2013 Whole30 - started in December

[GLC1968]

Day 28: 4 weeks of squeaky clean eating feels GREAT!

Despite inadvertent soy consumption (see day 27), I'm still feeling pretty damn fantastic and I'm going to count this Whole30 as a success for two reasons. 1) I didn't intentionally off-road and 2) I really do feel spectacular so clearly something is working as it should.

The sugar cravings I had during my PMS have moved on (thankfully) and even though I did have a little more dried fruit than usual for those few days, it doesn't seem to have triggered a rise in Smaug (again, thankfully).

Oh, get this...yesterday I had my hair trimmed by my hairdresser on my way into work. Bad idea as I as supremely itchy all morning. At lunch, I decided to run home to change my shirt and try and get rid of the itchy hairs. I don't usually go home for lunch, so when I walked in and my husband jumped up off the couch with a guilty look on his face, I feared the worst! (He works from home and watches TV while eating his lunch). Turns out, he had stopped at Burgerville on his way home from an appointment and got a BURGER! If it wasn't so funny to see the look on his face when he got caught (he's supposedly doing a Whole30 with me!), I'd have been pissed.

Truly, I was a little ticked off. I do a LOT of cooking and planning (and dishes!) to make sure he has things to eat during the day and just the night before I had a rant about how if he's going to eat ALL the food I make, he needed to start helping with the cooking too. I was annoyed that he'd eaten all my hard boiled eggs in one day! When I asked how he could do this after all the work I do to make sure he has good food to eat, he offered to cook dinner. At least I got a no-work dinner out of his transgression!

I think he's going to regret eating that because of the cravings, but he's a grown man and can make his own decisions. He did say that it wasn't nearly as good as he thought it would be. Ha.

[GLC1968]

Day 31: Yipee!!

Actually, I'm not sure why I am 'yippee-ing' since it's not like being on day 31 brings any changes for me or anything. In fact, we went grocery shopping yesterday as usual and with the exception of some yogurt for my husband (who is no longer Whole30), we bought the usual stuff. I'm sticking with this. The plan is to go to 44 days (I think that's right), allow for a treat on my birthday, travel on business for 2 weeks being as compliant as possible but knowing there will be some 'off' ingredients in there somewhere), and then do a full blown Whole75. I will keep this long going until my birthday and I'll start a new one for my Whole75.

I did 'splurge' this morning and stepped on the scale. *snort*. I'm down 8.5 lbs in 30 days. Pretty close to the same as last time where I lost 9 lbs. I'm quite pleased. I'm now fitting back into the pants in my closet and feeling better about myself in general. I was really spiraling into a bad place before starting this partially due to weight gain, but partially due to feeling totally out of control about food. I did more 'off-roading' food wise over the holidays than I have since going paleo 1.5 years ago, so it's not really any wonder. BUT, I feel so much better about everything right now.

Yesterday I made a sweet potato and sausage jalapeno hash in the crock pot. This morning, I had that topped with a fried egg and it was delicious! I can't believe that I now eat egg yolks. Before starting our farm and raising our own chickens, I didn't eat egg yolks at all (mostly because I didn't like them). When we starting having our own eggs with those gorgeous almost-orange yolks, I couldn't toss them out, so I ate them scrambled in. I mean, the only way I'd eat a yolk was if it was mixed into the white completely. This stayed the same until this Whole30 where I forced myself to eat a hard boiled egg when traveling. It wasn't half bad! Then I started to actually LIKE them and today I ate my first fried egg since I was a little kid! And it was GOOD!

I consider this a major accomplishment. First I learned to like bacon, then avocado...and now egg yolks. Awesome!

[GLC1968]

Day 32: Icky.

Yesterday went well. After breakfast I headed over to our old house and spent the day working on it (painting, cleaning, fixing, etc). I took a lunch with me (leftovers). When I returned home, I cooked us some salmon and some roasted veggies and then lounged in front of the boob-tube watching the Biggest Loser. That show is my guilty pleasure.

This morning was weird. My boss was cooking our whole group breakfast as part of our annual goal setting meeting. I didn't know what to expect, so I ate at home. Then when I got there, I ate some eggs, some veggies and some fresh fruit. Then we had meetings all morning (while I was forced to stare at a huge plate of pastries and a big bowl of Reeses Pieces! I didn't want to eat any of it it though and I took a moment to marvel at that fact. For lunch, we headed to a local bowling complex and bowled and then ate. The bowling was fun, and for lunch I ordered salmon with a side of veggies. I also had an unsweetened iced tea with it. We had one more meeting and then headed back to work.

Now I feel awful. My head hurts and it's spinning a little and my stomach is flip-flopping. What is up with that? The only thing I can think of is that the veggies (or salmon) could have been cooked in a bad oil and it was an over-load situation. Typically, small amounts of non-compliant oils don't bother me, so I'm not really sure. All I know is that I now just want some Excedrin and a cool, dark room right now. Grrr!

[Derval]

Hope you feel better now...

Love BL too!

[GLC1968]

Day 33: Again...oddly icky.

Maybe I'm fighting something? This morning i had to literally drag myself out of bed, everything ached and I was rubbing my eyes awake for like 30 minutes. That's not normal for me. I didn't even feel better after walking the dogs and then eating breakfast either.

Though now, having eaten my lunch, I do feel a little better if still a bit off. I'm still not sure if this is related to yesterday's restaurant food or a bug. There are certainly enough bugs going around the office (and at home) for it to be possible that I picked up something that my super healthy body is working at defeating.

Today I am working on some things at work and it looks like I *may* be changing my February travel schedule. If I do, I won't have a full 75 days to do a 'Whole75 once I return, but on the flip side, I also won't be gone for 2 weeks straight anymore either (I don't think - all decisions have not yet been made). By not being gone for so long, I'll get to travel for 5 or 6 days, return home for a week and then travel again. That will allow me some 100% days in the middle to help me 'recover' from travel food. Eh, we'll see. In some ways, I'd also just like to get all the travel done at once, too.

Yesterday I got my test results back. I'd asked my doc to run a blood lipid panel in addition to some other tests she was already doing. I haven't had this detailed of a test done since I was taking accutane about 9 years ago and had to have my cholesterol monitored weekly. Back then, even though the drug supposedly elevated one's cholesterol, I never topped out over 200. Typical for me on a more conventional diet was closer to 160 or so (when not taking accutane, of course). So when I saw yesterday's report, I was a tad shocked to say the least.

Total: 240

HDL: 79

LDL: 160

Triglycerides: 55

particle size: A (large)

The 240 threw me, but then I started doing a little reading and I felt WAY better. My triglycerides are clearly awesome, my HDL is great and the ratio is to die for. In addition, my particle size is the large (healthy) LDL...not the small dense type, so that's fantastic. I couldn't remember which one was better, so at first, I freaked out a bit until I looked into it. Phew! All in all, I'm happy with the numbers.

Luckily, my doctor is too.

The ONLY thing she did find was that my vitamin D was low. I do live where there is a marked absence of sun/daylight this time of year (PNW) so it's not that hard to believe. What I don't know is what to do about it and what it could mean for my health. I need to call her to make another appointment.

This was done only 2 weeks into my Whole30, too...so the numbers are probably better now.

[GLC1968]

Day 36: Sleuthing

For whatever reason, I'm still having issues from Tuesday's food. I've decided that I need to investigate. Tuesday afternoon I felt sick in my stomach and head. Yesterday and today, two - three days later, I'm having lower GI distress. I know that my body takes two days to process the things I ate, so it makes sense that what bothered me on Tuesday is bothering me again in a different way today. Anyway, I really want to see if I can't get to the bottom of this so that I know what to avoid in the future (besides those places!).

I'm copying this from a post elsewhere in the forum so that I remember why I'm doing this:

"My #1 goal is to cement the idea for myself (and my subconscious) that this can be a permanent lifestyle. I've been paleo since Aug '11 but until I did my first Whole30 (June '12) I didn't think it was possible or realistic to be 100% clean for more than a few days at a time. Whole30 taught me otherwise and now I'm trying to make it the norm for myself. I'd like my year to be 85% Whole30, 15% less strict paleo. Previously, I was more like 15% Whole30, 85% less strict paleo and while I felt good - I didn't feel GREAT.

Currently, I'm still struggling with poor sleep, a few remaining aches and pains (I am seeing a doctor) and occasional visits by Smaug, my sugar dragon. And I still have excess fat, but I'm less concerned with that now that the holiday bloat is gone. I'm super pleased with my renewed cooking habits, my skin condition, my disease resistance, my energy levels (when I do sleep well) and my reduced hunger (or normalized hunger!)."

[GLC1968]

Day 41: Sick of dishes.

Yes, I'm sick of doing so many dishes! I swear that I have to start the stupid dishwasher every morning when I leave for work. I guess that means that we are going out a lot less than we used to. I guess that is a good thing!

Two days ago, I learned the reason for my back pain. The good news is that I'm not dying and it's not GI related (I thought it might be and my imagination ran away with me...). The bad news is that I have 'severe' narrowing of the disk space in two locations. One between L5 and S1 and one between T11 & 12. Lovely. I have an appointment with an osteopath doc in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, I'm keeping up with my clean diet and adding in some supplements.

I now take the following daily:

3000 mg fish oil (was already taking this)

4000 IU D3

1000 mg glucosamine sulfate

I'm also on orders to up my vitamin C (since it's used to rebuild cartilage), so I'm trying to increase my consumption of C-rich foods instead of adding another pill to my diet. I'm going to shoot for at least three servings of either bell peppers (red, if possible), citrus fruits, kiwi and brussels sprouts per day.

The rest of my diet hasn't changed much. I did make a dish last night that had wine in it, but since I'm not officially Whole30, I was ok with it. All the alcohol cooked off anyway. I did take a sip of the actual wine before I totally forgot that I shouldn't, but it was not my kind of wine so I wasn't about to repeat the mistake. I gave the glass to my husband and he gobbled it up and loved it. Phew, he can finish the bottle so it doesn't go to waste!

The back issue has necessitated a pause in a lot of my activity choices. No crossfit, no heavy weight lifting, no impact and no biking until I see the D.O. Until then, I'm focusing on functional workouts with lower weights and some solid core work. I am going to bet money that part of why I'm having pain now is the past year of too much inactivity. I know my core is as weak as it's ever been so it's time to correct that. I also need to start swimming again for tri reasons, so this is as good a time as any to get my butt back in the pool.