Day 13

[Phelps]

Hi,

I am on day 13 of my first Whole30. So far, the past 13 days have been a psychological challenge.

My hormones are still balancing out and I'm still a work in progress in how I am looking at food and the way it is making me feel.

I had hoped by Day 13 of not having the non compliant foods in my diet, I'd be feeling awesome. I still feel bloated.

My question is, is it normal to eat more meat/potatoes/fruit while my hormones are balancing out? I'm finding that, I am listening to my body, not missing any meals; however, I'm not feeling that great. I don't have any cravings, I don't miss sugar, or grains, or any of the non-compliant Whole30 food items. Or maybe I do, maybe I am still working on slaying my sugar dragon (munching on fruit), building up to no snacking...maybe this is the process in healing my relationship with food.

I do find that when I feel like I "overeat" one meal of a potatoe, or a meat, or a fruit, I feel like I am failing.

I have read and re-read Chapter 16 in It Starts With Food & follow the directions...I'm struggling with my mind catching up to this.

I still feel bloated. I don't eat nuts or any nut butters. I just have never really ate them before and don't see a need to eat them now, just because they are compliant. I drink a ton of water.

Is this normal? Has anyone else felt this way? How did you cope?

[jmcbn]

4 minutes ago, Phelps said:

I still feel bloated

Some bloating is normal, and in fact a lot of people report that they feel like they've gained weight at some point usually heading into the second week, but no two people are the same so it could be that you're just a few days behind in 'adjusting'. That said bloating can be caused by a sensitivity to certain foods so if you could list out what your meals have looked like over the past say 3-4 days we can take a look and see if anything problematic jumps out at us...

When you say you drink a tonne of water, how much are we talking? Also, are you salting your food?

[Phelps]

Thank you so much for your feedback!

Yesterday, for example:

Morning:

Grilled Beef Flank Steak, the size of my palm, cut into strips, marinated in lime juice, seasoned with paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, pepper, a little garlic salt.

Veggies: Sliced grape tomatoes, asparagus, 1/2 yellow pepper, 1/4 avocado 

All warmed up in ghee and served over a handful of spinach leaves

one cup of black coffee

27 ounces of water

60 ounces of water with lemon slices

I am always so thirsty

 

Lunch:

2 Fried eggs & left over flank steak, warmed in ghee, seasoned with pepper (eggs), with sliced cherry tomatoes, peppers served over arugula. With 1/4 avacado.

I snacked on a red apple

Between lunch and dinner I slipped:

I snacked on 5 raw almonds, a banana, blueberries.

27 ounces water

Dinner:

Grilled chicken breast seasoned with salt, pepper, turmeric 

with one small baked red potato plain

salad with arugula, radishes, olives, tomatoes, cucumbers, avacado, drizzled with a little olive oil.

27 ounces of water

hot water with cinnamon sticks

Last meal was 7:30PM, no snacking at night.

This morning:

Breakfast:

2 fried eggs in ghee with cherry tomatoes, 1/4 avacado, red pepper, spinach leaves,

45 ounces of water

1 cup black coffee

hot water with sliced lemons

My morning vitamins are:

Stronger Faster Healthier's Liquid fish oil

Now Foods Digest Platium

Pure Encapsulations Nutrient 950 w Vit K

BioGanix Liquid Vit D3

Qunol Mega C0Q10 Ubiquinol

Magnesium at night (Natural Calm)

 

In the prior days, we grilled baby back ribs seasoned with salt, pepper, paprika

I had snacked on 10 almonds with 10 raisins

One day I tried the beef jerky 1/2 of a stick of the Bavarian Meat LandJaeger snack stick

 

I'm improving on no snacking in bewtween lunch & dinner. Some days, I have nailed it othe days not so. I read the forums saying that nuts, the nut butters, and dried fruit are not good for bloating so I've been mindful of not going overboard. I do realize that when I reach for fruit inbetween lunch and dinner, it's my sugar dragon.

 

With all this adjusting I'm doing, am I failing so far on this whole 30 even though I'm staying with the compliant foods? I've always been super sensitive to salt, so I've had to be careful on my intake. Red meat, prior to W30, I stayed away from because I always felt it sat like a rock in my tummy. I never ate potatoes of any variety, just because I never thought about them. In these 13 days, I have eaten so much red meat and have ventured out to red potatoes, sweet potatoes, with my meals.

 

[jmcbn]

1 hour ago, Phelps said:

With all this adjusting I'm doing, am I failing so far on this whole 30 even though I'm staying with the compliant foods?

No, you're not failing at all! Some times these things just take time, and some tweaking!

Overall your meals don't look too bad. The foods I'd suspected *might* have been causing problems you're not eatin a lot of anyway, but if you were relying more heavily on nuts in the earlier days then your gut could still be settling. Also, the increase in volume of meat may be causing some bloat as your gut is unlikely to have been producing the digestives enzymes required to break it down. Production of those enzymes won't happen over night so give that some time too. THe other thing you could look at is adding some probiotic foods into your diet - kombucha, sauerkraut, compliant kimchi etc - ease into it though if you decide to go down that route as the gut needs some time to adjust to those too....

In short, keep on keeping on - I think things will start to settle down for you soon - keep us posted!

[Phelps]

Thank you so much for the advice! I will continue to be patient & will post when my poor tummy adjusts