Bagel's sweet siren song

[Watergirl]

Hello all you wonderful whole30ers!! I'm on day 24 of my first whole30 (yay me!!) and it's gone surprisingly well! I expected far worse cravings given my junk food addiction, yet my sugar rages pretty much disappeared in the first week.

Carbs, however...now that's a different story. No cereal? No problem. No rice? Easy peasy. No pasta/crackers/quinoa? Piece of cake.

But BAGELS. Oh, my sweet chewy New York BAGELS the size of my head. I MISS you. I WANT you. I DREAM about you.

I'm not kidding. I actually dreamt about BAGELS last night. Hence, this desperate and (really pretty pathetic) post/rant.

And I fear that, given my ongoing cravings for BAGELS, they may be the one thing I will have to give up. Like, FOREVER.

Sad face.

Sad, sad, bagel-loving face

[NoMoreCrunchyCravings]

This post made me laugh! I can appreciate the siren's song of the NY bagel, toasted, with Philadelphia cream cheese AND butter (good lord, where did I get this habit?) and a really healthy serving of lox with thinly sliced red onion.

 

Great-- now I'm drooling.

 

I've had lots of dreams like these as well-- so strange, but it's common!

 

You are doing such a wonderful job-- day 24 is so far into the game! Keep up the good work, it's all worth it!

[Carlaccini]

Hi There!

 

Kudos for you for hanging in there.

 

There might be a few things going on here - you might not be eating enough - hence why your mind is trying to push you into cravings.  By any chance are you near your period?  It's not uncommon for cravings to ramp up (as a woman you generally need to eat more in general before this time - my meals will generally go double in size a week before my period).  If you are interested in getting feedback on your meals - feel free to post a couple of days worth of meals so we might be able to help you troubleshoot.

 

Another thing that might be going on is an extinction burst.  Which is your brains last stitch effort to convince you to eat off plan.  Generally these cravings are super intense and don't go away within 5 minutes.

 

Hang in there!

[Watergirl]

Hi There!

 

Kudos for you for hanging in there.

 

There might be a few things going on here - you might not be eating enough - hence why your mind is trying to push you into cravings.  By any chance are you near your period?  It's not uncommon for cravings to ramp up (as a woman you generally need to eat more in general before this time - my meals will generally go double in size a week before my period).  If you are interested in getting feedback on your meals - feel free to post a couple of days worth of meals so we might be able to help you troubleshoot.

 

Another thing that might be going on is an extinction burst.  Which is your brains last stitch effort to convince you to eat off plan.  Generally these cravings are super intense and don't go away within 5 minutes.

 

Hang in there!

First off, THANK YOU for the words of suport and encouragement from both of you (except for NMCC's exquisite description of her favorite bagel meal--that sounded so so SO delicious AND made me weep a little bit ).  But seriously, thank you for your reply. It was awesome hearing from people going through it with me!

 

Carlaccini--I never for one moment considered the fact that I was indeed a few days away from my period. Wow!! Now it makes perfect sense. I have known for years that I need more sleep before and during menses, but I always thought my food cravings had more to do with candy and chocolate--not necessarily my beloved bagels. This is an important key to understanding how my  hormonal cycle dovetails with (and potentially derails) my food choices. I think it's going to take some time for me to figure out how best to navigate this issue.

 

As for my total intake, it was definitely low in weeks one and two, but I've really hit my stride in week three with bigger, more varied meals and using more fat has made a huge difference in how good I feel between meals.   That being said, it would seem that I could have set myself up for disaster going into my period under-nourished.  That, on top of being hormonally in flux, could have really done me in.  I'm glad it made it through, but honestly, I did not feel good at all and it was an ugly, ugly few days there.  I still have my period now, and the cravings are still there, but not as intensely as they were pre-period.  So, I guess that's good?

 

My typical meals (now) look like this:

 

Breakfast: 2 eggs (hard boiled or sunny side up with a little olive oil on the pan), 1/3 avocado or an ounce of raw almonds, banana or mixed fruit (usually a combination of slices peaches, plums and cantaloupe), black coffee.

 

I'm up at 4:30 am (stupid-busy lawyer), so I absolutely need a second breakfast (which I used to call a snack, because it was usually just a bowl of fruit--I know better now, because all that fruit by itself was doing nothing to sustain my energy). This "second breakfast" now is almost always a couple pieces of fruit and either an ounce of raw nuts or two tbsp of almond butter.

 

Lunch: leftovers from dinner: 4 to 6 oz turkey burger/hamburger/steak/chicken/salmon/swordfish, some type of veggie (broccoli, cauli "rice" or asparagus) and either yams or beets.

 

Second lunch (again, stupid long workday) - more nuts and blended carrots, pineapple and banana.

 

Dinner: pretty much same as lunch but almost always 6 oz meat/fish as opposed to 4 oz.  If I throw together a salad, I include some pine nuts and nooch sprinkled on top and I use about a tbsp of tesserae's caesar dressing.

 

I also take 6 tabs of Ultra Preventive X multivitamin per day and 6 tabs of a joint complex (the knees are shot).

 

I feel like I definitely do not get enough leafy greens, so I think this is one area I can improve on.

 

I will say that, aside from the persistent carb cravings (and some andy cravings too), I have not missed dairy all that much, or legumes (even though I'm a huge fan of beans), and my energy has been so wonderfully consistent these past 3 weeks with no big highs or lows.  This alone is enough to convince me this whole30 was worth it.  I also have not needed aspirin even once, despite being a regular (daily) headache sufferer who really should have bought stock in excedrin since it's my go-to for headaches.  THAT is a small miracle.  Another huge unforeseen bonus of this journey.

 

 

Any advice AT ALL would be so appreciated. And THANKS AGAIN!

 

[Watergirl]

Correction: I don't crave andy.  I crave candy.  I don't even know who andy is.

[ArtFossil]

You are feeding your carb/candy cravings with too little protein, too much fruit/nuts/almond butter, too little fat and too few vegetables.

Eggs for breakfast? Eat 3-4 (the amount you can hold in your hand. Don't substitute fruit for the 1-3 CUPS of vegetables spelled out in the template. If avocado is your fat eat 1/2 or a whole.

Post breakfast, eat a mini template meal: protein and veggies and fat. Ditto post lunch if your workday means more than 6 hours to dinner. (Template meals will keep you fueled for 4-5 hours, easily.)

If "salad" is your only lunch you need a GINORMOUS bowel, so add some cooked vegetables to get 1-3 cups. Green's reduce down to almost nothing. And your salad dressing may not be enough fat. Make friends with mayo, ghee, olives.

Don't measure your protein in ounces! You need to eat 1-2 palms. Add vegetables. Add fat! (1 tbls of dressing is not going to be the 1-2 thumbs of fat the template recommends.

[Watergirl]

Thanks for the suggestions. I knew I wasn't getting enough protein or fat and the fruit is my sugar fix. I've adapted and made the necessary changes...but I've been constipated for two days which is the FIRST issue I've had since starting whole30! Today is day 29 and unfortunately, I'm still "stuck" LOL.

I also came down with a cold yesterday and feel like a truck hit me today...I'm definitely going out of my first whole30 with a whimper instead of a roar. I know the cold will pass...but any suggestions for getting back my bowel regularity? Sorry if this is TMI

[NoMoreCrunchyCravings]

To keep things moving if I ever get stuck, I amp up the water like nobody's business, combined with a big salad tossed GENEROUSLY with olive oil, and have a snack of apple and apricot, though prunes and raisins or whatever else will work well, too. Good luck!