AceOfSwords Whole30 Log

[AceOfSwords]

Been looking into Abascal Way TQI and Whole 30 as both plans were recommended by co-workers (Whole 30 had an additional recommendation by someone else I know). Both plans seem to have used some of the same research and come up with 2 slightly different (but rather similar) eating plans. So far my plan is to use the Abascal portion recommendations (1/3 of plate protein/grains and 2/3 fruit and vegetables) but without the grains as outlined in the Whole 30. Mostly I want to do this because I'm really bad at eye-balling portion sizes like "palm-sized." So I think that will simplify that part for me. Also, this will, I hope, make needing mini-meals or extra meals easier to accommodate (I am still breastfeeding a 9+ month old).

I am waiting on It Starts With Food (on request from my local library) to see more of the details behind the Whole 30. I did really like that about the Abascal Way (i.e. the science behind the recommendations). Or at least it sounds science-y. I'm an engineer so I know about science but nothing specifically about nutrition/biology/cooking.

I think my biggest fears at the moment include cooking and meal planning. Followed by the fact that I have been (and continue to be) a picky eater who doesn't really like coconut, avocado, olives, mushrooms, and spicy things.

I also wonder if I can get my dad involved? He really needs to lay off the beer and address his Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. 

[AceOfSwords]

Oh and I'm planning to start on August 29 (Monday). This will allow me to get through my birthday and a work trip. I can practice eating compliantly on the work trip as I'll be going with the co-worker who recommended the Whole 30 to me.

[AceOfSwords]

So I think my biggest fear at the moment is the food prep and cooking aspects of the Whole30. Both are things I need to improve upon, but as a perfectionist, I tend to not like doing things that I not good at. And of course that means I never get the practice to become skilled and thus enjoy the activity more. I consider myself a decent baker (though that won't help on the Whole30) because I consider baking more of a science and cooking more of an art.

Other fears include me being a picky eater. I currently don't really eat avocado, olives, coconut, mushrooms, spicy stuff (red/yellow/orange bells peppers are acceptable), sweet potato, tomatoes, mustard, curry, raisins/dates/prunes/craisins/figs, celery, beets, brussels sprouts, cabbage, green beans, potatoes (gotten better over time), onions (sweet onions are okay), pineapple, plantains, pears, papaya, apricots, blueberries (okay in small quantities), eggs (about 1.5 is fine then I tire of them. And they either need to be hot, or hard-boiled and cold). Oh and I'm kind of scared to cook meat (I've given myself food poisoning from under cooked chicken before). I dislike how long it seems to take to cook meat and I really dislike the splatter from pan cooking.

Lastly, I am one of those women who doesn't like to ask potentially invasive/awkward/insulting questions like "Does this homemade meal contain any sugar or sugar-like products?" "Was this steak cooked in butter?" "Can you make my eggs freshly cracked instead of from your easily pour-able stock?" I just really don't like being that assertive. I'm an introvert (can anyone tell?). I have no issues with reading labels but restaurants are a different story and I travel for work, so they are something I will need to deal with.

So I tried making the mayo 2 nights ago, and it failed miserably. Went out, got an immersion blender and tried to save it. No luck. I think this batch will just go away and I'll try again from scratch. I did however make clarified butter last night and that worked pretty well. I will need to come up with a better method of straining. I used coffee filters and a funnel and eventually the flow become so slow, I got tired of waiting and ditched a tablespoon or so before it finished filtering. So all-in-all not too bad there.

My goals for completing the Whole30 are:

1. Weight loss (even though I realize this is not a weight loss specific diet)
2. Improved sleep and energy
3. Less brain fog and better concentration
4. Improvement of year-round, seasonal allergies
5. General improvement of nutrition
6. Improvement in food prep and cooking skills (maybe even learning to enjoy the process and it being less of a chore)
7. Start exercising regularly

The biggest reason for actually starting the Whole30 though (or if I had had chosen The Abascal Way) is that I made a 2nd breakfast for my 9.5 month old son last weekend (his breakfast consisted of banana, mango, peas, carrots, broccoli, oatmeal and apple/blueberry baby food). And I looked at that, looked at what he eats at daycare and thought, "I can't feed my son the crap that I eat." This is what I will need to keep telling myself to get through this. At least I hope that works as motivation.

Pediatrician says the goal is to have him eating what we adults eat around his 1 year mark. Well, what I currently eat is sugar, sugar, sugar, cheese, sugar in milk (cereal), bread and things cooked in unhealthy fats (chips). 

I should probably stop thinking about how my diet will look after the Whole30, but I do keep coming back to the reintroduction phase and things about what can be added back after, especially corn (as a vegetable according to Abascal), dairy, legumes, and at least non-wheat grains. MSG is not a big deal for me to avoid, I try to do that already as I also try to avoid carrageenan and aziodicarbonimide. I don't smoke and rarely consume alcohol (<2 drinks per month). Though I do hope I can add bitters back in afterward. They can really help flavor water and a good LLB is so nice. Also brandy and wine, though my favorite wines are dessert wines and so are sweeter than most.

[AceOfSwords]

So I was right about my biggest fear with this, the meal planning/prep/cooking part. I got a subscription to Real Plans as it seems convenient and well timed to help me. So far not too bad. I like the grocery list, but I wish all the Whole 30 recipes were in the database. We'll see how it goes.

Did my first shopping trip for Whole 30 yesterday. Found everything except flank steak that was on my list, and I managed to find it all at WinCo. A lovely local-ish Pacific Northwest store whose corporate policies I tend to like and who has good prices. I even made some surprising finds that are at least ingredient compliant, if not sourcing so. I think the biggest surprise was the Dijon mustard find. It was the no-name/WinCo brand. I expect that bottle to last a year (if the use by date allows). It's not that big, but I'm not a big fan of mustard (yet). They also had a nice little section of organic, pastured meats. Hopefully they adhere to truth in advertising because I didn't check up on everything separately. I also got a few items from Costco that should help with emergencies and some staples. The Kirkland almond butter was compliant and I got some capers. I also got some seaweed snacks, but they use sunflower oil and so I guess are not compliant at home. Oh well, they can wait and act as emergency rations if I get really desperate.

I did a lot of prep today. More than I've ever done. I think I did 2-3 hours of prep and another 2 of cooking. But I have 2 mangos peeled and sliced, washed grapes, match-sticked carrots, sliced strawberries. I also have a protein salad, sausage, and a frittata. I was planning to make the stuffed bell peppers for dinner tonight so I had leftovers for tomorrow, but plans changed and I got to drive an extra 2 hours to get my son. Yay, I got to see him early. But I was hoping to get a little more prep done. Instead, I changed 3 poopie diapers, gave him a bath, fed him and gave him a bottle.  I also got the kitchen mostly cleaned back up after my prep work as well as washing a weekend's worth of bottles. S-name owes me.

I got the mayo to work. Woot, woot. I found a variation online that should make it more like Miracle Whip, which is what I am used to, and what I prefer. I used Well Fed's video as inspiration (egg and acid in jar, let sit for about 60 minutes to bring to room temp, add spices, add oil, use immersion blender on high). 

I did not end up with time to do my before measurements today, so I'll need to do those and pictures tomorrow. I did get my cholesterol test results back and they are a bit high. I don't have the numbers handy to report here. However, here are my ailments as of now...

1. Pinched nerve c5/c6. Usually hurts when I do stuff that involves looking down (cooking hurts).
2. My feet (especially the left one) hurts. Feels like a mild case of plantar fasciitis.
3. Been having trouble getting to sleep the past couple nights
4. Back is a little sore. Especially when I wake up. Actually, everything is a bit stiff and sore then.

Note to self: Plan to have leftovers available on prep day. By the time I am done prepping, cooking dinner may not be desirable. 

[AceOfSwords]

Day 1:

Well, I went through with starting and so far so good, I guess. I had to wake up much earlier than I wished to to get things done before my 10-month old son woke up and needed my attention. He helped me wake up before my alarm, then he went back to sleep. He had a rough night too so I didn't get as much sleep as I would have liked.

Any way,

• Breakfast (6am) was 1/4 frittata, 2 pork sausage patties and small handful of raw carrot sticks and a small handful of mango, plus ~24 oz of tea and 8 of water. Did not feel good all morning. Spent a lot of time in the bathroom with my digestive system saying "Hell no" to something. I also ended up feeling both overfull and still hungry when I finished eating. That feeling lasted through lunchtime but I ate lunch at a reasonable time.
• Lunch (11:30am) was protein salad (tuna, mayo slivered almonds and grapes) over a bed of baby spinach with a handful of strawberries and an extra spoonful of mayo. Was hungry afterward and this meal didn't really make it to snack time. I think it needed some extra veggies and maybe a hard-boiled egg?
• Snack (4pm) was an apple with some almond butter. I just couldn't last any longer and I knew dinner would be late due to my son. This did not satisfy my hunger from lunch, but it took the edge off. I also managed to go through a grocery store after picking my son up and not buy anything not on my list (my list was non-food items).
• Dinner (~8pm) had the stuffed peppers with beef and acorn squash. Oh wow, those were good. Took much longer to prep than I thought they would so dinner was later than I wanted, but not much I can do about that. I ate a little less than half of what the recipe made and then added to slices of mango (less than an open palm) to finish the meal.
• Drank ~24 oz tea and ~60 oz water.

Learnings:

1. Need to do more prep work to decrease dinner prep time. Work on pre-reading recipes and mince/chop/dice things on prep day.
2. Do not use canned diced tomatoes. They are disgusting and I barely wish to consume tomatoes as it is. Icky things. Whole 30 recipes has a hint for seeding tomatoes, will have to try that next time.
3. Try to not have raw veggies for breakfast.
4. Figure out an alternative breakfast sausage recipe. The Perfect Sausage wasn't one of my favorites. 
5. Protein salad needs more mayo for the proper texture for me. Next batch try 1/3 cup (original recipe calls for 1/4 cup).

So I technically broke the rules today, but do to some unexpected extra time with my son, I lost 4 hours of prep time on Sunday and was unable to do my measurements on Sunday. So, those got done today. I'm not starting over because, in this case I think it still holds to the spirit of the Whole 30 challenge. I also took some before photos.

Neck and shoulder area still hurts when I do prep/cooking.

[AceOfSwords]

Day 1 meal pictures. Excluding the snack.

Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner

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This is a test for image size

 

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Test 2 of image sizing

[AceOfSwords]

Day 2

Woke up feeling not too bad, but was sleepy during the day and had a nice little headache this morning. My day did not go as planned. My son woke up earlier than expected so I was unable to do everything I wanted before he needed attention. But I did manage to eat soon after waking, so that was good. Also he did sleep through the night, so that was helpful. I felt I slept really deeply but didn't get enough.

• Breakfast (6 am) 1/4 frittata, 1 sausage patty with a spoonful of mayo, handful of sauteed acorn squash with cinnamon and a handful of mango. Plus tea. Fewer digestive issues with that breakfast, but it was not sufficient and I was hungry before my scheduled snack.
• Snack 1 (9:40 am) was a handful of grapes, handful of carrots with mayo and a hard boiled egg. Had to eat earlier as I had a meeting scheduled to last from 10-2 so I knew I would not get lunch in a timely manner. The snack didn't help much and it didn't last long.
• Snack 2 (12:30 pm) was the leftover acorn squash and leftover stuffed pepper from the night before. Meeting ended up lasting only 1 hour so on the advice of a moderator, I turned this into a snack and pushed "lunch" back till 3pm. This snack was not enough almost immediately and I added a banana.
• Lunch (3pm) about 1.5 cups of protein salad with extra mayo added in plus 1/2 small avocado mixed in over a bed of spinach with strawberries, carrots and a hard boiled egg. I was so hungry, but I felt good and satisfied after eating this and it stuck with me until dinner time. I even felt so full that I pushed my dinner back a little bit. Though my son helped too by having a rough bedtime.
• Dinner (8:15pm) 1 stuffed pepper, palm of green beans (with EVOO) a handful of grapes and a spoonful of almond butter. Plus lemony water. It wasn't quite enough food, but having such a filling lunch so late made this hard to start eating and hard to determine how much I wanted/needed. Dinner last night was a better portion size though I would have liked to add the green beans to it to make it a little heartier.

I also had my first really annoying thing related to my Whole30 happen today. I have a nice little blister on my right index finger. Right where I hold my main utility knife. Going to make prep work harder, but onward.

Learnings:

1. When boiling green beans, go shorter than 10 minutes and use more salt to flavor.
2. Found a good lunch portion and a good dinner portion, but need to watch timing or I can't quite manage full portions.
3. Start tea before heating breakfast.

Trying to go to bed about 1 hour earlier tonight, because I can tonight.

[AceOfSwords]

Day 2 Meal Pictures: Excluding Snack #2.

 

[AceOfSwords]

Day 3:

Woke up tired. That was at least partially due my son waking 3 time during the night. Was super tired during the day and ended up taking a nap at 4pm right after work. Not ideal as I was hungry at the time too. Been on the edge of hungry and satiated all day. Not quite making it to 4 hours between meals before getting hungry, but it wasn't too distracting. I am very much over the frittata. It is too wet and too tomato-y. I'm trashing the last 1/4 instead of having it for breakfast tomorrow. I also nearly went off plan while I was feeding my son on Day 2. He got some brad and hummus and I normally would lick my fingers with that or take a couple bites with him. But I remembered in time to not eat any of it, so YAY for me.

• Breakfast (6:30am) 1/4 frittata with 2 sausage patties topped with mayo, sauteed acorn squash with cinnamon and a handful of mango. Plus tea. Once again fewer digestive issues and got hungry sometime around 10am.
• Lunch (11:15am) 1.5 cups of protein salad plus extra mayo and 1/2 avocado mixed in (seems like a good way to hide that stuff) over a bed of spinach plus a handful of carrot sticks, a hard-boiled egg and a handful of strawberries. Again I was really hungry by the time I ate this. Although, this meal didn't seem to satisfy my as much at did on Day 2. I'm not sure what the difference is besides the lack of snacks before this today.
• Dinner (7pm) Last stuffed pepper, lots of green beans, a handful of grapes, spoonful of almond butter and a piece of cacao, So hungry by the time this was able to happen. at 4 pm I was debating between a nap and a snack. Nap won. I also had to go to the grocery store before dinner (while super hungry) to make sure I had meat for tomorrow's dinner. The little piece of pure 100% cacao was my reward for succeeding in that. I don't consider this a cheat or going off plan because there was nothing sweet or overly rewarding about it.

Going to bed late again tonight. I got distracted by the TV after dinner and didn't do any prep work. So, I stayed up a bit did some dicing prep for tomorrow morning and did a bunch of dishes. Made the blister on me finger worse (it was looking better today). It is now 11pm and I am hungry again. Not sure how hungry but I want something. I've also been wanted cheese today. A cookie would be nice, but mostly I miss cheese.

Getting extra time with my son is great, except that it messes up my attempts at food prep and cooking. And everything else I want to get done that is difficult when a 10 month old wanting attention. Anyway, I think my days are long enough that I definitely need a snack/mini meal somewhere during my day. I'm not sure when the most appropriate time is for this.

I'm also not sure what I need to change about my meals. Probably add more veggies. I feel like there should be enough protein and fat to last me, but my stomach thinks otherwise. And I don't want to turn this into Atkins.

I feel like I am more hydrated than normal. Normally my urine is a little darker at least sometimes during the day, so that seems to be a good thing. Aches and pains are still there so no noticeable difference there yet. 

[AceOfSwords]

Day 3 Meal pictures

Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner

[AceOfSwords]

Day 4:

Woke up earlier than I wanted to thanks to a loud little boy being super excited this morning. So awake at 5:30 and feeling not bad. Tried to go back to sleep, but that failed. So I eventually got up and made breakfast and pumped. I don't really want to fill out the log tonight so...

• Breakfast (7:30 am) 3 scrambled eggs with avocado and kale mixed in, about 1.5 cups of hash (potato, apple and blueberry with cinnamon and ginger) and a hand full of mango. Tasty, I've never had so many eggs at the same time and finished them. Breakfast seemed a decent size, and I think there enough. I liked having breakfast a little later, but it didn't quite fulfill the "eat soon after waking" rule/guide.
• Lunch (12:30 ish) same as the last couple days. Need to find a way to vary this more. Again it seemed satisfying enough.
• Snack (5:30pm). Waited too long for a mini-meal or snack so this was an emergency banana and almond butter.
• Dinner (8:20pm) about 7 oz chick breast with a plate full of spaghetti squash and a lemon butter caper sauce. Used clarified butter in the sauce - still tasty but it didn't thicken up as I think it was supposed to. Could be the use of clarified butter instead of real butter. Felt hungry still after ward or I had half a bell pepper. Still hungry now (10:45pm). Not enough for a full meal, but like dinner wasn't sufficient. Chicken took like 3 times longer to cook than the recipe said. In general my cooking and prep work seems to take about 3 times longer than the instructions indicate it should. Very annoying and it makes things more difficult.

I don't think I drank enough today. I didn't feel thirsty and my urine was still pretty clear, but low in volume.

Need to get better at meal planning and getting veggies prepped/cooked. I think I don't enough of those on most plates. Or not enough variety, something. I also ran out of mayo today at lunch so I'll make more tomorrow morning (hopefully it will be successful).

I still want cheese and one of my birthday cookies. I also wanted the lemon caper sauce and it was good.

[AceOfSwords]

Day 4 meals: Lunch not pictured. See past days

Breakfast

Palm size reference instead of a lunch picture.

Dinner

[AceOfSwords]

Day 5:

Woke up hungry. Stayed hungry. None of my meals today were particularly satisfying. I was hungry about 3 hours after breakfast. Had the same issue as day 1 though, where I felt over full but still hungry. I'm not sure if this is the transitional effect or if my portions are still wrong. Lunch was delayed due to tech support issues and it was a bit smaller than usual. I guess it lasted about 4 hours. Then I forgot about a snack/mini meal before I went out shopping thinking I needed something to make dinner tonight. Luckily for me, I had leftovers. I'm not sure I could have cooked dinner today. I find myself both wanting to give up and try again when I'm not breastfeeding and wanting to keep going because I'm never kept a goal type thing before. But I managed to remain compliant, if less than ideal.

I also tried to forget my allergy meds this morning (really I did forget for a while) but my mouth got really itchy, so I was reminded to take them and I got to find out that my allergies are still there and still active. Good to know.

• Breakfast (7:45) 3 eggs with 1/2 small avocado and kale, leftover apple/potato/blueberry hash and the strawberries that were about to go bad. No tea this morning. Sad.
• Lunch (1pm) Roughly 2/3 the spinach of the past couple salads and probably 1/3 the protein salad. Added a pork sausage patty with mayo on it plus and handful of carrots and some mango. Probably not quite enough. Got hungry around 10am but couldn't eat due to working with tech support. Not too happy about that, but I'm don't really want to "Kill all the things". Though I have been in a worse than normal mood today. not really bad, just not good either.
• Dinner (6pm) leftover chicken in lemon/caper/butter sauce plus spaghetti squash. Felt like a little too much food at the time, but it didn't stay with me as well as it should have. Hopefully this weekend I will have a chance to a bit better prep work so I add the 4th meal or at least get a more substantial snack in there.

I successfully made a second batch of mayo this morning (immersion blender was so worth it) and I made some ketchup tonight. I think the ketchup didn't thicken as much as it should have. The recipe said it yields 1 cup, but I ended up with more than that. So we'll see tomorrow if I have ketchup or funny tomato sauce.

Cooking the chicken was scary. First off, searing the chicken results in sputtering, spattering, popping oil that got everywhere even with a splatter shield. Second, I think It got cook closer to 30 minutes in the over (recipes says 10-15) to get it to the correct internal temperature. I'm pretty certain I've under cooked chicken before and gave myself food poisoning, so I really worry about this.

[AceOfSwords]

Day 5 meals:

Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner

[AceOfSwords]

Day 6:

Once again things did not go as planned in the morning.Woke up around 6am but didn't get to eat until 7:50. Been on the edge of hungry most of the day today. Kind of an annoying feeling, but at least I wasn't feeling famished. Due to my lack of cooking skills, I ended up not eating lunch at a decent hour (or at all really) and so arranged an early dinner with my son. He didn't hate the food, which was a little surprising considering the onion in the meat loaf. he didn't eat much of that, and most of what he did eat, resulted in his tongue being stuck out. The food didn't always fall out with his tongue though.

• Breakfast (7:50am) 3 eggs with kale and avocado, fresh potato/apple/blueberry hash and some mango. I actually felt satisfied most of the way through my plate and ended up tossing out a the last couple bites of hash. So I think that is a good sign.
• Snack (2:30pm) 1 hard boiled egg, handful of carrot sticks, handful of bell pepper sticks, some mango and a spoonful of mayo. Been hungry for a while (since about 10:30 I think) but not desperately so. Things just kept happening and I never got a chance to eat a proper lunch. Tried cooking a meatloaf for lunch, but the cook time took almost double the time the recipe said, so really late snack instead of lunch. Didn't seem too bad from either a hunger or satiated point of view.
• Dinner (4:15pm) meatloaf with cauliflower mash and spaghetti squash and a bit of ketchup. As with breakfast, I didn't finish this meal, but I saved the leftovers for a later night snack/meal.
• Snack (8:30) leftover dinner plus some grapes and a piece of cacao. Still kinda hungry after this but not in the mood to scrounge for anything else. Plus I needed to get the house ready for a showing tomorrow.

Going to try to do more meal planning, shopping, prep and cooking tomorrow. I hope I have time to make that work.

[AceOfSwords]

Day 6 Meals:

Breakfast

Snack 1

Dinner

Snack 2

 

 

[AceOfSwords]

Day 7:

Woke up hungry, but not too hungry (if I remember correctly). Another late breakfast relative to when I get up. But, baby needs me and while it is not ideal to delay my food intake, until he can understand what is going on and clearly communicate his needs to me, he takes precedence. Been a little on the hungry side all day. Again, it was never too hungry but it was noticeable. Managed to get some extra time to plan meals for the next week and go grocery shopping. I think the meal planning took a little over an hour (and that was with using Real Plans). Then grocery shopping took about 2 hours. Note to self, Do not go to the WinCo north of me. It is over crowded and harder to find stuff than the southerly location. Didn't get much prep done for the week. (And as I am typing this, I realize I didn't make more hard boiled eggs and I meant to). I did however, cook my self dinner. I think I was on task to eat at a decent hour and get the veggies and meat done about the same time. But then my son needed me and veggies got done but the meat got delayed. So even after cooking the meat and rewarming the veggies, I ended up with cold food. How sad.

Also, I've been a little stuffed up today. Most of the day, but it seemed to get worse shortly after dinner. I wonder if something I ate caused a reaction? It could also me that my son appears to have a little cold or something. He has been stuffy and runny nose yesterday and even more today. Plus he was tired today. So we'll see.

• Breakfast (8am) 2 eggs scrambled with kale, 2 sausage patties with mayo, a banana and the potato/apple/blueberry hash. Didn't eat it all before I felt full. And I'm supposed to be paying attention to when I fell full and stuff, so I stopped eating. It didn't keep me for 4 hours though.
• Snack (11:30am) 1 hard boiled egg, hash and mango. All I had time for and I was surprised I had time for that. Son took a well timed nap allowing me to eat something and finish cleaning the house for a showing. 
• Lunch (2:40pm) meatloaf with ketchup, cauliflower mash with butter, kale/potato/acorn squash hash with rosemary, and some grapes. Seemed filling, and I am proud to say I made the hash thing without a recipe. I just threw it together.
• Dinner (8:20pm) flank steak with roasted Brussels sprouts/potato/red onion and a balsamic glaze plus some cauliflower mash with butter. Tasty, but cold and not enough of something. I'm already hungry (11pm).

Again, just been a little hungry all day. Never felt super, overfull after any meal but never felt not hungry. And trying to balance clean house, baby needs, and the Whole30 is quite difficult. I'm trying, but there are times I want to give in and just wait until I am at least not breast feeding. Not need to keep the house clean for showings would be nice too.

Also, I find myself getting quite bored during meals. I work from home and am effectively single (my son is not ready to eat with me much less converse with me) so I end up eating 3 meals a day, all by myself. It is really kind of sad when I think about it. But it makes it really hard to not turn on the TV or play with my phone.

I did forget to mention that on days 2 and 3 (I think that's correct) that I had to multitask during breakfast. Had to pump while I ate. maybe I mentioned this already.

[AceOfSwords]

Day 7 meals:

Breakfast (and what I didn't eat)

Snack

Lunch

Dinner

[AceOfSwords]

Side note for Day 7:

I swear that during the day I have specific things I want to make note of here and would be on the negative side or are something that might want troubleshooting, but by the time I do my post at night, nothing seems that bad or pressing in hindsight. Kind of odd. I wonder how much this log is keeping me motivated to continue? Does this writing actually alter how I felt during the day? Would my thoughts and comments be more negative if I wrote several times a day? Who knows? (Probably some researcher, somewhere)

I want more sleep.

[AceOfSwords]

 Day 8:

Even later breakfast today. On the up side, it was the only meal I had to cook today. Got left overs for both other meals. I did do some more prep for later in the week (peeled some carrots, floret-ted some broccoli). Still forgot to hard boil some eggs. Oh well. Trying to go to bed early today. It's not working out so well. My son decided to take 3 naps today (good for getting things done during the day) but most of them were shorter so that limits what could get finished. Also I am feeling sick today. A continuation of yesterday's symptoms, but worse. runny stuffy nose and tired. I'm not sure if this the "carb flu" I hear mentioned or if it's allergies (kinda feels like that with the itchy roof my mouth, itchy ears and sneezing), or if it's something I ate (seems unlikely at this point) or (most probably) just a cold (makes the most sense as my son has been tired and snotty the past 2 days).

Milk supply is down, probably due the cold. It fits the pattern best with previous illnesses (started with that durned pneumonia). I doubt my lack of sufficient sleep helps either.

• Breakfast (8:30am) 2 eggs, potato/avocado/kale hash, chicken sausage, 2/3 banana and some raspberries. Chick sausage took a little longer than expected, but not too bad. Kind of an odd spice mixture, I feel like I should adjust it a bit, but I'm not sure how yet. I did get to eat with my son. That was nice, though it means my food gets cold.
• Lunch (12:10pm) meatloaf with ketchup, bell pepper with mayo, cauliflower mash with butter, and left over potato/squash/kale hash. Gave my son a few bites of things. He seemed to enjoy eating off mommy's plate.
• Dinner (5:15pm) leftover flank steak with fresh chimichurri,  and roasted Brussels sprout/onion/potato with balsamic glaze.

Same type of feeling as yesterday, little bit hungry most of the day. Not starving (I could eat fish and steamed broccoli), but a constant low level hunger. I think I feel full after each meal, like, physically so. Maybe I'm still missing something or maybe I'm still transitioning. At least there were no specific cravings (for cheese or my birthday cookies). So even when /i am hungry like this, it is also not a discernible craving. Then again, I'm not sure my cravings/hunger have even been particularly discernible.

[AceOfSwords]

Day 8 Meals:

Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner

[AceOfSwords]

Day 9:

Tried to go to bed early last night. Didn't fall asleep quickly. Couldn't breathe through my nose even with the help of Sudafed and my son woke up twice during the night. Not helpful for getting over a cold. Woke up this morning, hit snooze. then thought about it. Told myself to make a conscience decision to either get my butt up or turn my alarm off and wake up when my son did. I turn the alarm off instead of hitting snooze for an hour. He woke up late, and I called in sick to work. Got him to daycare then I came home to eat. Didn't feel overly hungry by then, but had the same type of issue with a low level hunger all day. Being sick doesn't help anything though. Took a nap around lunchtime then went out to get myself stuff to make soup for dinner. Took another Sudafed tonight, though I doubt it will help much.

• Breakfast (9:15am) 2 fried/scrambled eggs, 2 chicken sausage patties with mayo, some potato/pepper/kale hash and an orange. Probably not enough food but I would rather have more sleep at this point.
• Lunch (3pm) meatloaf with ketchup, cauliflower mash with butter and leftover roasted Brussels sprout/onion/kale with balsamic glaze and a piece of bell pepper with mayo. Plus some kombucha. Funny I bought 2 bottles from 2 different brands, and while checking out, the first bottle did not get carded but the second one did. Odd.
• Dinner (7:30pm) butternut squash soup with kale, egg and cashews mixed in plus a nectarine. It was tasty, but not really satisfying. Needed something more with it but again, being sick is trying to take precedence. 

More confident that this is not the "carb flu" people talk about. Hopefully I'll fell better tomorrow. Being sick while trying to change my eating and cooking habits adds extra layer of difficulty on top of several other layers. I also had a glass of water with lime juice in it. Trying to get a little extra vitamin C without worrying about finding a compliant suppliment for a short time.

[AceOfSwords]

Day 9 meals:

Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner