SweetCee March Whole30

[sweetcee]

Lol @EllieHH - it makes me wonder how ice cream - even my coconut milk key lime version - will taste!

day 27 done.  I’m so glad that I started coming to this forum, because it has helped me make adjustments and feel a lot better. I am more focused and productive at work, sleep is better...  it is not as Tiger blood as I may have wanted, but considering my stress and anxiety coming in, it feels wonderful. 

M1:  homemade pork sausage patties 1/3 lb, carrot soup with coconut shreds, unsweetened applesauce cup 

m2: beef meatballs 1/3lb over zoodles in compliant sauce, olives

m3: bacon wrapped chicken thigh, root veg mash, tostones. Also tried a new nut butter from TJ’s while cooking (dinner was late) that is my official food without brakes, so I will hide it forever now. It’s mixed roasted nut butter and it is GOOD. Like, spoonful good, and I don’t feel that way about almond butter.

I figured out how to cut the sweetness of the root veg mash- (more) ghee, salt and pepper, as well as acid in the form of ACV and hot sauce! Much more palatable. 

[sweetcee]

Day 28! I really feel like my brain has done a proper reset on food. Making good choices feels really easy, and even in reintros (which I’m still debating how to do... I need a sugar day, I want to test alcohol, but I’m meh on some things like beans and soy), I just feel much calmer about choices.

I also think I’ve “made it” as far as breaking some emotional eating habits. One of the reasons I’m doing this is to take control of aspects of my health I can control. I am quitting my super stressful, anxiety inducing job in June, and working to reduce my anxiety in any way possible until I can quit. Well, yesterday was hard and I cried, but I had no “fix it with food” desire for chocolate or wine or anything.

still tired and craving sleep. I think that’s partly my sleep debt and tough job. I’m sleeping well though and not complaining about that!

m1: pork sausage patties, carrot soup w coconut shreds, americano with collagen and coconut oil (forgot my nutpod creamer guess I can drink black coffee!)

m2: zoodles and spinach w meatballs, olives, leftover half an apple

m3: compliant kielbasa, sautéed cruciferous crunch, leftover root veg mash

[sweetcee]

Day 29 done! Today (day30!!!) is a day off from work, so I left a lot of dishes and meal prep til today. 

M1: 3 hard boiled eggs, carrot soup with shredded coconut. Americano with nut pods and collagen between m1 and m2

m2: paleomg’s buffalo chicken soup, ranch, olives

m3: poached chicken breast cold with mustard (so good, what a find! And to think it’s because I was too lazy to cook), sautéed purple potato, broccoli slaw and spinach in ghee, olives

I am also planning out reintros today! I think I need to do a sugar day. I want to see alcohol’s impact. I do plan on remaining mostly w30 with the exception of “worth it” foods on occasion, but I still want to see how the food groups feel to me before saying yes to that excellent pizza something similar. It is weird for it to be nearly Easter and not have a single Reese’s egg but I find I’m more excited to test plain peanut butter than the candy!

[sweetcee]

Day 30!

I spent part of the morning planning my reintros and buying appropriate food for it as needed. Crazy that it’s time for it!

I am curious for sugary products. I had a HUGE sweet tooth and all my foods without brakes are sweet... yet, I have not craved sweets at all this w30 and never leaned on fruit / dates / larabars. I don’t have a set reintro for it sweets, but I intend to see how I react to the other big groups and then make a sugar addition based on that.

M1: eggs over thinly sliced purple potato (kind of made a crust), cruciferous crunch, and spinach with 2 pieces of compliant bacon

m2: cold poached chicken breast with mustard and raw kraut, carrot soup with coconut shreds, spinach, olives

m3: I went “fancy” for the last official dinner. Scallops 2 ways: bacon wrapped and pan-seared in ghee; roasted asparagus, spinach salad with fresh strawberries — the berries tasted so fresh and quite sweet! Salad dressed with EVOO and lime juice. It was my first time cooking scallops and I cooked the pan- seared ones well.

i can’t believe it’s “done”!

[EllieHH]

Congratulations!  It's been fun journeying with you.  See you in re-intro!

[sweetcee]

Leaving some final notes on this w30 here with my log, though I may keep logging as I reintro? This accountability measure has been better for me than the day by day journal.

weight - I actually forgot to weigh and take measurements before. But everything is looser and I’ve been able to fit into jeans I haven’t comfortably worn in a while. 

NSVs: sleeping better, sleeping deeper, sleeping more, skin looks better, hair looks fabulous (getting compliments on its health and shine), calmer about food, feeling more positive, more energy, reduced caffeine intake, probably less bloating

I am SHOCKED at how little cravings I had. I love sugar. And yet I didn’t have fruit daily, maybe one serving every other day? Dates only in a Thai sauce once. No real cravings for chocolate or ice cream. I looked at cupcakes at parties, thought “those look cute,” but no drooling, no WANT. I was on a huge key lime kick this winter and I found key lime larabars — the box is still unopened in my house. I am interested to see what happens as I reintro.

Still working on: eating early - I still hate it and I definitely didn’t get as close to “within 1 hour of waking” as I should have. Less reliance on nuts. More variety in meat/produce - not that all this spinach and carrot is bad, but you know. 

I have had some angular cheilitis on and off this month, which I don’t fully understand, so I’ll be making a naturopath appointment soon. Maybe it’s sensitivity to nuts or nut butter. Maybe I’m deficient in riboflavin or iron? I’ve been reading up and a w30 shouldn’t exacerbate it. I find that acids and salt make the cracks feel worse. 

While I am interested to see what happens with peanut butter, yogurt, hummus, cheese and good chocolate, I don’t see myself bringing back a ton and I’m excited to keep eating mostly w30 to keep reaping the benefits.

[sweetcee]

Day 31!

Didn’t sleep great and stayed in bed for a while trying to fall back asleep, which made meals later...I still intend to push myself on breakfast timing

angular cheilitis: no worse. I’m removing nuts as my consumption went up (just a spoonful daily) and I could be sensitive. Also watched the salting of my food and didn’t add acids. 

M1: 3 eggs over sweet potato noodles (1/3ish?), cauli rice and spinach, with 2 pieces compliant bacon; coffee with collagen, nut pods and a little coconut oil

m2: almost forgot to eat! Turkey veggie chili, olives, coconut butter, TJ’s unsweetened green tea (which was so good and didn’t even taste like needing sugar)

m3: scallops (some w bacon), asparagus, cruciferous crunch in ghee and garlic and.... MALBEC   Which was just as delightful as I had hoped!

alcohol reintro: my sleep was fine - better than the previous night! No cravings, no desire to have a second glass, no headache. I will try with a vodka soda or two after I do other reintros. I’ve never been a heavy drinker but I enjoy a nice glass of red and wedding season is almost here. 

I weighed myself this morning (which I didn’t do before starting) just to see where I was at. I know I lost lbs/inches thanks to the better fit of clothing, just curious. Also intending to be more active now that I feel more confident about the right fuels for me!

[sweetcee]

Reintro round 2!

today is LEGUMES. And let me tell you the peanut butter this morning tasted glorious! With my suspected almond sensitivity, I am hoping PB is a keeper.

breakfast: homemade turkey sausage, 1/2 apple with PB (was too full to finish breakfast)

lunch: shepherds pie filling- beef, peas, celery, carrot, sweet potato - in a w30 sauce I made; olives 

so far so good. No digestive issues yet. No reactions while eating. My angular cheilitis is still irritating me but healing. I know that legumes didn’t do it to me, but also didn’t exacerbate it.

about to have hummus with dinner! (Chicken and mustard, carrot soup, spinach, kraut, carrots and hummus)

 

[sweetcee]

Spoke too soon about legumes. Hummus is a NO THANK YOU.  About an hour after dinner, I had so much bloating and discomfort! I made zucchini based hummus during my w30 so i feel confident in blaming chickpeas versus the tahini. I will check the other ingredients to make sure there are no other causes. Thank goodness I only got a snack sized one- I’d be giving it away! Back to w30 and soothing teas until I feel better. 

[sweetcee]

That yucky post-hummus feeling subsided quickly. There was soybean oil in the hummus I bought so maybe I’ll try again with a cleaner or homemade recipe.

dairy reintros were mostly good! I tried plain Greek yogurt and half and half in my iced coffee. I will try cheese another day. Digestion seemed fine; no extra hunger. I am unfortunately at the PMS breakout part of my cycle so I’m not sure if the one pimple I see can be attributed to the dairy or hormones.

i had a gorgeous hand roll while out for sushi today (brought my own coconut aminos). I love eating w30 but I am tiring of the constant prep and dishes in a small kitchen. My prep is smarter now, but the dishes are annoying and I’m already cleaning averse. Lol. 

Gluten free grains in 2 days! Enjoying the “experiment”

[sweetcee]

I decided to start adding back exercise now that I feel more solid in food choices. I’m enjoying w30 style eating still, loving the results, but feeling burned out on cooking and prepping and cleaning. This week is spring break so I’m hoping to do a giant cook- and freeze-ahead to make my life easier for the next month. 

I attended a wedding yesterday and think I had gluten on accident! They said it was pork loin, not STUFFED pork loin... by the time I realized it, I had eaten that bite. I stayed compliant the rest of the time and will see what happens. The cupcakes were tempting but I think just due to my hunger. 

[sweetcee]

Re-intro Day 11! Gluten free grains.

I tried to do this yesterday, but the sushi place recommended to me didn’t have sushi on Monday. Rude! So I did corn tortilla with dinner last night and quinoa with breakfast and lunch today.

so far neither seems to be causing digestive issues but both have me feeling “meh” on veg. I haven’t had a template sized portion with any of the meals that had grains and I didn’t want it. Also of note - the corn tortilla was REALLY satisfying. As if I had been missing it. It didn’t make me crave other non w30 foods, but as I said, it did turn me off veg. 

[sweetcee]

Back to whole30 for me! ladyshanny’s feedback in a separate thread said I may not be digesting the gf grains well, causing veg to be off-putting and the full feeling. I can now add belated bloating to the symptoms- this morning I woke up and felt puffy, sluggish, foggy and awful! I forced myself to eat a good template meal this morning even though I wasn’t feeling it. I’ll stay on the template until I feel an improvement, then test out gluten. 

Also noticing a slight uptick in sugar craving since trying gf grains. Not sure why, and I’m not doing sugar, but I haven’t had a fruit craving like this on w30.