First time W30!

[valiantrunner]

I finally talked my husband into doing W30 with me. He's somewhat reluctant because he loves beans and other legumes. We already have about a dozen food allergies in our home that make cooking for a crowd a challenge, but I'm determined to see this out. I need to get my food cravings under control, and nothing else I have tried has worked long-term. I need a full reset. Thankfully I won't have to deal with the gluten-cleanse because I'm already gluten-free thanks to moderate wheat and barley allergies, but trying to reduce our carb intake will be the real challenge here. I signed up for the meal planner to give me a leg up, I'm hoping it'll be the push we need. I planned out next week's meals already and I'm somewhat excited. I do need to take some time this week to import some of our standard recipes and adapt them to be W30 compliant (not too difficult, it just means swapping out some of the ingredients). Wish us luck and support! My husband will be the one who needs it more than I do, he loves his sugar!

[Belu Di Lorenzo]

Hey! When are you two starting? I'm starting tomorrow, and I would love some Whole30 accountability buddies! I'm a 20 year old girl from Argentina, also trying to get my sugar addiction under control!

[valiantrunner]

We are starting Monday - I need to hit the grocery store but can't until we get paid

[valiantrunner]

Monday log:

Breakfast: two poached eggs (first time I've ever made them, YUM!), grilled zucchini with balsamic vinegar and kosher salt.

Lunch: I was heading out to go grocery shopping and didn't have time to actually prepare something, so I had a handful of raw almonds, 3/4 of a banana (the base was completely mushy), and later at the grocery store I grabbed a LARA bar (I think it was apple pie or ...I can't remember, but I checked first to make sure it was compliant, I almost grabbed the peanut butter chocolate chip one!)

Dinner: Cobb wraps (bacon, avocado, tomatoes, hardboiled eggs and "ranch" wrapped in romaine leaf). The homemade dressing tastes just like the normal ranch we make, except I used almond milk in it instead of the rice milk or raw cow's milk we normally use and then added parsley and pounded dill seeds. It was so good, I used it on this morning's breakfast.

Workout: Zombies! Run c25k W2R2; arms, legs, core strength training; stretch.

Post workout snack: the most delicious honeycrisp apple of my life. It was So Good.

Feeling: Pretty good. I was starving at dinner time and was pleasantly surprised at how well two of the wraps filled me up. I even forgot to make the green bean salad I was supposed to prepare (oh, well - will have it for lunch). My parents are both here visiting and were also surprised at how well it filled them up. Emotionally, I was very tired at the end of the day and was trying to find excuses to not go to the gym (it involves driving 22 miles to the nearest town). I fell asleep quickly and easily and slept very deeply. I also had my first "OH CRAP" W30 dream. My husband handed me a snack bar and I took a big, tasty bite before realizing I hadn't checked the ingredients, and then I couldn't find them, and then when I did find them, they were in Spanish! Then I was being chased/hunted by something and I forgot about the food... I have weird dreams. LOL

I read through the "Whole 30 Timeline" article and am really worried about the rest of this week. I'm hopeful that because I already eat pretty clean and we already eat a good amount of veggies that I can stave off some of the more unpleasant symptoms. I'm glad I'm doing this now instead of next month!

[valiantrunner]

Tuesday log:

Breakfast: "Sweet potato toasts" OH WOW this is my new favorite breakfast!! Jewel yams (which, at least in the United States, are actually sweet potatoes and not yams), avocado, fresh diced tomato, cucumber, garlic basil sausage (I am still super excited that these were compliant), and leftover ranch dressing. I snacked on it for about an hour and was surprised how long I stayed full. Normally, I eat breakfast around 8:30 or 9 and am starving by the time 11 rolls around. Yesterday, I looked up and exclaimed, "Shoot, it's 1 and the baby needs lunch!" Needless to say, this wound up being today (Wednesday's) breakfast of choice as well.

Lunch: 1/2 pound sauteed turkey patty (with paprika, cayenne, Italian seasoning and a little salt), microwave baked potato with EVOO and a little salt, and green beans with EVOO and a little salt. I'm being careful to salt the foods I eat because I have heard that some of the problems people experience immediately after cleaning up their diet include hypotension, which I'm prone to anyway. Fresh, clean foods don't contain salt! I can't use regular table salt due to a corn allergy (they add dextrose, I think to stabilize the iodine), so kosher or pink Himalayan salt is my choice.

Excuse the bolded font, I typed half of this up and then the box freaked out and tried to delete my text. Now it's bolded, but it's all there at least!

Snack: Apple and several spoonfuls of almond butter. This is the part of my day where stuff started going horribly wrong. I was having trouble with my school assignment, I almost forgot about making frosting for the cupcakes for my son's birthday, and after I did make them and get them all ready to go, I couldn't find the car keys. When I finally did find the car keys, I went back to the kitchen to grab the cupcakes to take up to the school and my almost 17-month-old had grabbed the container off the counter and dumped the lot onto its lid, on the floor. Thank goodness I had fastened the lid down, it could have been much worse. I was devastated, the cupcakes had come out looking so nice and now they looked like a 2-year-old had frosted them. My mom told me the kiddos wouldn't care, they just wanted the sugar (which induced more guilt - I wish it was more acceptable to send fresh fruit up for a birthday celebration). I finally finished the homework assignment and discovered, to my horror, that I hadn't understood the new topic this week at all and had gotten a D on the assignment. Again, thankfully, we're not graded on our actual marks, just that we completed the assignment. Still, I was so frustrated that I spent the next four hours (!) finishing the next assignment. I've discovered that linear equations with fractions are just not my thing. Pre-W30 me would have binged on the leftover cupcakes, the leftover frosting, and had pasta for dinner. Instead...

Dinner: portabella mushroom pizzas (homemade tomato sauce, sausage, leftover bacon from Monday, avocado, zucchini, and kale) and steamed green beans. I was shocked at how good the mushrooms were (I don't care for them, typically), and was satisfactorily full. I did experience some hunger pains as I was trying to go to sleep but when I woke up at 3 a.m. to use the bathroom, I wasn't hungry anymore.

I'm grateful that I had a meal plan ready yesterday - it could so easily have gone out the window when I was so stressed out.

[valiantrunner]

Wednesday: my 31st birthday
Breakfast: sweet potato toasts with sausage, dressing, avo, tomato, cukes.

Lunch: turkey patty. leftover green beans.

Snack: banana with almond butter.

Dinner: pressure cooked chuck roast, roasted Brussels sprouts and strawberry salad YUM YUM YUM!! My husband said we could make that salad again LOL

No birthday cake on my birthday this year (did that on Saturday and ate half the cake :/)

Thursday:
Breakfast: green smoothie with almond milk, banana, almond butter, half an avo, a handful of spinach and some ice. My go-to on the run breakfast.

Lunch: leftovers from Wednesday, plus a baked potato I didn't eat because I wasn't hungry.

Snack: snack baggie full of grapes.

Dinner: baked salmon with a raspberry balsamic vinegar reduction, steamed green beans, and a sweet potato.

Woke up sick this morning. Foggy brain, raspy voice, feels like I have sludge in my throat. I'm sad I can't drink my normal remedy (hot tea with raw honey). I forgot to start the bone broth last night, so I don't even have any of that. We're supposed to celebrate my oldest's birthday today by going ice skating and I just don't know that I have the energy. He's so looking forward to it. Might have to come up with an alternate day to go...

[valiantrunner]

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were all compliant, I just didn't manage to get around to typing up what I ate. Friday we celebrated my son's birthday. We wound up not going to the ice rink because it was closed due to malfunctioning equipment. Who knows what that means - that's everything from the "air conditioning" to the Zamboni. We took the kids to the trampoline park that just opened last week instead. Right after we got there some girl fell wrong and broke her leg. It gave me second thoughts about taking four kids aged 5 - 8, but they did fine and had a great time. I have this fabulous video of my 6-year-old niece climbing up a fabric rope, hand over hand, with nothing to hold to except the rope itself. She also was hopping around their "American Ninja" style obstacle course like it was nothing. My husband and I agreed we need to go back, just the two of us. He's pretty leery of trampoline parks because two of his sisters have broken bones on trampolines (collarbone and ankle).

Saturday and Sunday I hid in our back bedroom and played computer games all day. It wasn't the most productive I could have been, but after all the "nose to the grindstone" action I've been doing with my life, I needed a weekend to just do nothing. Back at it today.

Mom found out she has a partial tear in her ACL band, so no more free babysitting. I was pretty upset over that (not only because of the lack of free babysitting). I had an answered prayer two days after we found out, though: one of the young women in our ward is going away to college and is looking to earn extra money and agreed to watch him for cheap. Now I just need to spend the next two weeks preparing myself to leave my baby with someone who isn't family - this will be a first, and he's 17 months old!

Today's W30 email said to write down my goals for my W30, so I feel this is the place to do that:
1) Lose some weight. I'd love it if I could lose 15 pounds like some people have done, but, honestly, I'd be happy with any weight loss. Realistically, I just want my clothes to feel better.
2) Get rid of the foggy brain. UGH!!!! I need to be able to think. It's been getting easier, but I find the morning fog is worse. I'm not sure if that's because the overall fog is better or if I'm still getting over being sick.
3) Help with the mood swings. I'm notorious for having massive mood swings that leave everyone around me reeling. I know from personal experience that some of it is food related - I have a corn allergy and its impact on me is severe anxiety, which primarily manifests itself in mood swings. The other part of it is...my father makes me crazy. LOL! He went home on Saturday, so that should resolve itself.
4) Curb the sugar cravings. This one is already so, so much better. I used to have to have some chocolate EVERY day, and at the end of the day, I was craving carbs, carbs, carbs. Last night I even was able to have portion control with chili - something that is, apparently, a trigger! I had one bowl and a huge plate of salad with maybe a tablespoon of homemade dressing and felt great. I'm so happy this is a thing! Portion control is something else I've struggled with in the past.
5) Less snacking. This is also better. I used to eat breakfast around 8 a.m. and then was STARVING when 11 a.m. rolled past. The last few days I've looked up and been startled that it's after 12 or 1 p.m.

I'm grateful that I gave myself the opportunity to try Whole30 and I'm wondering how I will apply what I have learned after we are done. Week one is DONE! Only 23 more days to go!

[samalope]

Hi there valiantrunner! You're doing awesome! We are on a similar schedule according to the logs here I have a lot of the same goals as you, including weight loss, curbing sugar cravings and less snacking. It so funny that you mention you used to get hungry at 11, I was the same way. Now I'm not eating until 12:30 usually. Have a great day!

[valiantrunner]

Thanks, Samalope!

Monday log:
Breakfast: smoothie with fresh orange juice, almond milk, a big spoonful of almond butter, 2 Tbsp cocoa powder, a banana, and a big handful of spinach. Yum.

Lunch: tuna salad. Double-yum!

Dinner: "carnitas" with cumin lime slaw. This was just kind of "meh." I skipped the lard because it didn't sound appealing to me and now I wonder if that was a mistake. The cut of meat I used was fatty, so it should have been fine. My mom enjoyed it, and the kids inhaled it as though they had been starving.

The baby decided it was party night so I got a grand total of five hours of sleep. I'm really dragging today, but the carb cravings are still under control! I went grocery shopping with my mom and we stopped to eat at the cafeteria of our local food co-op. The only thing I could have was their home fries - everything else had at least one ingredient that was non-compliant. The sausages looked so good...I was really sad they had sugar in them! Now I'm trying to get my homework done before I pass out from sleep deprivation. It's going to be an early night tonight.

[valiantrunner]

Tuesday log:
Breakfast: Breakfast smoothie again.

Lunch: home fries

Dinner: DH made "stuffed pumpkin" which was not actually a stuffed pumpkin but he did roast it and then put the flesh in dinner. So good!

We've both been having food dreams every single night. It's wild. And then we wake up and talk about our food dreams. I wonder if this is like when I'm pregnant and I always have dreams about the baby or being pregnant.