Day 17 and barely hanging on

[tudyloops]

This is my third attempt with whole30. I'm way further than I've ever been. I think it's helped this time that I had already eliminated grains and sugar. Let's back up to the previous days. Day 2 was the headache. Around day 5-12, I felt so amazing. Woke up spritely and ready for the world. Saturday (day 12), I got up at 4am and started house work and cleaning garage. We worked in the yard in the heat and humidity for hours. I ate plenty and stayed hydrated. Around 3, I hit a wall. I couldn't function or think and could barely stand. It's days later and still feel completely exhausted and broken. I've since upped my fruit and potato intake thinking that the carb depletion had me feeling so terrible. But now I'm just out of ideas. I've even started snacking more to try and bring myself back to the tiger blood. Please tell me what I need to do. I'm hanging by a thread. 

[SugarcubeOD]

It sounds to me like you potentially got sun stroke or heat stroke personally... As far as the food goes, can you please list out what you were eating before you felt bad and now after? Include as much detail as possible including poriton sizes related to the template, specific fats, fruits, protein and veggies, how much water you're drinking, if you're salting your food etc and we can try and see if there's something that we can straighten out for you. In the meantime, keep going because eating chips/cookies/crap isn't going to help you feel better!

[tudyloops]

As far as food goes, I've been eating about the same all along. 

Typical day

breakfast- 2 eggs cooked in coconut oil, leftover Brussel sprouts or sweet potatoes OR apple with almond butter (depending on time)

lunch - hamburger patty/chicken breast/trader Joe's sausage, zucchini cooked in coconut oil with onion and mushroom. 

Dinner - various whole30 recipes (egg roll in bowl, oven baked salmon cakes, roasted salmon with veggies, steak with potato and salad) 

I'm eating well. Since Saturday, I started to incorporate a fruit as a snack pick me up. 

I tend to consistently have around 120oz of water per day. 1 cup of coffee in the mornings. This past week I have had an additional cup in the afternoon trying to get by. 

I don't eat crap in my regular life either. The only thing Thats different now is no dairy and obsessive label checking. Supper is 90% of the time paleo. We have pizza on Sundays. Other than that, I'm not a fat slob who doesn't love herself enough to eat like crap on a daily basis. Just tell me what I need to do to not feel like I have out of body experience exhaustion. 

[SugarcubeOD]

Okay so your meals look a bit light to me... eggs when they are your sole source of protein are as many as you can hold in one hand without dropping - for most people that starts at 3-4.  If you dont' want that many eggs, add some leftover protein from the night before to the two eggs.  Also, don't forget to always add fat; the cooking fat is not enough as most of it stays in the pan and what is left is split between portions. You're always good to add avocado, mayo, olives, etc... to your meal.

Lunch again might be a bit small... watery veggies like zucchini don't have a lot of volume once chewed/steamed, so try adding a heartier veg to that as well and then don't forget that fat.

Dinner it's hard to tell by the way it's written but again, the template is where the magic is so make sure each meal is matching the template with 1-2 palms of protein, a plate FULL of veggies and added fat.

I don't know where you got that anyone thinks you're 'a fat slob who doesn't love herself enough to eat like crap on a daily basis'.  That was actually a fairly shocking statement to read, to be honest.  

I mentioned not going off the rails because you said you were hanging on by a thread but I absolutely did not suggest, infer or think that you were the above statement.

 

[tudyloops]

Over the course of these my journey, I've eaten 4 avocados, 6 packs of wholly guac, quite a bit of almond butter and raw almonds. I feel like my fat intake is by the book. I've made 2 batches of mayo and a ranch recipe that I've eaten all of. 

When I say I'm hanging on by a thread, I mean I don't know how to keep motivated when I feel like this. I have had no food temptations (other than Coke Zero and margaritas). I just don't know how to fix this exhaustion. I eat plenty. I get full. I salt. I have had a potassium deficiency in the past, which is why I've added bananas to my diet. 

If this is heat exhaustion, how do I fix it without Gatorade or the like? 

[ladyshanny]

Gatorade is just an electrolyte beverage loaded with sugar. You can do it yourself by upping your salt, taking a potassium and magnesium supplement and eating starchy veggies. It's not instant.

NOTE though, that no one here is a doctor and we can't actually give you medical advice on how to handle heat exhaustion. You are, of course, free to do what you need to do to ensure that you are well.

[Caitibird]

I was almost ready to throw in the towel a couple of days ago on Day 16. I had just given up coffee which was messing with me, but I also hit the boredom stage with my food. Thankfully the next day I felt much better and now I'm re-motivated to keep going! Though I really need to find some more interesting recipes to cook.

I've found that if I eat a banana or some fruit in the afternoon with Meal 2, my energy levels are better than if I don't.  I imagine it has something to do with the increase in carbs and natural sugars. So maybe play around with adding some starchy carbs to each of your meals for a couple of days until you feel better? I also find that eating more fat helps in energy levels too. Although, it sounds like you are eating plenty of fats. I would stay away from relying on nuts or nut butters for that though. I know they are compliant for the Whole30, but they can be harder to digest and they aren't as good of a source for fat.

As for the heat exhaustion, if you are working out in the yard and sweating a bunch, you might look into finding some compliant coconut water. It's not recommended to drink it regularly on Whole30 unless you need it and you feel like your electrolytes are out of wack. Coconut water has a lot of sugar in it (one of the reasons why it is not suggested to drink it daily), but it also contains a lot of potassium and magnesium which can help balance out electrolytes.  You would probably be better off just increasing your water and salt consumption though.

Best of luck and I hope you get to feeling better!

[SugarcubeOD]

17 minutes ago, tudyloops said:

Over the course of these my journey, I've eaten 4 avocados, 6 packs of wholly guac, quite a bit of almond butter and raw almonds. I feel like my fat intake is by the book. I've made 2 batches of mayo and a ranch recipe that I've eaten all of. 

When I say I'm hanging on by a thread, I mean I don't know how to keep motivated when I feel like this. I have had no food temptations (other than Coke Zero and margaritas). I just don't know how to fix this exhaustion. I eat plenty. I get full. I salt. I have had a potassium deficiency in the past, which is why I've added bananas to my diet. 

If this is heat exhaustion, how do I fix it without Gatorade or the like? 

Is it possible that while you've been eating this way and it seems light in overall volume, that nutrition, being cumulative, has caught up with you and you're just now feeling the effects of not eating enough?  4 avocados is 8 meals worth or less... if you're on day 17, you've eaten 51 meals... I realize that you've listed other fats, but my point being that what you've listed is not much over that many meals.... why not try upping your food consumption or changing the composition of your plate... you don't feel good and that's something that's been suggested to try and resolve your exhaustion... 

The next things to look at would be sleep hygiene, try taking a magnesium supplement before bed to help you sleep better, move your starchy carb to the last meal of the day.

 

[tudyloops]

Ok. I just finished lunch. I had a hamburger patty with mayo, a fried egg, side of broccoli slaw with garlic mayo and diced fried sweet and red potatoes. I'll continue to up my fat and veggies and cut out the nut butter. That was probably causing the digestive issues I've been having. 

Thank you all for your input. I'll work on changing my plate up and start supplements. In the meantime, I'll just turn up my music and hype myself out.