nsquared kicking off first Whole30+ on 1/1/13

[30Canandaigua]

<3 Hope you feel better. Broth always makes me feel better... Maybe a smoothie of sorts would be better than not eating?

[Nila]

<3 Hope you feel better. Broth always makes me feel better... Maybe a smoothie of sorts would be better than not eating?

I don't think I would have been able to keep anything down. So far today I've gone with easy/bland-ish foods. While I still don't really want to eat, that seems to be working out. Thanks much for your well wishes!

[jmarnold30]

Hope you are feeling better

[Derval]

Hope you are on the mend

[Nila]

I feel about 95% there today. Just a little residual stomach rumbling. That was fast!

Yesterday, Day 13, looked like this, from a food perspective:

1. eggs, yam, sausage
   
2. eggs, pumpkin
   
3. dijon chicken, yam, iceberg wedge with avocado dressing
   

I had to force myself to eat the first two meals. By the third meal, I was ready to eat.

I'm in the midst of another busy day. I'm off to work on a naming project and then a Facebook page project. Yep, all glamour, all day here.

[Nila]

Day 14 (1/14/13)

Quick log:

1. scramble - eggs, sausage, mushrooms, onions, red peppers, cilantro, ghee

2. salad - lettuce, crisped prosciutto, turkey, avocado dressing

3. failed soup (something in it was funky) - so I had a couple of eggs in coconut oil and really nothing else which made for bumpy sleep and a very, very hungry next morning

Must, must, must put up some quick go-tos. I ran out of what I did have. And I've been running like a nut to get work and family obligations met. I still, however, no matter how busy, get on the cushion for meditation.

[Nila]

This morning, being very hungry and knowing I have more busy business days ahead of me, I tossed together a breakfast casserole that baked while I ran one kid to school and the other was home.

And here is what I had for this morning and will again a few more days this week...

What's in it?

• 1 shredded sweet potato
  
• dozen eggs
  
• about 3/4 pound of precooked, crumbled pork sausage (I seasoned the pork)
  
• onion powder
  
• garlic powder
  
• salt
  
• black pepper
  

It was a tiny bit dry. I'm thinking it got about 5 minutes too much heat. However, I dotted it with some Cholula and smeared a bit of avocado dressing on the top and...yum.

[Nila]

Apologies for the picture. I still can't figure out how to add images. I must be missing something.

[Nila]

Day 15

Half-way, at least through that first 30. Whee!

Eaten:

1. Egg/sausage/sweet potato casserole
   
2. 2 hot dogs (no no-nos in these dogs), brussels sprouts, beets
   
3. Burger, carmelized onions, lettuce, tomato, sweet potato, avocado dressing
   

I managed to get pretty crabby halfway through the day. I think I'm just tired. I didn't get enough sleep the last 2 nights - 6.5 and 7 hours each. I'm averaging about 8.2 hours a night which is way better than I used to do. I think it needs to be more though.

A few days ago I challenged a colleague to take at least a little time to stop and celebrate his wins. Then it hit me. I rarely, if ever, acknowledge my accomplishments. And if other people do, I brush it off. If I can dish out the advice, I probably should get to know what it feels like.

My non-food, non-monetary reward for making it halfway through my first 30 days of Whole-ness is going to be a nice candlelit bath, a long meditation sit, and maybe some reading topped off by an earlier start to sleep.

I've started thinking what I can do at the end of 30 days. I'm pinching pennies a bit, but I'm wondering if I can get a massage. It's been nearly a year since I have done so and I'll bet a good deep massage would help move some more toxins out.

Here's too all of my fellow Whole30-ers!

[Nila]

The last few days I've been lamenting how I need to get some regular exercise into my life, especially to be really doing the spirit of this Whole30+. Then today's Whole30 email came and that's exactly what it was about. I just can't seem to get significant exercise in to my day. Yep, that's excuse making. I also recognize that it's a belief that gets validated nearly every day.

So I'm going to throw my thoughts around this out here and see if anyone has any input or suggestions.

What holds me back:

Time

• This is the biggest of the list.
  
• I have to diligently work to get a decent night's sleep and at least 10 minutes of meditation in daily. To function optimally, I need no less than 8 hours of sleep a night and prefer 8.5-9.
  
• Our home/business schedule is full and, to a degree, lacks routine both as a product of the type of work we do and our personalities.
  
• I am self-employed with my husband and work from home where we have 2 dogs and 2 kids (14 and 12).
  
• Those kids go to schools that don't have buses. So we spend plenty of time in the car.
  
• While we do put a lot of home and self-care responsibility on our kids, they're still (basically) teens. So that begets lots of "home management."
  

Health

• I have never been able to pin this one down. But any time I begin any kind of exercise program where I break a sweat, stress my muscles, or get my heart rate up mildly, I get sick around 2 weeks in. That typically looks like the virus-of-the-month and turns into some secondary infection. This is the great catch-22.
  
• Part of it is that I low-fat and vegetarian dieted my way up to over 100 pounds overweight. I have never been at a proper weight or body composition or whatever you want to call it. Even as a child.
  
• But there's also something else going on that my doctor and I have not yet puzzled out. I'm hopeful that cooling fairly pronounced chronic inflammation will be part of, if not the, solution.
  

Pain

• I have had some weird neuralgia in my feet for 2 years. I've had two specialists work with me along with my doctor (a functional medicine physician). One said bilateral Morton's Neuroma. I did cortisone injections that made it worse. The other said nah, something else; take this heavy duty nerve drug. (I said no, with the blessing of my primary doctor.)
  
• All of the medical people have cleared me to do what I want to the extent I can tolerate the pain.
  
• I have calmed the pain significantly by stretches and exercises I put together myself. That has evolved into a gentle yoga practice at least once a week though usually every other day for 10-30 minutes. Still, much time on my feet can be rather painful.
  
• Again, I'm hopeful cooing inflammation will work here too.
  

Money

• This one doesn't really hold me back but it's worth mentioning.
  
• I did have a gym membership - where I used recumbent bicycles and the pool - that I had to give up almost a year ago.
  
• Our second largest client was acquired last February and we weren't part of the deal. Needless to say, that significantly impacted our budget. We had a lot of eggs in the same basket (shame on us) and haven't yet recovered. It will change soon. But we're not quite there yet.
  
• So, buying products or services to aid my inertia is pretty much not a consideration, though something small could be.
  
• For now. Along those lines, I have some dumbbells, a treadmill, and an elliptical machine that all sit lonely in my basement. The latter two can be hard on my feet.
  

Personality

• I tend to be a thinker, a writer, a contemplator, a documentarian.
  
• I loathe group fitness type classes (with the exception of those thought by one particular yoga teacher) and much prefer to be by myself when I exercise.
  
• I tend away from routine and structure, preferring the openness of options and variety.
  
• For those of you who know Myers-Briggs, my preferences are INFP.
  
• While the rules of Whole30 work for me, to this point rules around exercise have not. By the way, I think the Whole30 rules work because they create boundaries but still allow for significant variety and control. AND...the support of everyone else doing this adds immensely to why the rules work. It's support without it being a rigid group with everyone walking lockstep.
  

Before kids I walked a lot. I would walk 10-mile and half-marathon events. I also lifted weights (the old-fashioned free weight and machine stuff). I was still overweight, but I felt stronger. I continued a little after the kids came along, even riding my bike for an hour a few times a week when the weather was nice. That was all before business, life, and health got more complex.

I welcome thoughts and suggestions.

Once I do get going, I'll log what I do here.

[30Canandaigua]

This is like a snapshot of my cranium, minus the individualized personal challenges. You have a wonderful way of putting things on paper! I have been trying to overcome this myself, and your post is very timely, as yesterday I did my self assessment for starting the basic primal movements as outlined in Mark Sisson's ebook (free on his website www.marksdailyapple.com). I had been procrastinating for eons, because while I know that I am epically out of shape, I didn't want to give it a 'value' so to speak. I have been complacent knowing that I am my own species of sloth. Long story short, I dig the concepts of primal movements #1 it starts at my level of fitness aka the beginning. #2 it doesn't involve $$$ (until you want/need the pull up bar) #3 I can rock it out in my house #4 the level of intensity increases at our pace, not an instructors. #5 It involves the least amount of time with getting in all of the basics for the week. Check it out! Good Luck! (maybe one day i'll find the need to join a gym...... O.o)

[Contessa]

Personality

• I tend to be a thinker, a writer, a contemplator, a documentarian.
  
• I loathe group fitness type classes (with the exception of those thought by one particular yoga teacher) and much prefer to be by myself when I exercise.
  
• I tend away from routine and structure, preferring the openness of options and variety.
  
• For those of you who know Myers-Briggs, my preferences are INFP.
  
• While the rules of Whole30 work for me, to this point rules around exercise have not. By the way, I think the Whole30 rules work because they create boundaries but still allow for significant variety and control. AND...the support of everyone else doing this adds immensely to why the rules work. It's support without it being a rigid group with everyone walking lockstep.
  

Just had to offer a little Myers-Briggs fist bump... I figured there was a reason I always look forward to and resonate with your posts... I'm an INFJ

Here's a resounding yes to what 30Canadaigua says about Mark's Daily Apple. I love his approach.

If you want to know more, a good place to start would be signing up for his free newsletter and checking out the Primal Blueprint Fitness e-book link you'll receive as a result. (I like his newsletter — it's sent 1x/week at most. It's not obnoxious and generally has some useful information.) The type of fitness he talks about focus on scalability, functionality, can be done in community or solitude.... and fit a lot of other criteria you've mentioned.

I know it isn't easy getting exercise back into your life. I find that the hardest part is just starting. So it's really great that you are asking these questions and beginning to lay the groundwork. Once you've found your rhythm again, you'll be reaping even more benefits of this wonderful Whole 30 work.

[Derval]

Kudos for putting it all down on "paper". Have you had a look at EPLF? It's a paleo fitness site.

[Run4fun]

I'm not familiar with the newsletter mentioned above but just subscribed to it. If a small monetary investment is possible, you might look into stretch bands and a couple of instructional DVDs to learn how to use them, do workouts, etc. I'm seeing more and more research in the news about the value of resistance training for cardio and strength building (over traditional weights or cardio workouts).

I, too ,really resonate with your insights, your approach to explaining yourself, and wish I had someone like you down the street that I could meet for coffee on Saturday mornings! You're a great lady!

[Nila]

This is like a snapshot of my cranium, minus the individualized personal challenges. You have a wonderful way of putting things on paper! I have been trying to overcome this myself, and your post is very timely, as yesterday I did my self assessment for starting the basic primal movements as outlined in Mark Sisson's ebook (free on his website www.marksdailyapple.com). I had been procrastinating for eons, because while I know that I am epically out of shape, I didn't want to give it a 'value' so to speak. I have been complacent knowing that I am my own species of sloth. Long story short, I dig the concepts of primal movements #1 it starts at my level of fitness aka the beginning. #2 it doesn't involve $$$ (until you want/need the pull up bar) #3 I can rock it out in my house #4 the level of intensity increases at our pace, not an instructors. #5 It involves the least amount of time with getting in all of the basics for the week. Check it out! Good Luck! (maybe one day i'll find the need to join a gym...... O.o)

Cranium! I love that word. So visual. Thanks for the back pat for writing. I will definitely check out Mark's book. I've been on his website countless times over the last few years. It never occurred to me to download anything. Here's what's funny. One of my friends owns a CrossFit gym where my best friend from high school is also a trainer. You'd think I would have been there. Then again, it's a 30 minute drive from home and I'd still be paying. So, maybe someday. Thanks!

Just had to offer a little Myers-Briggs fist bump... I figured there was a reason I always look forward to and resonate with your posts... I'm an INFJ

Here's a resounding yes to what 30Canadaigua says about Mark's Daily Apple. I love his approach.

If you want to know more, a good place to start would be signing up for his free newsletter and checking out the Primal Blueprint Fitness e-book link you'll receive as a result. (I like his newsletter — it's sent 1x/week at most. It's not obnoxious and generally has some useful information.) The type of fitness he talks about focus on scalability, functionality, can be done in community or solitude.... and fit a lot of other criteria you've mentioned.

I know it isn't easy getting exercise back into your life. I find that the hardest part is just starting. So it's really great that you are asking these questions and beginning to lay the groundwork. Once you've found your rhythm again, you'll be reaping even more benefits of this wonderful Whole 30 work.

My husband is an INFJ. I find myself surround by INFXs. All of my closest friends are one or the other. 'Tis good company. Not that the other 14 types are bad, mind you. You're right, the starting is tough. And I have this tendency to jump in at full time or full effort or both which is simply hard. Thanks for the input and encouragement.

Kudos for putting it all down on "paper". Have you had a look at EPLF? It's a paleo fitness site.

Thanks for the kudos and the suggestion. I'll look at EPLF.

I'm not familiar with the newsletter mentioned above but just subscribed to it. If a small monetary investment is possible, you might look into stretch bands and a couple of instructional DVDs to learn how to use them, do workouts, etc. I'm seeing more and more research in the news about the value of resistance training for cardio and strength building (over traditional weights or cardio workouts).

I, too ,really resonate with your insights, your approach to explaining yourself, and wish I had someone like you down the street that I could meet for coffee on Saturday mornings! You're a great lady!

I'll look into bands and the research. Thanks much! And, for now...virtual coffee. Or tea for me. I've been lucky on the coffee thing. Since I don't drink it, I don't have to figure out how to do it without cream or sugar. There's one thing I have going for me!

You're all fabulous with "voices" I so look forward to every day.

[Nila]

Day 16

Eaten:

• Egg casserole, avocado dressing, apple sauce.
  
• Elevation burger - 3 patties, onion, lettuce, tomato, mushrooms, mustard
  
• 2 "safe" (is there really such a thing?) hot dogs, beets
  
• a giant load of cilantro cauliflower rice, shredded pork with coconut oil, Cholula
  

The green bin is here! I love Green B.E.A.N. Delivery, er, delivery day. Farm fresh eggs and the most beautiful produce around, including 2 beautiful heads of locally grown bibb lettuce. I will devour those tomorrow, I'm sure.

I'm not going to get my full sleep tonight but I'll get close if I shut it down now and head to the meditation cushion.

[jmarnold30]

I relate to you as well. I've kind of been doing my own thing as far as exercising with no discipline at all so I'm going to look into all these suggestions as well. I love how in tune you are with your personality, well being, health, body, etc. You always impress me with your posts.

[torena]

Time

• This is the biggest of the list.
  
• I have to diligently work to get a decent night's sleep and at least 10 minutes of meditation in daily. To function optimally, I need no less than 8 hours of sleep a night and prefer 8.5-9.
  
• Our home/business schedule is full and, to a degree, lacks routine both as a product of the type of work we do and our personalities.
  
• I am self-employed with my husband and work from home where we have 2 dogs and 2 kids (14 and 12).
  
• Those kids go to schools that don't have buses. So we spend plenty of time in the car.
  
• While we do put a lot of home and self-care responsibility on our kids, they're still (basically) teens. So that begets lots of "home management."
  

Health

• I have never been able to pin this one down. But any time I begin any kind of exercise program where I break a sweat, stress my muscles, or get my heart rate up mildly, I get sick around 2 weeks in. That typically looks like the virus-of-the-month and turns into some secondary infection. This is the great catch-22.
  
• Part of it is that I low-fat and vegetarian dieted my way up to over 100 pounds overweight. I have never been at a proper weight or body composition or whatever you want to call it. Even as a child.
  
• But there's also something else going on that my doctor and I have not yet puzzled out. I'm hopeful that cooling fairly pronounced chronic inflammation will be part of, if not the, solution.
  

Pain

• I have had some weird neuralgia in my feet for 2 years. I've had two specialists work with me along with my doctor (a functional medicine physician). One said bilateral Morton's Neuroma. I did cortisone injections that made it worse. The other said nah, something else; take this heavy duty nerve drug. (I said no, with the blessing of my primary doctor.)
  
• All of the medical people have cleared me to do what I want to the extent I can tolerate the pain.
  
• I have calmed the pain significantly by stretches and exercises I put together myself. That has evolved into a gentle yoga practice at least once a week though usually every other day for 10-30 minutes. Still, much time on my feet can be rather painful.
  
• Again, I'm hopeful cooing inflammation will work here too.
  

Money

• This one doesn't really hold me back but it's worth mentioning.
  
• I did have a gym membership - where I used recumbent bicycles and the pool - that I had to give up almost a year ago.
  
• Our second largest client was acquired last February and we weren't part of the deal. Needless to say, that significantly impacted our budget. We had a lot of eggs in the same basket (shame on us) and haven't yet recovered. It will change soon. But we're not quite there yet.
  
• So, buying products or services to aid my inertia is pretty much not a consideration, though something small could be.
  
• For now. Along those lines, I have some dumbbells, a treadmill, and an elliptical machine that all sit lonely in my basement. The latter two can be hard on my feet.
  

Personality

• I tend to be a thinker, a writer, a contemplator, a documentarian.
  
• I loathe group fitness type classes (with the exception of those thought by one particular yoga teacher) and much prefer to be by myself when I exercise.
  
• I tend away from routine and structure, preferring the openness of options and variety.
  
• For those of you who know Myers-Briggs, my preferences are INFP.
  
• While the rules of Whole30 work for me, to this point rules around exercise have not. By the way, I think the Whole30 rules work because they create boundaries but still allow for significant variety and control. AND...the support of everyone else doing this adds immensely to why the rules work. It's support without it being a rigid group with everyone walking lockstep.
  

Before kids I walked a lot. I would walk 10-mile and half-marathon events. I also lifted weights (the old-fashioned free weight and machine stuff). I was still overweight, but I felt stronger. I continued a little after the kids came along, even riding my bike for an hour a few times a week when the weather was nice. That was all before business, life, and health got more complex.

I welcome thoughts and suggestions.

Once I do get going, I'll log what I do here.

I mainly did the quote so you knew what I was talking about when I responded here. Your story is SO similar to mine. My body was "okay" as a kid, as a teenager I fit the normal weight range for my height, but I was (what I know now) bloated. I can remember working at the Renaissance Festival at 16/17 and worked my way to purchase some really nice garb, but every time I sat down my belly poked out. I was diagnosed with asthma at a young age and was taught to use it as a crutch to not exercise if it was difficult to breathe. I learned at Crossfit what the difference was between your lungs *working* and an asthma attack. In high school I did Restricted PE. I am also an INFJ. My mother was diagnosed with Charcot-Marie Tooth disease when I was a teenager. It's a rare muscular dystrophy disorder which means that the nerves will disconnect from her muscles in her arms and legs eventually leaving her to a wheelchair.

I have had no less than 4 gym memberships. Two of them truly worked. Timing was truly the factor. The first one, my husband and I would commute to my job in HOV and then he would metro (subway) in to his job in DC. That meant I would get to work early, and I worked it out with my boss so that I could take 2 hours at lunch to go to the gym two blocks away. I felt like I grinded away on machines/treadmills so I did group classes. I took yoga, step (until I sprained my ankle), various cardio/strength classes, and spinning/cycling. I loved it. Then my company got bought out so I didn't work there anymore. The second one was when I did Crossfit. I had gone to see the new Gold's Gym down the street and they had a sign up, that the first however many people to sign up for their Crossfit program would get it half off (which was great!). I went up and met the instructor and we had a great Paleo discussion and I signed up. I did it for about 4 months, and then something terrible in my life happened - my son choked on a chip. He's okay, but it really made me anxious to be away from him, and my trainer is single and I don't think she got it. After a couple of weeks I went back, stopped early, got to my car and lost it, called my husband in tears to find everything was okay. I went back maybe once or twice over the next couple of months. Then they stopped offering it at the discounted price because they couldn't afford rent, and then they stopped offering it altogether and the trainer quit and started up a new one on the other side of town (about 30 minutes away).

I'm sorry if this is long winded, I just want you to know that your "excuses" aren't necessarily excuses and things happen. It is important to find what works for you. If I were you, knowing that you fall ill 2 weeks into anything intense - then don't do anything intense yet. This is your first Whole30 right? Really, I wouldn't risk falling off the program completely. Our first Whole30 is big enough of a deal (it's my first too). Someone suggested to me the marksdailyapple.com workouts. You Lift Heavy Things once a week I think? And move regularly, walking every day, and only doing intense sprinting/running every so often. Incorporate functional movement like squats and pullups, you could use your dumbbells to hold your feet down for situps and as you get stronger you could use them to do modified pushups. We got a pullup bar about a month ago and still need to set it up (but we caught the flu!). I'm going to put it on the door to the half bathroom on this floor of our house where we spend the majority of our time. Then, whenever we use the bathroom, we have to do a pullup, or as many as we can. I have a Roku on the TV with a couple of channels that do yoga, and I'm going to incorporate that, too. Having time to meditate just doesn't happen because there's no quiet time here, we have young children, and even if they're in the furthest part of the house I can still hear them and it will distract me. I figure included them in my yoga practice might balance that out.

[Run4fun]

Thanks much! And, for now...virtual coffee. Or tea for me. I've been lucky on the coffee thing. Since I don't drink it, I don't have to figure out how to do it without cream or sugar. There's one thing I have going for me!

You're all fabulous with "voices" I so look forward to every day.

The blog adminstrator needs to enable a "multiple like" option like the multiiquote option! Just sayin!

[Nila]

I relate to you as well. I've kind of been doing my own thing as far as exercising with no discipline at all so I'm going to look into all these suggestions as well. I love how in tune you are with your personality, well being, health, body, etc. You always impress me with your posts.

Thank you! Let me know how you do with the exercise question.

[Nila]

Torena, I've been taking it easy on myself with the exercise thing this Whole30 to a degree. I figured my attention needed to stay on the sleep and the nutrition. I'm probably sticking with the essence of the nutrition past these 30 days and know that moving this body is a pretty important factor. I'll get there. I suppose I'm in the preparation phase.

You've certainly had a lot go on. Good for you for doing this very focused self-care program. I look forward to following your progress.

[Nila]

Day 17, the log...

Not enough sleep last night, as predicted. But even less than I originally thought. I feel fine though. I'll get more tonight.

Eaten:

1. The last of the egg casserole with Cholula mayonnaise
   
2. 2 hard cooked eggs, roasted turkey, julienned vegetable salad
   
3. Scrambled eggs (because the been I was making didn't get done), sweet potato, Cholula mayonnaise, bibb lettuce with grapefruit vinaigrette
   

I had my annual exam visit today where I was weighed. I saw the number but I'm not really affected by it. Their scale is always quite different than mine and my primary physician's scale. I was worried I would get spooked by it but was not. It's a number.

I have a, er, blemish. My skin was rocking up until about halfway through 2 days ago. It's one spot and not in a typical place. Odd.

Back to my to do list for tomorrow and on to the evening ritual. Good night!

[Nila]

Day 18

My right calf had the mother of all cramps this morning, ending my slumber about 30 minutes earlier than I'd planned. Dang it.

I only left the house once today and even that was in sweats, slippers, an old t-shirt, a fleece pullover, no make up, and slept-on hair up in a pony tail. I was quite the sight, I'm sure. Thankfully for me - and humanity - I didn't have to get out of my car.

Fueled by Whole30 tiger blood, I spent the day working away on a giant proposal for presentation on Monday. And now I am ready to wind down, meditate, treat myself to a nice bath, and snooze, snooze, snooze.

Eaten:

1. Scramble - sausage, egg, sweet potato
   
2. Burger topped with guac and salsa, julienne vegetable salad and beets
   
3. Braised round steak (not so hot, but I ate it anyway) and the rest of the julienne vegetables and marinated beets
   

I typically consider myself a moderately savvy tech user. But I cannot figure out how to post an image here that is bigger than a postage stamp. Tips anyone? I've tried attaching with no luck. I've tried linking but don't know where to post my images that allow linking here.

[30Canandaigua]

Ha! I am sure humanity would have carried onward

The few pictures I have posted came up as super small thumbnails, but when you click on them they are gigantic... so I would just post the thumbnails.

I have heard magnesium helps with the cramps.

P.S. Your meals sound tasty and are pretty rounded out!

[Derval]

I take pics with Instagram on my phone. Then on laptop go on to webstagram site and copy the image location URL into your post using the image button above.