weighed myself on Day 28...weight gain!!

[madrikh]

So I'm admitting right up front that I broke the NS rule, but I've felt so discouraged about not feeling any better from doing the Whole 30, I really wanted to see what was going on with my weight. 

I have gained 2.5lbs. I decided to take my measurements to see if I'd changed, but all measurements are the same except at my belly button, which has increased by at least an inch.

On Day 0, I made a list of my health "challenges" that I hoped to see change, even a little. Looking at my list on Day 26 it was clear that nothing had changed, oh, except I snore less.

My food and drink choices have been as close to 100% compliant as possible. I have only eaten out twice in these 4 weeks: once I had grilled fish with nothing on it and a dry salad, the other time I had salad with a few pieces of steak and dressing. That dressing was probably my only non-compliant food in 4 weeks.

I am beyond discouraged. I had just told a friend the other day something like, "even if I haven't lost weight, I'll be happy if I've stopped gaining". But no. My body is on a mission to gain weight: I've now gained 14lbs since August 2015 and I truly have no idea why. Yes, I am seeing a Functional Medicine NP. My adrenals have been tanked, but I was working on that and making progress before the W30.

I'm really not sure I can extend myW30 as I had once planned: our grocery bills are outrageous and all of the food prep is exhausting. With no payoff.

So, say what you will: all I've gained, other than weight, is frustration and discouragement and the continuation of the sense that my body can't be trusted. 

I guess I feel at least some victory for having eaten no sugar or stevia for 4 weeks.

That's all.

Marci

 

[LucieB]

A few facts that you probably already know. This is not a weight loss diet. Yes some people lose weight, but that's more a side bonus than the goal.

Your weight can fluctuate a few pounds over a day or two, you could weigh in tomorrow and be a few pounds difference than today.

Just because it's a 30 day program doesn't alwYs mean you'll *poof* be fixed in 30 days. Sometimes it takes longer.

In January I did a whole30 and ended the same weight. I stayed mostly compliant in February and lost weight.

Your body isn't doing anything to you, (regarding your connect about trusting it). Your mind is.

You completed a Whole30 (aside from weighing in), that's a great accomplishment!! No sugar for all that time, that's hard to do! Be proud of yourself.

[jburth7]

I realize whole 30 is not a weight loss diet but I agree I would be frustrated eating so healthy for a month with no benefits. To be honest, I feel like your body, hormones, whatever must be really out of whack for you to not have some gains in terms of NSVs or weight loss in 30 days of this healthy 'diet.' I can't imagine going back to your old style of eating will do anything but make things worse so if I were you I would continue on the whole30 - I am concerned about what you're eating to make your grocery bill so high and food prep so exhausting. My husband and I have been eating this way for a long time and our grocery bill is far from outrageous. Food prep is not bad either and we both work full time with three kids. I'm thinking you are making too complicated of meals. For us, most nights are a type of meat, some starchy thing like sweet potatoes and a bag of steamed veggies or a pan of roasted veggies- doesn't take any longer than a pan of pasta. Lunches are leftovers or salads and breakfast for me is always eggs and sautéed veggies which I can have cooked in less than ten and eaten in under five lol! I would consider looking at simple dishes to minimize food prep if you do choose to continue. G

[skye2977]

What I've seen from other posts is that people who have been snacking a lot on fruit and nuts ended up gaining weight in the end.

Do you want to describe a typical day, ie what you've been eating? (Ps. Did you follow the meal template?)

[madrikh]

I have eaten only small amounts of fruit and nuts.

 

I did follow the meal template.

 

W30 publicizes that 96% of people on this plan lose weight or have positive changes in body composition.

 

As far as the cost in money, time and energy, I haven't figured that out. A large part of my pre-W30 diet was green smoothies. I am a 2 time cancer survivor, so other than a serious sweet tooth, I take diet seriously and eat pretty well.

 

Lucie: I truly don't think I went into this with unrealistic expectations. But even being active on a W30 thread (the group that started on Feb 15th) has been discouraging as I see the majority of people there experiencing improvements in health. I was just looking for some improvement, any improvement, to show that maybe I'm on the right track.

 

Here's yesterday (I have written down all of my food intake except for 2 or 3 days sometime last week, because I was super busy):

 

Meal 1: leftover ground beef, 1 egg, pesto, green beans cooked in coconut oil. Rooibos tea w/ homemade compliant almond milk.

Meal 2: leftover meatballs w/ tomato sauce (from Well Fed and W30 cookbooks), cucumbers and half an orange

Meal 3: grilled chicken, green beans in coconut oil, small sweet potato w/ ghee, 1/3 cup fresh orange juice

 

Here's Day 18:

1: chicken vegetable soup with pesto

2: crab cakes, cucumber, 1 kiwi

3: large salad w/chicken and avocado dressing

snack: a few almonds

 

Thanks for the replies. I'm trying hard not to throw in the towel.

[jmcbn]

You're a two time cancer survivor - you have to know the impact the cancer & the treatment will have had on your body and on your hormones. My sister is living with secondary cancer and I know her immune system is non existent for example, and that she struggles with sleep, appetite & routine. You have to cut yourself some slack.

How are your sleep & stress levels? How active are you? Are you taking any meds? Drinking enough water?

Your meals look a litle light on veg & fat to me, but I'm guessing that apart from that given what your body has been through that it will just take a little longer for you to start seeing results - be that on the scale or otherwise.

 

[madrikh]

Thanks for your reply jmcbn. First off, I am sorry for what your sister is dealing with. It's a challenge to say the least.

 

I am 2.5 years out from my last chemo. I actually gained 35 lbs during my cancer treatment. Maybe because of the steroids they give to offset side effects of chemo; that's what they tell me anyway. About a year after finishing treatment, I had lost the 35lbs. 

Radiation caused medically induced menopause. But saying I'm gaining weight because I'm menopausal feels like an excuse.

I am eating way more vegetables than ever. When I have a salad it's at least 4 cups of greens.

 

Sleep: insomnia has been an issue for me for over 20 years. I have severe apnea and wear a CPAP. I will have another sleep study with EEG done early April. So, my sleep is not good and hasn't improved on the W30.

Stress: yes. I've got it. Mostly serious health issues in my immediate family. All 3 of my siblings have very serious illnesses.

I drink a minimum of 80 oz of water each day.

I take a few medications, but nothing new to cause the weight gain that started last summer. In fact, I have been weaning off 1 medication that I have taken for 3+ years (it has a high incidence of weight gain as a side effect) and I am down from 300mg to 100mg.

 

Thanks again.

[jmcbn]

Thanks you for your kind words about my sister - she's a force to be reckoned with and she has a very strong faith.

Sleep, or lack of it, has a HUGE impact on your overall health, so unfortunately this alone could be holding you back... and as you get more and more sleep deprived, your body will be more & more stressed, and stress also has a huge impact on overall health - so you're fighting a bit of an uphill battle here.

We'd normally suggest magnesium/natural calm to improve sleep as well suggesting you practice good sleep hygiene - keeping lights dim after sundown, no screen time an hr or so before bed, regular bed times & bed time routine, black out blinds & no lights in your room, regular wake up time, spending 15mins outdoors on wakening (or at least 15mins at roughly the same time each day - more when cloudy).... but I'm guessing you're on top of all of this?

If you feel you're eating enough veg then that's great, but how about fat? Are you adding an additional source to each meal over and above what you're using for cooking with?

Wishing good health to your family & some progress for you in your sleep study....

[praxisproject]

If you haven't had any nutritional testing done, it might be a good idea, some deficiencies can impact sleep.

 

I use f.lux to dim my screen too, but still no screen time before bed (I prefer 2+ hours without screens, they're very disruptive to me).

 

I've been on a medication which causes great weight gain, so I totally understand your frustration. It can take time, be gentle with yourself and your body, make sure it has all the nutrients it needs to get everything done.

[AmyS]

I wanted to chime in here too - I really feel ya on the frustration of doing all you can to improve your health and not getting the results you intended. I haven't gone through nearly as much as you have, but I really feel that frustration. (In my case it's blood pressure that responds to absolutely nothing unless I take at least two medications at once, every single day.)

 

One thing I'd suggest, since you're working with a naturopath, is to take these results in to your next appointment and talk over what's next. That really helped me in talking to my naturopathic physician about my ridiculous blood pressure. When eating healthily doesn't help, what's next? I also have a serious problem with low iron, and I eat red meat constantly, cooked in cast iron. So what's next? For me, it was the right kind of supplementation, supervised by my doc.

 

In other words, as frustrating as this is, and boy do I understand that frustration, it's still information. As in, "this is what I tried, this was what I was going for, and this is what didn't happen."

 

You've been through a whole lot more than I can imagine, though, and I agree with praxisproject that it's probably appropriate to expect results to vary and come more slowly than they will for folks without your health history. And when it comes to post-menopausal weight gain, again, go easy on yourself. I'm not there yet, but just last summer, with absolutely no change in anything, my waist line expanded two inches. I'm getting less regular in menstrual cycles, and there it went. Makes me nuts. Ain't nothin' I can figure out to do about it.

 

Anyway - many things we are told are lifestyle choices, are really health issues. Whole30 can give information there, even if the results are not what we had hoped. I mean, when you go to your doc and say that you ate whole foods for 30 days, no sugar, etc., and here's what didn't happen, you at least have a basis for talking seriously about next steps. You kinda can't do any more on your own, ya know?

 

Sending good thoughts your way. I know you've been through worse than this, but I also know it's hard to take on a challenge that improves people's health, and then not to see expected improvements (I say, glaring at my blood pressure medication and heavy-duty iron supplements). Take care and go easy on yourself.

[madrikh]

Thank you all for the encouragement, it means a lot, it really does!

 

Yes, I have worked really hard on my sleep issues. I have been dx'd with bipolar 2 disorder and with that, can come major sleep issues. I see it in my family (father, brother, son), so it's at least partly a genetic issue. I can honestly say I have never known my dad to sleep through the night. The rub for me, is I've had a lot of health issues and I know sleep is imminently important, but there seems to be very little I can do to fix it. My father, on the other hand, has never seemed to be bothered with his lack of sleep. Other than age related issues like arthritis, he is very healthy.

 

I do realize that I've been through a lot. But I did lose all of the weight I gained during cancer tx, within a year of finishing tx. I didn't diet (I'm not a dieter). I just focused on real food and exercise. So I'm not sure how much menopause even has to do with it: I officially was menopausal as of November 2012. I lost the 35 lbs by summer 2014, a year after I ended chemo.

Sorry, I'm thinking "out loud" here, just trying to make some sense of things.

 

I have been seeing a Functional Medicine NP for almost a year and have had extensive testing done, including nutritional testing (blood work that shows how my body uses nutrients) and I take a boat load of supplements. Some are to address methylation issues and some to hopefully prevent another cancer recurrence. It's a lot.

 

I have always been nutritionally minded, never- as an adult- eating SAD. And after cancer have actively worked to improve my diet and lifestyle. Part of this has been drinking a quart of green smoothie daily. I have not had weight problems until these past few years...I've never been thin, but have stayed at a comfortable weight for my height and frame.

 

Thanks again for the encouragement> Please feel free to give input, I welcome it!

 

Marci