Katie's Whole30 Log - cooking, eating, and exercise!

[Derval]

That's great about the recipes, now I have tidied up my pinterest boards I am hoping to try lots more new ones too.

I was thinking of doing a weekly plan following a beef-chicken-lamb-pork rotation....so choosing 1 new recipe from each board for each. And I'm going to add comments on my pins once I try them to note how they turned out.

[kshacklett]

It's here!!!! Day 30!

I am so impressed I made it this far. I have more pride over this than anything I've done in a while. Yay!

As much as I don't want this to end, I want to get my reintroductions "over with" so I can go back to eating the whole30 way, but have the knowledge to best navigate social events and other tricky situations. I'm planning on reintroducing dairy on days 1 and 2, non-gluten grains on days 5 and 6, gluten on days 9 and 10, and then putting off legumes for a while. I don't really eat many legumes anyway (aside from green beans), plus I want to take a break to celebrate valentines day. I'm super excited for that, because I realized that most of the foods we typically order from this tapas-style restaurant are pretty paleo (save, perhaps, for the way they are prepared?). I'm looking forward to mango shrimp cocktail, steak, and yucca.

I'm mostly worried about the reintroduction of sugar to my diet. I don't have a sugar dragon, but I'm very much enjoying the constant energy I have throughout the day, and I'm worried sugar will ruin that. Now that I think about it, I don't even know how much sugar I'll end up reintroducing since I'm not much for sweets in the first place, and I plan to continue avoiding artificial sugars in the foods I buy. This weekend will probably be more sugar than I usually have since I plan on trying both a chocolate bar and ice cream as part of my dairy reintroduction, but these are treats I indulge in only once or twice a month anyway, and could easily eliminate.

I did start a little spotting last night, which doesn't seem uncommon while getting your hormones straightened out. I'm only confused because I also started a new brand of the pill right before starting my whole30, but unless it becomes problematic I'm just going to think of this as my body resetting itself. My period on whole30 was unbelievably light and short - just 4 days. I'll continue this forever if I can guarantee that every month!

I plan on another heavy lifting night at the gym after work. I want to repeat the session I did with my trainer on Monday, and then do a lighter weights session tomorrow, mixed in with some running.

Also, I'm wearing new pants today, that have been in my closet forever but never fit before. For reasons I don't understand, I own 4 pairs of size 8 pants from the same store, and they all fit differently. I'm hoping these break in a little and get a little looser, but still a very exciting moment!

DAY 30 MENU

Meal 1: Sweet Potato Hash

Apple

Meal 2: Chicken Salad

Guacamole

Some canned vegetable from my desk

Post-workout: red pepper and spinach chicken sausage, with mustard

Meal 3: Paleo Shepherd's Pie (with rutabega instead of cauliflower, and green beans instead of mushrooms)

I'll post an after-action report here tomorrow, then start posting on the post-whole30 log page as I document my reintroductions!

[Allisen]

We did it!!! Congrats!

[kshacklett]

DAY 31, AFTER ACTION REPORT

So, since I got up e-a-r-l-y to do this (ok, only 10 minutes early, but still), let's start with the numbers

Measurement Day 0 Day 31 Difference

Weight 162.0 lbs 157.0 lbs -5.0 lbs

Stomach 35.125" 33.25" -1.875"

Waist 32.5" 31.25" -1.25"

Arm 13.0" 12.5" -0.5"

Thigh 24.5" 24" -0.5"

Chest 34.5" 34" -0.5"

Hips 40.0" 39.0" -1.0"

Yay on all counts!

I measured my stomach around my bellybutton, my waist at the smallest part, my arm about an inch below my armpit, my thigh at my inseam, my chest around my sports bra band, and my hips around the widest part.

SUCCESSES

By the Numbers: So, obviously, every last one of those numbers. I only dared to hope and dream that I'd lose 5 pounds during my Whole30, I was really hoping to at least get below 160.0 and not see any of the body measurements increase. I'd call this a whopping success!

Energy: I don't ever remember having this much energy. I wake up pretty easily (still not interested in actually getting out of bed, but that's a different story ). I stay awake well through the afternoon at work, and on the weekends I don't find myself taking mid-day naps any more.

Hunger: I don't think I really believed this part would happen. I took an eat-whenever-you're-hungry approach to my Whole30, so the first few days I was eating all the time. I thought I would have to condition myself to not eat between meals, but one day, it just happened. Lunch time showed up, and I hadn't been hungry since breakfast, so I hadn't eaten anything! I still occasionally snack between meals, particularly around 3pm, but since it hasn't hindered my progress (weight, energy levels, gym performance) to this point, I'm ok with that. I eat if I'm hungry, I don't if I'm not.

Self Confidence: This is something I've always struggled with, and I'm sure partly contributed to my eating issues in the first place. While my self-confidence was at an all-time low last August (I went off my anxiety medication, I'm now back on), I started weight training with a trainer and I really noticed a boost. Whole30 has just solidified that experience. The other night I watched myself doing jumping jacks in the mirror during a HIIT class, and not only did I look strong and healthy, I looked happy! My weight and body may not be where I'd ideally like them to be yet, but I'm certainly on my way, and I'm no longer letting my current state of being affect how I feel about myself as a person.

Cooking: Ok, I have to brag. I love being in the kitchen, but this was like a dream come true. I made 50 recipes in 30 days. Seriously. You can see them all on my whole30 pinterest board. I actually rearranged the rest of my boards so that one will document only what I actually made this month. Out of 50 recipes, there were only 2 failures - crockpot freezer chicken, which went straight in the trash because it smelled like rotting flesh when I got home from work, and the shepherd's pie that I tried last night (Seriously, I messed up the very last meal of the whole thing ). Some of those recipes have become new staples (like firecracker tuna and chicken and gravy), others I'll probably never make again. I'm most proud of my mayonnaise - I have yet to mess up a batch

Smell: Ok, I have no idea where to put this one, and I'm not sure if I count it as a success. I've always had a fairly good sense of smell, but lately it's working overtime. I can smell the water coming out of our taps- and it ain't roses. This one freaks me out a little. I'm assuming it means my body is working better, but I don't think I minded the way it was before...

Taste: My sense of taste has also gone through the roof. About a week ago I made some "pumpkin oatmeal", and the straight pumpkin out of the can seemed so sweet I actually checked to make sure I hadn't bought pumpkin pie filling by accident. Before, I would add a ton of Splenda (sorry) whenever I made any pumpkin smoothies or breakfast. I never really had a sugar-dragon to start with, but I think I'll eat even fewer sweet things now.

Eggs: I've always thought I had a sensativity to eggs - eating a cake baked with eggs was fine, quiche left me a little itchy, and I avoided straight-up eggs altogether. I've found that on whole30, I can eat omelets, deviled eggs, and egg "muffins" without any side effects - which is a great way to get protein.

Missed Goals

The Scale: I suck at this one. I probably weighed myself 5 times or so - but not 5 evenly spaced times; I would pull the scale down and weigh myself in the morning, in the afternoon, or after a workout just to watch the number change. Ok, now I'm thinking it was probably more than 5 times. I'm really scared to face this one, I can't get my mind around the idea of getting rid of my scale. I am doing weekly weigh-ins at the gym for a biggest-loser contest through the end of March, so maybe that would help ease me out of it. This vice is far from gone.

Ingredients: I think I came really close to being perfect on this one - but not quite. The first time I made firecracker tuna salad, I used a brand of red wine vinegar that contained Potassium Metabisulfite. At first I thought it was ok since sulfites occur naturally in vinegar, but I then found a brand that just says "contains sulfites," so I switched to that instead. Probably ate about 2 tsp. over 2 days.

I also accidentally ate some sugared banana chips. I usually buy pre-packaged banana chips at a local country store, but these were from the bulk bin at the grocery. Someone obviously mixed a small amount of sugared chips into the regular ones, so I ended up spreading them out on the table and picking out the shiny, sweetened ones. The ones with added sugar were ridiculously sweet - this was my first indication that my taste had changed.

I ate out one meal, and ordered shrimp and vegetables with a mojo sauce. I called ahead to make sure there was no sugar, honey, etc in the sauce. I ordered it without a bed of rice. It came to the table - on a bed of rice, with cheese on top (the menu said nothing about cheese!) Luckily, I was able to eat around the rice and scrape off the cheese on enough shrimp to get me full. Total damage: less than 10 grains of rice, possibly trace amounts of cheese.

Food Sourcing: Particularly since my husband wasn't making the whole30 jump with me, I continued buying mostly-regular produce and meat. I have switched to a local butcher, which I don't have much more information on other than "local," but living in farm-country I'm hoping this means good things. I have noticed the chicken from the butcher is much smaller than that from the store - leading me to believe it doesn't come from GMOs. This pretty much solidified my choice to buy local. Most of my produce comes from the grocery store this time of year, but I am trying to start buying more organic produce, and more produce from a locally owned market. In the summer, I have access to several farmers markets and plan on growing my own vegetables as well - I'm so excited!

Future Plans

I'm going ahead with my reintroductions, specifically to learn more about my eating needs. I mostly want to learn what I can and cannot tolerate for those situations where I may not be in total control of the food (holidays, parties, eating out). However, my Whole30 has been so amazing, I intend to stick to a paleo/whole foods diet on a day-to-day basis.

I've also noticed changes in my husband, who was not on board with this at all. When we first started dating, he ate hamburger helper and protein bars. He went grocery shopping once every 3 months. Now, he eats asparagus and green beans and carrots, asked for organic rather than regular apples at the grocery store, and asks questions about what I'm eating and why. I don't think he'll ever give up macaroni and cheese or tortilla chips, but I do think he's becoming much more aware of what goes in his body. I hope to continue setting a good example and helping him make small changes so that we can both be good nutritional guides for our future children.

I'd like to continue to work towards purchasing more local and organic produce and meat. I'm definitely going to continue strength training (it really is addicting), and hope to get back to running in the spring (I really really really hate treadmills). I can't wait to see the continued improvements!

[Derval]

Great round up, well done on a great w30.