5/7 Start Date - looking for a buddy

[Nic26]

Hi all,  I am starting today (the 8th).

I had actually started last week but the week was such a disaster, and I had a really bad case of tonsillitis and went on antibiotics. Gah, ANYWAY the couple days I did were great, and I'm happy and feeling strong about this week. 

[LisaNotOriginal]

Starting Strong and I hope everyone else is!!  This is breakfast, plus a handful of raspberries (not shown).  It took extra time this morning but it was yummy.  I made the pork sausage from the book!  It was delicious!!  Anyone else make a yummy breakfast?  I am always looking for ideas!  

I did weigh myself this morning and took some measurements.  I can honestly say that this is the first time in a LONG time that I am ready to change my food choices.  I feel empowered!!  Have a healthy Day,all!!

[Nic26]

LisaNotOriginal, that looks lovely! I had scrambled eggs for breakfast this morning and added some frozen spinach in to them. They were delicious!

So, a coworker just plonked a bag of crisps/chips on my desk (she asked me did I want a pack, I said no, and she came back from the shop with one. Argh). It's 4pm and the next hour and 15 minutes are going to kill me. Writing it down in the hopes that it'll cement that I am not going to eat them! 

[NoneOtherThanAmy]

That breakfast looks delicious, LisaNotOriginal! I had scrambled eggs with zucchini, summer squash, spinach, onions and a few slices of compliant roast beef deli meat. I got full before I ate it all, so I stopped eating (I'm trying to be better about listening to my body's signals). I was a little worried I was going to get hungry halfway through the morning, but I was fine. Now I'm eating a salad with peppers, onions, mushrooms, leftover chicken from last night and a cucumber with some EVOO and balsamic vinegar for dressing. YUM! 

[EJSmadhatter]

2 hours ago, Nic26 said:

LisaNotOriginal, that looks lovely! I had scrambled eggs for breakfast this morning and added some frozen spinach in to them. They were delicious!

So, a coworker just plonked a bag of crisps/chips on my desk (she asked me did I want a pack, I said no, and she came back from the shop with one. Argh). It's 4pm and the next hour and 15 minutes are going to kill me. Writing it down in the hopes that it'll cement that I am not going to eat them! 

You can do it

[YvonneB]

Hey everyone! I started my whole30 today. I did whole30 in February and managed to stay pretty much whole30 since but have had a massive week long event at work and my schedule has been ruined so now I back on it today. Actually really looking forward to it as I felt so good on the last one. To all you newcomers, it is totally worth following the program as per the book. The science behind what it is trying to get you to achieve, mentally and physically, won't work if you try to take short cuts and make your own rules.  As the book says...it's only 30 days! You CAN do it!!! 

[JenAP]

Hi! I'm Jen, and my husband and I just started our first Whole30 today. We've been reading up, collecting recipes & compliant foods for 3 weeks, so we are prepared! Our former lifestyle included a lot of healthy cooking and exercise, but we had 3 kids in 5 years and have let our own health slip a little bit (too many nights of pizza and wine on the couch). We are both equally determined to stay on track and finish, but I am the meal-planner, shopper, and primary cook in the house, so some outside support and meal ideas will be good for me!

We had veggie & sausage frittata that I prepped yesterday for breakfast, lettuce/turkey/mustard/red pepper wraps for lunch, bananas and cashew butter as a snack and tonight is Skinnytaste's Chicken Cacciatore (minus the parmesan cheese and over potatoes instead of pasta). I love to cook and keep it interesting, so I'm looking forward to doing that while keeping it compliant. Good luck everyone!

[mrsmonte02a]

Hi Jen....I just saw your reply on my post and we do have some similarities! I too work from home and have two children (10 and 7). Want to be buddies??

[Skye_9]

Hi everyone, day 1 went pretty well even with work stress and getting stuck late! Had a healthy dinner of salmon and some gazpacho chilled soup. Was a little extra tired today, hopefully that will pass as this goes on! I am trying to come up with easy snacks for on the go and to bring to work.

[Nicola UK]

Hi everyone! 

I am officially starting today, May 9th, so looking to join you all on your Whole30! I have never done this before but I do love a good challenge and the support you get from the community here made me want to give this a try. I have not had accountability like that before, so looking forward to sharing the experience with you.

Do we all check in on this thread as the month goes along, then?

 - Nic

[NoneOtherThanAmy]

Morning all! I hope the first few days of your Whole30 are going well. I walked to the grocery store last night to pick up some things for today and I forgot to eat before I did it. So much temptation! But I managed and only bought compliant things. Luckily, I had some leftover pork and cabbage at home, so I could eat pretty quickly once I made it back.  

Since starting to eat mostly Whole30, I've been able to cut back my coffee intake by a lot and have even started skipping it altogether some days. This morning I woke up a little extra tired, so I made some coffee, and it made me feel worse.  I think I'm going to eliminate coffee for the rest of my Whole30. That'll be tough for me...I'm a long-time coffee lover and was thrilled to hear that I could still drink my black coffee on the Whole30, but I need to listen to what my body is telling me and it's saying to cut the coffee. 

Skye...I think snacks are supposed to be made up like mini-meals and so include some protein, fat and veggies. Maybe some guac + veggies and some compliant deli meat? I don't know how portable that would be though.

Welcome Nic, you'll fit right in here! I'm not exactly sure how this thread works, but I'm using it as a check-in and for sharing struggles as well as victories. 

[LisaNotOriginal]

11 hours ago, Skye_9 said:

Hi everyone, day 1 went pretty well even with work stress and getting stuck late! Had a healthy dinner of salmon and some gazpacho chilled soup. Was a little extra tired today, hopefully that will pass as this goes on! I am trying to come up with easy snacks for on the go and to bring to work.

Day 2 - Woo Hoo!!1 Skye - glad someone else is tired.  I am tired today, but so out of tune with my body that I do not know if it is real.  Worried I will  "make up" symptoms because the book says that I am suppose to have them.  But I have a food plan for today and all the food is purchased and prepped.  

For the veterans, I could use some clarification on snacking.  Am I suppose to eat (3) meals per day or snack if I feel hungry?  And then there is knowing if I am hungry or stressed/tired.  thoughts or advice?  Have a GREAT day, all!!! 

[Nicola UK]

Thanks Amy. I think I'm going to use this thread for that, too. 

I take your point on snacking, because I wondered the same thing. Reading the 'Whole 30' book right now, you're advised not to snack. But you can have occasional pieces of fruit with your main meal. Unless it's a pre/post workout snack that has its own rules. Here is their meal planning sheet for easy reference: https://whole30.com/downloads/whole30-meal-planning.pdf 

Someone with much more experience than me can tell you for sure, though!

[NoneOtherThanAmy]

The way I understand snacking is that you're supposed to do your best to adjust your meals so that you aren't getting hungry between meals. But if you do happen to get hungry, you're free to eat a mini meal. The example I've seen to distinguish between real hunger and stress/boredom eating is to ask if you're hungry enough to eat plain fish and steamed broccoli. If you are, have a snack; if not, go for a walk, drink some water, etc.

My personal example...I was starving for the first few days I ate Whole30 compliant, but I was never hungry for anything in particular. Plain greens were totally fine, I was just hungry! Looking back, I realize that my breakfasts were too low in fat and that was setting me up to be hungry all day long. Once I adjusted and added more fat to breakfast, I haven't needed to snack much.

[ladyshanny]

10 minutes ago, NoneOtherThanAmy said:

The way I understand snacking is that you're supposed to do your best to adjust your meals so that you aren't getting hungry between meals. But if you do happen to get hungry, you're free to eat a mini meal. The example I've seen to distinguish between real hunger and stress/boredom eating is to ask if you're hungry enough to eat plain fish and steamed broccoli. If you are, have a snack; if not, go for a walk, drink some water, etc.

My personal example...I was starving for the first few days I ate Whole30 compliant, but I was never hungry for anything in particular. Plain greens were totally fine, I was just hungry! Looking back, I realize that my breakfasts were too low in fat and that was setting me up to be hungry all day long. Once I adjusted and added more fat to breakfast, I haven't needed to snack much.

EXACTLY! A mini meal should be a composition of protein, fat and vegetable. If you can't manage all three, your best bet would be to do a protein and fat (eg, chicken and homemade mayo) or protein and vegetable (eg, hard boiled egg, carrot sticks).

And good on you, @NoneOtherThanAmy - it is very common to not be able to "catch up" if your breakfast is too small or is lacking in one or the other of macros. Your breakfast is the foundation of your entire day.  

[emilyelowe]

I'm going to try to jump on this chain, too! I actually started this Whole30 (my third) on May 1 and then randomly fell face first into a peanut butter cookie on Day 5! I've never done that before so am feeling extra crazy. I decided to start over (obvi) so May 7 was my new Day 1, but then I woke up with a sore throat! Ugh! The Enemy is out to get me this time around, so I am really needing the support! 

Goal for this Whole30 is to do a formal reintroduction, immediately followed by going back to eating compliantly. I don't miss anything non-compliant enough during the Whole30 to reintroduce it as a regular staple, but I do want to know what to expect for those times something can't be avoided. I REALLY want to focus on My Food Freedom this time around. My last Whole30 I felt better than I ever had in my life - definitely got to TigerBlood stage - so I tried to do the Slow Roll re-introduction but it just ended up being a carb-a-palooza within like one week of being done. NOT THIS TIME!

Starting this week will end my Whole30 right around my birthday, so I am trying to look at this 30 days as a gift to myself - to feel and look better and to do something good for myself. I'm 27 and live in Columbus, Ohio. 

As far as meal prepping, I also try to cook a bunch of stuff and then just have it on hand. My favorite thing to do for breakfast is make a bunch of hashbrown cups (I use inspiralized everything potato bagel recipes without the seeds and just put them in muffin tings) over the weekend and then warm them up each day and have them with two over easy eggs. I swear I could eat it for every meal. I've also made batches of things and frozen it in single servings bags, which has been a HUGE help on days when I am so over it. 

Really hoping this chain keeps me motivated! Good luck everyone!

[Steph the Desert Rat]

I'm in, as well!  Glad I'm not the only one who started yesterday!

[ngudknecht]

I started yesterday! I'm Nicolette, I'm 23 and this is my first Whole 30. I'm doing it to start eating better and make healthy habits. Looking forward to learning more about Whole 30 and finding new recipes to make throughout this month!

[Skye_9]

Thanks for sharing @LisaNotOriginal and thanks for the snack tips @NoneOtherThanAmy! Today I felt a little more energy though at some points I did feel tired. All in all, an improvement from yesterday. I am getting used to my coffee with just a little coconut milk. Long work days are a challenge but I have been prepping my meals and snacks the night before to have on hand. Excited to complete day 2! I hope everyone is feeling good going into day 3!

[NoneOtherThanAmy]

Yesterday was a weird day...I was tired and dragging all day long at work. Then I came home, rested a bit, went out for a run and felt much better. I had plenty of energy to make an egg bake for breakfast for the next few days. Today I don't feel quite as tired as yesterday and I'm avoiding coffee, so we'll see if that helps. I finished cleaning out my pantry last night. Threw out some stuff I missed in the first round or was clinging to as 'emergency' food. I think I'm ready to let go and really embrace this program.

Welcome everyone else who has joined us! I hope your Whole30 is a success. @emilyelowe I am somewhat nervous about the reintroduction phase. I'm sure I'll have to do multiple Whole30s to get everything sorted out, but I'm hoping my long-term plan will look a lot like what you set out as your long-term plan. I feel so much better eating this way and I don't want to immediately fall back into my old eating habits. 

[Ashley_119]

Hi All! My name is Ashley and this is my first Whole30! I started on 5/7, so today is day 4 and let me tell you..... "Kill ALL the things" definitely hit my hard this morning! It kind of caught me off guard because I didn't really experience any of the hangover like side effects on days 2 and 3. Once I realized what was going on I was able to reign myself in and apologized to the people I snapped at. Thankfully they know I am doing Whole30 and were really understanding! Yesterday my energy was a little lower, but thankfully I was off work so I was able to take an afternoon nap.

My main reason for doing this Whole30 is because I have an autoimmune disease that causes me to have horrible joint pain all over my body and constant fatigue. I have tried eliminating certain foods from my diet before, but was never successful. What I am loving so far is that there is no leeway at all with this plan. The idea of having to start over if you fall off the plan at all is so stressful that it keeps me motivated to keep going!! Real Plans has been a lifesaver for me this week. I don't think I would have made it to day 4 without it!!

I hope everyone has a happy and successful day! 

[NoneOtherThanAmy]

Welcome Ashley! I also just had a "Kill all the things" moment that caught me completely off guard. So odd. I wasn't expecting it at all, but there it was. 

[YvonneB]

If anyone wants a great lasagne recipe then try this. It is SO yummy!! 

 

http://teacherpop.org/2016/03/teach-eat-repeat-recipe-whole30-lasagna/

[ArtFossil]

2 hours ago, YvonneB said:

If anyone wants a great lasagne recipe then try this. It is SO yummy!! 

 

http://teacherpop.org/2016/03/teach-eat-repeat-recipe-whole30-lasagna/

Please take a look at this recent thread, including this post:

And do yourself a big favor and concentrate on delicious Whole Foods during your Whole30 and avoid both the fake cashew "cheese" and the nut overload and attem[TA to recreate off-plan foods.  You'll feel better and see better results. 

[NoneOtherThanAmy]

So, I had a dream last night that I was at a party and mindlessly ate some chocolate while trying to avoid the other temptations at the party. I woke up trying to figure out when I was going to restart and which group I was going to join to help me through the reset.  Luckily, it was just a dream. 

Then, as I was going to heat up some of my leftover breakfast bake, I got the strongest urge to put some cheese on it. I haven't had a lot of strong cravings for off-plan things, so this was a bit strange. I'm wondering if I didn't eat enough yesterday. I'm still hungry after eating my first serving of breakfast...