Stephco's Whole30 - Healing My Body

[Stephco]

Day 25

 

Meal 1 - Coffee with coconut milk, hamburger patty, sweet potato, sugar snap peas, coconut oil

Meal 2 - Baked chicken breast, olive oil/lemon, olives, carrots - raw and steamed

Meal 3 - Baked chicken breast, avocado, carrots

 

Day 26 

 

Meal 1 - Coffee with coconut milk, scrambled eggs with sautéed mushrooms, avocado

Meal 2 - Bone broth, chicken salad, steamed carrots, olive oil/balsamic

Meal 3 - Chicken salad, sweet potato, mixed nuts, dried cranberries

 

Day 27

 

Meal 1 - Coffee with coconut milk, scrambled eggs, roasted beets, steamed broccoli, avocado

Meal 2 - Chicken salad, roasted beets, apple, olive oil/lemon

Meal 3 - Tuna salad, olive oil/lemon, steamed broccoli, kombucha, cashews

[Stephco]

I am on day 28 and I just wanted to get a few things down that I’ve been thinking about. First, this W30 has logistically become MUCH easier. Planning meals around the proportion of protein/veggies/fat has kind of almost become a habit and is no longer drama. I’m eating a ton of veggies, which I love. I still crave wine the most – that’s probably 90% of my cravings. When I am having a stressful time, I also have occasionally craved sweets. I’ve been working on cutting out added sugar from my diet for the last year or so, so the last month hasn’t been as hard as it would have been if I was doing the W30 last year. I have possibly been the biggest sugar-a-holic in the world for most of my life. Once I started having intolerances to gluten and processed grains I really cut back on sweets (ahem, cookies) and I’ve found that my body has changed. Now I crave sweets once or twice a week and it's fairly mild. It used to be strong cravings all day, every day. When I first started this W30, I craved wine strongly every day. Now, I crave it mildly a couple times a week.

 

I’ve kind of been slacking on cooking for the last week. I had a million meetings last week, so didn’t have/make time to find and prepare new recipes (or even old recipes). So, the meals I ate were compliant and nutritious, but not very exciting. Now that it’s the weekend I’m looking forward to finding a few new recipes to try out.

 

My gut situation is SO much better. It’s still not perfect, but it’s no longer front of my mind all day. In fact, I’ve had several days over the last 28 where my stomach and all that have seemed perfectly fine. As recent as this morning it was a little off, so I’m not healed yet, but I have gotten so much better in the last 28 days, that even if this is the only thing that improves, it will be worth it for me. My nutritionist also put me on a new probiotic which I started a week ago, so I anticipate this will help.

 

Another interesting change is my hair! My hair has been dry for as long as I can remember. I have often called it “straw”. I’ve been noticing over the last week or so how much softer and much less straw-like it is. I'm sure I haven’t been eating enough fat my whole adult life (since I learned my diet habits in the era of fat = evil). Now that I am eating much more fat, it’s even showing in my soft hair. Win!

 

My energy is really not much better than it was 28 days ago. I have spurts of oomph, but those will be followed by my regular need of having to lie down or read on the couch for the rest of the day. I definitely have not experienced anything near tiger’s blood.

 

My body has been through a lot in the last year and a half. I’ve done all the conventional treatments and now my plan is to get my body as healthy as possible so it can fight off remaining disease, reduce antibodies, absorb the nutrients it needs, and just have all processes working optimally. I've felt sick and tired and limited for a very long time. I want to feel vibrant and healthy. Since I’m at day 28 and feel like I still have a long way to go, I’ve decided to extend to a Whole60. At first this decision was disappointing to me (I was really looking forward to a glass of wine….), but I’ve changed my mind. My body has been really damaged in the last 1.5 years (and long before that now that I understand my diet choices of my whole life). One of the hardest things for me during this season of my life has been being patient – patient with the healing process, embracing rest, slowing down and nurturing myself instead of constantly “doing”. So, I’ve accepted that it apparently will take longer than 30 days to heal and strengthen some of my parts. J If I look at this as a time to care for myself and nourish my body, not as a period of restrictions and unpleasantness, then it becomes a no-brainer. So, I’m just as excited for the 2^nd half of this W60 journey as I was the first half! Now, off to find some new recipes…..

[Stephco]

Day 28

 

Meal 1 - Coffee with coconut milk, fried eggs, steamed broccoli, olive oil, roasted beets

Meal 2 - Orange/cran ground turkey, avocado, roasted beets, blood orange

Meal 3 - Orange/cran ground turkey, avocado, mashed cauliflower with ghee

[Stephco]

Day 29

 

Meal 1 - Coffee with coconut milk, chicken green curry, mashed cauliflower with ghee

Meal 2 - Orange/cran ground turkey, avocado, Thanksgiving broccoli, an orange

Meal 3 - Chicken green curry (large bowl)

[Stephco]

Day 30

 

Meal 1 - Coffee with coconut milk, bone broth, fried eggs, avocado, steamed spinach

Meal 2 - Chicken green curry, mashed cauliflower with ghee

Meal 3 - Orange/cran ground turkey, Thanksgiving broccoli, coconut oil

 

Day 31

 

Meal 1 - Coffee with coconut milk, orange/cran ground turkey, apple, mashed cauliflower with ghee

Meal 2 - Chicken green curry, olives, fruit leather

Meal 3 - Herb-crusted pork tenderloin, Thanksgiving broccoli, avocado

 

For most of the afternoon I wanted to quit. I wanted snacks. I wanted wine. I wanted sugar. So, I ate a fruit leather.... I mostly was just having a temper tantrum that the 30 days ended yesterday and I was still going. I get that this is ridiculous since I'm the one who decided to extend. Hopefully I'm over that now and tomorrow I can go back to being excited about my health?

 

And I'm going back to removing nuts for a few weeks. Maybe for the next 30 days and I'll reintroduce them in line with the other reintro items? I've been sneaking them back in (because they're so easy....) but each time they have hurt my stomach. The GIANT supply of Thanksgiving broccoli I made has walnuts in it, but after that's gone - no more nuts.

 

I made herb-crusted pork tenderloin tonight. Let it be known that a year and a half ago I was the worst cooker of meat. The worst. I was so afraid of under cooking meat that I WAY overcooked it. I would never cook meat and serve it to someone else because I knew it was like eating jerky. But I only ate meat once or twice a week (and that was usually at a restaurant) so it wasn't drama. Now that I have to eat it constantly I've had lots of practice. The biggest help to me was a meat thermometer. I know there are people with actual skills who scoff at thermometers. Not me. I have no skills and the thermometer has allowed me to make some delicious meals of meat! I've literally always been afraid of cooking tenderloins. And roasts. And whole chickens. Now I've made all of those. Some I screwed up, but others were delicious. The pork tenderloin tonight was fabulous. An unexpected bonus out of this experience!

[Stephco]

Day 32

 

Meal 1 - Coffee with coconut milk, orange/cran ground turkey, Thanksgiving broccoli, avocado

Meal 2 - Pork tenderloin, purple sweet potato, coconut milk

Snack - Olives

Meal 3 - Scrambled eggs, steamed carrots with balsamic/olive oil

 

Thanksgiving broccoli is finally gone. No more nuts.

[Stephco]

Day 33

 

Meal 1 - Coffee with coconut milk, scrambled eggs with sautéed onions, steamed carrots, olive oil/balsamic

Meal 2 - Pork tenderloin, avocado

Meal 3 - Acorn squash

Meal 4 - Chicken breast, ghee, roasted brussels sprouts, shredded coconut

 

I ate my lunch acorn squash so long after the rest of my lunch, I've counted it here as a separate meal. I had actually gotten hungry again. I also discovered toasted shredded coconut tonight. Where has this been for the last 33 days?!

[Stephco]

Day 34

 

Meal 1 - Coffee with coconut milk, pork tenderloin, avocado, steamed carrots with olive oil/balsamic

Meal 2 - Chicken breast with ghee, roasted brussels sprouts, avocado oil

Meal 3 - Pork tenderloin, sweet potato, olives

 

My stomach has been kind of a mess the last two days. Why? I'm a little discouraged that after 34 days I'm still having this issue. And because I don't know what caused it, I don't know how to fix it. Ugh.

[Aiming-4-change]

Now that the 30 days are over have you thought about a prebiotic and probiotic. I know not everyone is fond of these. You can use herbal bitters and fermented foods to get some of the good bacteria back into the gut. The bitters help to stimulate digestive enzymes. I've also read that soaking raw nuts overt night and then dehydrating them helps them to be more digestible for some. Just some random thoughts. Hope things get better for you.

[Barbie1420]

Hey Stephco, I see that your whole30 was quite awhile ago, but just wondered how you are doing.  I also had a Thyroidectomy, radioactive iodine, and have many of the same symptoms you describe (severe fatigue, achy joints) and started the Whole30 to see if there was some food sensitivities that were causing my troubles.  I wondered about Nightshades as well, but haven't excluded them yet.  BTW, I have encountered Adrenal Issues in the past and always wondered if it could be a common problem after a Thyroidectomy, so also curious if this has happened to you.  Hope you are doing well!