Terez's W30: Jan 2, 2013 - Feb 1, 2013

[Terez]

Hm. In writing my title I realized that this is going into Feb 1st. I had been thinking I would finish at the end of January. Got to get my head around that! But I think by Day 29 I'll be fine with one more day.

I just signed up for the daily encouragement newsletter ($15). I received the newsletter for Day 0 already and I think this newsletter is going to be veddy helpful.

Today I'm working on my goals (part of the Day 0 material) and will be posting that by tomorrow.

[Carie Skeahan]

Welcome!

[Terez]

Thanks for the welcome, Carie!

Here are my goals for my first Whole30.

NUTRITION GOALS:

• Meat/Eggs + Vegetable(s) at every meal
  
• 1 Greens + 1 Cruciferous + 1 Deeply Colored vegetable every day
  

SLEEP GOAL:

• In bed before midnight every night
  

FITNESS GOAL:

• Do T-Tapp workout three times a week
  

Was tempted to add a goal about organ meats but I realized that I would do better to keep my goals manageable. And frankly, having that variety of vegetables every day and including a vegetable at each meal will be an EXCELLENT habit. My bigger goal is to make lasting changes, not 30-day changes.

Terez

[Aberrantatavia]

Great goals! Better to make your goals reasonable and attainable and you can always add another in if you think you are rocking the original ones.

Congrats and welcome!

[Terez]

Merci for the welcome, Melissa, and for the encouraging words.

Tomorrow is my start.

Had fruitcake, a few cookies and a couple of caramel candies. It's crazy, I went off the deep end today "because" of the Whole30 starting tomorrow. I didn't enjoy it all that much.

Yesterday I had a couple of treats that I enjoyed enormously. Totally worth it. Today's treats were not worth it.

I think it's a problem to see both days as holidays. I didn't do that with Christmas. I treated Christmas Eve as the holiday and pretty much went back on plan on Christmas Day. So, lesson learned about New Year's: treat the Eve as the holiday and get back on track for the Day itself.

In preparation for my Whole30 I bought carrots and beets today as my Deeply Colored Vegetables.

Also bought three bottles of kombucha to try as a potential replacement for wine. Spent some time online reading about it. Turns out the scoby metabolizes the caffeine as well as the sugar. I'll be saving the strands from the bottles and seeing if I can grow my own mother from them. And/or I may contact someone locally who was trying to give away three scobys a few months ago. She probably has more by now.

[Terez]

Too soon to report on bedtime but I am finished my meals for today. Let's see if I can post a screenshot from my chart.

My only problem was eating breakfast late then not even noticing that it was lunchtime because I was busy and not at all hungry. Well, contributing to that would be that I'm trying to do the "3 cups of each vegetable" and that's really a large volume of food. The kale does cook down but it was still a rather filling breakfast and I had that amazing coffee. (Need to post in the "Can I have" section and make sure the ghee'd coffee is OK.)

Tomorrow should be no problem with three meals because I'll be at the office and already know I'm going to take lettuce (already prepped) and a can of Wild Planet tuna plus my homemade berry vinaigrette.

Today I chopped an entire head of cabbage, so it's ready to cook. Also bought three "hearts of romaine" and chopped them up so they're ready to use.

Just realized, I do not have a protein ready for tomorrow's dinner. Let me run down to the freezer as soon as I post this and pull something out to thaw.

[kb0426]

Cool chart! Day 1 looks like it is off to a great start - even if you did miss a meal! Isn't it amazing how filling food can be?

[Terez]

Appreciate the good words, kb! It does feel like a good start.

Searched the "Can I have" forum and there were several mentions of ghee in coffee, so I'm good to go with that. Tomorrow is when I need to place my weekly order for pastured meat and raw dairy. I'm going to include a couple of pounds of raw butter so I can make a good amount of ghee.

Also saw in the "Can I have" search results a very interesting non-dairy creamer made from canned coconut milk with a little coconut oil and an egg added. Blend it all up and it turns into creamy goodness that keeps well in the fridge and mimics heavy cream in coffee. That has the advantage of not needing to clean the blender every morning. It's also a good way of consuming healthful coconut.

Two new amazing things today. My coffee may never be the same!

[Megankwf]

You are so optomistic...I love it! I did the exact same thing with eating horrible foods just because I knew it was the last I could. So glad to be past that and the tummy ache that came with it. It looks like your off to great start! Keep it up!

[Terez]

I appreciate the support and high-fives, Megan!

Here's today's chart. Notes from today:

• I made two cups of ghee'd coffee at once and put the second one in a thermal cup. Thing is, after I drank the first one I was satisfied. I had the second one since it was already made (and I used the excellent ghee) but wish I'd just had one cup
  
• Kombucha looks like a great solution for what to have when the family is having wine. I contacted someone locally about a Scoby and she said she can cut a piece off hers and give it to me. I'll be picking that up on Saturday.
  
• Received some more pastured bacon in my weekly "club" delivery. On the front it says, "Uncured smoked bacon," which is all I ever looked at. But tonight I looked around for ingredients and found a small label on the back. It not only contains sugar but it has canola oil! In bacon?? Bummer. And now I can't use the bacon grease from past bacon that I had bought. I'd have told myself the sugar wasn't in the rendered fat but canola oil!? Really disappointed.
  
• Late day, extremely late dinner (10PM).
  
• But at least I now have two meals' worth of leftover meat
  
• Last night I got to bed at 12:30. Will beat that tonight but not by much. However, I can sleep a bit later in the morning.
  

[Terez]

Yesterday was good except that I was out of greens. Will buy more today.

Was mildly headachy and tired yesterday afternoon and evening.

Had a problem this morning, though. I give my dog a little kefir every morning. As I was getting it, I saw that the batch wasn't as thick as I had thought (hadn't finished culturing). But there was a bit of cream near the top so I scraped that out for him. Banged the spoon on his dish and used my finger to push the last bit off the spoon -- then reflexively licked my finger! Argh!

It was almost nothing -- but it was something. I sure hope I don't need to start over for that. Does anyone know?

[Terez]

Had a problem this morning, though. I give my dog a little kefir every morning. As I was getting it, I saw that the batch wasn't as thick as I had thought (hadn't finished culturing). But there was a bit of cream near the top so I scraped that out for him. Banged the spoon on his dish and used my finger to push the last bit off the spoon -- then reflexively licked my finger! Argh!

It was almost nothing -- but it was something. I sure hope I don't need to start over for that. Does anyone know?

If it does matter, what I'm thinking is, I can just make dairy the second thing I reintroduce. By introducing, say, sugar first then waiting 3 days to see if I have a reaction to sugar, that will make it 30 days that I'm dairy-free before I reintroduce dairy.

Hit all my nutritional goals for today. Dodged a bullet by not having nuts as a snack. I forgot to put that in my goals but before the Whole30 I was falling into the bad habit of having a whole lot of nuts (or a half-cup of almond butter and an apple or celery) as a so-called snack that replaced a meal. So I was not getting good nutrition and not having balanced meals. Told myself I could use nuts as an ingredient in a recipe on the Whole30 but no eating nuts as a snack.

So when I was hungry between meals today, and was doing a lot of running around, I really really really wanted to have a handful of nuts. Since I was making a cup of coffee to take in the car with me, and had the jar of homemade coconut 'creamer' right there, I ate a spoonful of the 'creamer' in order to avoid eating nuts. Then I told myself that I didn't think eating 'creamer' by the spoonful was in the spirit of this program. So I looked around the kitchen real quick and decided to have a spoonful of coconut manna. It had healthy fat and would have some staying power, but it was not like eating "cream" with the 'creamer' and it was blessedly not 'nuts'!

Will post my chart tomorrow so I can include tonight's bedtime in it.

[Derval]

Love your charts!

[Terez]

Your comment is timely , Derval because I was just thinking that it was a bit annoying to do these charts! I think I need to make separate cells for the meals and snacks because getting the spacing to work is what's getting to be a bother. But the chart itself is exceptionally helpful because I revisit my goals every day when I fill it in. And I tend to fill it in during the day so that I don't forget what I had for my meals (therefore I'm revisiting my goals every day).

I have yet to get to bed by midnight. Last night was definitely just clicking around at interesting-looking stuff on the internet. Actually, I tend to do that during the evening and then I have to get my own posts done before bed, which is when I run out of time (I'm a moderator on another board that requires daily posts and I comment on every post; it's a small board but still it takes a bit of time).

When I went to post my chart on facebook (from whence I link to the images of the chart in my posts here), I saw this posted by Melissa Hartwig:

The #Whole9 order of priority: 1. Nutrition 2. Sleep 3. Training. In that order.

This morning I had thought, 'Well, at least I did my T-Tapp yesterday!' Now I see that 'twould have been better to have skipped that and gone to bed. But since I did it at 8:30PM, I think I KNOW it's the clicking around aimlessly that' I need to clean up.

This morning I didn't feel like having breakfast today. The other day I felt like that and just pulled some leftovers out of the fridge. But I have eaten through my leftovers. After the "creamer" snack yesterday I remembered that I had avocados, and now I remembered it again and sliced one up in an effort to convince myself that it would be enough to eat.

If not for remembering my goal of "meat/eggs + vegetable(s) at every meal" I would have just had the avocado and been done with it (or been hungry again in an hour or so!). I grudgingly made kale and eggs -- which I then devoured. It was so delicious and I was way hungrier than I realized. What's up with that, I wonder?

Am sprinkling dulse flakes (seaweed) and turmeric on my meals because my doctor said my LDL was high, and I read that iodine (from seaweed) and turmeric will help that. I've left both shakers sitting out next to my stove, to remind me to use them.

Terez

[Terez]

Will post my chart in the morning.

My only issue is, while eating "dinner" (lunch) at my mother's house, I suddenly realized that my sister probably didn't use good oil in her mayo that was dressing the cucumbers. After the meal I asked her, and she said she used "olive oil mayo." I said, "You're making mayo with olive oil?" She said she bought the mayo. From the grocery store. Which means it has soybean oil.

I said I'd bring over a jar of my homemade mayo for her to use this month (so that anything else she serves me will be made with it).

But as far as my W30, at first I thought this would mean I have to start over. Then I realized, I have no intention of "reintroducing" soybean oil. The only times I eat noncompliant oils are in cases like today. I have no intention of eating noncompliant oils by choice, ever. I don't mean to be sloppy but I hope this doesn't mean restarting the W30.

As for the pork, my other sister cooked that using olive oil. She used my bone broth for the simmering liquid. The kraut was from the grocery store, not fermented.

I am almost certain I read that potatoes being technicaly non-compliant was an arbitrary decision because of people being triggered by fries and chips, neither of which is an issue for me. I don't feel off-plan with the potatoes but someone can explain to me if it's otherwise.

This is tough because my family is trying very hard to accommodate me at the Sunday family meals. I made several family meals in the fall after I became Primal and they were not well-received (I was new to cooking grass-fed meat and my roasts came out tough). I volunteered to cook the meals this month so my sisters wouldn't have to try to prepare meals on-plan for me but I'm not nearly as good a cook as my sisters, therefore the family prefers that they cook.

I'm on Day 5. If I need to extend this to Feb 5th, I can do that. I just need to figure out what I'm going to do about these family dinners.

Oh, hey, I had a "highlight of the day" -- did some laundry and was tossing all the cotton clothing in the dryer to try to shrink it so it would fit better! Never thought I'd be doing that with my jeans. Felt great.

Terez

[Terez]

Here's my chart from yesterday. Still not in bed before midnight (but not too far off).

Read today's daily email about sleep and saw that it recommended turning off all electronics an hour before bedtime. That would totally do it for me. So, new goal: turn off electronics by 11PM.

[Terez]

Oh, man, I forgot to take my lunch to work today! Was reeeeeallly tempted to have nuts for "lunch." But the W30 says: three meals a day. So I drove to the grocery store to see what I could rustle up. Hey, they had hard boiled eggs! Had to get half a dozen and they have "sodium benzoate" or some such as a preservative (just now occurs to me that I could've rinsed them off! will do that with the remaining ones).

Also got some "ready to microwave in the bag" sugar snap peas. And a banana. Had the snap peas raw. Ate three eggs. And the banana. Still very tempted to add a handful of nuts to the mix but my personal commitment is nuts as an ingredient only (not as a "side" dish).

Had the chocolate chili again for breakfast and supper, with accompaniments. My chili powder is from an Indian grocery and is super hot. The chili recipe calls for 2 TBSP of chili powder so I used 1 TBSP of my firey powder and one of ancho chili powder that I ground. I used "dried" chilis that were dried in the sense that raisins are dried. They weren't really dry dry, they were chewily dry (if one were to eat them, they would have been chewy).

Anyway, I chopped them up real fine in a whilrly coffee grinder and put them in a spice jar. I've been using it as an ingredient in meat rubs. Since it's a very mild chili I decided to use it for the second TBSP of chili powder. The thing is, it's not a rub here, it's basically a soup ingredient. And it's making the chili a bit gritty. While the other chili powder is making it very spiced for my palate.

That long explanation is the reason why I'm putting coconut "creamer" into every bowl of chili. I've got two or three more servings to go. I realize I could freeze it but I don't think I would ever thaw it and eat it. I just kind of need to get through it now and learn my lesson about that recipe.

Tonight I had it cold with chopped raw cabbage and the "creamer." Was ready to have it just be some calories and nutrients, and had the kombucha at my side for the heartburn (did I tell you it gave me heartburn last night?).

Well, it was nearly delicious! (That grittiness keeps me from truly enjoying it.) Nice surprise.

Oh, and I asked (here) about the soybean oil in my sister's mayo dressing for the cukes. It does not require a start-over.

Will post my chart tomorrow.

[Terez]

Here's yesterday's chart. It was very helpful to turn the electronics off early. Finally got to bed before midnight (yay!). But my dog had to go out in the middle of the night so my sleep got interrupted. The net effect was probably the same as if I'd gone to bed half an hour later.

Also, I tried to sleep on my back (usually a side sleeper but I saw the graphic yesterday with comments on sleeping positions). Don't know if it was because I had some kombucha late (caffeine?) but I didn't fall asleep as easily as I usually do. However, I was resting in bed in a dark, cool room with my eyes closed so I think it was more restful than being awake.

[Derval]

Hey Terez, so have a smart phone? I have an app called "sleep cycle" and it monitors your sleep and has a gentle alarm to wake you in the morning during a light sleep phase too. Maybe a gimmick liek this would help you go to bed earlier, there is no way I could stay up that late! Not even on New Years Eve!

[Megankwf]

So great that you're clothes are starting to feel bigger! That speaks volumes and should definitely let you know you're on the right track! I too have problems getting to bed early enough. But I do find shutting off electronics and just reading in bed helps a lot. Have you looked into Calm supplement they talked about in the Daily? I'm thinking about getting it. How do you caramelize coconut? That sounds yummy! Also, good job following your goals and make shifting a lunch! You are determined and that is awesome!

[Terez]

Oooh! Visitors and comments! Nice!

Derval, yes I have an iPhone. Do not understand how an app can monitor my sleep cycles unless it's somehow attached to me but I haven't looked into it.

How does it help me go to be earlier -- Is it that, by having the app wake me up earlier, I'll be tireder at night and go to bed earlier? Going to bed at 1AM has been my habit so midnight is an improvement. I usually get up around 7; wouldn't mind getting up earlier (along with going to sleep earlier!).

Megan, I dropped a size in December after being Primal for a few months. Still wearing my old clothes, though, because I suspected the W30 might accelerate the next size drop and I didn't want to take the time or spend the money for such a short time. The W30 has already reduced the puffiness I picked up over the holidays (mostly from wine, I think).

Oh, those Caramelized Coconut Chips were "food without brakes" for me last night. I scarfed the whole cupful down almost without thinking. I'll probably make it once more just to see if I can portion out what I'm not eating and put it away then forget about it. But I may find that I need to leave it out of my rotation. So easy to make and easy to eat.

Have not looked into that Calm supplement because I have a magnesium supplement in the cupboard. I just am not taking it! I will say, I began drinking Gerolsteiner mineral water, which has a lot of magnesium.

Haven't done my chart yet. Need to update that and come back in the morning to post!

Terez

[Derval]

Oooh! Visitors and comments! Nice!

Derval, yes I have an iPhone. Do not understand how an app can monitor my sleep cycles unless it's somehow attached to me but I haven't looked into it.

How does it help me go to be earlier -- Is it that, by having the app wake me up earlier, I'll be tireder at night and go to bed earlier? Going to bed at 1AM has been my habit so midnight is an improvement. I usually get up around 7; wouldn't mind getting up earlier (along with going to sleep earlier!).

You put it under your sheet by your pillow and it monitors your movement with the phones motion sensor so shows when you're in deep/light sleep.

My thinking was that if you repeatedly saw 6-7 hours in bed on your morning sleep analysis report, when you know you should get 8+, it might encourage you to go to bed earlier But maybe not as I'm sure you're well aware of how mcuh sleep you're getting But it's a nifty little app all the same.

[Terez]

Very interesting app, Derval. I admit I'm a bit nervous at the idea of having electronics under my head (my pillow) while I sleep. But fascinating that it can detect what sleep level you're in!

[Terez]

Wrote this out last night. It starts out with where my energy was, then I work through it with self-talk. You may want to skip ahead to the chart in the next post.

LAST NIGHT: I'm grumpy, grumpy, GRUMPY! Oh, man, I am so tired of constantly cleaning a kitchen that's constantly getting dirty again. I'm so fed up with washing and chopping and peeling fresh produce. I've so had it with washing all these dishes and pots and pans!

What I need is a weekly cooking day. What I need is to read up and try the plan of Melissa (Well Fed) who says she does the weekly cooking in an hour or two. I just looked and I have the free sample of her ebook where she describes that! It's not legible on my kindle so I just sent it to my ipad. If that's not legible, I'll buy the hard copy of her book. Well, let me check my ipad now. Hang on.

Wow. Just read two pages where she writes about it. She has walked a mile in my shoes. I've ordered the hard copy of her book. And she does something I've been wishing for: her physical book has a code where the PDF of her entire book can be downloaded for $1 — then she donates the dollar. So many times I've bought a kindle cookbook and it's been hard to navigate on a kindle, but I really don't want to pay for a physical book that I've already bought. I've thought there should be a bundled price for buying both books, and here she's done even better than that. Wow.

I used to find her writing style annoying and now it comes across as friendly and engaging. Ha!

Not to mention, disarming. Because I've already nearly forgotten all the other stuff that was bothering me!

How I've been feeling today: Time evaporates on me; I'm dropping the ball. Overwhelmed.

How I want to feel: Abundance of time. I'm on my game. Up to speed.

Statements to Change How I Feel:

• All I have is now, and I have an abundance of now. (Ease. Relief. Perspective)
  
• Others have walked this path before me. They are offering tips, tools and techniques on how to navigate more easily. (Abundant resources.)
  
• Melissa gives away her weekly “cook up†technique in her ebook sample and in posts on her blog. I went in and purchased her cookbook more to send her a thank-you than anything else. (Feeling an abundance of resources. Appreciate Melissa's generosity.)
  
• Even if at first it takes me four hours to do what she does in two hours, it will be well worth it. (Mixed energy here because I'll have guests at my house from 12-4 on Saturday. If I do this meal prep after that, it means my whole day is gone. Try again)
  
• One reason I'm doing the Whole30 is to develop skills and techniques for managing all the food I'm prepping and cooking. Melissa offers one way to do that. I can give it a shot. (Perspective. Possible solution)
  
• I'm due for my energy to improve. When that happens, I will be handling the food prep side better too. Rather, I'll be better able to handle that better. (Relief. I was low energy today. Not feeling as fatigued anymore but not snapping back yet either. Helpful to let myself off the hook)
  
• Hey, I'm not feeling as fatigued anymore! (Except I am feeling pretty fatigued right now. So, try again)
  
• I got my bloodwork results today. I want to get things a little bit better but it's such an improvement over how things looked before. (Proud of myself. Confident that I'm doing very good things for my health by my nutritional changes)
  
• I had improved my bedtime for several days in a row. Today I'm off track but hey, almost all day today I was off track. Could the Universe deliver anything different to me tonight? (I did that! Taking credit for my vibration. Empowerment)
  
• I did get some things done today, and all my meals have been tasty, filling and have been 100% on plan. (That feels excellent.)
  
• I got excellent parking spaces when I was running errands today. (That's right! I did. I wasn't totally off track. Feels good to remember)
  
• And I got friendly, helpful, efficient service in every case. (Again, that's true. Completely forgot that)
  
• Plus I did laundry and pulled some protein out of the freezer to defrost for tomorrow. (Am I efficient or what? I am really surprised. And pleased)
  
• Well, I've obviously shifted my energy because I was BLIND to all those things earlier. (Appreciating this work. Appreciating vibrational matches)
  

Results: This took HOURS but I am so glad I did it. I cannot describe how much better I feel. It's not a “whoosh†but more like I just took six steps in the right direction and moved to a better place.

{And by that time it was nearly 1 in the morning so I went to bed and didn't post. With the late night, I got a late start and...what can I say. Here I am now, posting.}

[Terez]

The kombucha seems to interfere with me falling asleep. I think there's some residual caffeine. But maybe it was something else that made me restless.