Rebekah and the Whole 30

[Rebekah Apotre]

I didn't join the forum till today so this is my log for Day 1

Day 1-

B- Turkey Sausage, Zucchini and Summer Squash, Organic Girl's 5 Happiness Greens Mix, Steamed Green Beans and Water

L- same as breakfast

D- Roast Chicken, Kale and Tomato Salad, Almond Butter, Apple

Sleep- got home around 2am, woke up at 4 and 6 to pee got up for the day at 10am. Feeling a bit gross but chugged some water and took my suppliments with breakfast.

Exercise- Ran 2.7 miles/30mins with my "Couch to 5K" program , plus stretching

I had been eating Whole 30 approved meals for a few days just to try it out, but still eating cookies, and all sorts of goodies. So my real Day 1 Started yesterday. I know there are a few things that can cause me to slip up:

- not eating proper meals so by 3pm the sugar/snack cravings take over and before I know it there is a bag of cookies in my hand, half gone and I wake up from my snack trance and feel like crap.

- not drinking enough water- am focusing on this one. Not enjoying having to pee so much. I hope this is just an adjustment period for my body because I cannot stand having to go every 2 to 3 hours and all through the night.

- I need to make sleep a priority. I dont' work regular hours a shift can start anywhere from 6am to 4pm, depending and I often work 10 to 12 hour days. I just need to get 8 hours no matter when I go to sleep and I seem to be fine

- not preparing several meals ahead of time, or not prepping enough components so I can put a complete meal together on the fly. I can eat the same thing for several meals and still enjoy it, I love left overs. So I need to make bigger batches of everything and portion it out so i can grab and eat.

- I love how in the book Melissa and Doug talk about not even considering a slip up. I repeat that to myself a million times a day. Eating off the Whole 30 plan isn't an option that I will consider.

other notes:

-Im training to run a 15K race in Feb, I'm totally out of shape so I'm using the 'Couch to 5K' iphone app to ease into more milage. I just completed Week 1, 8 more to go

- I'm feeling heavy, overweight and not at optimal health. I'm excited about this focus on my overall health and am counting down the days until my first Whole 30 is completed.

[Derval]

Welcome & best of luck

[ceanothus]

Congratulations on starting your journey to health! Quick comment about The Cookie Monster: don't keep cookies in the house. I am a Potato Chip Addict, and if I have them in the pantry and find myself in need of a quick nibble...those potato chips have a way of disappearing into my gullet. So before I embark on something like Whole30, I make sure my pantry is pristine. It's a cheap form of "willpower." Good luck to you!

[Rebekah Apotre]

I totally don't keep any junk in the house... but I work at a Grocery Store (Whole Foods) and so it's really tough to avoid all that junk there. Even though we are a natural grocery store, there is still tons of sugar treats lurking

thanks for the well wishes!

[Rebekah Apotre]

Day 2:

B- turkey sausage, zucchini and squash with avocado

L- Eggs poached in marinara sauce over Zucchini and Squash. Ate two spoon fulls of Almond Butter

D- Zucchini and Squash with Marinara, Sweet Potato with Clarified Butter

Spent the evening cooking so I ate a few bites of Cauliflower "mashed potatoes" , a meatball and a few other random ingredients

no running today, it was a rest day.

off to bed

[Rebekah Apotre]

Day 3:

so we have pizza and these super yummy snacks called Laura's Junk food at work. And I stuck to my Whole30 approved lunch and dinner ( I worked a late shift).

B- Sweet Potato, Poached Egg, Broccoli, 1/2 Avocado

L/D- Grass Fed Beef Meat Balls with Marinara, Cauliflower "Mashed Potatos" , Kale, Spinach and Cucumber Salad with Lemon Juice Dressing

Tons of water all day.

NO running I had to work until 2am.

[Rebekah Apotre]

Day 6

I slept poorly last night. I think I was dehydrated, which has been a bad habit my entire life. There are few things that I think contribute to this:

- eating too late/ too close to bed time. I got home around 8 and had dinner, then stayed up too late

- I've started taking Natural Calm- a Magnesium Citrate Supplement to help me sleep. It makes me thirsty and I should have downed more water

- my husband snores and keeps opposite hours so he will come to bed at weird hours (for me) and if I'm not in a deep sleep it wakes me up

- I was anxious about getting a good nights sleep, so that makes it tough for me to fall asleep

I'm making a point to drink more water today, also I will make sure to eat no later than 7pm and get to bed around 10 ish. I think taking the natural calm on an empty stomach might be better and help it digest faster.

B- 2 poached eggs, salad greens, 1/2 avocado, small amount of sliced turkey breast

Post work out meal- apple and almond butter, unsweetend almond milk with decaf earl grey tea bag warmed up ( trying to find some tasty coffee alternatives) with cinnamon and nutmeg

haven't had lunch or dinner yet- going grocery shopping in a few hours.

I have a weird metallic taste in my mouth. It started yesterday morning. At first I thought It was the mushrooms I had sauteed but it's persisted and I'm Googling my ass off trying to see if it might be because of the low carb thing...

Did day 4 of my Couch to 5K training. The first few mins were slow but by the end I felt really good. Overall my energy feels very level .My mood has been great too! My husband even commented on how I have been "much nicer" these last few days... I have to admit I was pretty cranky before starting Whole30- if I didn't get enough sleep or eat at certain times I was probably pretty unpleasant to be around.

[Derval]

Would you try earplugs to block out the snoring? I use wax ones called Quies.

[Rebekah Apotre]

Would you try earplugs to block out the snoring? I use wax ones called Quies.

I would try earplugs- can you still hear your alarm go off in the mornings?

I'm totally not at the point where I can wake up without one- I've heard some Paleo podcasts where they talk about being able to do this after following a really clean diet, with lots of sleep and proper exercise.

[Rebekah Apotre]

Day 7

I feel so good today! Though waking up was still hard, I have never been a morning person and love to sleep in. I was in bed by 9pm last night, took a little bit to fall asleep, though much less effort than usual. I didn't take a dose of Natural Calm and didn't have a metallic taste in my mouth when I woke up- perhaps there is a correlation between the two? I'll have to do some more experimenting.

B- Butternut Squash soup with sliced turkey breast

L- porkchops and green beans sauteed in olive oil (soooooooo good)

D- Butternut Squash soup topped with bacon and a plum ( i was still kind of full from lunch)

I'm a long late day today- up at 9am, to work for 11am, closing shift which means I'll be here till about 12am (most of my days are not this long)

I feel really clear headed and don't have any cravings. Someone was asking me if I'll go back to dairy, grains, beans- honestly I can see myself eating off the Whole30 diet very rarely- maybe to drink some wine, cider or beer. This has been less of a challenge than I anticipated. I have to do some traveling for work in the next few weeks- that will be the real challenge because one of the trips is overnight and there will be late night drinking- so it will be tough to opt out and go to be early.

I have to come up with some tools to cope with that!

[Derval]

I would try earplugs- can you still hear your alarm go off in the mornings?

I'm totally not at the point where I can wake up without one- I've heard some Paleo podcasts where they talk about being able to do this after following a really clean diet, with lots of sleep and proper exercise.

I'm not sure. I have a husband who gets up at 6.45am and a 6 year old that comes in for snuggles when she wakes up so not much chance of me sleeping late!

In the last few days I have started using an iphone app called sleep cycle that gently wakes you during a period of light sleep. You keep you phone plugged in and under your sheet beside the pillow, so you add add vibrate to the alarm too...

[Rebekah Apotre]

Today is day 10!

I feel great, went for a run yesterday and today. I'm still having a hard time falling asleep and then staying asleep. I wake up really thirsty so I'm trying to drink alot more water.

I'm traveling on Tuesday so I am thinking of some food I can take with me to the airport so I don't have to eat there- airport food is the pits.

Tonight I'm cleaning and organizing my fridge and then on Wednesday I'm going to try cooking for an entire 7 days so I can stop having to spend so much time in the kitchen.

[Derval]

good lcuk with your cook-a-thon!

[Rebekah Apotre]

Day 11- Crazy Dreams

I had this crazy dream last night that I binged on cookies, chips, cake. It was all in this huge bag and I was sitting in my bed stuffing it in my face. I woke up feeling super guilty and ashamed of myself for loosing self control- then I realized it was just a dream.

Today is the first day that I have cravings for sugar. More specifically cookies and cake. I'm totally not going to cheat but I can't get the desire for something carby and sugary out of my head and actually I've had that sweet tooth all day. I think it's partly because of the dream, but also because I didn't eat breakfast and then I had a super late lunch. Now I'm dragging and feel sleepy with no energy.

No running today- It's so beautiful out 60 degrees and sunny but I'm forcing myself to take two rest days before I start week 3 of Couch to 5K.

I have to be up super early tomorrow to fly to Dallas for the day for training. This means that I'll have to be super willful and not drink tons of coffee and eat all the crap food they will serve for breakfast and lunch (lots of whole grain, beans, and bread type stuff) I guess I'll just pick the meat off the sandwiches or something.

I need to start logging all my food...

Off to make dinner and then re-read some parts of ISWF.

[Rebekah Apotre]

Day 16- Half way there!

I haven't been on the forum much, life gets so busy. I've been focusing on eating right at every meal, getting my running started up again and getting enough sleep.

Sleep continues to be a huge challenge with my work schedule- there is little routine other than the fact that I close almost every Saturday and Sunday- I think I will ask to close Friday, Saturday, Sunday so at least there will be some routine there.

I keep having food/ diet related dreams. I also have noticed that I will get bad food cravings (chips, fries, cookies, cake) when I'm bored or have to do a boring task at work. If I feel tired or overtired I feel really strong urges to eat sugary, processed, bad-carby stuff. Even when I eat a good meal of Protien, fat and veggies I don't feel satisfied and long for my fave snack foods. I just drink water or tea when this happens and try to find something to occupy myself until it's time for my next good meal.

We are hosting thanksgiving at our house this year and we've been planning the food. Since I'm planning to do another Whole 30 right after this one ends ( or rather just continue and make it a whole 60) Thanksgiving is going to land in the last week of it I need to come up with a plan- I LOVE all the pies and sweet, cornbread stuffing, mashed potatoes that go with the meal. My husband is going to take care of the savoury parts or the meal, I'm going to do all the baking (yeesh). I can do this as long as I have a mental game plan and am able to visualize my plate. I plan to send all the sweet stuff home with our family. I may plan to eat one thing that is not Whole30 approved. Not sure.

I'm almost half way through my Couch to 5K training plan. I'm surprised at how I've been able to keep motivated and go for runs when I totally don't want to. Somehow I just do it. I never thought of myself as someone who needed a schedule or plan to keep motivated, but it's working so I plan on using more tools like the Couch to 5K to keep training.