Day 15 - Full Steam Ahead

[BobMango]

Today is Day 15 of my first Whole30.

 

This is quite the learning experience.  After some initial crying and moaning I seem to have adapted quite nicely to eating this way.  My wife and I are doing this together.  Her primary motivation is that she has RA and is looking for non-drug ways to handle the inflammation and chronic pain.  My motivation is my health and supporting her.  We both weighed before starting but have not glanced at the scale since.  It will be interesting to see, but I've noticed that the non scale victories are very motivating by themselves.  I thought at first all the emphasis on the NSVs was designed to distract from the scale.  Maybe that is true to some extent but I found they are very real for me and my wife.

What have we seen?

Wife:

 - significantly reduced joint inflammation and redness.  Her hands used to be red and swollen with inflammation, now, 15 days in, and most of the swelling is gone, (one knuckle is being stubborn) and no more redness.

- chronic pain greatly reduced

- better energy and sleep, although the sleep thing is still a little hit and miss, but improved.

Me:

- sleep much improved, rarely wake up and sleep very soundly

- clothes fit way better.  Belly bloat much reduced and overall can see slimming effects.

- lots of energy all day, no more afternoon slumps

 

We have picked up our physical activity as a result of the energy boost and are walking about about 20 miles a week.  There is a nature trail behind our neighborhood that we are using regularly now.

We share the cooking and cleaning duties, which as many have mentioned are not insignificant.  I find each time I make mayo or a dressing I'm getting better at it, meaning less time and cleanup required, so it's getting better.

I haven't really experienced many of the negative effects that others have, my wife definitely went through KATT and sugar withdrawals, but other than some occasional irritability I've been pretty even keeled.

i find myself looking forward to new culinary experiences rather than obsessing about what I can't have.

Anyway, just wanted to encourage those also on this journey of transformation and discovery.

[aprilb]

@BobMango AWESOME! Keep it up! 

[BobMango]

The wife had an appointment with her RA doctor yesterday.  The doctor really liked the progress she's made but had some concerns about her calcium intake.  We'll have to wait a few days until her lab results are in but the expectation is that her inflammation markers will be much improved, based on the external indicators (swelling, redness, pain levels, etc).  She did have to weigh in and it looks like she lost 8 pounds in the first 15 days on the Whole30.  Wasn't too concerned about the weigh in as her motivation was not weight and she was only about 10-15 over where her doctor wanted her weight wise as well.

It will be interesting to see where I land on the numbers after day 30 since we've been eating pretty much the same meals, but she snacks and I don't.  At this point I'm getting hooked on eating this way and plan to slowly transition other foods back in, particularly dairy.  Though I'm not craving anything right now, I do like some sharp cheddar on occasion.

One other thing is that my wife has been gluten free for a while to help with the RA, but she was eating a lot of those "frankenfoods" that are designed to replicate bread or cookies, or whatever.  Now that she's not eating those she doesn't miss them and I don't think she'll go back now.  Her response when asked is, "I can skip the foods that make be feel crappy if the choice is feeling good all the time versus a few minutes of enjoyment followed by days of pain."

[aprilb]

14 hours ago, BobMango said:

Her response when asked is, "I can skip the foods that make be feel crappy if the choice is feeling good all the time versus a few minutes of enjoyment followed by days of pain."

Awesome, @BobMango! This is all so positive. I don't know if you've heard of the book Food Freedom Forever, but your wife's statement is indicative of the fact that she's finding hers. Keep it up!

[BobMango]

Day 19 almost in the books.  Kind of weird feeling today.  Went for my 4 mile walk today and had no steam.  It was later in the afternoon than I usually walk, but still.  

I ate pretty good today, pretty balanced plates.

Anyway, feeling good now and have been feeling good all week.  Figure it's just one of those blips.  

Next week will be the challenge, heading to Vegas for a conference.   Wife is tagging along so that should help.  We are also prepping and taking alot of stuff with us so I expect we won't be too tempted, especially since it's too cold to sit by the pool drinking Margheritas!

[BobMango]

Day 23 in the books!  Also Day 3 in Vegas.  Prep work really paid off. Took an ice chest and microwave since the casino has no fridge or microwave in the rooms. Bellman wouldn't take the microwave up, said they weren't allowed in the room. Guess they want their extra $40 a night.  We managed to overcome that little obstacle, wink wink. Haven't eaten out once and really not tempted.

Did win $400 playing slots, but met a woman in the elevator tonight that had just won almost $400K playing slots.  They were moving her to the high roller tower.  Guess I need to step up my game, lol. 

Anyway, the NSVs are continuing.   Friends are starting a betting pool on how much weight I will have lost by next Wednesday.   Odds on favorite is 1 pound a day.  Clothes are getting loose, need to transition to my less fatbody clothes soon.  Have to get a new belt or punch another hole in the ones I have now. Haven't really experienced the tiger blood, but energy levels are good and no mod day slumps.

Starting to think about post W30 and don't really plan to change much. Might introduce some dairy since I like a slice of cheese on my burgers, even without a bun.

[GoJo09]

2 hours ago, BobMango said:

 

Did win $400 playing slots, but met a woman in the elevator tonight that had just won almost $400K playing slots.  They were moving her to the high roller tower.  Guess I need to step up my game, lol. 

 

I always wonder how much people have spent to win that much  

Well done you on sneaking your microwave in to stay on track! 

[BobMango]

Four days to go! Back from Vegas so we'll have a lot more flexibility on meal planning for these last four days.

Looking forward to Day 30 for lots of reasons, but not really because i want to add back anything specifically. A little dairy is probably first on the list, but I don't care about bread or sugar at the moment. Mostly I want to be able to say I did it, and have some more flexibility when eating out.  

NSVs continue to improve; better sleep, more energy, moving into samller clothes, etc.  Think I might clean out the closet this weekend.  I have jeans in three different sizes.  My 38 relaxed fit jeans won't stay up, even with my belt cinched as tightly as possible.  Before i was squeezing into them with some effort.   Tried the 36 relaxed jeans and they are in the comfortable to loose range.  I figure by the time I get to March I should be comfortably back in 34s, maybe even regular fit!

Been walking 15-17 miles a week and will add in a day of sprints and some bodyweight exercises this week.  I did not want to take on too much when I started the W30, but I feel good and it seems like I'm ready to add the next thing.

 

 

[BobMango]

Day 29 in the books!  Feeling good.  Wife was thinking about meals for the rest of the week and said "I was planning on making compliant meals for Wednesday and figured out I didn't need to.  Funny". But then we said we're only going off plan when we plan to.  So Wednesday will try some dairy as that seems to be what she most wants to have.  I have no plans for any non-W30 meals anytime soon.

Nice to have broken my old relationship with food.  Looking forward to eating post W30 and seeing how compliant I remain.

[BobMango]

Here we are on Day 31!  

Thought twice about weighing in.  Not because I would be disappointed in the number.  I could tell by my physical changes it would be good.  But I am hesitant to tie my success back in to the scale.  In the end I decided to step on the scale, just to satisfy my curiosity.

When I started the Whole30 I weighed in at 285.  I'm 6'2" and have a pretty athletic build so didn't look overly obese at that weight.  Had the typical American middle age beer belly going pretty good though.  Today the scale showed 260 pounds.  Almost a pound a day!  Probably 10 pounds water weight, lol.  At any rate I feel good and don't plan on going back.

[aprilb]

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Congratulations! Not just on the number, but the life change! WOOT!

[kirkor]

How did the dairy reintro go?  What order are you reintroing other categories?

[BobMango]

So reintroduced dairy yesterday.  No serious effects so far.  But like a lot of people have mentioned, the foods you thought you were missing aren't as satisfying as you were thought they were going to be.

We went to some friends last night and the wife had a sugary cocktail. By the end of the evening she was feeling it in her joints.  Seems pretty good confirmation that sugar is her biggest problem in regards to her rheumatoid arthritis.

So today it's back to more compliant eating before we try other foods again.  I think gluten free grains are next on the reintroduction plan.  If we can have corn tortillas again I think we'll be pretty happy. 

The wifeh as lost about 15 pounds, but is more excited by how she feels.  That and that she fits in her size 8 Wranglers, lol.  She's also dropped two dress sizes from 12 to 8.