Serik's Whole30 #5 Can I make it stick this time?!?

[Serik]

Day 24

Feeling tired and sinus-y again. Starting to get frustrated. Do I just have a bug, or am I doing something wrong? I'm trying so hard to do this right this time. I've backed off on nuts, have had few snacks, trying to really listen to my body about when I've had enough, tried to stick to the template...though I still have to work on consistently getting veggies at breakfast. Just trying to figure out my next step when I hit day 30. Does my body need a little extra time? Or should I try the reintroduction phase when I get there.

Meal 1

3 eggs fried in ghee

Meal 2

Leftover pot roast with carrots and mashed potatoes

Meal 3

Large taco salad -lettuce, cucumber, zucchini, tomatoes, olives, avocado, salsa, mayo, ground turkey (cooked with onion and zucchini)

Need to keep working on increasing water.

[Serik]

Day 25

Meal 1

3 eggs fried in ghee

Meal 2... Didn't really happen, snacked a few times but no protein, can really feel the effects of doing that

Apple with sunbutter

Larabar

Coconut chips and raisins

Meal 3

Leftovers- pot roast, taco meat, carrots, potatoes, broccoli

I'm thinking I really might not be drinking enough. Going to try to focus on that for a few days and see if that helps.

[Serik]

Day 26

Felt crappy all day. Down, unmotivated, frustrated. Blech!

Meal 1

3 eggs fried in ghee

Meal 2

Tuna with mayo on greens with zucchini and cucumber, garlic stuffed olives, apple

Meal 3

Lemon-garlic pork chops, broccoli with ghee, sweet potatoes with ghee

Day 27

Still a bit frustrated since I was feeling so good in week 2. Maybe I do just have a bit of a sinus thing going on that's not turning into a full-blown cold but is enough to make me feel run down. Maybe I'm not planning well enough and my meals are suffering for it. Maybe I'm spending so much time cooking that the rest of the house seems to be falling apart and stressing me out. Maybe it's all of them put together. My knees are starting to ache again which is making me think it's food related and not just a head cold, but I'm not sure what's triggering it.

I've been drinking more water today, it might be helping some. I'm always better at that when I'm home most of the day, we'll see what happens this week.

Meal 1

3 eggs fried in ghee, black coffee

Meal 2

Pork chops, broccoli, ghee

Meal 3

Chicken wings, roasted sweet potato fries, crispy plantains, ranch dip, carrot sticks

[Jeanni Hall]

Serik, you're so close... you can do it... don't let a few down days break your stride.  Hang in there! I've read your posts! Sounds like you've pushed through a lot of struggles and challenges! You've done amazing!

[Serik]

Thanks Jeanni, there's no way I'm giving up. Mostly I'm just trying to figure out if I want to continue a bit longer before I try introducing anything. I feel like if I'm not feeling great, how am I going to know if I'm reacting to something I'm adding in? I really want to do this right this time, full intros included. I need to figure out the best way to eat without getting completely off track.

So today, I'm feeling a little better, still tired and my head is still a bit stuffed.... Of course I need to remember that I've been tired for YEARS (like since high school, or perhaps earlier) and stuffy sinuses has been the norm for quite a while, a few years at least. So, any improvement is worth noting.

Food today:

Meal 1

3 eggs fried in ghee with carrot sticks and ranch dressing

Meal 2

Left over pork chops, chicken wings with ranch dressing, broccoli with coconut oil, sweet potato with ghee, tea

Meal 3

3+ chicken drumsticks, roasted cauliflower, greens with dressing and avocado

[Serik]

Day 29

Ugh, 2 kids home from school with the stomach bug. Then I got a call from school that the third one has it too, so he had to come home too. I wasn't feeling great either so the meals weren't wonderful.

Meal 1

3 eggs fried in ghee, greens with dressing

Meal 2

3 chicken drumsticks, greens with ½ avocado and dressing, apple

Meal 3

Large cup of bone broth and 2 chicken drumsticks

[Bananabearr]

Dropping by to say you're doing SO well. Love the variety of your meals!

[Serik]

Day 30

Well, it's here, day 30. I actually can't believe it's gone so quickly. It's late now so maybe I'll save the reflecting for tomorrow. I will say this, we've decided to continue on for a few weeks before trying to reintroduce anything. My sweetie had her physical yesterday and while she lost 10.5 lbs, her cholesterol was up, blood pressure a little high and has ketones and sugar in her urine. That combined with the fact that neither one of us is feeling as well as we want to before messing with anything led us to this decision. So reflection and goals for the next few weeks...tomorrow.

Meal 1

3 eggs fried in ghee, clementine, coffee with coconut oil and ghee

Meal 2

2 salmon cakes with mayo

Meal 3

2 salmon cakes with mayo, ½ banana

(It's Ash Wednesday, I'm supposed to be fasting, so my meals are intentionally small today.)

[Serik]

Day 31

Well, we survived the stomach bug and everyone was back at school today. Hooray! So glad the adults didn't get it. Phew!

Really planned carefully today trying to do it right for a couple more weeks. Also, we are going to a school potluck tonight and I had to find something that we can bring to eat. We also have a scout potluck tomorrow that I'm planning ahead for too...

...So I started writing this 2 days ago, I did well through the potluck. Then came home, put the boys to bed...and the stomach bug hit me! Not horrible in the grand scheme of stomach bugs, but bad enough. All I ate yesterday was some applesauce, a little bit of fruit salad, and a few bites of roasted turkey.

Today I ate breakfast as usual... 3 eggs fried in coconut oil topped with sauteed onions and mushrooms.... That was a bit much for my stomach and I wasn't hungry for quite a while. I did eat some applesauce around 2:00. Now I'm feeling hungry but don't really want anything in the house. I want something bland and salty like pretzels, or sweet like chocolate cake. Ugh! I haven't really dealt with cravings much this round but now I'm really tempted. I just don't have much in the house, I'd probably be happy with some grilled chicken or steak, but what I have is meatloaf (which was the last thing I ate before getting sick... No thank you) and salmon cakes. I'll probably try the salmon cakes but I'm nervous since breakfast made my stomach hurt. Oh well... powering through. I'm not going to let this knock me off track!

[Serik]

Day 34

Still feeling the effects of the stomach bug. My first Mass this morning tired me out and left me with little energy for the second...and then I HAD to go shopping. I needed to grab a little something for the boys for Valentine's day since I kind of lost track of time with being sick. I also needed groceries! We were almost out of food, luckily I had a couple of cans of tuna that I mixed up for the grown ups' breakfast and the boys got oatmeal. But as the day progressed I felt better and better and by the time I got through church for the third Mass, (I'm the director of music), I actually felt energized. The music went well and was especially uplifting this evening. So I was able to enjoy a nice Valentine's day dinner with my sweetie.

Meal 1

1 can tuna mixed with mayo, clementine (? I think), tea ... my stomach was not happy for quite a while after eating this...

Meal 2

Didn't really happen between not feeling like eating again and being completely wiped out after my busy morning and early afternoon so I just had a little snack of cashews, Brazil nuts, coconut flakes, and dried cranberries... Not a lot... But... I know, I know...

Meal 3

Sirloin steak, 1 ½ baked potato with ghee (I really didn't need the ½, but it was good, and it felt good to be able to enjoy eating again) broccoli with ghee, ginger kombucha

I think I should be ready to eat 3 real meals tomorrow. We're heading to visit my parents for a few days. Mom knows the deal, we've visited while doing Whole30 before, but I'm not sure I've laid everything out exactly so I'll have to be vigilant. I'm bringing more food than usual as back up so hopefully I don't accidentally eat anything not compliant while I'm away.

[Chellesdoingr8]

You are a lean, mean Whole30 machine!!  I tried making my own mayo and it was a total bust.  Gonna try it again but find a more reliable recipe   Keep up the good work!!  You are inspiring!!!

[Serik]

Thanks Chellesdoingr8! I use my immersion blender for the mayo, just throw everything in a wide mouth mason jar and blend it up for a few seconds. I don't wait for anything to come to room temp. I've never had it go wrong. I heard lots of stories about mayo fails with the blender or food processor, so I never tried it that way.

[Serik]

I survived the visit to my parents. They were very conscientious about the food they bought and we were able to stay compliant with little effort. Is good that I brought some cans of tuna for lunch. But otherwise I was able to eat what was available.

We did decide to have some wine with dinner, and a bourbon later on the second night there. So I guess we've officially started the reintroduction phase. Planning to try non-gluten grains on Sunday and legumes a few days after that...dairy and gluten the following week. Then we plan to stay mostly compliant until Easter and still remain mindful on Easter day and my birthday the next day. On March 29 we plan to do a couple of weeks, at least, of strict Whole30 compliance to keep ourselves from letting a few treats on those 2 days completely de-rail us. I'm hopeful that taking this approach and thinking ahead will help to make what we learn stick this time and that any Whole30's that we do on the future will be just for maintenance or to gain more insight, but not to re-set after going completely off the rails. I'm going to continue to track my meals through the reintroduction, and possibly beyond, in the post Whole30 log section.