Day 20 and feeling weak and exhausted :(

[feather82]

Hi, I'm up to day 20 in my first whole30 and I have been feeling like I can barely move all day.

This week we all had a horrid cold in the house and I was in bed Monday and Tuesday but recovered and felt quite well by Thursday. Even to the point where I had, dare I say, a bit of tiger blood.

I don't know if the problem is because I went to bed late last night, but that doesn't normally make me feel this lifeless. I'm getting really irritable as well.

No idea what I'm doing wrong as I've never done it. Any tips or suggestions?

[ShannonM816]

Could you post a couple of days'worth of food, including approximate portion sizes, along with water intake and exercise? That might help us see where the problem is.

In general, feeling weak and tired could be from not eating enough, from not drinking enough water, not salting your food, or from non-food-related things like over-exercising or not allowing recovery from exercise, stress, or not sleeping well.

Are you making sure to add fat at each meal and eating 1-2 palm size servings if protein along with 1-3 cups of veggies? If you're not having at least one fist-sized serving of starchy vegetables each day you might try adding that as it helps some people.

[feather82]

Ok yesterday:

Breakfast- scrambled eggs avocado and mushrooms, cup of green tea

Lunch - was at a child's birthday party and only had a large bowl of butternut squash soup and some cucumber, carrots and peppers.

Dinner- 2 chicken wrapped in compliant bacon with roasted veg (sweet potato, courgettes, onion, peppers)

Drinks- I drank probably about 4 green teas and 2 vanilla chai with as almond milk

Today:

Breakfast - 2 boiled eggs with kale and pumpkin seeds

Snack- dates

Lunch - tuna mixed with avocado and lime juice on chicory leaves

Snack- almonds and apricots

This is fairly typical but I do realise writing it down that I barely had any snacks yesterday as I went out quite unprepared. I was starving by the time I got home. Also I'm drinking more caffeine than before whole30. Does that make a difference? Don't know if I'm having enough protein maybe?

Exercise wise I have 4 kids all at home with me and we are constantly active, walks out with the dog,running around after 2 toddlers etc. Flaked by the evening so haven't even attempted my workouts as I have no energy.

[GFChris]

I'm thinking you need to eat more.  You want to build meas of protein, veg and fat that satiate you for 4-5 hours.

When eggs are your sole protein, the serving size is the number of whole eggs you can hold in one hand without dropping them. For most people, that's 3-4 eggs.

Other proteins: 1-2 palm sized amounts per meal (where a palm is the length, width and thickness of the palm of your hand).

Veggies: 1-3 cups per meal.  Get in at least a fist-sized amount of carb-dense veggies daily.

Also, how much water are you drinking?  Our recommendation is 1/2 oz of water per pound of body weight daily.

If you're genuinely hungry between meals (litmus test: you could eat something bland like steamed fish and broccoli), have a mini meal of protein, carb and fat, or at least two of those components. (Nuts and seeds are fats on a Whole30.)