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Round 2, started Jan. 2, 2017


aprilb

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I know I'm late to the party, but I'd like to document my second round of Whole 30 because I am on a mission to find my FFF!

Currently on Day 7. I have to say, this round has been SO much better than the last for me. Experience is helping. The first 3-4 days were tough, with a persistent headache. (Though the headache actually started several days before my Whole30, and it was actually the reason that I decided to bump up my start date ... was originally going to start on January 3rd. I just needed to end my misery. I've most certainly done that! I'm feeling great!)

Some things that have changed since the last round for me:

  • Last time, I did have more of a focus of losing weight. I'm not going to lie. I did want the overall goal of improving health and reducing/eliminating inflammation, but weight was a factor. I'm not going to say I'm not thinking about that, or excited about it at all this round, but it is less of a focus.
  • Last round, although I did technically remain compliant for the entire 30 (even through some tough social situations), I had some days that I didn't eat the best. This was due to my poor planning and laziness. I own it. I had some days where I maybe had even more than one Lara Bar in a day to get through. Or maybe stress-ate organic fruit leather for a sugar hit. Or went well above the recommended two cups max of coffee in the morning. Yes, compliant. But not recommended. I own that. I'm working on that.
  • Last time, I didn't plan well. I hit a wall of complete lack of food enjoyment because of it. (No "good" food in the house leads to boredom which leads to ... not even wanting to eat, really.) I'm happy to say that at some point, I did get a copy of Against All Grain and tried out a few recipes from it. They were delicious and that really helped! So this time, I'm working hard to stay ahead of the curve and not allow that to happen.
  • Last time, I really skated out on the Reintroduction. Mentally, I prepped myself for 30 days. But its not really a Whole30, is it?! Its really more like a Whole40 or more, if you do the Reintroduction correctly. 

So, I'm not here judging anyone's choices or anything, but I am saying that for ME, I need to know what's going on with my body and how I can be the best ME that I can, for my family and friends and students I teach. In order to be the best me, I've got to be taking care of me. In order to take care of me, I need to know exactly what things cause poor health for me. And in order to know what those things are, I need to get down to business in the Reintroduction. And in order to have a good Reintroduction, and truly find my FOOD FREEDOM FOREVER, I've got to have a solid first 30. 

And that, my friends, is how I've arrived on the doorstep of Day 7 with a ton of passion and resolve. I'm feeling great. I'm feeling in control of my destiny. And I want that to continue ... to February and BEYOND. :-)

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Day 8. My last day of vacation. :( I'm feeling really great! But a bit daunted knowing that I will need to keep the food prep and dish-washing game strong in the mix of my work schedule now, too. Last night I peeled and cubed up a big container of sweet potatoes to have on hand for quick roasts. Today I'm going to make a frittata that I'll cut up to eat throughout the week for post-workout breakfasts. And since I'm loving my homemade salad dressing, I'm going to try some mason jar salads for quick lunches. Hopefully that should get me through! I also have assembled friends and recipes for a Meal Prep Party next Monday afternoon! WOOT! Very excited about this! We are going to make 7 yummy (hopefully!) recipes. One of them is really a double recipe, so its actually like 8. That's 8 nights (maybe more, as we will likely have leftovers) I do. not. have. to. worry. about dinners! That will get me through most of the last stretch of my Whole30, too! WOOT WOOT WOOT!

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Day 9. Starting back to work. I had a rough time sleeping because of it (thinking about all of the many things that will be on my agenda today). But ... I did not grab for a glass or 3 of wine last night to "help" ease the transition back to real life. Instead, I prepped that frittata so that after my Cardio Shred class this morning, I'll have a solid, compliant source of fuel for my morning.

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Today is Day 10. This round is flying! Hard to believe I am nearly one third done already!

My meal prep for yesterday went SWIMMINGLY. I was shocked at how much food one can cram into a quart mason jar! I would like to be doing another one today, except that I'm out of salad. ... Wait. ... Did you hear that? ... I'm OUT of SALAD. Who does this?!?! Oh that's right, ... ME! Because I'm truly loving the food I'm eating!

I know its early yet. Ten days in. But I have not for one second felt deprived or resentful on this round of Whole30, as I did quite often (just being honest) on the last round. Putting in a little bit of extra effort to make sure I really like the food I'm eating is paying off! So for today, I must replenish. I'm also getting dangerously low on avocados, eggs (not tired of them yet!), cauliflower and LaCroixs. Yep, off to the store I go.

My 3-year-old pounded down the roasted cauliflower with me last night. I consider that a big NSV. I want him growing up with a healthy relationship with food and am hopeful that my quest for FFF will reap benefits not just for me, but for him as well.

Also, my pants got a little bigger yesterday! :D

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Your round 2 story is so similar to mine. I find I'm thinking about food so much less this round and often forget to check in here and log my food and feelings for the day. My 3 year old is eating Whole30 right along side of me too and it's so exciting!

By the way - I found 12 packs of La Croix on sale at my local Target for $3.33! Maybe you're store is having a similar sale?! If you need recipe inspiration, I made the tandoori chicken recipe from the Whole30 recipes instagram feed with some turmeric cauli rice and it was AMAZING and we had leftovers! 

Best of luck in Round 2!

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@rebbeca Thank you! OK, now I will have to go check out your story. :) For sure, it is so exciting to see my lil guy pounding down these good meals (he's currently addicted to avocados!). Hubby is also doing "his Whole30" (basically, he eats Whole30 dinners with me, drinks coffee black, and has cut way back on wine) ... and lost 7 lbs the first week! :D (No, I did not step on the scale! But I did take pictures.)

Thank you for the heads up on La Croix at Target! That is a great price!!!!! Best of luck to you on this round and may we both continue to feel amazing!

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Day 11. Firmly in the middle third of this reset and still going strong!

Today's epiphany: waking up in the middle of the night to pee, and as I was trying to fall asleep once again, realizing that wine may very well be in the "not worth it" category for me, for the most part. This is a game changer and I don't know what life will be like going forward. But when I list off all of the reasons it may not be worth it as part of my FFF, I'm not so sure why I like to drink it so much! Dehydration, poor food choices, empty calories, TERRIBLE SLEEP, added expenses, and irritability are just a few.

Let me process this a bit ...

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Day 13! Yesterday I hit a bit of a plateau in the area of food enjoyment and so today I need to figure out how to plan to address that, planning wise. I have been eating like a horse, and for the most part, following the meal template pretty well, but I think my body is moving into metabolizing fat well. That's a good thing! I just need to plan accordingly. So that's what I'm working on as I begin my long weekend!

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Day 15 is already here, and that went fast!

Yesterday was hard. It didn't help that my 3-year-old was sick for almost 2 days with a fever and that I got no sleep because of it. Food boredom really set in, and I was really just scrounging for leftovers just enough to satisfy, rather than truly enjoying my food. Fortunately, last night I made up another big batch of the Paleo Egg-Roll-in-a-Bowl, which everyone loves, so that was good. I'm just not that hungry right now. I also don't feel so well. I hope I'm not coming down with what my son had. :(

Today, for my day off, I'm having a Meal Prep Party with two friends! WOOT! That should help me a LOT. If nothing else, I will have eight (8!) Whole30 dinners to freeze and eat! So that combined with leftovers will get me within stone's throw of the end of my program, without having too much more hard labor in the kitchen at night! If it is successful today, I'm immediately going to begin planning the next one!

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A meal prep party in genuis!  I also googled the egg-roll-in-a-bowl and have that sitting open on my browser.  It sounds like something I'd like, though not sure if the kids would get past the slaw.  Who knows.  Sometimes they surprise me.  It is kind of amazing how fast this all goes once you start.  I've spend months wanting to start and then booom, I'm now on day eight.  It's fun reading your posts and how you're enjoying your meals (and salads).  I haven't been cooking anything snazzy, but I am enjoying my food as well.

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Thanks for the encouragement, @ArtFossil and @Emma! So, as luck would have it, circumstances conspired against me. BOO. My son was sick all weekend (fevers are a "B" with toddlers!), and then yesterday (which would have been my first opportunity to get out of the house due to said toddler fever), my car battery turned up dead! Argh! Fortunately both of my friends were understanding. Most of the ingredients were things that they had on hand anyway. So, other than being VERY stocked up now with some of the basics, and some produce, it all worked out. I was able to make 5 out of the 6 recipes I'd planned for, and I'll make the 6th today. (I just got tired of cooking and washing dishes ... imagine that! LOL)

So, the good news is that today, Day 16, I'm set! I'm going to have the last of my southwestern frittata for breakfast after my workout, and will probably supplement with a couple more hard boiled eggs and maybe a Lara Bar to go with it. For lunch, I'm doing a big salad with Plainville turkey (yay for organic, compliant deli meat from Costco!) and probably a whole avocado, then for dinner we are doing the General Tso's Chicken recipe that I made yesterday, with a big mess of stir-fry veggies (organic but already frozen in a bag so no chopping to deal with!) and that gets me through today!

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Wowzers - very very cool!  I've never done a mass cooking thing.  It's like a totally revolutionary idea, but you did it and rocked it and now I find myself kind of wanting to try it.  I love General Tso's and have never made it Whole30 style.

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On 1/12/2017 at 6:45 AM, aprilb said:

Today's epiphany: waking up in the middle of the night to pee, and as I was trying to fall asleep once again, realizing that wine may very well be in the "not worth it" category for me, for the most part. This is a game changer and I don't know what life will be like going forward. But when I list off all of the reasons it may not be worth it as part of my FFF, I'm not so sure why I like to drink it so much! Dehydration, poor food choices, empty calories, TERRIBLE SLEEP, added expenses, and irritability are just a few.

Ya, I've gone back and forth on this a few times. The sleep thing has got to be the biggest deal, for sure.

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10 hours ago, Emma said:

Sure thing!  I googled for recipes and came up with a bunch of different ones, but would prefer to cook one that has a thumb's up from someone who has tried it.

@Emma, this is the one I made. We had it last night. http://www.lifemadefull.com/august-paleo-freezer-meals/ I will say that I always prefer my Asian-inspired dishes to be breaded and fried (LOL) but this had very good flavor! I cooked my veggies separately because I didn't want them to turn to mush. Also, I made her Amazing Beef Stew on Monday as well, and I may put that one in the slow cooker for tonight!

@kirkor, I'm already starting to get nervous about Whole30 ending, for that reason ... now I will have to actually decide how to proceed, and that is daunting. I don't want to go off the rails again!

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Great - thank you!  I can go shopping today so I'll pick up ingredients and plan for that.

I just saw your comment about going off rails.  Sigh.  I feel so much better eating this way and one would think it wouldn't be so hard to maintain a healthy balance, but some of those foods I eat outside of Whole30 really do act like an addictive substance I think.  Bleh - I don't like thinking about fighting and finding that balance!

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Agreed, @Emma. Have you read (or thought about reading) Food Freedom Forever yet? I bought it back in October when it came out, but the first thing that she talks about to get to the true FFF is to first do a big reset (with Whole30 being the recommended one). Knowing that I had not properly done the reintroduction last summer after my first round, I knew I was going to have to make peace with that. Hence, why I'm back. So I'm going to be looking for buddies to keep me honest on my reintroduction plan (starting February 1st).

Today, Day 18 ... my period started literally with no warning! Same thing happened during my last round on Day 15. No cramps, no headaches and fatigue for days beforehand, no (excessive) bitchiness (LOL), etc. etc.. Last time, I thought it was a fluke. Now I'm thinking that I've been my own worst enemy when it comes to PMS!

Also, yesterday I bumped up my carb consumption. Lots of sweet and white potatoes in my day. Just been eating like a horse and having a hard time making it from meal to meal.

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I read ISWF a few years back.  I could probably benefit from reading it again.  I have not read Food Freedom Forever, but it sounds like it might be good.  After we did our first Whole30 we stuck to it for the most part with some ups and downs.  It helped that we lived in a town without many food options.  It will be trickier now, but I think a huge part was just being intentional and staying focused - and taking advantage of this forum!!  I'll keep logging on post Whole30.  It's fun having people to check in with.

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For the second time this week, I had a dream that I went off program. Two nights ago it was for some fried dough concoction that probably only existed in that dream. Last night, it was most definitely donuts and some other off-program things that I could no longer remember once I woke up. :lol: I'm definitely wanting carbs. Not just in my dreams. :lol:

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Huge NSV yesterday (Day 19). Yesterday, I had to put my almost 22-year-old kitty down. She lived a great life but she was shutting down on all fronts. Very sad for me, as she has been a fixture in my adult life for nearly 22 years. :(

What I WANTED to do was fall face first into a bottle of Merlot and bag of Ghirardelli squares. But I didn't. I resolved to carry on and finish my Whole30. Life will be hard, and my coping mechanisms need to be stronger than this, and the way that I strengthen them is by using that muscle, so to speak. So I did that. I did give myself an out on cooking, however, .... we went to Chipotle and I got the compliant carnitas salad with extra meat, guacamole and lots of salsa instead of dressing. So that helped. My heart is still broken and may be for a while.

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Day 21. I am remembering that on round 1 of Whole30 last summer, I cheated and weighed myself at around this point. I am committed to not doing that this time. Partly because I really want to stick by the rules, and partly because I think it will be a pretty low number and I'm OK with that. (I'm so close to my goal weight that even the difference of a few measly pounds makes a BIG difference in how my clothes fit and how I look.) Proud of that!

Am a bit bored with food, and between being so busy with work and dealing with pet loss this weekend, I haven't had a lot of time to invest in more creative meals that would help me out of this funk. I need to change that up so I can make it to the end HAPPY.

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Day 23. I awake to my black coffee, and suddenly realize that while I now ENJOY cream in it, I no longer NEED it. Wow. #changeyourlife for sure!

Clicking along otherwise here. I'm excited to make the Napa Slaw from the new Whole30 cookbook today. Need a fresh take on some new veggies.

This round went FAST. Can't believe its over a week from today! Really gotta start wrapping my head around that reintroduction!

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