atla's 1st whole 30

[atla]

I'm gluten intolerant and I've dabbled in paleo/primal eating, but my food cravings and intake have really been out of control lately. Even though I cook mostly paleo meals, I too often reach for soda, chocolate, french fries, and potato chips. So, beginning tomorrow, my SO and I will be doing our first whole 30.

Since today is day 0, I have signed up for the Whole 30 Daily, cleaned out our pantry/fridge, planned our week's meals, and gone shopping. I've also identified my triggers and made a plan for what to do instead of reaching for an unhealthy treat.

I've also made a few goals as per the W3D day 0 suggestion. Here we go:

Stress Management: I will spend at least 5 minutes per day journaling.

Sleep: I will be in bed 7-8 hours before I have to rise.

Nutrition: I will bust the sugar demon by avoiding fruit when I am sugar craving and avoiding SYPO (I indulge in primal-compliant goodies way too much.)

Tomorrow, at the beginning of day 1, I will weigh and then do my darndest to avoid the scale for 30 days.

Goodnight!

[Derval]

Welcome & good luck

[Wholelottachange]

Sounds like you're set up for success!

[atla]

Thanks for the support.

Day 1 went pretty smoothly. I didn't get nearly enough sleep last night, but I definitely intend to get at least 7.5 hours tonight! Here are my eats:

Breakfast: 3 slices bacon, 2 scrambled eggs, 2 cups black coffee

Lunch: 3 oz deli ham (the good stuff), leftover butternut squash/pulled pork soup

Snack: 3/4 cup pistachios in the shell

Dinner: 4 oz grass-fed beef patty, baked sweet potato fries, 1/3 avocado, spinach sautéed with bacon and shallots, decaf coffee

I'm pleased to say that one of my trigger-avoiding solutions worked. I have an awful habit of hitting the McD's drive-thru for a soda on my way home in the evening. To avoid that, I brushed my teeth right before leaving my internship for the day. Nothing worse than coke and toothpaste, so I didn't crave it.

[atla]

While I intend to eat compliantly, I really don't enjoy trying to "track" everything I've eaten. It does bad things for my mental health So in the future, I'll just be posting that my eats were compliant, how I'm feeling, any "homework" from the Whole 30 Daily, and maybe some reflection.

I thought I'd start today by posting a little bit about myself. Feel free to skip it if you're not curious.

I'm Stephanie, age 27, living in the Chicagoland area with my boyfriend of 4 years, his 14 year old daughter, my dog, and two pet rats. I'm currently in college pursuing my Bachelor's in Social Work. It's my senior year, so I'm doing an internship in addition to classes. I'm also commuting for 4 hours a day, so I stay quite busy. My internship is at an agency with serves individuals (of all ages) with developmental disabilities, and I enjoy that, but my preferred population to work with is aging adults. Besides that, I enjoy hiking, playing board and videogames, knitting, and spinning yarn in my free time.

Anyway, after living with increasingly widespread joint pain for 1.5 years, I read about a link between joint pain and gluten intolerance. At the time, I had been eating a vegetarian diet for about 3 months and was (am?) a baking enthusiast, so I was ingesting a lot of wheat. I switched to a GF diet and was pain-free within a week or so. That lasted 8 months. Unfortunately, within the past couple of months, my pain has returned.. although nowhere near the level I was dealing with before. My doc did some bloodwork, but everything came back normal. I'm currently procrastinating making an appointment with a rheumatologist. As I mentioned before, I've dabbled in paleo/primal eating, but haven't been committed... until now.

My biggest challenge in the month ahead will probably be battling my Coca-cola addiction. I have tried to quit before, and even done it for a few months, but I always end up succumbing again.

So, about day 2:

I got an amazing 8.5 hours of sleep last night (I've been getting closer to 6 lately), but it wasn't fantastic sleep as I remember tossing and turning quite a bit. I think that might be because I had a 20 minutes "power nap" in the car yesterday.. was so sleepy from the lack of sleep on night 0 that I had to pull over during my commute and take a nap to prevent falling asleep while driving. Unfortunately those little moments of rest usually cost me some nighttime peace.

My eats were compliant and tasty, but I've been craving a Coke and a wee piece of chocolate. The cravings haven't been overwhelming, though, and I'm making it through.

[atla]

Today was a bit tougher. Had some pain issues that I was dealing with, and boy - the mood swings! I woke up feeling great, then wanted to stab people for about 5 hours, then felt really chipper again with intervals of stabbity-ness. My boyfriend is definitely in the "hangover" stage, but I think I went straight to "kill ALL the things!"

I was also hungrier today than on days 1 & 2. I was having a tough time of it on the long drive home, and stopped at Fresh Market. Picked up some compliant deli meat and some olives to munch on. That was a good choice. I'll pack a few olives as a side to lunch for the next couple of days.

Dinner was amazing. I made Asian Cauliflower Fried Rice from nomnompaleo, and I tossed in some shredded pork shoulder from the crockpot. Very tasty, and surprisingly filling - but there were no leftovers!

I'm getting worried as the weekend approaches.. my tight schedule keeps me from having time to really think about food.

My boyfriend and I had both been feeling a little weird lately after eating sugar - weird and jittery as if we'd had both too much sugar and too much caffeine at once (regardless of whether we'd actually had any caffeine). My stomach was also just kind of generally unhappy. I'm happy to report that those things seem to have disappeared over the past couple of days!

[atla]

Day 4.

Today I felt like I was in the "boundless energy" stage. I slept really well last night and maybe even got in 8 hours of sleep. I was cheerful and energetic all day... made getting my homework done this evening so much easier.

I didn't have any cravings today, but I did want to snatch a mini snicker's bar out of my supervisors hands this morning when I saw her munching on it. I still seem to need that 3 o'clock snack, but at least I'm making healthy choices.

I've also been really thirsty the past few days. I guess that's normal?

[atla]

Day 5 went okay. I managed to eat compliantly all day, despite the fact that I was out of the house for 15 hours. I didn't get nearly enough sleep last night (maybe 6 hours. Maybe.), and I woke in the middle of the night with a headache. It went away shortly after getting up this morning. Did have some ice cream cravings today.

I flipped through the book Practical Paleo today and drooled over some of photos! I NEED to order that book.

[GFgirl]

Hi atla. I struggle with joint pain too I have been gluten free for several years due to being celiac and lately the joint pain has crept back into my life. I am curious if removing all grains will help me. I also suspect dairy may be an issue for me.

Good luck. You are off o a good start!

Amy

[atla]

Thanks GFgirl! I hope you find the answer to your pain. And yours was a timely post except that (sadly) I ruined my great start.

Yesterday for lunch I made spaghetti squash, marinara sauce, and sun-dried tomato meatballs. It was delicious. Immediately after eating, though, I had a reaction like I'd been "glutened." Wrist pain, finger stiffness, sore shoulder, rosacea (possible butterfly rash) flared up, etc. Everything was made from scratch, so I KNOW there was no gluten content. So it's looking like nightshades might be a problem.

So I was pouty and cranky for the rest of the day, and indulged in some emotional eating that was TOTALLY non-compliant. A milkshake. Ha! I had a reaction to that too, but more like an allergy type reaction. My throat got all itchy, nose was runny, and my rosacea flared up big time (it had significantly diminished a few hours after lunch). Also my stomach was kind of grumpy.

I slept like crap with all-over joint achy-ness waking me up periodically, and I'm still hurting worse than I have in many days. Also I had some um.. digestive issues this morning. My body was ready to get the crap that I ate out.. that's for sure. So I guess, even though I would have sworn I had no issues with dairy, that I react to dairy as well.

So it looks like I'm back to day 1, and I'm eliminating nightshades now as well. Next week, on day 7, I'm going to follow a full-blown autoimmune protocol (no grains, dairy, nightshades, nuts, seeds, or eggs) for 30 days, but I can't start that now because I've already spent a fortune in groceries for the week.