Need direction

[newwhole30er]

So I am sitting here, having been strictly Whole30 for a full 3 months, with acne still on my face, keratosis pilaris still on my arms, still getting menstrual cramps during my periods, still getting migraines, no tiger blood in sight, and less than 7 lbs down (out of a minimum 70 I'd have to lose to be at a remotely healthy weight), most of which were lost during a week-long bout of the flu when I had zero appetite. 

 

The only true NSV I've had is less cravings. Abstinence does seem to work well for me. Though I still REALLY want bread and pizza. Also, I'm not overeating or chronically eating for the first time in many years. This type of food just doesn't lend itself to that.

 

I could post my food again, but I've done that several times already and each time I've been told that I'm on track as far as that goes. I know the template and do my best to follow it, of course not every day is perfect, but that's generally what and how I eat.

 

I really need your best troubleshooting. I committed myself to a Whole100, and I'm afraid that if I have no results at the end of it, I'll just go back to the way I used to eat. What else can I do besides follow the template to the best of my ability? Is there a secret I'm missing? How do other people lose 30 lbs, clear up their skin, banish migraines forever, and achieve boundless energy in 30 days, while I've made virtually no progress in 90 days? 

[SugarcubeOD]

Hey there!

I'm really sorry you feel like nothing has come out of the Whole30. I would ask if you have any existing medical conditions that might be having their healing prioritized over weight loss...

Another thing.. you may always have cramps with your period... some people get relief, some people don't. You may always have KP... some people get relief, some people don't. Tiger blood means different things for different people... for me it means I can get out of bed with little to no trouble and I don't need to have a two hour nap after work. For some people it means they feel like they're on some sort of speed and are invincible...

Melissa wrote about comparison in this article, which I think is worth a read: http://whole30.com/2015/02/comparison/ Pay special attention to Point 2

As far as our best trouble shooting, it's really difficult to do without seeing your food intake and I know you've said that you've done it already and that you've been told you're on track but without that information, all we can tell you is that everyone experiences a Whole30 differently and eating whole, nutritious foods for 90 days and no garbage is not a waste...

[Tom Denham]

I went back and read an earlier post where you shared one day of your meals. You elaborated that you did vary your meals, but stayed relatively near what you posted. The composition and size of your meals looked reasonable to me. I would expect a person with 70 pounds to lose weight eating as you reported. 

 

I would note that when I began the Whole30, I never lost more than 2 pounds per month. After 3 months, I was down 6 pounds. I maintained a Whole30-approach to eating and lost 2 pounds per month for 15 months in a row until I was down 30 pounds. That really was about all I needed to lose and without changing anything, I stopped losing. A part of my story that I have not discussed on the forum much is that I started losing weight 2 years before I began a Whole30 approach. I dropped from the 230 area to the 215 area by doing CrossFit and trying to eat healthy on a "conventional" basis." The problem with how things worked losing that initial 15 pounds with aggressive exercise and conventional eating was that I lost most of the weight in the first year and then stopped losing at all the second year. I was looking for something to help me make the progress I needed and wanted when a friend told me about the Whole30. After a year of no weight loss, I was grateful to lose 2 pounds per month. 

 

Some of us lose weight slowly. What is important is that we can keep losing weight if we keep doing right by our bodies month after month.

 

The only other thing I would mention for you is the value of working with a functional medicine doctor. I had already lost all my weight and established a great healthy routine before I sought out a functional medicine doctor to help me figure out some things. My insurance does not pay for doctor visits with the person I see although insurance has paid for all the lab work. I am very pleased with what testing has told me about my body. The doctor has put me on particular supplements at appropriate doses for me and I am the healthiest I have ever been. I would never have been able to figure out what I should be doing reading on the internet and listening to scattered experts offer advice as well as I have working with this doctor. You can learn more about functional medicine and find a practitioner at https://www.functionalmedicine.org/.

[newwhole30er]

Is it possible this is because I buy conventional everything? I just really can't afford organic.

[SugarcubeOD]

No, that would have nothing to do with whether or not you're losing weight.

[newwhole30er]

But if they contribute to hormonal imbalance, couldn't that be a factor in all my issues including the weight?

Just trying to figure out if there are any variables here.

[SugarcubeOD]

Well you could certainly try going to all grass fed and properly raised protein and all organic vegetables but what I think is going on is that you want a quick fix and that doesn't exist. Tom made a very good point that 2 pounds a month is totally sustainable, it's healthy and it's progress.  Do others lose more quicker?  Yes. Does that mean that you are going to? No.  Don't compare... your meals look great, you mentioned that your migraines are TREMENDOUSLY better (in another post, your word and your capitalization).  That's nothing to sneeze at!  

 

Did you read that link I posted?  Comparing your own life to someone else's snapshot of what they want you to see is madness.  Did someone's acne clear up? Maybe... did someone's KP clear up? Probably... migraines banished?  Sure, we hear that all the time... significant weightloss? Yup.

 

Did one person banish their migraines and clear up their KP and clear up their acne and lose significant weight and have pleasurable periods? Maybe... you can see that the more that someone has going on, the less likely that it is that they're going to see the immediate and startling results of a Whole30/60/90 etc...

You clearly have things going on in your body that need healing and asking your body to drop weight preferentially because that's the most important thing to you is not possible... what that DOES do is cause a stress reaction in your body that may in fact make it harder to drop weight.

 

What other non scale victories have you seen? Check this list and tell us what has improved... I find it hard to believe after 90 days of this lifestyle that the only thing that has improved is your cravings... I even know that's not true because in another post you said your migraines improved TREMENDOUSLY (your words and emphasis).

 

http://whole30.com/downloads/whole30-nsv.pdf

[madness]

 

http://whole30.com/downloads/whole30-nsv.pdf

 

Great list! Some how I hadn't seen that before.

 

I'd honestly be floored if my arthritis pain went completely away from a Whole30 (or 60/90). I do hold out hope that the chronic, daily, mind-numbing background pain will be gone. I'll still expect to have joint pain when I've overdone, or the weather is just so, or whatever non-food triggers cause me problems. I know it's hard not to compare to other people who have said they are TOTALLY CURED by the Whole30. But you really can't compare.

 

And weight loss. I've been thinking a lot about that lately. When I started, I had a "whatever I lose is a bonus!" attitude even though I should drop 50 lbs to be at a healthy weight. It was much more about feeling better. But then as I started to feel slimmer at the end of week 1, somehow weight loss hit a priority list for me! I started looking at other success stories and how much weight had just melted away. I was then frustrated that my clothes weren't hanging off of me...remember, this is the end of week 1! So I went from "hey, I feel great" to "Why didn't I lose what that person lost!?!" Not good. I had to force myself to stop thinking about weight loss all together. Let my body heal first.

[newwhole30er]

Well you could certainly try going to all grass fed and properly raised protein and all organic vegetables but what I think is going on is that you want a quick fix and that doesn't exist. Tom made a very good point that 2 pounds a month is totally sustainable, it's healthy and it's progress.  

 

The thing is that it's not 2 pounds a month, not at all.

It was 2 pounds right in the beginning, which was probably water weight, and another 5 pounds when I had the flu and barely ate for 2 weeks - in other words, the only time I did calorie restriction.

 

As for the migraines, I'm not sure. Last month I did see a big drop in frequency, and then this month they seemed about as frequent as before, though maybe more treatable. I don't know.

[Tom Denham]

I'll say it again... Some of us lose weight slowly. What is important is that we can keep losing weight if we keep doing right by our bodies month after month.

 

I've known women who did everything right for several months in a row before they began to lose weight. The Whole30 is meant to be a lifestyle change. If you adopt the approach, you will improve your health and you will lose weight if your body needs to lose weight. Just probably not as soon as you would like.