Started 7/5 - First Whole30/Logging experience

[carny326]

I've been considering and researching Whole30 for over a year. A co-worker did it a raved about the results. She told me about it and I though no sugar?? Impossible! I thought there is no way I could do this program, too many things I loved that I'd have to give up. But the possible pros have out-weighed the cons so here I am. 

 

To start, I deal with insomnia, depression, anxiety, chronic pain (old injury), acne, I'm on the edge of becoming over weight and in general don't like the way my clothing fits. But none of that was enough, I recently contracted Valley Fever a fungal disease common in the SW region of the country. It leaves you exhausted, coughing, and with a lowered immune system so you are more susceptible to other infections and it can take a year or more for your immune system to over come it. I feel like I've pretty much had my life ripped away from me because all I have the energy to do is work, eat and sleep. Doing much beyond that is too tiring. My doctor says that since I had a severe reaction to the medication all I can do is sleep, eat well and do some light not overly strenuous exercise to try and help support my immune system. Finally this was enough to get me to try Whole30.

 

My biggest hope is that my energy will improve (having the other stuff improve would be nice too), I'm worried that this change in diet won't have the amazing results that it does for everyone else for me because of the VF but we'll see.

 

**note days 1 and 2 are being written about after the fact

 

Day 1:

 

What I ate:

Breakfast: A nut porridge (cashews, almonds, and pecans blended with a banana) topped with blueberries
Lunch: Chili and half a sweet potato
Snacks (throughout the day): Hard boiled egg, cantalope, watermelon, pickles, bell peppers with tomatillo guac dip
Dinner: Chicken salad, with roasted veggies and the raspberry muddled drink in the whole30 book

 

How I felt:

 

SOOOOOO HUNGRY. I felt I had eaten all the things and was starving still. I asked about it on the whole30 forum and was told more good fats. I was also really tired but I had an insomnia episode the previous night so that may not be related.

 

Physical activity:
 

Short walk after dinner

 

Day 2:

 

What I ate:
Breakfast: Same as yesterday but topped with strawberries and a slightly bigger portion of nuts

Snack 1: half an avacado, hard boiled egg, handful of blackberries
Lunch: Same as yesterday
Dinner: Califlower rice thing, topped with shrimp and a yummy homemade sauce

 

How I felt:
 

I was fatigued and unfocused all day even though I got about 10 hours of sleep the night before (a typical amount since getting VF). In the afternoon I got a really bad headache. But my hunger wasn't as bad the meals and snacks were enough to get me through the day. Was ready to pass out by 930pm (I usually fall asleep between 10-11)

 

Physical activity:

 

Tai chi in the AM, Gentle Yoga in the PM

 

Day 3:

 

What I ate:

Breakfast: Same, with blueberries and a side of watermelon

Snack: Same
Lunch: Same

Dinner: TBD

 

How I felt:
Still fatigue but that's pretty par for the course for me with the VF. Got about 9.5 hours of sleep last night but it was fitful. No headache. Somewhat hungry between meals/snacks but not to the same level as Day 1

 

Physical Activity: 

Tai Chi in the AM

 

 

[carny326]

Edit Day 3:

Dinner: zuchinni sweet potato fritters

 

How I felt: starting in the PM and lasting all through the night, all the pain, every joint in my body was a throbbing aching mess, no sleep. Not looking forward to day 4.

 

No PM physical activity

[Bethany Gingerich]

Welcome!  I started July 5 too.  We can cheer each other on!  

 

Really sorry to hear you're experiencing such bad pain. I really hope this program can be helpful for you. It will be super interesting to see how this affects you, particularly the fungal infection. Please keep us updated, I'd love to follow your journey.

[carny326]

Day 4:

 

What I've eaten/plan to eat:

Breakfast: Same as yesterday
Snack: Same
Lunch: Same
Dinner: A chicken dish that looks tasty but I'm blanking on the ingredients.

 

How I Feel:

Yep... day 4 is definitly "kill all the things". Prepare for some serious ranting/pitty partying people... I yelled at my cat for being too snuggly and sweet, and I feel like a monster for it. Feeling super emotional (may be from lack of sleep). Pain is super intense still. Headache, unfocused... have warned the husband (who is doing the program with me and so far is not having any problems... but he cut out most sugar over a year ago - whereas I am a sugar addict - and he is generally very healthy so is starting at a better place than me). Also I've experienced some spotting, even though my pd. ended two days before starting this (never had spotting before) From what I've read other's have experienced this but it is usually further in around day 10 or so.. not sure if that should be concerning or not. All I want to do is rip my joints out of my body (It would feel better than I do right now I swear), curl into a ball in the corner and cry (I realize that without joints the curling would not be possible but I don't care about your damn semantics). This sucks, this sucks, this sucks... thank god its Friday. I don't think I'm going to leave my bed tomorrow.

 

Physical activity:
Not going to happen today, too much pain.

[carny326]

Welcome!  I started July 5 too.  We can cheer each other on!  

 

Really sorry to hear you're experiencing such bad pain. I really hope this program can be helpful for you. It will be super interesting to see how this affects you, particularly the fungal infection. Please keep us updated, I'd love to follow your journey.

 

Hi Bethany,

 

Good God, day 4 has been been rough and I'm only halfway through... cheering is appreciated because all I'm thinking today is I've been through worse, but a tiny part is saying yea... but never self induced, why are you doing this to yourself??

[carny326]

Days 5 and 6:

 

What I ate, much of the same with the addition of a skillet that had sweet potatoes, kale, egg, onion, bell peppers and bacon. Steak and celery root mash for dinner one night, and a chicken coleslaw type salad with mango jalapeno homemade dressing another night. 

 

How I felt: This has been the best I've felt in a while, my fatigue from VF was minimal to non-existent. Sleep wasn't great but wasn't terrible. No to minimal pain issues. Up until a few minutes ago I had no coughing at all. I had appetite issues on Saturday so probably didn't eat enough I got woozy and weak by the afternoon but started to feel better after forcing myself to eat even though I didn't feel hungry.

 

Physical activity:

None, I took it easy since I had such a bad pain flair up on friday.

 

This coming week my husband (who does most of the cooking) will be out of town so in preparation I made three meals that should last most if not all of the week so there won't be much variation to my food intake from day to day. 

 

Food for days 7-10

 

Breakfast will be a skillet (like the one mentioned above) but with the addition of half an avacado
Lunch will be a BLT salad with spinach, kale, tomatoes, red onion, seeds (blanking on the type...), avacado, and hard boiled eggs
Snack: primarily veggies and homemade dip, but mixed with a smattering of fruits and nuts (varying between the two from day to day)

Dinner: Rosemary and Thyme stew that has chicken, tomatoes, and some other ingredients that aren't coming to mind right now but help make the stew hardier. 

Once the husband is back in town we'll have a lemon pepper chicken dish, a pork-shoulder pot roast, and stuffed sweet potatoes that have kale broccoli, bacon and something else in it. 

 

Week two... I'm ready for you! 

[carny326]

Days 7, 8 & 9:

As mentioned food has been fairly consistent

 

Day 7 was awesome I had great energy and was able to get through 7.5 hours of work no problem! Until evening came and VF came crashing down, keeping me up all night with a cough that wouldn't quit. 

 

Day 8 exhausted, foggy, (probably from no sleep, duh). I also didn't have much of an appetite, so skipped the snacking and had a late lunch/early dinner of stew

 

Day 9 slept last night but energy pretty low, cough is still persisting but not as bad as yesterday/night before, getting really bored of the food I prepped for the week = low appetite; went with a scrambled egg fro breakfast had to force it down.

[carny326]

Days 10-14:

 

Energy has been really low, sleep elusive, cough non-stopping... didn't feel up to posting. Craving all the sugar, but staying strong. I'm fixated on a particular brand of donut that is local here and AH-MAZ-ING. sigh. oh well. 

 

Food plans for this week:

Fruits, veggies, nut mix and homemade jerky are on the menu for my snacks.. I just couldn't do one more week of avacados and hardboiled eggs!
Lunch is a fiesta chicken salad (more or less guac and chicken)
Breakfast is a sweet potato and zucchini latke, and bacon

Dinners have/will be: buffalo ranch stuffed peppers, vegetable soup, steak and veggies, mango chicken and cauliflower rice, and a zucchini noodle pesto dish. 

 

Week three here we go!

[carny326]

Gotta say I'm on day 21... and I'm not seeing the wonderful results I was promised. I think I may have lost some weight, but it's hard to tell without stepping on a scale. Still need to eat every 3 hours, still lagging energy (sort of expected that wouldn't change much b/c of the Valley fever), still having cravings for no-fly zone foods (mostly sugar, but also tacos), no improved sleep, no improved skin. I haven't had any terrible pain flair ups in a little while, so that might be something that has improved, or I could just be on a string of good days (happens every once in a while). My husband says he's seeing results in terms of energy, cravings, and sleep. And we've been eating basically the same stuff, so my lack of results are because of what I'm consuming. I don't feel like I've gotten much help or support from the whole30 community tbh. I'm going to keep going for the 30 days since I made it this far but if the amount of weigh I've lost isn't terribly significant I'm not sure if I'll keep up this life-style more or less more permanently (something I was considering if the results were good). Or really recommend it to anyone. Not going to lie, kinda bummed it's not really working out so well for me.