Another January 2013 Whole30

[Astrogirl]

I'm going to do the Whole30 from January 2 until February 1. I'm not new to paleo, but I've never done a squeaky-clean paleo thing for any more than a week or so. My goals are to figure out if dropping the off-plan foods will stop my leaky gut symptoms. I don't really need to lose any weight, but I would love to see some body comp changes.

I'm hypothyroid, but properly controlled, and I feel good and sleep well the vast majority of the time.

My personal food demons are potato chips, french fries, white jasmine rice and corn chips. So dropping corn, rice, potatoes and vegetable oils are the primary changes for me. The sugar thing is no big deal to me at all, and I'm gluten-free 100% of the time anyway (more than 4 years). At least, I don't eat gluten on purpose - once in a while, I get cross contaminated or get an accidental dose. Legumes are the only food that gives me heartburn, so they are very rare in my diet, and I won't miss them.

I'm also looking forward to no booze for a month - I could stand to back off that for a while. I'm looking forward to it *conceptually*, anyway, but I'm concerned for my social life because there's always ethanol involved.

I was still having gluten-like issues with something, so I had a Cyrex Array 4 (Gluten Cross-Reactivity Panel) done in December. It came back with 22 out of 24 foods clean, but I have a 3-month ban on eggs and soy. Obviously, soy is not part of the Whole30 anyway, but I'm already missing eggs in a big way.

My man is not coming along for the Whole30 ride, but isn't drinking and is doing a low-reward diet instead.

I already cook most of what I eat, but the white rice, crunchy/salty snacks and weekly bun-less burger with fries will have to go. I know this is within my ability to do since I already bring my lunch to work every day. I do, however, usually eat out on weekends, and I've never gone a month without any restaurant meals at all! I know that I can find something compliant, if it comes to that, but my plan is to stay out of restaurants.

[Terez]

I'm doing this along with you, Astrogirl (same dates, similar mostly-on-plan starting point). While I do need to lose weight, I'm almost trying not to because it's too distracting (too much score-keeping). My reason for changing my nutritional habits is for my health.

I started with nutritional changes in September (Primal).

Yesterday I had an aha moment. I was in a group photo and I was shocked at how "fat" my face looked compared to one month ago (compared to photos taken a couple of days after Thanksgiving). I ate some carbs on Christmas Eve and Christmas but not a lot. Otherwise I have been on plan with my eating.

And then I remembered, I've been drinking. Probably three glasses of wine a day for the past week with all the family get-togethers. This is very interesting because I didn't expect alcohol to make such a big difference in my appearance (and it's only been dry wine).

I'm feeling a bit "liquored out" after the past week (prior to the holidays I'd been having a couple of glasses of wine once a week at a family dinner). On one hand I'm also looking forward to the break from drinking. On the other hand, I'd like to come up with something tasty (without caffeine) that I'll enjoy when I formerly had wine.

Tea and iced tea work well earlier in the day but after noontime, they disturb my sleep. Haven't found an herbal tea that I enjoy very much. But I'm sure I'll come across something that'll fill the bill.

Looking forward to the coming month!

[Aberrantatavia]

kombucha has worked well for me but it does have a bit of caffiene in it if you don't brew it yourself. I haven't found that it effects me but I'm not extremely sensitive to caffiene either.

I'm really a fan of the wine, but after a week or so on whole 30, I don't miss it much. I sleep far better when I stick completely to the plan guidelines. Even 90% compliant doesn't work for me, it needs to be all or nothing for me to get the results I'm looking for with improved health.

[Terez]

Kombucha! Great suggestion, Melissa. I've been wanting to try it. (But doesn't it have sugar? Will work for post-Whole30 at any rate.)

As far as 90%, my Whole30 doesn't start until Wednesday, when (of course!) I'll be 100%

Honestly, if it hadn't been for Mark Sisson saying that it's OK to be 80% to 90% primal, I would never have embarked on this path. When I began, I thought the people who were 100% were extremists. Now I'm ready to get on board with them.

"Them"? Ha! As of Wednesday it will be "us."

Terez

[Astrogirl]

It's now Day 7, and I'm doing really well. I don't miss drinking, corn, potatoes, dairy or rice at all. I feel fantastic. I really only felt lousy the whole first day, but that was my fault for going out drinking the night before.

It turns out that I really like Kombucha, and I've had no problem finding it with no sugar in the ingredients. I've been drinking GT's raw kombucha in various compliant flavors. Either there aren't any with sugar added, or they didn't appeal, so I didn't look at the label. Since part of my goal is gut healing and yogurt is out, I think the booch is a good thing for me.

I sleep about the same as before, but I'm a good sleeper. I'm still not getting enough sleep - I can't seem to get to bed before 10, and I get up at 5:30 or 6:00 for work. If anything, it's a little harder for me to fall asleep.

The biggest problem is ignoring the scale. The hubs needs it where it is, so I guess I have to get over it. I've weighed myself every morning for something almost four years, so it's a hard habit to break.

[Terez]

I'm finding it harder to fall asleep too. I think it's the kombucha. "They" say it metabolizes the caffeine in the tea but I think there may still be some left. I do fall asleep (it's not as bad as if I'd had a cup of tea) but it definitely takes longer if I have kombucha in the evening.

I finally tried the "original" flavor of GT's Kombucha and that is by far my favorite.

Great to hear that you're feeling fantastic! [i'm gradually feeling better and better but nothing dramatic yet. ]

[Astrogirl]

I'm not that sensitive to caffeine, so I doubt it's the Kombucha. It doesn't happen every day - I think it's mostly that I was drinking before, and the alcohol was having some effect. I still fall asleep in a reasonable amount of time. And in the last week, I've been able to get enough sleep that I don't feel like crap in the morning.

Here's one problem though: My clothes aren't fitting right - I seem to be getting *fatter*. I didn't need to lose weight, like I said, but I also didn't need to gain any. Without counting calories and macronutrients, it's hard to figure out why this is. It could be adding back in the weightlifting I hadn't been doing for at least a month (I had a nasty cold and a bad cough) could cause some of the good kind of inflammation. In any case, it's unacceptable. I'm not allow to weigh and measure or count anything though, so I don't know what to do within the rules.

I should specify one thing: I wear more fitted clothing that most people. I design and make a lot of my own clothes as well, so I'm very aware of what fits and what doesn't. As little as 5 pounds is an issue for probably 50% of my wardrobe, and I suspect most people my height (5' 9") wouldn't even notice an extra five pounds without a scale.

The second problem is a bigger one. My skin flared back up on Day 10, and nothing got the ugly, itchy skin to go away until today (I'll get to that in a minute). Whatever is causing the heat-triggered hives is not being fixed with the Whole30. This is pretty depressing, because this was my goal. On one hand, I'm glad to know that it's not triggered by alcohol, potatoes, rice or corn. On the other hand, it's not the right tactic for my goals.

What seems to have stopped the hives? I decided to try a tanning bed. A lot of people use it for various skin conditions, and when I've been able to lay out naked, I did notice an improvement. I'm living in a city now, and I can't do that, so I got no all-over sun last summer. And last summer was *brutally hot* in St. Louis, so I had some very very ugly skin all through bikini season.

So, what up? I woke up today and my chest and belly were nearly *clear*. Five minutes in a tanning bed, and I've been fighting with this for almost TWO YEARS. So, that's *great* news for me, but not so much for my Whole30.

I'm rapidly losing interest in the restrictions - I need to fit in my damned clothes, and if the phototherapy fixes my skin, why should I continue? At this point, I'm at 2 weeks, and I'm going to take it to three (through Jan 22). After that, I think I'm going to start reintroduction.

I'm off gluten for life anyway, and with the soy restriction I got from allergy tests, I'm off all non-homemade salad dressing and fried stuff for three months (that would be until April 1). That eliminates 90% of the crap from anybody's diet, frankly. The only dairy I actually miss is butter (I don't like ghee), and I generally don't see my diet going to crap without the squeaky-clean paleo.

I just can't find the will to continue at this point.