How Did I Do Today? please critique my choices!

[Dedicated1980]

Today was my first day of The Whole 30.

 

Meal one was a three egg omelet with mushrooms, broccoli, spinach and tomatoes.  I had a mug of black coffee and a glass of plain iced tea.  I had about a cup of cut up honeydew and cantaloupe. 

 

Meal two was a plain hamburger patty with about 2.5 cups of steamed broccoli.  Heinz yellow mustard for dipping.  I had another mug of black coffee and ice water with lemon.

 

Meal three was an 8oz grilled salmon filet over heaping mounds of romaine lettuce with balsamic vinegar and 1.5 TBS extra virgin olive oil.  I also had half a larger baked potato with tomato salsa and cracked pepper.

 

Snack was 8oz tomato juice- it had no added sugar.  I checked!

 

So did I do good today?  What could I do differently?  I ate at a restaurant at every meal. If i were making my own food I could get more creative.  

[jmcbn]

The composition of your meals doesn't look too bad at first glance but each is lacking in fat.

For example, at breakfast I'd have added maybe half an avocado or some compliant bacon.

With meal two I'd have added home made-mayo (you can bring your own) to add to the burger patty & to liven up the broccolli - also check the heinz mustard for compliance, just to be sure.

At meal three maybe some ghee with the baked potato, or some olives...

Try building your meals so that they keep you satiated for 4-5hrs to cut out the need for a snack. Snacking is discouraged on Whole30 as your digestive system needs some down time between meals, and also it is in this 4-5hr window that your body turns to your fat stores as fuel. Drinking any type of juice is also discouraged as it confuses the digestive system & messes with satiety signals - if you genuinely MUST snack through hunger rather than boredom/habit make it a little mini meal, or have at least two of the three macronutrients - protein & fat, protein & carbs, or carbs & fat.

I'd also add that when eating out you are putting your Whole30 life in the hands of your server - be sure to ask & ask again to ensure compliance of everything you eat, including the oils & sauces used for cooking. Some servers will be great, some not so great so it's good to know exactly what you're trying to avoid...

Not a bad first day though - keep it up!! 

[thegoldengrahamgirl]

Hey,

 

Congrats on Day 1, and kudos to you for looking for input.  Now, brace yourself, because you asked for it!  It would also help if you could share what time you ate so that we know how far about your meals were, and whether you felt hungry in between or not.  The goal is to get enough to feel satisfied for 4-5 hours.

 

M1 - sounds good, although it's hard to judge whether you truly got enough veggies.  If they were just inside the omelette itself, it was probably nowhere near the 1-3 CUPS of vegetables recommended for a template meal.  The saying around here goes "don't let fruit push vegetables off of your plate."  A large side salad or steamed or sautéed veggies might have helped (be mindful about the kind of cooking oil the restaurant uses, and no butter or milk allowed in the omelette - be sure to confirm this kind of thing whenever possible at a restaurant, otherwise you could be cheating yourself out of the best possible Whole30 results by unknowingly consuming off-limits ingredients).  Fruit is definitely allowed, but some people find it causes a blood sugar spike and crash - YMMV (your mileage may vary).  You might try the same breakfast with more veggies and less fruit to see if you notice a difference in your hunger levels and mood and cravings afterwards.

 

3 eggs was probably a good choice for protein.  The template recommendation is 1-2 palm-sized servings and most adult women can hold 3-4 eggs in their hand.

 

I don't see any mention of any type of added fat with your breakfast.  This is extremely important to enhance the satiety factor of your meal and help further your pursuit toward become "fat-adapted" (getting your body to use both fat and carbohydate as fuel for energy).  An option would be avocado with the meal, or bacon (but be careful - this is likely NOT compliant at a restaurant as it will have added sugar).  Full-fat coconut milk (many swear by it in their coffee but I just like it spooned over food - pretty much ANY food) might become your new best friend.  Of course, if you PREFER your coffee black, soldier on!

 

M2 - sounds good, assuming the patty was roughly palm-sized.  Did you check the label on the Heinz mustard?  Where I am, my Heinz mustard was NOT compliant but my French's mustard was.  That's a good serving of veggies, but again you're missing FAT.  If you can get clarified butter or ghee (NOT regular dairy butter), that would go nicely on your steamed broccoli, methinks!

 

M3 - sounds great!  Salmon is a naturally fatty fish and I'm glad to see that you also had EVOO.  Did you have a chance to check the lables on the balsamic vinegar to ensure no added sugar (including "caramel colour") or added sulfites (naturally occuring sulfites in the vinegar are fine; it's only if it's listed in the ingredients list that it's a problem)?  Also, did you check the label on the salsa?  Again, I had two jars of salsa in my fridge and one was compliant and the other wasn't (added sugar).

 

Snack - sorry to be a party pooper but this was a pretty abysmal choice for a snack.  When was this?  If it was between meals, it suggests that the meal wasn't big enough (if you were actually hungry, although I'm guessing you couldn't have been all that hungry if 8oz of tomato juice did the trick ;-)).  Again, many tomato juices have non-compliant ingredients, although I'm glad to hear there was no sugar.  Likely a lot of added sodium that you could do without, though!  And in general, it is discouraged to drink your calories.  Chewing your food gives the signals your body needs to know it is actually EATING.  This principle applies equally to smoothies and fruit juices.  Much better to just eat a tomato! 

 

The best choice for a snack is a mini version of a template meal (hopefully you've seen or heard of the template that I keep harping about - I'm sure a mod will link it): protein, veggies and fat.  At a minimum, protein and fat.  Great choices include half a chicken breast or a small tin of sardines (check the label!) with a handful of olives; or a few hardboiled-eggs; or some compliant beef jerky (hard to find; check the labels!).

 

Finally, WATER consumption.  Based on the above, I see two cups of coffee, 1 plain iced tea, and 1 ice water.  I'll bet there was more (I hope so).  The goal is to drink up to half an ounce per pound of body weight.  So if you weigh 150 lbs, that would be 75 oz of water (nearly 5 liters - yes, I'm a metric gal).  200 lbs = 100 oz!  It's a very tall order, but this is SO critical.  Drink up, lady!

 

I hope that was helpful and not overly mean.  Also note that I am NOT a moderator, but I'm sure they will let you know if there is any area where I've led you astray.

 

Cheers,

 

-Lauren (GGG)

[thegoldengrahamgirl]

See, moderator jmcbn beat me to it!  She has helped me out immensely, too (jmcbn, can you see your words of wisdom shining through in my post?). :-)

[ladyshanny]

Finally, WATER consumption.  Based on the above, I see two cups of coffee, 1 plain iced tea, and 1 ice water.  I'll bet there was more (I hope so).  The goal is to drink up to half an ounce per pound of body weight.  So if you weigh 150 lbs, that would be 75 oz of water (nearly 5 liters - yes, I'm a metric gal).  200 lbs = 100 oz!  It's a very tall order, but this is SO critical.  Drink up, lady!

 

75 oz of water is just shy of 2.4 litres. 8oz in a cup, 4 cups in a litre = 2.3 litres

[thegoldengrahamgirl]

75 oz of water is just shy of 2.4 litres. 8oz in a cup, 4 cups in a litre = 2.3 litres

 Haha, see this is why I just need to stick to metric.  I can't even do the conversions properly.

 

That makes me feel better.  I thought I was seriously under-drinking and I do 3-4L per day.

 

Thanks!

 

-Lauren (GGG)