently have gone really clean and green which gave me the confidence that I could commit to Whole30.  I am also doing this program with doctor supervision and I keep a daily diary of what I eat and my symptoms and how I physically feel.  On day 24 certain things have gotten better, stayed the same and actually got worse, but as SugarCubeOD stated, some circumstances require longer than 30 days.  Have you ever tried digestive enzymes?  Have a Happy Thanksgiving!