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My Introduction


AprilM

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Hello! My name is April and I figured it's about time I post my introduction as my start date is only a week away!

I'm going to be 42 years old the end of this month and I'm roughly 125-130 pounds overweight. I have already purchased "It Starts With Food" and have been reading it, am over halfway done reading it. Talk about an eye opener!  My 17 year old son is going to be doing this with me, his father is not but that's okay. Our start date is April 8th. I wish I could have chosen today as our start date but I am on disability so get a small monthly check plus food stamps. This also means, unfortunately, that I will have to limit the organic foods that I get but I will get it all figured out.

I had a total knee replacement (left knee) on December 7, 2015 and have had a lot of setbacks with it that have caused mobility issues, leaving me barely able to walk some days (nerve damage). This does make it quite difficult to do much by way of exercising. However, there is light at the end of that tunnel as I got fantastic news at my doctor appointments this last Tuesday in regards to the location of the nerve damage and that it IS healing. I was put on a medication to help with the nerve repairing itself and to cut back some of the pain. It's been working so far and I was actually able to go hiking the day before yesterday for 1 1/2 hours (45 minutes out, 45 minutes back to the car). It felt fantastic to be able to do that and, although I have had to take a couple of days to recover from that, it was worth it!

My main concern, however, is that I have no teeth. This makes eating some raw veggies and some raw fruits (like apples) pretty much impossible. I had posted this in a group I joined on Facebook as well but I'd like to post my question here as well. Is there anyone else that has no teeth and doing this? How did you adapt some of the meals for yourself to be able to eat them?

I am not looking for advice or suggestions in regards to exercise or anything to do with my left knee/leg. This is about having no teeth and finding a way to be able to eat raw veggies and raw fruits. I should also note that I have a pretty significant sensory issue, which makes it hard for me to stomach eating certain things pureed, like apples. I have never been able to stand applesauce of any type regardless of if it was sweetened or not.

Anyway, I am so excited to do the Whole30 program and my son doing it with me makes it that much better! I will be purchasing the cookbook in a few days when I get my disability check, will plan out several days worth of meals and be ready for grocery shopping (for a few days at a time so as to not have any waste) so that my son and I can get started!

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You don't actually have to eat your vegetables raw, it's perfectly fine to cook them all if that's what you need to do. And you never have to eat fruit at all if you don't want to.

Are there veggies you know you can eat raw? Like, can you do cucumber or tomatoes if they're chopped up (and possibly peeled for the cucumber)? Or is that still not soft enough?

If you want to start browsing recipes now, most of the ones on Mel Joulwan's Well Fed site are Whole30 or easily modified to be, everything on Whole Life Eating is Whole30, and there are other sites as well. There are links to recipes in the Whole30 blog here, and if you scroll through, a couple of previews of recipes from the Whole30 cookbook. You don't have to have the cookbook to get started -- you can find everything you need to know about the program rules here on the website, and as I said, there are lots of places to find recipes online.

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I enjoy fruits now and then, so I definitely don't want to skip them. Main reason I was asking about ways to eat veggies raw is because I know nutrients are lost during cooking (depending on how cooked). I definitely eat quite a few veggies raw, like cucumbers and tomatoes. Raw carrots, celery and bell peppers are what I miss being able to eat raw the most. I can eat almost any meat, including steak. My gums have toughened up quite a bit over the years. But things like what I mentioned that I just can't gum "to death" LOL

The last couple of days, I have been working on getting myself into better eating habits... like eating meal 1 within an hour of waking up... as well as actually eating 3 meals a day. Tomorrow I am going to make myself hold off on my morning coffee until *after* I have eaten my breakfast. I'm also slowly weaning myself off of the coffee in general. I can't do it "cold turkey" because of migraines. I'd rather wean myself off of it than drink it black cause the flavor just doesn't sit well with my taste buds (at least at the moment cause bad taste buds LOL).

I'm really, REALLY excited about doing this, especially with my son doing it with me and being so supportive of me.

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I wouldn't really worry too much about nutrients lost during cooking the vegetables. There may be some loss, but if you follow the meal template, you'll be eating more than enough vegetables overall to make up for it. 

I can see missing the crispness of carrots and celery (I'm not a huge bell pepper fan, but I guess those too if you like them:)). I don't really know what to tell you, the best I could think of would be to chop them up really small, but if what you're missing is that snap or crunch when you bite into them, I don't know that that's really going to help. Blanching them might help some, but getting them to a point where they're soft enough to be edible for you, but still not cooked could be difficult.

 

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5 minutes ago, ShannonM816 said:

I wouldn't really worry too much about nutrients lost during cooking the vegetables. There may be some loss, but if you follow the meal template, you'll be eating more than enough vegetables overall to make up for it.

Oh awesome! Thanks!! That helps a lot and makes me worry much less than I was. Thank you :D

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Even though I picked April 8th as my start date (grocery money is the reason), I have already cut sugar, dairy and grains out of my food intake as of two days ago. I have not had coffee in 2 days and man I am feeling it today. I have a headache from hell. The reason I have not had coffee is because it's a crutch for me (although it does help with keeping my headaches and migraines at bay) and I would rather not have to continue relying on that crutch.
 
I did step on the scale this morning, and will not be doing it again until I make it through my 30 days. I cried as I watched the numbers stop at 278lbs. This is the heaviest I have ever been and it's heartbreaking for me to see that number. I am not doing the Whole30 JUST to try to lose weight. I am doing the Whole30 because I want to improve my health all around, both physical and mental. I am tired of being tired
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Funny thing! I had my doctor appointment this morning. First thing they always do is weight. Stepped on their scale, ready to cringe. Their scale says I'm only 270 lbs! I think I like that weight better than the 278 lbs I got on ex-husband's scale yesterday morning. Doc even high fived me cause apparently at my last appointment I was 275 lbs.

I showed him the info packet from the Whole30 website. He not only gave me a thumbs up, but he gave me his and his wife's cell phone numbers, telling me to call one of them if I find myself losing my battle to the sugar dragon or some other not so healthy craving! I LOVE my doctor. Seriously. He's amazing.

Today is a GREAT day <3

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Thank you very much! I know that I have to do this. I have tried everything else under the sun and nothing else has worked for me for one reason or another, mostly my motivation going downhill, especially the moment someone says the word "diet". I want to get healthy again. I want to be healthy. I want to be able to live to see my son graduate from college, to see my son eventually get married and to see my future grand children. I won't be able to do that if I stay on the not so healthy path that I have been living.

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I have had to push back my starting date :( My allergies kicked in hard and since I have a compromised immune system, it left me wide open for other things to hit me as well. Swallowing anything is painful, while trying to chew (gum really since I have no teeth) while being unable to breathe out my nose at all is impossible. I have zero appetite at the moment as well because of being sick. Currently, I'm just trying to not have to go to the hospital because of my compromised immune system. I was so excited about starting yesterday and then this happened. Talk about feeling discouraged. Hopefully I don't end up remaining sick for too long, but as soon as I am over this crud, I do plan to start, I'm just currently unable to say an actual date for attempting to start :/

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