Extending my Whole30......need some insight

[Rottiegirl2017]

Let me start with, I know that the Whole30 discourages weighing, measuring, tracking food (and aside of your before/after 30 day weight/measurements and discourages the scale and measuring tape). It focuses on whole foods and listening to your body - and is really focused on healthy food choices, changing your relationship with food, and overall health.  I fully understand that the reasoning behind this is that when you focus on the scale, you are more likely to start to try and cut corners (ie: eat less, eat less fat, etc) to see the result on scale rather than see the overall benefit eating more healthy foods has to your overall health......the goal is to untie yourself from numbers and give you FREEDOM. And that makes sense.

I did that for the first 30 days. When I extended my W30, I started a speadsheet to track what I was eating (along with workouts) because there are certain W30 compliant foods I think I've realized don't necessarily agree with me (hello white potatoes) so I figured keeping a detailed "diary" would be beneficial. Then I decided to start tracking back in MFP so I could see where I'm hitting calorie and macro-wise.  I had seen numerous posts about how many people tend to undereat on W30 -- I have a terrible history with that -- AND many posts where people are seeking advice and moderators are asking them to list exactly what they have been eating and portions.  Now that I've started logging my meals/snacks into MFP, I'm seeing that there are days I am not hitting my calorie "goals" which are modestly set at 1200/day - and realistically, may be low to begin with.  I'm not sure if maybe I'm not logging correctly or what (I don't measure/weigh everything, but I think I'm pretty good at guesstimating).   I do pay close attention to how I feel in workouts (I do Beachbody workouts Mon - Fri) and can usually tell when I'm not properly fueled so I am a bit torn on how much I should focus on the "numbers" vs. listening to my body.

Thoughts, advice??

[SugarcubeOD]

I think you could try levelling up your fat and protein and then take note of how you feel... yes, calories aren't a great measure of how to eat but when you're eating whole foods and STILL not getting a bare minimum, that may work for a while but it's not going to work forever and continued restriction (whether intentional or not) is a recipe for disaster.  Have you done reintroductions yet?  Maybe that's a good place to start?  I also think you should listen to your body for the most part, but really note if things start to go downhill... often we eat the same things (or a variety of the same portions, same composition) and our body is trying to tell us something and we are saying back 'but I eat like this all the time and I felt gret before so it can't be what I"m eating' when in reality it IS what you're eating, or the lack of what you're eating. If you can't do white potatoes, there are many other startches that you CAN eat... If you're doing a plate made up as per the template with the added fat (not counting cooking fat) and the fist sized serving of starchy carb and the palm-palm and a half of protein, then you should be making a minimum caloric intake so I would be more interested in a run down of what you're eating instead of a number on MFP... since you've been tracking, can you provide this?  It's a great way to get unbiased feedback

[Rottiegirl2017]

Let's see if this works......

Date	Post Workout	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks	Feelings/Comments/Reflections/etc
9/18/17	6am:  Hard boiled egg white, 1/2 yolk, coffee /coconut milk	8:15am: 1 egg/2 egg white omelet w/sauteed spinach, kale & avocado, grapes,	12:25pm: Grass fed burger on romaine leaves, 1C Quick brocolli salad (full: 2 cup brocolli 1/2C cut carrots, 1TBSP Primal Kitchen Chipotle Mayo)	5:15pm:  1C Paleo Beef Chili w/sweet potato, 1C steamed broccoli, 1/8 avocado, 4 almonds	4:15pm: bananna	Woke up feeling better!  No issues after breakfast.  Started second workout, added Chisel Abs.  Workouts felt good. Used  10 & 8 lb weights for Plyo Fix Extreme. Got Paleo beef chili with sweet potato into crock pot.
9/19/17	6:15am:  Hard boiled egg white, 1/4 yolk, coffee /coconut milk	8:20am:  Kale Breakfast salad (1 1/2C Sauteed Kale with 2 fried eggs + 1 egg white, 1/8 avocado)	12:30:   1C Paleo Beef Chili w/sweet potato, 1C steamed broccoli, peach, 10 almonds	6:30:  Grilled Chipotle Chicken breast, romaine lettace, grape tomatoes, banana	4pm:  carrots with 1/4tsp of chiipotle lime mayo	Tummy issues seem to be gone.  Core Cardio this morning was rough, legs were sore - I think I need to figure out how to add more salt to my diet.  Hungry 3/3:30 - had some carrots; backache - started period late evening
9/20/17	6:15am:  Hard boiled egg white, coffee /coconut milk	8:10am:  Kale Breakfast salad (1 1/2C Sauteed Kale with 2 fried eggs + 1 egg white, 1/8 avocado)	12:30:   1C Paleo Beef Chili w/sweet potato, 1C steamed broccoli, La Croix Peach-Pear Sparkling Water	7:45:  Grilled Chipotle Chicken breast, 1 C cauliflower fried rice	4:20:  nectarine & 10 almonds	Good day.  Slight backache in the evening.
9/21/17	6:20am:  Hard boiled egg white, coffee /coconut milk	8:10am:  avocado omelet: 2 egg whites, 1 egg, 1/5 avocado w/tapatio, mini cucumber & baby carrots	7:45:  Grilled Chipotle Chicken breast, 1 C cauliflower fried rice	6:30:   1C Paleo Beef Chili w/sweet potato, 1C cauliflower rice, .1/6 avocado, swoodles	3pm:  nectarine, swoodles	Hungry a lot of the afternoon; snacked on swoodles.
9/22/17	6:20am:  Hard boiled egg white, coffee /coconut milk	8:10am:  avocado omelet: 2 egg whites, 1 egg, 1/5 avocado w/tapatio, mini cucumber & baby carrots	Chopped salad with grilled chicken, 10 almonds	Baked potatoe with salt & pepper	Banana	Meetings in Concord, kid Tennis lesson,  football game.  Didn't get time to get afternoon workouts in =(
9/23/17	n/a	1 boiled egg, 1 boiled egg white, banana, Starbucks unsweetened Green Tea	Cobb salad with grilled chicken (late lunch at Mall - CPK)	1C Paleo Beef Chili w/sweet potato, 1/8 avocado	afternoon:  banana, 10 almonds; evening:  banana	Busy day shopping for homecoming dress (11am - 5pm)
9/24/17	n/a	Banana, scrambled eggs, coffee w/coconut milk	Coconut Cream Lara Bar on way to bathe dogs (hornets got my salad on our hike)	Ground turkey, fire roasted tomatoes, roasted baby peppers, 12 almonds, La Crouix Sparkling Water	2 baby cucumbers, GT Cosmic Cranberry Kombucha	Busy day, 3 mile hike with family, took dogs for bath, grocery shopping.
9/25/17	6:20am:  Hard boiled egg white, coffee /coconut milk	8:10am:  Kale Breakfast salad (1 1/2C Sauteed Kale with 1 fried eggs + 2 egg whites, 1/8 avocado)	1pm:  1.5C steamed broccoli, 1 C Paleo Beef Chili w/sweet potato, 1/8 avocado, 1 nectarine	7pm: Grilled balsamic chicken, roasted sliced sweet potatoe	4:20pm:  banana, 6 almonds
9/26/17	6:45am:  coffee /coconut milk, hard boiled egg, Banana	9:45am:  Kale Breakfast salad (1 1/2C Sauteed Kale with 1 fried eggs + 2 egg whites, 1/8 avocado)	1:10pm:  Grilled balsamic chicken, roasted sliced sweet potatoe, baby cucumber	7pm: Grilled spicy pork chop, cauliflower mash potatoes, 1tsp Ghee	7:45pm:  banana	Dropped off kids, came home, washed car.  Breakfast after.
9/27/17	6:45am:  coffee /coconut milk, hard boiled egg	8:10am:   1 egg, 2 egg white omelet with baby kale, avocado, and Tapatio	12:10pm:  10 almonds; 1pm:  Blueberry RX Bar	6pm: Grilled spicy pork chop, cauliflower mash potatoes, 1tsp Ghee	3:50: Nectarine; 7pm: banana	Lunch meeting in WC - didn't eat sandwiches or salad provided (salad had candied walnuts & cranberries), cramps/backache 1:30 - 3:30pm
9/28/17	6:45am:  coffee /coconut milk, banana	8:20am:  Kale Breakfast salad (1 1/2C Sauteed Kale with 1 fried eggs + 2 egg whites, 1/8 avocado)	1:30pm:  Grilled spicy pork chop, cauliflower mash potatoes, 1tsp Ghee, baked sweetpotato chips	6pm:  Chicken Apple Sausage, 1 1/2 Cup sauteed zucchini & yellow squash,  1C grapes		took each dog for a walk around the big blocks this evening (total roughly 2 miles).
9/29/17	6:45am:  coffee /coconut milk	8:20am:  Kale Breakfast salad (1 1/2C Sauteed Kale with 1 fried eggs + 2 egg whites, 1/8 avocado)	1:15pm:  Chicken Apple Sausage, 1 1/2 Cup sauteed zucchini & yellow squash,  1C grapes	7pm:  Plain baked potato, 6 almonds	2:15pm:  baked sweet potato chips	football game - had a baked potato at the field for dinner; bit of an upset stomach (cramping) in the evening….really thinking white potatoes do not agree with me.

[SugarcubeOD]

My ipad is about to die so I didn't look at every day but in general, I don't think you're eating enough.... eggs when they are your sole source of protein would be as many as you can hold in one hand without dropping... that's 3-4 to start for most people, or if you don't want to eat that many eggs, try adding some leftover protein from the day before.

 1 cup of chili is barely anything and that will likely not have provided even a palm of actual meat if you were to take the meat out, rinse off all the rest of the chili.

Avocado if you're using that as your fat is a half to a whole... 1/8 is severly lacking.  On a couple days your dinner was a baked potato??  What's that about? Also, just fyi, no commercial chips of any kind are allowed so I hope those baked sweet potato chips are home made?

IN general, these meals do not match the template and they are not enough food for a grown woman so while this may be working for you currently, it will not be sustainable and it's clearly not working because you're snacking many days... the idea being to eat 3 hearty meals a day with no need to snack, getting 4-5 hours between meals.  ON those days that you have to go longer, a mini meal of protein and fat would be more ideal than fruit and/or nuts on their own.

It also looks like you're pretty short on veggies on many of these meals (the chili ones in particular... 1 cup of chili and sweet potato does not a meal make... that's not a plate FULL of veggies and there's no fat.

So in answer to your original question, honor your body, eat enough to get 4-5 hours between meals but I think you can be thankful that you did track after your first 30 days because it got you to this point to ask for help. Tracking IS allowed for a few days for this purpose and thiis type of food log is extremely helpful, so I would say until you get things sorted, keep logging your food, but ditch the MFP   Hope that helps, I'm going to plug in my ipad now so I'll check back in here and see if there are any follow up questions in a few hours.

[Rottiegirl2017]

Thank you @SugarcubeOD.  Apologies I thought I responded, but see I did not.......here is how I had started to respond back then:

Typically, my breakfast more than fills me up and holds me over until lunch (I also typically eat a boiled egg post workout).  Since my workouts are typically 30 - 40 minutes and include cardio/strength training, I don't feel they require a full post workout meal so when combined with my breakfast, I'm getting in 2 full eggs and 2 egg whites along with veggies, coconut milk (in my coffee) and avocado.  Probably not ideal timing-wise, but this combo works for my schedule (and my stomach) as it allows me to get a little something in my tummy, then get the kids ready, out the door and to school, and allow me to take the time to enjoy my "real" breakfast.  

Most of the time I had broccoli with the chili as I like to put the chili on top of the broccoli.  There was one night I only had chili - I've got to say, it was a pretty hearty chili but I hear you and was aware of my lack of veggies on that day.  The snacking thing - I had a serious craving for bananas and the nectarines I had in the house.  I had started double workouts and figure there was something I needed in them so I went with it.  The potatoes only for dinner were due to being out and at my daughter's football games - their snack shack offers baked potatoes (i skip the fixings and they do not put butter on them when they bake them) so I figured those were better than eating a LARA or Rx bar and much more satisfying.  Those days, I'm typically running from meetings home, pick up my younger daughter for tennis, then straight to whatever field my older daughter is cheering at and not home until 9:30 or 10pm.  I can update this to say that the last football game I had run right to, I was able to take a detour (hubby took my younger daughter to tennis) and swing by Panera and picked up a Cobb Salad (sans bacon and dressing) - WIN!!!

Since my initial post/missed reply, I've completed two back-to-back rounds (Whole30, extended to Whole60) and am now 4 days into (my extended) Whole90.  My goal starting was to extend to a Whole90 but I wanted to take it in baby steps, evaluating how I felt at the end of each 30 days.  I have not missed anything terribly and have had no any desire to see if any non-compliant foods are worth it.  I have been slowly increasing meal sizes and calories are coming up.  Since I've continued double workouts, some days require more food (snack) and I go with it; there are also some days where dinner is really late and again, I'll have a small snack to hold me over.  I have decided macadamia nuts can be a FWNB food for me ......I will have 5 or 6 to add some fat to my day and find myself meandering back for a few more (now that they are gone, I will not be buying them anymore).   Cashews are close.  I eat TONS of broccoli, Kale, and Spinach (these seem to be my staple veggies) and am still NOT. TIRED. OF. EGGS (sorry , couldn't resist).  I'm still tracking my meals and am including times, workouts/times, and feelings/symptoms/etc. to see how everything is working (ie: starchy veggies/Sweet Potato at lunch seems to make me hungrier during the day; grapes with breakfast seem to make me "snacky", etc.).

SugarcubeOD - thank you for always taking the time to respond to questions and provide your insightful observations and recommendations.  I am sure you get tons of the same stuff over and over and can only imagine how exhausting that can be.