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Starting 2/26/18 - First timer - Can you say determined?


Wing and a Prayer

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Day five, and I noticed this morning that I've forgotten to fill in the tracker in my bullet journal for Wednesday and Thursday. How did I miss that? It's like I've been wandering around without supervision for two whole days. Scary, I know.

I brought my journal to work with me, so I can catch up everything at lunchtime. In my book I have a daily check-off sheet for all our Whole 30 rules, plus some self-care stuff and some responsibilities I often overlook. And I have a two-page weekly spread to plan my food every day. It’s sort of like meditating on paper, just focusing on my goals for a bit.

Tonight I’m going to start reading “It Starts With Food”, just to get smarter about my new changes.

Good luck with your friend's party, @SineadMon.  I'm not sure I could do that so early in the process.

@DIversityI love your food pics! I often think of doing that, but always AFTER I've eaten -- not so photo-worthy by then.

Good luck to all during the weekend!  See you on Monday

 

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Happy New Week Everyone!!!!

I'm having some cravings, but nothing that's been unmanageable, but  I'm a bit bored with veggies! Okay, I'm kind of a lot bored with veggies. Lol.

I'm trying a new crockpot recipe tomorrow. It's called Fall Harvest Thai Soup. I'm making it with chicken. Man, I sure hope it's good. I need some zing!

Would everyone pretty please say what their favorite recipe was for week one? (Or, @Liesje, week 2? Good job!) I suppose I would have to say that my favorite was the Perfect ground meat with tomato sauce and spaghetti squash. Having said that, I'm not a huge lover of spaghetti squash. I actually would have liked to just have the meat sauce! 

Have a great week!

Still determined!!!!!!

Cathie

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19 minutes ago, Wing and a Prayer said:

I'm a bit bored with veggies! Okay, I'm kind of a lot bored with veggies.

You can add sauces to your veggies to jazz them up, or find new seasonings -- Mel Joulwan (author of the Well Fed cookbooks) has a lot of options:  https://meljoulwan.com/recipes-index/ Most vegetables are also better roasted than steamed or raw, if you haven't tried that yet. Broccoli roasted so that the edges get a bit brown and crispy is one of my favorites, but roasting brings out a sweetness in almost all vegetables that makes them more appealing to just about everyone.

She also has some great vegetable recipes -- try her Comfort Noodles, Coconut-Almond Green Beans, Belly Dance Beet Salad, or Sweet & Salty Broccoli Salad. 

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Hi everyone! How are you all doing? Had a good weekend? Getting used to new eating habits?

I'm starting day 15 today. I felt really good and energetic this week and was allmost never hungry. 

@Wing and a Prayer I recognize there are moments when I dont feel like eating veggies, however when I started eating my meal, that feeling is over. 

My favourite meal this week was a 'whole 30 gado gado'. It is a meal that contains shortly cooked bean sprouts, green beans, a boiled egg and a piece of boneless chicken that has simmered in water for a short time. Then you make a sauce of a third of a can of coconut milk with a spoonful of almondpaste (add some heat of you like that), cook it until thickened and poor it over the veggies and chicken. O, and i really like a few pieces of baked plantain with it. A yellow/brown plantain, cut in pieces en shortly baked in ghee is so yummy!

I ate too much meat yesterday (take-out) and I regretted it immediately after dinner. Felt so blown up and I still feel my stomach is not okay today. Lesson learned, stick with cooking my own meals, they taste better and are proportioned normally.

Today is prep day, maybe I'll write again tonight!

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Hi@all and thanks for your kind words.

@Wing and a Prayer: yes, living and love to live in Brussels. I speak German and French at home and Dutch whenever I get the opportunity. I so must visit the Nederlands more often. Are you Dutch?

So here we are in WEEK 2 
:wub::lol:and I am glad that I can say that I encountered no problems so far. occasionally, I felt tired, but that's just me wanting to nap every now and then. I didn't want to kill anyone and I only craved diet coke for about 10 seconds when my hubby had a huge sip in front of me yesterday night. But I hadn't been drinking enough throughout the day, so I was just thirsty after my yoga class and needed something fizzy-watery in my mouth. The mineral water did the job.
I feel good and I all of a sudden wake up after only 6 hours of sleep and it feels like being awake (then again getting tired around noon-ish during the weekend).

As for the cooking, I made both beef and chicken broth and my first ever homemade mayo (which I am not a fan of). It's unusual for me to eat so much meat and so much fat in general. But I do understand how it fuels us ... just like sugar, yet, in a "better" and more long-lasting way.

What I really like is that my children are so loving the food. Leek and potatoes simply roasted in the oven, I almost didn't get any. So I have to prepare bigger portions now. Whole30-chilli for last night, they loved it. The only thing I am really bored with is my breakfast. Eggs. Eggs. Egss and again eggs .... naaaaahhh! I am such a big breakfast-lover, sweet things, bread ... I might soon start to miss that OR skip breakfast in general. though that might lead to being hungry later on in the day.


I hope you are all well!

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Good morning all... I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. The wine and chocolate party was incredibly tough.. and while I didn't have wine or real chocolate, I ate some things that were not compliant :( I'm going to continue as if I didn't know - for me, I really want this to be more of a lifestyle change that just a 30-day stint, so while I'm technically back at day 1, I'd like to continue following you guys and being part of the journey. In fact, I was incredibly proud of myself because while I did eat non-compliant food (the roasted squash had chickpeas in it!), I didn't eat all of the chocolate (and there was a lot!!!) nor did I drink all the wine (and I do love it!) 

 

It sounds like you are all having a wonderful time.. I made some butternut squash soup last night and it looks/tastes/smells amazing! I can't wait to try it for lunch today! Like you @DIversity I'm finding it hard to eat so much fat and so I like to try and have loads of soups when i can to make sure I'm getting my veggies in (also @Wing and a Prayer and @Liesje it's a great way to make veggies seem like difficult to eat!)

 

Anyway, I'm a little disappointed I'm starting again - but as I said, I want for this to be a lifestyle change and so I can already see the benefits from not going to the party and eating ALL THE THINGS!! Have a great week everyone!

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This is wonderful – we have gotten to Week 2! We ROCK! Congrats on your party success @SineadMon. Stay with us -- you are part of our troupe.

I was relieved that my “I Need A Nap” days were on the weekend, and I took full advantage of nap time. Heaven! My eating was right on target both days and I finished off the bulk recipes that got me through the first week. My very favorite was White Chicken Chili, which I will make again in a couple weeks, it was just so good. And the breakfast casserole was a lifesaver, easy to heat up and lots of taste (and veggies).

Yesterday was cooking day -- I made Butter Chicken in the crock-pot, plus I made some ground beef and tomatoes with onions, garlic and artichoke hearts. These will be my go-to foods for the week. I made an egg/sausage/veggie casserole for quick healthy breakfasts. This week I’m planning on trying Sweet Potato Toast (sounds weird, looks promising), and spiralizing zucchini and sweet potatoes just because it’s fun.

One odd thing happened on Saturday -- I was actually angry when we drove by the ice cream shop and saw that they now cover their ice cream cones in sprinkles – and I can’t have one! This was especially odd since I don’t like sprinkles and have never ordered them on ice cream. I have no intention of ever ordering them on anything. But I was ticked off for at least 20 minutes about this unfairness, while also laughing at myself for stupidity.

Have a great day!

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@DIversity I am the Dutchie here! I live near Rotterdam. Love it that your kids like your food!

@SineadMon you are so strong that you are going to continue the program! So many people would stop after eating out of the program and feel like a failure. you rock :)

@Amy Rose Butter chicken sounds lovely, can I have the recipe? And its allowed during this program to be angry about little things. I think thats part of eating less calories and your body has to work hard to burn fat. If you look at it like that, being angry is a good thing I suppose :)

 

 

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Good morning all! 

Just a short check in. It is day 17 for me and eating whole 30 starts feeling more normal. I mostly like the meals I eat a lot. I dont have craving for snacks or diet coke anymore.

I like cooking, so I´m kind a liking all the meal prepping too. Most of the time I dont cook enough, so I have to do the prepping 3 times a week (which is a bit much). I feel I need a lot of ready made food in the fridge or else I wouldnt know what to eat.

Letting go of the scale is hard sometimes. I feel good, I look better but I would like to know if I'm still losing weight every week. how is that for the others?

Have a nice day!

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On 5.3.2018 at 6:50 PM, Liesje said:

@DIversity I am the Dutchie here! I live near Rotterdam. Love it that your kids like your food!

Ha, sorry, my mind is playing games with me. Do you know why coaches don't exist anywhere else but the US? I was just wondering the other day why the program didn't really "expand" to other parts of the world yet.

And yes, I am also passing the scale and always wondering. That's probably the reason we should have long thrown it out of the window. However, I tell myself that not weighing myself is a lot less hard than not having a diet coke.

So I am in day 10, apparently the hardest days together with day 11. I am seriously egg--breakfast-bored but other than that, I try and cook once a day and use a recipe I haven't cooked yet. That keeps it diversified.

Good job on day 17, you are more than halfway through. Any plans for afterwards?  A glass of wine maybe?

I also feel good but my husband says that I always misunderstand him. Oh well ... :ph34r:

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Hello, all – I hope you are having a good time with this journey.

Still 100% on Whole 30, and somewhat surprised at my success. But feeling great during the day and sleeping so well. I do need more sleep now to feel rested. My usual night is 7 hours, but upped it to 8 hours last night and feeling less tired than the last couple days. 8 hours a night from now on – it’s a lovely gift.

Speaking of gifts, I’ve added a twist to my Whole 30 – Four Day Wins (idea courtesy of life coach and author Martha Beck). For every four days I am 100% on this eating plan, I get a present. After the first 4 days I bought myself a sweet little air plant. After the second 4 days (ending on Monday) the prize was a lovely little snake plant from my favorite flower shop. These presents aren’t expensive, they’re just a physical trophy for my good behavior. There’s a lot of psychological reasons for doing this – check out the book “The Four Day Win” – but . . . yay, presents! I haven’t decided what the next prize will be on Saturday. Maybe something for the shade garden, or an inexpensive watch band, or a new embroidery kit, or more colored pencils for my doodling. The possibilities are endless, and this idea keeps the Whole 30 Plan new in my mind every day.

Talk to you later.

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I love the idea of the presents, @Amy Rose! I’ve been trying to think of ways to treat myself that don’t involve buying something as I’m trying to be frugal (other than doing whole30!). Usually would treat myself with wine but obviously that’s out! The only thing I can really think of is some yin or restorative yoga but if anyone has other ideas I’d love to hear them! ☺️ Hope you are all doing amazing with your whole30

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@Amy Rose I ate the butter chicken today! Thanks for the idea! Read your article, funny! 

@DIversity I also wondered why whole30 didnt come to our countries (NL/BE). Paleo is better known, but in shops you dont find any 'paleo stuff', like sugarfree dressing or something like that. But the book 'it start with food' is now translated in Dutch, so maybe that is one of the first steps. I found out about whole 30 myself by visiting American blogs. 

What about the life after W30? I dont know yet. Well...... definetely chia pudding with mango haha! 

 

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@Liesje as far as I know it also has been translated to German and French. Definitely no coaches here in Europe.
 

Yeah, I have the feeling that my taste buds hare "healing". I just had the most sugar-like tasting red bell pepper and orange ever. So good. And that right after one of the strongest yoga sessions I've ever had. Really well concentrated and focused, pretty darn strong. Yay yay yay.

 

Have a great weekend everyone!

I am going to a party tonight where there is usually lots of good food and alcohol. Oh no!

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For people asking about coaches, there are some non-US ones, and people continue to be certified as time goes on, so I'd recommend checking the list periodically to see if anyone near you has been added. (Here's where you can find them:   https://coach.whole30.com/coaches/)

I'd also say that you could probably find a coach who would work with you online, which isn't quite the same as being there in person, but can be helpful.

If you want to connect with people in your area who aren't necessarily coaches, or you're looking for good food options in your area, you could try posting in other parts of the forum, with your area as part of the subject line, or Google Whole30 plus your area to find past discussions.  For food suggestions, try posting in this part of the forum:   https://forum.whole30.com/forum/10-sourcing-good-food/  and for just general looking for other people, the Join the Whole30 section is a good place:  https://forum.whole30.com/forum/4-join-the-whole30/

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6 hours ago, DIversity said:

Definitely no coaches here in Europe

Actually there are.

I'm in Ireland, there's Brenda Heske in Holland, and Sigga Ingadottir in Iceland if I recall correctly...!! And VIP Coach Mel Joulwan in Prague...  And yes, we all offer online coaching as an option..... B)

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@jmcbn @DIversity I also found Brenda Heske in Holland, in The Hague!

Well, it is day 20 for me today. Still eating whole 30. I must have lost a few pounds in this short time, people are asking me if I lost some weight. 

I'm struggling these days, thinking about how to go further after the whole 30. I dont want to gain weight, but also dont want to be obsessed about my weight. On the other hand I'm a bit bored by eating like this. I still miss eating a snack in the evening. I'm going to bed hungry most of the nights if I dont eat anything, even after a big dinner.

Thinking about buying one or two books about whole30, maybe some more information will help.

How are you all doing? Having a good weekend?

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Hi all, I am very late to this group but wanted to say hi. I am on day 2 of my 3rd Whole 30. Yes, I started on a Friday but I did for 2 good reasons, 1) husband is out of town so easy to just do what I need to do to get as solid start as by Sunday when he's home I'll be in full swing and 2) him being gone means I was able to clean out the pantry, fridge/freezer without him here :-) I am sure he'll love that when he gets home. But I did warn him... when you get back, join me and he said OK.  We did our first about 3.5 years ago and I stuck with it for 6 months and felt amazing. My second one, about a year ago didn't go as well. I struggled the entire time (but did it) saw limited NSV's and lost just a few lbs. So I felt cheated and frustrated and well as you can imagine didn't stick with it. Plus, we headed out the day I finished to Amsterdam and well, dutch pancakes... So there you have it.

My motivation is a bit different this time. Using Whole 30 to kickstart a more true paleo lifestyle which is the optimal way of eating for me. I know it and I am ready to feel better, have more energy and if the truth is in the cards, lose some weight along the way. The more I read about brain and gut health, the more I know this is the way to take control of my health. Look forward to 'meeting' you all as you continue on and finish up before me.

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9 hours ago, Liesje said:

On the other hand I'm a bit bored by eating like this. I still miss eating a snack in the evening. I'm going to bed hungry most of the nights if I dont eat anything, even after a big dinner.

You don't need to go to bed hungry. If you are actually hungry -- as in, you'd eat something boring and bland, like steamed fish and broccoli -- go ahead and eat a little something. Try to have protein, fat, and vegetables, or at least two of the three. If you have trouble sleeping, you might try having a little bit of starchy vegetable and some protein and fat, so like a few bites of sweet potato with some leftover chicken and mayo, or something along those lines -- many people find that having a little starchy vegetable shortly before bedtime helps their sleep. 

If some of this is just habit though -- if you're used to sitting down and eating something as a way of relaxing at the end of the day, for instance -- then it might be good to work on that habit. Find something else to do -- have a cup of tea, take some time to meditate or journal or do some gentle yoga or stretching, or take a bubble bath. Look into sleep hygiene habits and setting night time routines for ideas as well. 

In general, you should be less hungry at the end of the day. Ideally, you'll wake up hungry for breakfast, and then by the time the end of the day rolls around, your body is winding down and doesn't need to take in as much food. This post has some basic information about how this works:  https://www.thepaleomom.com/is-breakfast-really-most-important-meal/ . 

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@ShannonM816 thanks for the info. I sleep very well. In the evening around 9 my stomach starts to growl, so for me it is my body telling me I'm hungry. But you are right, it is a habit too to eat multiple snacks in the evening. I will try to eat some protein and veggies then before going to bed when I'm hungry. 

I bought the Whole30 book today online and it will arrive on day 29, so that might be a sign it will help me to go further after these 30 days :)

Anybody some food inspiration for me? Tomorrow is prepping day and I can always use some good recipes!

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Just a quick check-in, since I should be working right now. My weekend went so well - totally on plan plus good food every day. Went out for breakfast on Saturday (our favorite weekend thing), finished up most of my leftovers from the week (Butter Chicken, Beef & Tomatoes with Artichoke Hearts, Roast Chicken). On Sunday I cooked a beautiful pot roast plus a new breakfast casserole to last me this week. I'm planning to make a couple different sauces tonight to add variety, and I'll defrost some salmon that is in the freezer.

My 4-Day Win reward on Saturday was a small self-watering planter for the new snake plant. After Tuesday I will have earned the next 4-day reward - a DVD of "Dave" which is one of my favorite movies from the early 90's.

@LiesjeI'm glad you liked the Butter Chicken.

@ShannonM816 thank you very much for the evening-eating info. I'm using hot tea right now as a substitute for snacks, but meditation would probably be a better choice for changing my habits.

@EatingSun, welcome. It's good to have more a experienced voice here for us first timers. Did you figure out why your second Whole 30 was such a struggle? That would be interesting to know, if you want to share.

@DIversityhow did your Friday night party work out?

Good luck to everyone this week!

 

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So here we go: coaches all over the place! Yay!
@ShannonM816: thanks for all the information. How does that work? Do some coaches work part-time as an "aside" of their regular work? Or full-time?



@Amy Rose Thanks for asking. It was ok at first (resisted all snacks, cigarettes, only had water), then it was weird when everyone ate whilst sitting at the table (I had eaten earlier that night at home) ... leaving my plate blank. It got worse when they served the dessert at 1 am and I really love these tartes. I actually got such a bad mood that I left an hour later. So hum ... at least I was proud sticking to the program. :)
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