Let the madness begin! April 5th

[Emma]

Nice changes!  Congratulations on getting to this point!  Wouldn't it be nice if all our ills cleared up in 30 days - or even in just 7 days.  I'd be real cool with that!!  We didn't see any change in my daughter's eczema when we were eating Whole30 for an extended period of time, but we do see it get worse when we start eating really junky.  I also stayed pretty injury prone, but my asthma and overall immune system was substantially improved after we'd been doing things for 3-6 months.  We didn't eat totally Whole30, but we stuck to it the majority of the time.  Snorting at myself - why did I get so off track!  I hope your hubby joins in.  It so much better when the entire family is on board and certainly my husband is a much happier human when he's eating well.  Buggy that he stays so lean and in shape looking regardless of what he eats!  Hope you have a great time camping!

[beckerj88]

Congrats!! Sounds like it was successful for you! Enjoy the camping. I think we live in the same part of Texas so the weather should be really nice this weekend!

[madness]

I didn't realize you were in Texas! I'm actually headed down to Corpus and Mustang Island. The kids have never been to the beach and I don't want to go once it's 100F! Next month we'll camp at Inks Lake for 5 days. That's nice because I just sit in the water all day.

[madness]

I survived camping on the Whole30! Construction (and toddler potty breaks) made the trip about 4.5 hours but it was still worth it. It was just me and my littlest (oldest got in trouble and husband bailed). We had a blast! The only non-Whole30 thing I did was go from 9 AM until 5 PM without eating! It was on the trip back. I wasn't hungry and we were in the car so it wasn't convenient for me to eat. Other than that, I stuck to Whole30 template meals quite easily. Here's what I packed:

 

 

Veggies on top: purple carrots (also brought sunshine sauce for dipping), mixed roots salad, cabbage and carrot stir fry, tomato with basil (and olive oil and balsamic to add) and green salad.

 

Proteins: 2 servings of pulled pork, pot roast, chicken tikka masala and 6 hard boiled eggs. Plus the container of mayo.

 

There were all leftovers I had in the fridge so meal prep for camping was super easy (I ditched my whole planned menu for the 4 of us camping and just took leftovers for me and mostly sandwich stuff for the little one). I ended up adding a head of broccoli and ghee at the last minute and am so glad. I underestimated just how many veggies my little one would steal off my plate! I also brought along some Epic bars and apples as emergency hiking food but didn't need them. I probably should have had one driving but I really didn't notice that I hadn't eaten until I was about 30 minutes from home and figured I would just wait!

 

My sleep was pretty crumby on the trip - which is usual for camping. I was so looking forward to super restful sleep. But javelinas stormed our campsite the first night and woke me up (...and freaked me out...). After that, I swear I woke up at every little noise. Then at 5 AM, someones alarm went off (probably to go fishing). It went off for 15 minutes! I never really got back to sleep. Next night was super windy and that kept me awake. But at least I was well rested beforehand. I look forward to a good night sleep tonight!

 

And right before we left to come back, I got a text from my husband saying he was ready for the Whole30. I was looking forward to reintroduction! Ah well, I still have some things to work on so another 30 days certainly won't hurt!

 

(and I'm SICK of hard boiled eggs. I thought it would be so easy to eat them in the morning instead of having to cook eggs. Ugh, all I wanted was a fried egg!)

[Emma]

Smiling and laughing as I read your post!

 

First, you are one amazing woman.  I was so impressed with the food you packed and then when you said it was easy because you had leftovers, I nodded like that made sense, and then I realized that it's still impressive that you have that amount of tasty leftovers in the fridge.

 

And then the javelinas.  So exotic sounding, though we have our own exotic things where I live, but from my life, it sounds really wild.

 

And then you got through the camping trip still on track.  Totally cool.  

 

Hard boiled eggs are a wonderful thing, but they do wear their welcome a bit thin I think.

[madness]

Lunch is always leftovers and sometimes breakfast. So I try to keep the fridge nice and stocked (and the freezer when there is too much). But then I came home and today I went to grab something for lunch at work...and all the leftovers were gone! I had to scramble to come up with something to eat. But I do love having lots of goodies so I don't end up eating something off-plan out of desperation. There are certainly times when I simply can't get the motivation to make dinner and leftovers are life savers.

 

The worst part about the javelinas was that I thought they were feral hogs at first. They were super noisy and I startled awake. Peering out, I thought it was a dozen small hogs which meant big adults would be near by. Those suckers are MEAN especially when they have babies. By the time I realized they were javelinas, I already had that adrenaline jolt and so I was jumpy all night and woke all the time!

 

I have another camping trip planned on June 5th. It's 5 days and I think I may try to keep the kids on the Whole30 for dinner as well for that. They eat it quite readily now. They usually subsist on yogurt, sandwiches and fruit while camping so this will be a big improvement.

 

Oh, and the excuses from my husband started today. I was all ready to cook him breakfast alongside mine (sauteed kale, fried eggs and olives - blech on the olives. first time I've tried them as my fat source. Not what I want for breakfast!). He had a million reasons for not starting. I gave up and told him (again) that he just needed to tell me when he wanted to start and I would do it. So I'm thinking about doing reintroductions this week...

[Emma]

Ugh on the husband not starting.  It would be so much easier to just keep plugging along and he'll feel better.  For me, it really feels like some addictive being in my head trying to steer me clear of starting.  It comes up with so many excuses and reasons and "one more day" rationalizations, but I don't really feel good until I just start.

 

Hogs and Javalinas -

[madness]

UGH! Awful night sleep. I'm a total zombie. Two nights of bad sleep while camping and then one good night back home. But I hadn't caught up yet. I had some odd anxiety last night and it kept me up until 2 hours past when I usually go to bed. Finally broke down and took a 0.25 mg xanax and went to bed. BUT, we took in a feral foster kitten last night.We usually foster adult dogs and keep them in a crate in the bedroom to help them adjust to us in the beginning but also keep the house safe from potential bad behaviors. I did that with the last kitten we had 6 months ago as well. Well, this little fireball had a different idea. I turned our huge dog crate into a kitty condo since she is pretty feral and will be spending much of her time in the crate until we can handle her without all the hissing and spitting. She HOWLED (poor thing was probably separated from her family when animal control picked her up). I tried covering the crate to make it very dark. No go. I tried giving her some fresh wet food. Nope. I gave up and decided to move the crate out of the room...oh right! the huge dog crate doesn't fit through the door once assembled! I turned up the box fan in the room to try to drown out the sound but she just cranked up the volume. I gave up and put her in the little carrier out in the kitchen. By then I was wide awake and it took me over an hour to get back to bed.

 

My meals have been totally haphazard since getting back from camping. Just throw together protein, fat and veggies into a template style meal not really caring what each thing is. Nothing has been "good" and I've been eating mechanically. I'm getting to the grocery store and starting on some good meals today!

[Emma]

You have me laughing with the "Oh right - the huge dog crate doesn't fit through the door".  What a rotten night indeed.  She sounds like a feisty little cat though - hopefully that will serve her well in the long run.

 

Hope your dinner goes well and you sleep better this evening!

[madness]

I've been doing a lot of thinking. I started this with every intention of doing just 30 days. A few more got tacked on so I wouldn't have any weird issues during camping. And then my husband wanted to join so I kept going. But now he's waffling. I've lost a lot of motivation to stay on the official plan. I mentioned that this morning to my husband and he was the best cheerleader I could imagine. Telling me to stick to it and I've seen such good results, but need more time (hopefully) on the arthritis, etc, etc. He mentioned trying it for 2 more months. He still hasn't read a lick of info about it so he has no idea some people talk about a Whole100 but that's basically what he suggested. Soo.....

 

Lately I've been feeling pretty blah compared to 2 weeks ago. My appetite has gone down again and I think I just let my meals slide. I'm still eating protein-veggie-fat in the right proportions but my overall amount has gone down. I think it just took a week and a few bad nights to really catch up to me. So I'm working on getting more nutrition into my body. I also hit a point where I didn't like the food I was eating (schedule made cooking not happen) but I've already started remedying that.

 

Ok, so I'm not feeling terribly awesome right now. But I was recently. I've lost motivation to continue with no goal in mind. So, what if I did a Whole100? What would that be like?

 

Day 100 would be July 13th. During that time I would face the following challenges:

 

 - Probably never eating out the whole time. I'm super picky about my meat and egg sources so I would have to eat Whole30 vegan. Not going to be a balanced meal and I think I would just rather skip it. Not sure how big of a deal this will be.

- End of school breakfast with donuts: I actually hate donuts...but there will be other goodies. It's at my house! But I don't have to provide the food and I actually don't think this will be a big deal.

- 5 day camping trip in June: I don't actually think this will be a problem.

- 4th birthday party for my youngest. I *think* I can handle this...

- 10 days on the family farm - as long as I bring plenty of meat (my folks are vegetarian) and stay in the cottage and NOT the farmhouse full of junk food, I think I will be fine.

- 4th of July - as long as I have some control over my food, this should be easy - bunless burgers!

- The sheer length of time...the potential food boredom...the "missing out"....

 

Sigh. It would help if I were all tiger blood right now. Maybe just pick Whole60 and then see? June 3rd...hmmm...

[Present4Life]

Maybe try for a Whole45 and make a new goal then?  Maybe just take it 15 days at a time.  I'm considering a Whole100 just for the primary goal of having these eating habits firmly planted and cravings truly slain.  But it's a big decision on day 21 to say - sure 79 more days!  So I may just step it up as I hit each milestone.

 

As for birthday parties, you can totally do it!  I just got through my daughter's 3rd birthday and my Mom's birthday with no problem.  It was really just having meals ready and avoiding the cake.  I also made some of our favorite recipes W30 compliant, so we could all share some yummy stuff together.

[madness]

I have this weird idea that I will blow off 15 day increments. In the back of my head, I can hear myself saying "psht, it's just 15 days so it's not going to do much. You might as well have a glass of wine! And cheese, definitely cheese." Speaking of which, I HAVE to get rid of the bottle of wine in my cabinet. Occasionally when I see it while cooking dinner, I wistfully think of sitting on the porch enjoying a glass with the fireflies before bed. But then forget about it by the time I've gotten the kids to bed. But the last few days? Oh, there has been no forgetting that temptation in my kitchen!!!

 

So, I'm going to commit to a Whole60. I'm on day...38 (had to figure it out!). If my husband FINALLY joins in, I can go a few days extra and then decide if I continue to the 100 mark. He says he still wants to, even just now at dinner, but there is always a reason to put off starting (some fairly legitimate - but could be overcome, some totally lame - but I do get it). And he would have such an easier time than most people. I do 100% of the cooking and he's already been eating half his meals Whole30 for the last month (he only eats twice a day and who knows what kind of crap he has at lunch). How much easier can I make it!?

 

I'm getting back into the swing of making scrumptious meals. Last night when I made balsamic glazed chicken thighs, I roasted a few extra to have in the fridge, so this morning I could quickly toss together chicken salad on a HUGE bed of lettuce. Dinner was burgers (I mixed in chopped pickled garlic into the meat - wow!!!) with grilled onions and mayo with a big serving of coleslaw. I threw in a few olives to test my theory. Yep, I no longer like olives. My tastes have changed during the Whole30 and I really don't like avocado or olives anymore. Which reduces my fat choices of course! Good thing I love mayo...

 

[madness]

I just realized my Whole60 will end on June 3, just 2 days before I go camping again. Like last time, I won't want any reintro funky stuff going on so will put off reintros until the 10th when I get back. I think I'm going to turn into someone who always makes excuses to not STOP the Whole30 rather than the more common excuses to not START the Whole30! 

[Deerobert]

madness, just started reading your posts and they are fabulous.  Good pictures and your life is so much different than a Southwestern Ontarian that it actually seems exotic.  Great writing. 

[madness]

Well, another not-so-great day. My sleep has been awful since the camping trip (6 nights now!). Much of it is my own fault and fixable. I've been working until 10 or so at night and I can't shut my brain off quickly enough to get to bed at a decent time. My experiment has a lot of time constraints (do this in 4 hours, that in 3 hours, etc), so I've been having to come back to work in the evening. I've also started drinking caffeine again and that instantly ruins my sleep now. Vicious cycle though! This morning I put on my big girl pants and avoided the caffeine.I won't be at the lab too late (I can't since my husband has a late night at work so I need to be home!). My anxiety has kicked in today. It has a direct relationship with sleep so I'm surprised it hasn't been worse.

 

And the other part is that I still don't fee like I'm eating enough food. I'm force feeding myself and feel gross afterwards. But the amount of food I want to eat is 1/2 to 3/4 what is recommended on the template. And I'm moderately active so it's not like I'm just sitting around all day. Sigh. I'm going to keep really good track of my meals for a few days while I get my sleep habits in order. If I'm still feeling crumby, I'll have all the info to post in the troubleshooting forum. I certainly can't keep going feeling like!

 

And just for fun, here's a picture of our foster kitten. She went from "hissy spitty" and fierce, to lap kitty in just 2 days! She even likes the dog!

 

[Emma]

Yay for ferocious sweet kitty!

[Present4Life]

YUM - I want that plate of food right now.  Looks so good!!

[madness]

I realized something - I had inadvertently cut starchy vegetables out. So I'm trying to add a daily serving now, along with eating enough. Lately I've actually had a better appetite so that is going better. And I got to sleep in this morning!!! I bet it's the first morning in months that I slept past 6:30. It was ELEVEN before I dragged my butt out of bed. So nice.

 

It's a dreary day and has been raining on and off. I doubt I'll hit 10,000 steps today. Speaking of which, I kept thinking that I need to add "real" exercise, as in go to the gym or jog or something. But I've turned into one of those people who complains I don't have time to do it. Looking at my schedule, the easiest time I could carve out is either my commute to work or housework. So I could forgo walking for driving and go to the gym...hmmm. Or I could forgo what little time I have to clean and do laundry and go to the gym. Sigh. But I've been better about keeping my phone on me at all times to track steps. Yesterday was 15,000 and the day before was 12,000. I would like to add strength training soon but I think I'm getting fairly decent cardio right now.

[NoMoreCrunchyCravings]

I love reading your log!

[Present4Life]

I really think doing the 10,000 steps is still hugely beneficial even without a formal workout.  That's about 5 miles a day. Especially if you're managing 12-15,000 a day!  I try for 10,000 a day and it takes some really strategy to make sure I get it in.  I'm in Texas too, and a storm just rolled through, so I'm thinking I'll have to get on the treadmill to get the last of my steps in. Boo.  I hate doing it that way. Maybe we can take the kids out to splash in puddles after it stops storming and I can get a few steps it

[madness]

I do think the steps are good enough for general cardio. I would have to stop walking to work in order to make time for the gym! Seems kinda silly. At a minimum, I walk 2 miles to get kids to school/sitter and me to work. On days when my husband can't help in the morning (fairly frequent), it's 3.5 miles! So that's a good portion of the way there.

 

I need to start writing down my food again. I know I could use some tweaks and just keep forgetting to log meals. So I'm doing it here (duh...) instead of just trying to write it.

 

5.14

 

M1: 1-palm hamburger with 1/2 thumb mayo and a couple slices avocado, 1.5 cups broccoli with 1/2 thumb ghee, 1.5 cups carrots with 1 thumb ranch

M2: 2-palms pulled pork (but I think the meat is kinda "fluffy"), 2 cups golden squash (cooked for a super long time until caramelized, so very little water)

M3: 1/4-palm salami, 1/2 cup golden squash, 1/2 avocado

 

I completely forgot to add my fatty dressing to M2. But the pork was fairly fatty and the squash pretty oily. It was a weird day and M3 was more of a snack because I ate 11, 4 and 8 and went to bed at 9.

 

STEPS: 5,000...it was raining! Plus it was my goof off day.

 

5.15

 

M1: 3 eggs scrambled in coconut oil, 2 cups sauteed chard in olive oil

M2: 1.5 palms of pulled pork, 3 cups of sauteed squash with oily pesto

M3: 2 HUGE duck eggs, deviled - lots of mayo, half a dozen slices of salami, 2 cups beet noodles, 1 cup squash with oily pesto, teeny bit of asparagus

 

I FORGOT fat again for breakfast. I wonder how often that happens that I don't realize it...could easily be part of my energy problem!

 

STEPS: 15,000

 

And I also got my mom's fitbit which she doesn't use any more. I've really had to train myself to "wear" my phone to use it's pedometer but there are times when I don't. It'll likely only add a few hundred steps, but will be nice to know for those low days like Saturday! I start with the fitbit tomorrow.

[madness]

Day 42

 

I had ½ cup of coffee yesterday so I didn’t go to bed on time. Even if I drink coffee in the morning, I stay awake at night. You’d think I’d learn…but I was at the farm and my dad makes incredible coffee!

 

Sleep: 7 hrs and the sleep itself was fine. Woke up a bit tired but ok.

 

Food:

M1: 2 huge duck eggs, deviled with lots of mayo; sliced cucumber (whole one) and fist-sized tomato; not quite a fist sized serving of blackberries. (It was about 2 cups veggies but they are watery veg so not sure if it was really “enough”.)

M2: bucket of salad greens (lettuce, cabbage and chard), 1 had boiled egg, 3 slices of compliant ham, 2 thumbs mayo dressing. (wasn’t enough protein but today is shopping day!)

M3: taco salad – 1.5-palm of ground beef, bucket of lettuce and cabbage, some shredded carrots, ½ avocado and 3 thumbs mayo.

 

It’s blackberry season at the farm. The kids are constantly stained and scratched from raiding the bushes. It’s going to be hard not to overindulge on fruit now! Before today, I had a total of ½ mango and 2 apples (chopped in chicken salad) for the previous 40+ days combined. I just didn’t want fruit. But now…

 

Exercise: Finally got the fitbit but I still tried to “wear” my phone as much as possible just for a comparison. I do tend to forget to keep it on me at work. Boy, I’ve been short changing myself I think! Got 16,500 on the fitbit and 15,000 on my phone.

 

General: Long day, lots of kid activities, plenty of stress at work (I usually have a very low stress job but this current experiment is driving me bonkers). I feel like I eat tons of fat when I do put it in the meal. And I keep forgetting about starches!

 

And EVERY sunflower seed butter at the store had added sugar. They also didn't have organic coconut milk. It's one of the fancier grocery stores in town and I figured they would have pastured chicken since I didn't make it to the farmers market. Nope, not even that! Last time I go to that store...I have far fewer groceries than normal this week. Gonna have to make a second trip!

[madness]

I forgot to add that I had arthritis issues yesterday. Particularly bad in my thumbs and big toes. My hips were "funny" but not painful. The only thing I consumed different recently was coffee. But I was not a regular coffee drinker over the past 6 months while I've had nearly daily pain, so I doubt that is it. Other factors are rainy weather that just blew in and work stress. Just trying to keep track of what might be triggers.

[madness]

Day 43

 

Sleep: Had caffeinated tea yesterday plus work emails right before bed. The fitbit reports I was asleep for almost 7 hours but was restless 10 times and awake once (had to pee!) for a total of 33 lost minutes. Ugh. Gotta get to bed earlier!

 

Food:

 

M1: 2 huge duck eggs, scrambled in coconut oil; 2 cups sautéed patty pan squash with oily pesto.

 

M2: 1.5-palm ground beef; bucket of salad greens (lettuce and cabbage); 2 tbsp mayo; 1 cup sautéed patty pan squash; fistful of blackberries

 

M3: 6 oz beef cutlet (it’s so thin, hard to tell how many palms, but certainly 1), 2 cups green beans with ghee, fist of blackberries

 

Exercise: Raining this morning! By the time I had reached my desk yesterday, I was at 7,000 steps. This morning it was 2,000. I’m pretty well settled for the night and I’m at 8,250. I did do a 1 hour gardening class at the elementary school that had me doing a lot of activity besides walking, so I feel like I got a reasonable amount of exercise today if not officially reaching my goal. It was nice and sunny this afternoon and I should just force myself out on a walk even if it meant dragging my kids and their friend with me!

 

General: Here comes a husband complaint. He first started this with me. Then switched to eating compliant at home…then to eating compliant dinner…then to doing whatever he wanted. He has now brought home a trigger “food” for me. My most favoritest beer. I swear, he doesn’t even like that beer! He hardly ever drinks beer, and never that kind. Grrr…it’s most annoying opening the fridge and seeing that (especially with the late nights where he isn’t home and I have screaming kids in the house!).

[madness]

So last night, after I posted, I thought it was silly that I was giving up on my exercise goal. I got all ready to go out on an evening walk and my husband agreed to put the kids to bed…and then disaster! My 6 year old started shrieking. I really thought about sneaking out and letting my husband deal with whatever fight the kids were in. But her shrieks were pretty intense. I turned away from the door and went to check. She had ripped off one of her toenails and a good bit of skin off the end of the toe. Ouch! It took mama, papa and little sister to comfort her and get her into bed. So no walk. :/

 

Day 44

 

Sleep: 8.5 hrs asleep, felt great in the morning!

 

Food:

M1: 3 eggs scrambled in coconut oil, 3 cups oily cumin squash

 

M2: 3 baked eggs, big pile of green beans, pesto mayo for dipping

 

M3: not quite a palm of ground beef so I added a jumbo hard boiled duck egg, tons of salad greens, mayo dressing.

 

Exercise: Every other week I go to the farm, harvest veggies, and then sell them while packing eggs at a chicken farm down the road. It’s a LOT of work and I’m sooo tired afterward. I was a little surprised that my step count was only 12,300 after that, but I guess there’s plenty of standing and lifting (a box of eggs is almost 30 lbs which doesn’t seem a lot until you move them around for 4 hours!).

 

General: Even though I realized recently that I haven’t been eating starches, I still haven’t worked a daily serving back into my meal plan. I need to get on that! I’m having some anxiety issues but my tiredness and mood have improved. I guess those were due to quantity (and possibly missing fat) but I’m hoping starches will help with the anxiety.

 

Oh, and at the farm stand, there's homemade baked goods using all organic ingredients. There were fresh cinnamon rolls (and free samples!) that smelled soooo good! There's one guy that always makes me try samples with him when he comes in and sometimes buys the treats and gives me half. He eats a lot of paleo food so I told him last time that I was eating strict paleo so no samples. I'm so glad he isn't one of those people that said stuff like "oh, just this once!" He just asked this time if I was still paleo, said "good job!" and then left it at that. Phew.