Day 30 here. No significant improvement. Now what?

[LKelley]

Day 30 has arrived. No tiger blood, bursts of energy, reduction in inflammation, improvement in falling asleep or other hoped for results of W30. I am a bit disappointed as I have faithfully followed the program. I am a 56 year old woman who is a bit overweight and was accustomed to drinking a glass of wine at bed time in order to sleep. About a year ago I started itching for no apparent reason. Allergist couldn't find anything and suggested I take Zyrtec for relief. I felt hopeful that W30 might reveal the source problem and help me take ownership of my health.

There were plusses. I did notice that I was much less hungry, and changes in my digestion suggested that my body was moving away from dependence on sugars for fuel. I lost 6 lbs and discovered on about day 10 that I couldn't tolerate eggs. Still, here I sit on day 30 lethargic, inflamed, and unable to sleep. Still itching if I don't take Zyrtec.

On a typical day I eat

Breakfast--Hash of chicken sausage, sweet potato, brussels sprouts, onion and apple.

Lunch--leftovers from night before which is usually protein and veggies; or a salad

Dinner--Meat, poultry or fish with veggies and salad.

Snacks are usually roasted nuts or a piece of fruit. 

Since the inflammation and itching aren't gone, I don't want to start adding back in legumes, dairy, etc. And I'm dying to get a good nights sleep. Any wisdom from the experts regarding next steps? Thanks!

[ladyshanny]

Oh, sorry to hear that you aren't feeling great! Although you likely won't like the answer, I suspect that whatever underlying condition that you've developed regarding the itching is likely auto-immune in nature and those take much more time to resolve than 30 days. You could definitely keep going and continue to tweak your meals so that you are going 4-5 hours between meals without requiring snacking. You can try adding a serving of starchy veggie to your evening meal to help with sleep as well as removing fruit from your first meal of the day. Salad veggies as the main vegetable at a meal need to be a literal mixing bowl full since they chew down to almost nothing. Make sure you are putting a plated fat with every meal as well.

These small tweaks may not make a huge difference but are worth a try. Other than that I would say that you may wish to keep on keeping on for a couple/few more weeks and see if the improvements you started to see continue to grow?

[LKelley]

Thanks for your reply and encouragement. It helps to hear from someone such as yourself who has seen many navigate the process. 
I will try and make the tweaks to my eating plan and continue the course a little longer. Eating sugar, bread, dairy and beans wasn't helping, so I might as well stick to healthy foods. It would be nice to experience more confirmation from my body.