Starting Feb. 6, LOTS of anxiety and questions

[Guest]

About me, I'm 40, 5'3, weight fluctuates between 135-140.  I have a ton of medical issues; fibromyalgia, IBS, migraines, depression, anxiety, tons of food and environmental allergies, arthritis, and multiple problems with my back.  I am pretty sedentary and sleep almost all the time I'm not at work from the chronic fatigue my fibro brings on, and my eating habits are bad.  I pretty much live on dairy and grains, although I already exclude some of the non-compliant foods due to allergies so at least I have a head-start there.  I usually don't eat until anywhere from 4-8 hours after I get up, I HATE BREAKFAST.  I usually only have 1-2 meals per day with some light snacking between.  I have tried different diets in the past to try and eat healthier (Paleo, Keto) and know I do best on a high protein diet but I get sick of meat and eggs really fast.  Keto also made me totally crazy because I could never get my carb intake low enough or my fat intake high enough to meet the requirements.  I had to quit that one after a few weeks because it made me so obsessive in a bad way.

I am trying Whole30 based on the recommendation of a co-worker whose had success with it.  I like that it is an elimination plan, not a diet.  With all my food allergies, it's highly likely that I also have sensitivities that didn't show up in testing (I've had official allergy testing done twice, most recently about 6 months ago).  I like that it is a defined 30 day period, not indefinite.  But I'm super anxious, especially as my start date of Feb. 6th gets closer.

*How am I going to make myself eat breakfast?  I wake up nauseous, I don't want food.  I don't have time to cook or eat before I leave for work.

*How am I going to survive without pasta and cheese?

*How am I going to eat SO MUCH FOOD?  Three full meals a day is a lot for someone my size.

*What's up with the meals vs. grazing anyway?  I haven't found any explanation for why this program pushes stuffing yourself every 4-5 hours instead of small meals / snacks throughout the day.  Aren't smaller, more frequent meals supposed to be healthier?  When I met with a nutritionist last year, he had me eating every two hours.  My own experience is when I eat a big meal, it stretches my stomach and makes me bloated.  When that food gets digested, that larger, empty stomach thinks it's starving and wants more and more food.  Eating smaller portions keeps your stomach smaller, and you'll be less hungry right?

*I am allergic to almost every kind of fruit, is it necessary to eat them?

 

I know I sound super negative right now.  I just want to get all my questions and doubts out of the way before I start.  I could really use some help and reassurances.  Thanks so much.

 

[Ashton Mc]

I just posted about starting on this date too!  I'll be following because it's going to be tough for sure!  I'm 30, height around 5'6", weight close to 200+/-.  I use to be closer to 150 but gained a decent amount due to medication.  I'm since off the medication.  I look at weight loss as a side benefit because I need to change my relationship with food first! 

I'm also interested to see the different of 3 meals and a snack vs. smaller meals throughout the day.  I would think as long as you're following the Whole30 rules for what you can and can't eat, it shouldn't make a difference.  I'm still reading about the diet, so I'm sure there's reasoning behind it though!

I feel sympathetic to your own feelings of negativity, change is hard!  In this case, daunting even!  But reading through these forums, there appears to be a lot of support! 

[Guest]

Thanks Ashton.  I've been reading lots of threads on this forum the past couple of days and all the moderators and 'advanced members' seem to be pretty rigid about no snacking/grazing, but I haven't seen anyone say why, so I'm hoping someone will explain it.  I am glad the forums exist for support!

[ShannonM816]

The idea behind three meals instead of grazing all day is that you eat, and give your digestive system time to do its thing completely, and then rest. It's explained a little more fully in the book It Starts With Food, which explains a lot of why the rules are what they are, so if that's something that interests you, you might want to look for a copy.

Personally, I found it freeing not to be hungry every two hours and feeling like I had to stop what I was doing to eat. It's kind of nice to easily go 4-5 hours without thinking about food. But it is definitely an adjustment and may take a little while to get your serving sizes worked out.

Technically, as long as all the food you eat follows whole30 rules, you'll be doing a whole30, but if you follow the recommendations for things like meal size, you'll get better results. Read more about that here: http://whole30.com/2015/01/rules-recommendations/

For getting used to eating breakfast, try plating up a meal and eating as much as you can first thing in the morning. When you have eaten what you can, set it aside and come back to it when you can eat a little more. Over time you should find it easier to eat first thing. Eating within an hour of waking will help regulate sleep patterns as well, so do try to work on it. Here's a little more explanation of that: https://www.thepaleomom.com/is-breakfast-really-most-important-meal/

[Guest]

Thank you Shannon.  I haven't read It Starts with Food yet, just the Whole 30 book.  I was planning to buy it this weekend, so it's nice to know there is more 'why' in that book.

I am going to do my best with breakfast.  That article is interesting, and it's worth it to try to follow the plan as closely as possible to see if it helps with my health issues.