Day 23 and exhausted

[Kac1014]

Hi Everyone, 

 

Up until day 20 things were going great, but the last 4 days I have felt so tired!  The past 3 days I've been ok until about 3pm, but then I just hit a wall (also my workouts around noon have been really sluggish).  Today I woke up just exhausted.  I got up ate, went to work, and had a cup of coffee, and still can't kick it.  After feeling like this on day 20 I though maybe I just wasn't eating enough protein and/or fat at breakfast so I've been trying to up that (adding a 3rd egg and adding oil/nuts on top of my sweet potato AFTER cooking), but that doesn't seem to be helping.  Here's my food log:

 

 

http://forum.whole30.com/topic/37721-kellys-whole-30-started-july-6/

 

Anyone have any idea what might be going on? 

 

Thanks for your help!

 

 

[Staggolee41]

How's your sleep? How much water are you drinking? (1/2oz water per pound is the recommendation)

[Kac1014]

I've been sleeping about 7 hrs per night and have been meeting the recommended water amount.  

[Kac1014]

Just had a realization and checked my cycle app and yep, I'm PMSing.  I'm guessing this might have something to do with the exhaustion.  Any tips on if there's anything specific I should be eating to help with the exhaustion during PMS?  

[Staggolee41]

Just had a realization and checked my cycle app and yep, I'm PMSing.  I'm guessing this might have something to do with the exhaustion.  Any tips on if there's anything specific I should be eating to help with the exhaustion during PMS?  

 

Starchy vegetables helped a lot on mine. I found that my cycle was much more taxing and difficult than usual during Whole30, so I wouldn't be surprised at all if this is causing the unexpected exhaustion. Add in some potatoes!

[ladyshanny]

I just took a look at your food log and you don't appear to be eating enough to begin with let alone for this time in your cycle. Some of your meals look pretty darned small. Salad, when it's your main vegetable, needs to be a bucketful to make any real dent. Add 1-3 cups of either a sturdier salad veggie or some cooked vegetables (steamed brocoli, green beans, roasted carrots etc all make nice salad additions).

 

You seem to be eating a lot of sweet potatoes which is fine but they might be pushing other veggies off your plate. Try to balance the starchy and non starchy veggies at every meal. And remember that when eggs are your sole protein, it should be a serving of as many as you could hold in your hand which is at least 3-4 as a start.  Or add another cooked protein.

 

For fat, there are a couple things to mention. First, don't rely on your cooking fats, always add an additional source.  Most cooking oil stays in the pan.  Second, branch out away from the nuts. They are a mediocre fat source and can be hard on the stomach and hard to stop eating for some people. Our recommendation is only a closed handful every other day at most.  Try homemade mayo, guacamole, sliced avocado, ghee etc.

 

If you are hungry between meals, and I can see that you would be, have a mini meal of protein and veggies and fat. If you can't manage all three, go for protein & fat (best), protein and veggie (good) or veggie and fat (adequate). Then increase the size of your meals so that you can get to the point where you are going 4-5 hours in between.  We really, really recommend that people stay away from eating fruit as a snack. It spikes your blood sugar and then will give you a big drop later. It causes cravings and false hunger and could be part of your energy issues. Have fruits with meals if you want them and only after you've eaten the appropriate amount of veggies.  

 

For sleep, as mentioned, you seem to be fairly reliant on the sweet potatoes. If you are not extremely active I would probably reduce that to about once a day as they are very energy heavy and could be overloading your system.  Move the starchy veggie to the last meal of the day to improve sleep and if you are going to have fruits, stick with the second or last meal of the day, not morning.  These small revisions are reported by many to help with energy and sleep.

 

Finally, make sure you are salting your food and that you are following pre and post workout recommendations for composition to ensure best results.

[Kac1014]

Thanks @ladyshanny!  You're comments really helped!  I'll definitely try to start eating more.  I do feel like I'm eating a ton already volume-wise compared to what I ate pre-whole30, but you're right, it takes a lot more veggies to get the same amount of calories.  I'm not naturally a huge veggie lover, but I'm learning and if it'll help me feel better I'm all in.  I did run to the grocery store at lunch today so I could beef up my salad a bit.  I had spinach, a big handful of grape tomatoes, about 15 snap peas, a whole avocado, chicken, and 1/2 a sweet potato.  Definitely helped me perk up a bit, though I found myself crashing again around 4.  Made a huge dinner with cauliflower rice, peppers, shrimp, coconut milk, curry, onion, green pepper, and cilantro.  Again that helped me perk up again and now it's around 9pm and while I'm still not 100%, I'm feeling much better than earlier.  Going to try to get to bed early tonight so hopefully tomorrow morning I'll feel a little less sluggish.