Help for my second attempt at whole30 during a high stress time!

[RainyAngel]

Hello Everyone! 

I am a 25 yr old female who attempted my first whole30 in January of this year, but only wound up making it to day 19 because of some mistakes I made following the guidelines.

I chose to do the whole 30 because I suspected some food allergies and intolerances. In 19 days I saw so many improvements in areas I had no clue I could ever see a change in! I was in complete disbelief! Severe sciatica, swelling, joint pain and immobility had vanished! My swollen face was returning to how I used to look years ago! And my massively bloated pregnant looking stomach had miraculously slimmed down and flattened out more than it ever had!

I am a total believer in this program and can't wait to do it again! I just need a little advice with some issues I had the first time around. I also did paleo for 2 months after my whole 30 and it helped immensely. I plan to complete a whole 30 and then continue with a paleo diet afterward.

Here are the issues I had:

Extreme fatigue if I missed a meal - I believe I just need to eat larger meals that fully follow the meal template (protein, veggies & fat). Last time around I didn't always follow the template and some of my meals were way too small, so I'm chalking it up to that. Any other suggestions? 

Diahreah for the entire 19 days - I've always had pretty bad constipation issues my whole life, so this was surprising. I am normally pretty on top of eating enough fiber so I don't think it was my body adjusting to a fiber increase. I believe I may have celiac or some sort of wheat/dairy intolerance, so this could've just been my body adjusting and starting to heal. Anyone else experience this? I seem to have issues with consuming too many eggs, and eliminating them for a few days helped a bit. 

Food boredom - I know the food boredom can be a common side effect towards second half of w30, what did you do to overcome this? I get almost nauseated by certain foods at this point, it drives me nuts! My game plan for next time is to write a list with a ton of compliant recipes I want to try, as well as having some of my favorites premade and frozen. 

Food logging- I like to keep a food log. Not so much for calories or following specific macros, but to have a reference I can use to compare my symptoms with. It helps me to gauge what works/ what doesn't. I'm a certified holistic nutritionist and I am totally guilty of being obsessed with the cause and effect side of things. I know food logging goes against the spirit of whole 30, and it's also a pain in the rear in many ways, but I really want to be able to look back at what I ate on specific days and see how certain foods effected my medical symptoms.

Has anyone logged during whole30? Or decided to forgo logging and loved the freedom from it? I want to skip it entirely as I did during my first attempt but I almost wished I had logged to try and pinpoint what could've caused my digestive issues. 

And finally - stress and timing. My first attempt was during a stressful time right before a big move, and sandwiched between lots of social obligations that involved food. I have an upcoming 6 week window without any birthdays, weddings, parties or etc, but I am still in a very hectic spot in life right now with a lot of stressors. I know that it will be an additional challenge to complete a w30 during this level of stress, but I feel like I need to do this for my health and I really want to make it work. Has anyone else complete a w30 during a stressful period of life? What tips do you have for managing stress while w30ing?

 

thank you all in advance and sorry my post got so long! 

 

 

 

 

[ladyshanny]

Extreme fatigue if I missed a meal: You are completely correct in that you should be following the meal template. My guess is that you were relying heavily on fruits and/or nuts and this caused you to still be sugar reliant. You need to make that transition to fat adapted and the only way to do that is to eat compliant, template meals, 3 times a day plus pre and post workout meals if applicable.

Diarrhea: Hard to say. Eggs can be troublesome for some people. Large amounts of unfamiliar foods (coconut, nuts, avocado etc) can certainly cause digestive distress. Large amounts of raw veggies or lots of cruciferous ones (kale, brocoli, cabbage) can do this too. Nuts are notorious for causing this type of digestive upset.

Food boredom: this has been discussed lots, google "Whole30 food boredom" and you'll get lots of results.

Food logging: absolutely you can do this, we even have a section of the forum devoted to just this. Check it out here. This isn't for calorie or macro tracking, mind you, it's for just what you're discussing. Writing down what you ate and then matching up symptoms or results.

Stress: With all due respect, everyone has stressful lives these days, it's how we've been conditioned to live, unfortunately. Kids, aging parents, job stress, marriage breakdown, financial woes, moving house, travelling for work, deaths in family, shift work, colds & flu and major illnesses etc are all very common and recurring circumstances all across this forum. You're not alone. Eating well for your body and mind can only help.