NoMoreCrunchyCravings Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 I've officially completed two Whole 30s-- one in May 2016 and one in July 2016. They both went really well, and by the end of each I felt I'd really gotten a handle on my sugar/simple carb cravings. During neither of them however did I really experience boundless energy, but I did notice a huge difference in what I once noted as a midmorning and midafternoon slump-- they all but vanished both times. My second w30 though I had a really hard time regulating my mood and found myself irritable, cranky, and unhappy a lot of the month... might have been the result of my dietary changes, or more likely some of my life stresses and emotional difficulties with grief and some other things I had going on in my personal life. With both w30s, I had a pretty different experience with reintroductions. After my first w30, I didn't really notice much intolerance save for a small bit of gassiness with glutinous grains, which I then avoided for the most part. After my second w30 though, all my well intended plans for a reintroduction went out the window with a weekend filled with eating all kinds of noncompliant things in many noncompliant combinations. I've spent lots of time feeling bloated, experiencing tons of terrible gas (both in quantity and in quality, if you get my drift [no pun intended]), and on the toilet with belly aches since then. And even though I was very uncomfortable over the weekend, my binge type of eating has continued for much of this week. As a result of feeling cruddy and realizing that I don't want to keep this up, I've finally come to what I think will be at least the beginning of a plan for me as I realize how much better I feel eating 100% compliant w30 foods to template. But I also realize that during the month I had to decline certain social events (sometimes I have good willpower and sometimes my strength is that I can recognize when I won't and make the choice to avoid the temptation altogether), and that some of the other barriers to continuing it forever and ever indefinitely were enough for me to realize that I needed to find some kind of balance. So this is what I've come up with, at least for now, with the hopeful result that I'll want to be more w30 than not, and that I'll feel much better than I have this last week: I work thirteen days per month at 12-14 hours per day. It is infinitely easier for me to plan a cooking day prior to my working several days in a row and make multiples of the same meals for the entire day, resulting in three tupperwares per day, color coded with each color containing a different meal, and enough for each day to have one of each of the three colors. Even if I don't have time to eat all three meals while I'm at work, I have my third meal already prepared and ready to go in a Tupperware container to have at home after work. I will continue to do this for every single workday ongoing. I also just picked up a second per-diem job which will likely start in September and be one day per week. I'll do the same thing for that day as well once it starts. On the other days during the month that I'm not working, I will commit to having at least one meal per day made entirely of w30 foods only, and will strive for a minimum of two meals per day w30 compliant. All three meals will be icing on the cake, but I won't stress myself out if I get invited to a social outing with friends, or out for a drink with coworkers on a night off, or a date night with my husband, etc. I hope this will be realistic, but I understand that if it's not, I can reevaluate why it's not realistic (too hard vs not enough commitment) and will make the changes necessary to make it work better for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoMoreCrunchyCravings Posted August 5, 2016 Author Share Posted August 5, 2016 Also, just to keep track of things, I'll be continuing my Whole 30 log when I do return to a full whole 30 in the autumn. Here's the link to find it: http://forum.whole30.com/topic/36376-no-more-crunchy-cravings-please/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J9er Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 Sounds like you have a good plan! It took me a year of on again off again whole30 eating to finally get to a place I'm super happy in. I'm interested to know how your work Tupperware goes, I'm not working now but hopefully will be soon, and will be in a similar pattern as you. I've always had a good handle on bringing meals to work, but with both my husband and I eating this way it will involve making sure I batch cook for an army and probably use my slow cooker a bit more than I do. We eat so.much.food. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jager07 Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 Hi again! Glad to see you've got a plan for what you need and how to make it happen! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoMoreCrunchyCravings Posted August 6, 2016 Author Share Posted August 6, 2016 Sounds like you have a good plan! It took me a year of on again off again whole30 eating to finally get to a place I'm super happy in. I'm interested to know how your work Tupperware goes, I'm not working now but hopefully will be soon, and will be in a similar pattern as you. I've always had a good handle on bringing meals to work, but with both my husband and I eating this way it will involve making sure I batch cook for an army and probably use my slow cooker a bit more than I do. We eat so.much.food. So far so good, except that last night (the Sabbath for me) I went to temple after work and had the traditional wine (actually I had about 2oz of grapejuice) and challah bread (many handfulls, which I've skipped many times while on w30, but have not had in over six weeks because of w30 and then travelling, so I wanted to join in), then felt like I'd ruined the whole day which had, up until that point, been w30 compliant, so I went home and finished off the night with bread and butter and cheese. Sigh. Today is a new day. I'm not going anywhere after work and I have my same two meals as yesterday with me in tupperwares (three and a third scrambled eggs with fresh ground pepper, a third of an avocado, and a large pile of steamed string beans for meal 1, two and a half compliant hot dogs with a large pile of sauteed zucchini and broccoli and a healthy dollop of homemade mayonnaise for meal 2). Meal 3 will be at home and I plan to have a gigantic salad with butter lettuce, spring mix and baby spinach, with black olives, homegrown tomatoes and cucumbers, slivered almonds, blueberries, green pepper, carrot, hearts of palm, grilled marinated artichoke hearts, dressed with homemade ranch dressing from my homemade mayonnaise, and have some basa filet on the side which I've prepared with sauteed green pepper/onion/tomatoes/garlic and spicy fish seasoning. Every day is a new day, and this is all a process for me. So while I successfully avoided cream and sugar in my coffee, a box of Boston cream donuts (my favorite!), chocolate hazlenut candies (another favorite) and ordering out from my favorite Asian restaurant all at work, I did succumb at night. I'm glad that we get a new chance to have a new start every single morning that we wake up. One of the joys and gifts I see in life! Hi again! Glad to see you've got a plan for what you need and how to make it happen! Hi and thanks! Yes, I recognize that I have very little willpower when I'm tired, especially when it's later at night, so my tricks to staying compliant so that I can continue to feel better will have to include constant night-time reminders to just go to bed rather than trying to stay up and then getting munchy and going for something that I'll regret having eaten. Maybe if I can frame my mind about the luxury of climbing into bed with a really good book to read for a little while, it will seem like more of a gift and something I'll yearn to do more often. Anyway, it's worth a shot. Wish me luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoMoreCrunchyCravings Posted August 13, 2016 Author Share Posted August 13, 2016 Today is August 13th. I'm two weeks post-w30, and am only having mild success with trying to balance w30 eating with non-w30 eating. I had promised myself that at a minimum all of my work days would be w30 compliant, and even at just 13 days per month I can't seem to stick with that. I have been eating one to two meals w30 at work and bringing along most of my food, but I've also given in to the donut/cookie/submarine sandwich temptations and have eaten way off plan, which makes me feel gassy/bloated/diarrhea-y/uncomfortably, and also bad that I didn't stick with my own promise to myself. At home, I've also not stuck with my plan to eat at least one meal w30 with the idea that two or three meals w30 would be a bonus. Sigh. It's very frustrating. I'm trying not to beat myself up, but I also want to live with some accountability here, especially when I can physically feel a difference in how the food choices that I make effect my body (and my poor husband, bless his heart, as he has to suffer with my terrible gas as well!). I'm going to keep at it and update here as I go... while balance doesn't seem to be my strong point, I think I can work towards a better balance, especially since I seem to be willing and ready to make a change. Maybe I have to re-read some of the books/materials online again to get excited about why it's so good for me... in any case, wish me luck and strength! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoMoreCrunchyCravings Posted August 24, 2016 Author Share Posted August 24, 2016 I'm so glad that I can recognize the fact that I truly have the desire to eat w30 compliant foods and that my desire is sometimes (alas, truly only sometimes) strong enough, like a shining broccoli-and-roast-squash-offering angel on my shoulder, to help me fight the donut-waiving-grilled-cheese-weilding-ice-cream-and-pasta-flinging devil on my other shoulder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoMoreCrunchyCravings Posted November 17, 2016 Author Share Posted November 17, 2016 Phew-- August 24 seems like eons ago. I'd made plans to stick to a mostly w30 way of living, but haven't lived up to that at all. I had wanted to eat w30 on all of my work-days, but haven't pre-planned anything, and have instead gone crazy with ordering out food with coworkers and eating trash overall. I also made plans to do a third w30 sometime in the fall. Well, it's the fall and I haven't made plans yet for my next w30, but I believe I will be starting on Saturday, November 26th. I'll be leaving the country on January 2nd to travel to Iceland, and then again on January 11th to travel to New Zealand and Australia, with only three days (all at work) in between when I'll be in the USA. I'm not planning to continue my w30 eating while traveling, but I would love to eat that way leading up to my trips. Here's hoping (through planning and good intentions)! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoMoreCrunchyCravings Posted November 28, 2016 Author Share Posted November 28, 2016 Ok, so here I go again. I'm doing my third w30 starting tomorrow, Monday 11/28/16. Today was about preparing foods for the next two days since I'm then off for one day before working another four. So as to avoid feeling overwhelmed, I just prepared breakfasts/lunches/mini-meals/dinners for two days only. I'm pumped and ready! For the next month. To keep things organized, for the next four weeks I'll be posting in my original w30 log here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.