Nausea, Lack of Appetite From Days 1-5

[ames42582]

Hi -

First off, thank you for manning the forum and helping me complete my Whole30!  Greatly appreciated. 

Secondly, I searched the forum but couldn't find an entry that matched my question so I hope I’m not missing something….  

I'm on day 5 of the Whole 30.  I ate pretty clean before starting (no refined sugar but honey and maple syrup, no caffeine, some carbs, but I did eat dairy).  I had the stomach flu 4 days before I started the Whole 30 and am having the following problems now:

Not sleeping well at all.  I LOVE to sleep but I am having a hard time falling asleep at night and staying asleep even though I’m tired during the day.    

Days 1-3 I felt pretty good but had a bit of nausea randomly throughout the day and felt a bit weak

Day 4 I felt really tired and pretty weak (as in I normally can carry around my 30lb toddlers no problem but I got tired just picking them up).  I have had a really low appetite and having a hard time finishing all of my food

Day 5 (today) I’m beat.  I have a slight headache, but it’s the nausea, diarrhea and lack of appetite that seems odd to me. 

For breakfast I’ve been eating at least 2 eggs, compliant bacon or sausage, ½ a sweet potato, and fruit. 

For lunch I try to eat a green salad with lots of veggies, eggs, grilled chicken and an apple with cashew butter (or whatever was leftover from dinner the night before)

For dinner I eat either fish or meat and a veggie and fruit or green salad.

I’m just not very hungry or excited about any foods that I’m eating, so I’m not getting much food in.

Do you have any thoughts on what could be causing the diarrhea, lack of appetite, nausea and sleeplessness?  Are these normal whole 30 side effects on day 5?

Thank you for your input!

Amy

[ladyshanny]

Being tired is fairly common as your body adjusts. The fact that you aren't eating enough would also intensify this effect. Unfortunately lack of appetite followed by undereating causes lack of appetite which begets further under-eating. It's a nasty circle.

The meal template asks that you have 1-2 palms of protein (or 3-4 eggs as a start), 3+ cups of veggies (cooked or equivilant....salad greens would be WAY more) and 1-2 servings of fat. All this before adding fruits.

To edit your meals above, for breakfast I would go up to 4 eggs or 2 eggs plus 1 palm of cooked protein (bacon is a fat), 2+ cups of a non starchy veggie and the sweet potato. Add 1/2 avocado.

Lunch make your salad in a large mixing bowl. Make sure that you add sturdier veggies as well. 2 eggs + palm of chicken plus a heaping handful of olives and then dressing. Skip the apple with cashew butter, it's not doing anything for you.

Dinner it's hard to tell exactly what you're doing, but again, 1-2 palms of protein, 3+ cups of veggies or an enormous salad. Add fat, skip the fruit until you've had the proper meal. 

The help with the sleeplessness you could try moving your sweet potato to your evening meal. Don't eat fruit on its own and none at breakfast. Make sure you're practicing good sleep hygiene (ie, dark, cool room, quiet, no blue light within an hour-2 of bedtime).