Ælfric’s Whole30 log, January 2019

[Aelfric]

Decided to do this in the hope that it can help with either my depression (diagnosed 6 or 7 years ago, but tracked back to the mid 1990s) or my elevated blood sugar levels (not yet diabetic, but too close for comfort given there is a family medical history suggesting a predisposition).

The theory seems simple enough (don't eat this, that, and the other thing, and don't even fake it). The practice may be a whole different kettle of fish (no rice!). Breakfast will be interesting given I don't get on well with cooked proteins early in the day.

I have New Years Eve off work, so that will let me do some meal prep ready to kick things off New Years Day.

 

[Aelfric]

I decided to to the shop today instead of tomorrow, which gives me (almost) the entirety of tomorrow for prepping.

Roasting Veg.

• Orange Sweet Potato†  790g [@ $2.55/kg]  $2.00
• Red Sweet Potato†  820g [@ $2.95/kg]  $2.50
• Butternut Squash†  1.2kg @ $2/kg  $2.42
• Jap Pumpkin†  1.75kg @ $2/kg  $3.48
• Beetroot  320g @ $4/kg  $1.27
• Swede  190g @ $6/kg  $1.17
• Turnip  170g @ $6/kg  $1.04
• Choko (Chayote)  330g @ $6/kg  $1.97
• Brussel Sprouts  220g @ $12/kg  $2.65
• Parsnip  120g @ $11/kg  $1.33
• Celeriac  1 [480g @$2.10/kg]  $1
• Mini Aubergine (seconds)†  630g [@ $3.15/kg]  $1.99

† Part of these will be used for the roast veggies, the rest will go in the chicken curry.

Salad Veg.

• Lebanese Cucumber  3 [500g @ $4/kg]  $2
• Spinach  1 tub  $2.50
• Rocket  1 tub  $2.50
• Tomato  640g @ $4/kg  $2.57
• Avocado  2  $5
• Red Cabbage  ½ (630g)  $2.50

Fruit

• Bananas  8 (1.3kg) @ $2/kg  $2.69

Herbs & Spices

• Ginger  250g [@ $16/kg]  $3.99
• Garlic  1kg  $7.99
• Parsley  2 pks  $4
• Rosemary  1 pk  $2

Misc. Fresh Produce

• Brown Onions  1kg @ $2.50/kg  $2.50
• Carisma Potatoes  2kg [@ $2.50/kg]  $5
• Medjool Dates  2 (31g) @ $20/kg  62¢

Poultry

• Drumsticks‡  1.2kg @ $4/kg  $4.80
• Chicken Breast  1.5kg @ $9/kg  $14.06
• Chicken Thighs‡  1.0kg 2 $11/kg  $11.31
• Turkey Mince  2 × 500g @ $6  $10 (twofer deal)

‡ I was intending to buy two chicken frames to make stock, and 1½ kg of thighs to make curry. The frames were out of stock, so I'll strip the meat off the drumsticks for the curry and use the bones and bits for the stock.

• 1 dz. XL Eggs  $4.20

Canned Produce

• Canned Tomato  2 x 800g @ $1.50  $3
• Canned Pineapple  2 x 430g @ $2  $4

Frozen Produce

• Frozen Spinach  5 x 250g @ $1  $6
• Frozen Blueberries  500g @ $4  $4
• Frozen Strawberries  500g @ $4  $4
• Frozen Tropical Blend  500g @ $4  $4

Beverages

• Soda Water  3 x 1.25l @ 85¢  $2.55
• Rooibos  40 bags  $6

Misc.

• Coconut Milk  4 x 165ml @ 84¢  $3.36
• Tahini  375g  $4.2
• Almond, Brazil, & Cashew Nut Butter  250g  $7.50
• Cashews  250g @ $25/kg  $6.15

Spending breakdown: 56% produce (fresh, canned, and frozen), 26% protein sources, and 18% other.

I still need to go to the local Indian grocer to replenish my supply of ghee, but that's a task for the cool of tomorrow morning and not the heat of the afternoon.

[Aelfric]

Prep Day

The ghee and fenugreek seed purchasing morphed from a 30 minute amble to the local Indian grocer and back into a two hour expedition to town, but eventually both were located (even better, I found out Geeta's was still in business—I'd been told earlier this year that they had shut down).

The curry is done (I got about 600g of meat off the drumsticks to add to the thighs) and cooling in the fridge. Tomorrow I need to portion it up and take about half down to the second fridge/freezer in the garage and put it on ice.

The roast veggies are half done (all are prepped, but my oven is tiny and so the veg gets cooked in batches). Tomorrow I need to cook the last batch, portion things up, and put half downstairs.

The stock is made and cooling in the fridge downstairs. There was probably more veggie peelings and bits (e.g., the stalks from the parsley) than chicken bones, but that's OK. Tomorrow I need to turn it into stock ice cubes.

I still need to make the salad, but that's just slice and dice. Hopefully by tomorrow morning the avocados will have ripened (they're sitting on top of the bananas in the hope that will encourage ripening).

I think I'll grate the rest of the ginger, mix it with just enough water to make a slurry, and make it into ice cubes.

The neighbours have set off their fireworks, so I guess that means Day 1 has commenced.

Since it's now just gone pumpkin time on January 1, I'll wish you all a

Happy New Year.

[Aelfric]

Day 1

Food

B: Salad with Sardines. Very different from my usual (home made) muesli.

L: Chicken and vegetable curry. The plan was to have cold roasted vegetables and grilled chicken, but half the vegetables were still in the oven.

Post-WO: Smoothie of home made almond milk (75g of almonds, soaked for 24 hours), 1 egg, and 100g of blueberries. Would normally have used a lot more blueberries, and soy/almond milk from a UHT packet.

D: Turkey meatballs in tomato gravy with potato and pumpkin mash. Using almond meal (instead of GF flour) in the meatballs made for a denser texture, but they were fine. On the spur of the moment I mixed the left over almond paste from making the almond milk into the mash, which worked well. The result looked vaguely like polenta (well, it was yellow and grainy).

Lots of water.

Medication

Took my medication, even if it's not W30 compliant.

The SAMe states no gluten, lactose, dairy, artificial colours/flavours. In consultation with my GP, we replaced the prescription anti-depressant (which wasn't working very well). The SAMe seems to be helping with the depression, and I'm not suffering from anxiety (which the Sertraline (Zoloft) was causing).

The Allersoothe is definitely not compliant as it contains lactose. The Valerian states no starch, gluten, lactose, dairy, sugar, artificial sweeteners/colours/flavours. We're using a side effect of the anti-histamine (makes you drowsy) plus the Valerian to replace a prescription sleeping tablet (Temazepam). It's not quite as effective, but it's good enough, and it's not dependency building.

Exercise

Weights

Zercher Squats: 45kg × 20 × 1.

Dips: BW (88kg) × 5, × 5, × 4, × 4, × 4, × 3 (the plan called for BW × 5 × 5).

Bent Over Rows: 25kg × 5 × 5.

I've had a couple of months layoff due to a head cold followed by a chest cold. I backed the weight off quite a bit (maybe too much on the squats and rows). The dips I couldn't back the weight off because there's more of me to lift—I've put on as much weight as I was attaching to myself.

Impressions

I felt lousy all day, but that's probably because I slept badly last night, combined with the hot weather. As it cooled down during the evening I started feeling better.

According the to W30 roadmap, today is "No big deal" day. It's far too early for the W30 to show any effects. Supposedly it all starts going pear-shaped tomorrow.

[ShannonM816]

8 hours ago, Aelfric said:

Turkey meatballs in tomato gravy with potato and pumpkin mash. Using almond meal (instead of GF flour) in the meatballs made for a denser texture, but they were fine.

Next time you make meatballs, you could try using a mix of cream of tartar and baking soda to help tenderize them, rather than a flour of any kind -- this is something Mel Joulwan does in her meatball recipes, it's described in this one:  https://meljoulwan.com/2014/03/28/mmm-cuban-meatballs/ (check step 3 to see how she does it -- you don't have to follow this particular recipe, you should be able to do it in any meatball recipe you happen to like). 

 

[Aelfric]

Day 1 continued

Food

Okay, I got really hungry late in the evening, so I had a small handful of cashews and almonds.

Stats

Forgot to post these:

Weight: 88.7kg (urk)

Waist: 102cm (eek)

Hips: 101½cm (yes, that's a wait to hip ratio the wrong side of 100%)

Body Fat: 31.5% (if you can believe the scale)

Resting Heart Rate: 59bpm.

 

 

Day 2

Food

B: Roast veggies flavoured with rosemary + ½ a chicken breast grilled (halved into large flat.

L: Salad and sardines.

Snack: Smoothie of home made almond milk and 100g of strawberries. This lacked flavour, but I might try it again adding some mint leaves rather than boosting the berries.

D: Chicken and vegetable curry with potato mash and almond meal (from the almond milk).

Lots of water (about ⅓ soda water to ⅔ tap water), liquorice and fenugreek tea, and lemon and ginger tea.

Medication

SAMe, Allersoothe and Valerian.

Exercise

Weights

Rode the bike to work and back (about 23km round trip). Took me 75 minutes, which is appalling. The post X-mas bloat plus the enforced layoff due to the colds made going up even gentle hills a struggle.

Impressions

Headache most of the day. This could be from the detox, but it could also be from my neck muscles being really grumpy about being slept on the wrong way. The headache went away just before dinner time.

[Aelfric]

15 hours ago, ShannonM816 said:

...you could try using a mix of cream of tartar and baking soda to help tenderize them.

Thanks for the suggestion Shannon. I wouldn't have thought cream of tartar would have been W30 compliant.

The balls weren't heavy as lead (I've had commercial meatballs that were much heavier), just somewhat denser than I have previously made. I may simply have been heavy handed with the almond meal, so I'll try cutting back on that the next batch I make. I can also substitute chicken mince for some of the turkey. There's also the option of separating the egg using just the yolk as a binding agent, whipping the white into froth, then folding that into the mix.

[Aelfric]

Days 3–5

My depression went haywire. Thursday and Friday I didn't make it out the front gate (I must have gone out the door to get to the garage fridge). I hadn't slept well for several days, and that always contributes to the depression getting the better of me, but equally it could have been a reaction to the Whole30. Most of Thursday and Friday I napped during the day, which didn't help my sleep the following night. Saturday I forced myself to go out, and cycled to the city to collect some mail. Saturday night I struggled with sleep, and some time after midnight I abandoned the bedroom and set up a camp bed in the living room where there is a much better cross breeze. Finally, sleep (I eventually woke about 8:30).

I can't list what I ate when, but I know I didn't eat anything not W30 compliant for the simple reason that when I'm having bad depression days I don't cook, and the only prepped food in the house was the food I'd prepared over New Years. This is as I'd planned in case the depression hit (you can't eat a bowl of muesli—which I frequently eat as a comfort/convenience food on the bad days—when the muesli bin is empty ).

[Aelfric]

Day 6

Food

B: Salad with cashews and almonds.

L: A banana. I was out, and it was convenient to eat the tomato.

Post workout: Smoothie: coconut milk, almond/brazil/cashew nut butter, egg, banana, ginger, and water. I'd hoped the ginger would give it more flavour, but no go.

D: Chicken, vegetable and pineapple curry.

Exercise

Weights

Parallel Grip Deadlifts: 60kg × 5 × 5. Too light.

OVerhead Press: 15kg × 15. Too light.

Lat Pulls: 40kg × 5 × 5.

Observations

This is supposed to be day one of "I just want to nap", but I was not sleep all day. The days I really wanted to sleep were the second of the hangover days and the two nominal "Kill All the Things" days. I seem to be hopelessly out of sync with the calendar .

I've been recording my resting heart rate upon waking. Usually it's in the high 50s, but the two bad depression days it was in the 70s, and the not-so-bad day it was in the 60s. Is there a correlation? And which, if either, is cause and which is effect?

[Aelfric]

Day 7

Food

B: Salad with sardines.

L: Roast veggies with sardines.

D: Chicken and Water Chestnuts in a lemon, ginger, and five spice sauce. Felt weird eating Chinese without the sweet and salty components, and without rice as an accompaniment. Dessert was bananas poached in coconut milk. I'm sure the Thai original had palm sugar in the coconut milk, but cinnamon worked equally well. At the last minute I threw a handful of roughly chopped cashews on top. Yum.

Exercise

Road to work and back. Today's times (31:48 and 31:40) were a vast improvement over last week's cycle commute (35:41 and 39:12), but I'm still off the pace (I have broken 30 minutes for the trip home).

Observations

So much for nap day two, again I wasn't the least bit sleepy.

[Walkswithdogs]

Hello, Aelfric I too am on day 7 of The Whole30. I went on this program with the hopes to improve my arthritis.  So far it has gone totally haywire; joints are more swollen, painful, hot and red. Because of these symptoms I have not been able to hike and do Pilates as usual but I have so much energy I simply don't know what to do with myself. 

My biggest challenge thus far has been try to cook nutritious meals with the limited cooking space I have (my kitchen is being remodeled). I am limited to an electric skillet, microwave and an air fryer (not much to work with).

I am very happy to hear that you are improving and your cycle time has gotten better, YAY. I'll be cheering you on. You can make the improvements you want with the dietary changes in the Whole30. My son's ADD vastly improved from the W30 to the point he was able to come off his medication. He is now diet controlled. He only has problems when he strays from the participles they teach.

Hang in there,

Walkswithdogs 

[Aelfric]

Day 7...

Had a banana and strawberry smoothie late night. Time flies like an arrow, but fruit flies like a banana--I chopped a glut of bananas into chunks and bagged them in the freezer, but got tempted to make a smoothie in the process).

Day 8

Food

B: Semi-scrambled eggs (I was doing something else at the same time and didn't stir them enough to scramble them) and salsa (what's the difference between salad and salsa? 15 seconds in the blender).

L: Roast veggies with sardines dressed in tahini.

D: Turkey meatballs in tomato sauce with salad (it was supposed to be with veggies, but I grabbed the wrong pack from the fridge).

Snack: Banana and tropical fruit smoothie.

Exercise

20 minutes of kettlebells. I haven't worked with kettlebells in years, and after the first workout I'm not happy with the program  designed. Back to the drawing board.

[nutburger]

On 1/6/2019 at 6:39 AM, Aelfric said:

 

L: A banana. I was out, and it was convenient to eat the tomato.

Aelfric!

Great job on your Whole30 so far, especially the exercise you've been tackling. and the mental health issues you've been facing - that's a huge accomplishment.  I'm from Brisbane too, but living in the States - hope the heat isn't too crazy for you right now! 

Quick question: When you say" A banana. I was out, and it was convenient to eat the tomato." what did you mean?

[Aelfric]

7 hours ago, nutburger said:

When you say" A banana. I was out, and it was convenient to eat the tomato." what did you mean?

I meant to say "A banana. I was out, and it was convenient to eat the tomato banana." I plead brain failure.

I went to meet a friend to exchange some food. She had lucked onto 20kg of tomatoes and over 10kg of bananas at a bargain basement price, but needed do something with them as they won't last long in the summer heat. She intended to make banana jam, so I swapped all the assorted sugar (part packs of icing, caster, raw, and brown) that was in my pantry for about two kg of each. We got to talking, as one does, time got away, and it was lunchtime. So in the middle of the Toowong Village food court, I grabbed a banana from my stash and ate it for lunch.

[Aelfric]

Day 8

Food

B: Scrambled eggs and salad.

L: Roast veggies with sardines.

D: Chicken curry with roast veggies, plus a handful of cashews, macadamia nuts, and pepitas.

Exercise

Nil.

[nutburger]

16 hours ago, Aelfric said:

I meant to say "A banana. I was out, and it was convenient to eat the tomato banana." I plead brain failure.

I went to meet a friend to exchange some food. She had lucked onto 20kg of tomatoes and over 10kg of bananas at a bargain basement price, but needed do something with them as they won't last long in the summer heat. She intended to make banana jam, so I swapped all the assorted sugar (part packs of icing, caster, raw, and brown) that was in my pantry for about two kg of each. We got to talking, as one does, time got away, and it was lunchtime. So in the middle of the Toowong Village food court, I grabbed a banana from my stash and ate it for lunch.

Thanks  that makes sense! 

[Aelfric]

Another bad dose of depression, so I don't know when I ate what, except that it was @30 compliant. It doesn't help that the forum appears to have lost my day 9 post.

Day 13

Food

B: Omelete.

L: Turkey meatballs in tomato gravy with pineapple.

Post Workout: Smoothie of egg, almond meal, and blueberries.

D: Chicken Stroganoff, mashed veg, and pineapple. (I know what I had for dinner on day 11. I found a recipe for slow cooker paleo chicken stroganoff online, so I tried it. This seriously came out as the blandest, wateriest excuse for a stroganoff I ever encountered..

Exercise

Cycling

Cycled to the supermarket and back (with a trailer full of groceries).

Cycled to JB HiFi, Officeworks, and back (with an office chair in the trailer).

Only a total of 25km, but I was pulling the trailer, sometimes with a load. Glad I had the SPF 50+ on, or I'd have been incinerated. I'd added the juice from a tin of pineapple to my bidon (hence the pineapple added to everything I ate thereafter ). Experimentation has shown I burn fat far better in the presence of a small amount of carbs, hence the ultra dilute fruit juice (with a pinch of salt to replace that lost sweating).

Weights

Zercher Squats: 50kg × 20 × 1.

Dips: BW (86kg) × 5, × 5, × 5, × 5, × 4, × 1 (the plan called for BW × 5 × 5).

Bent Over Rows: 27½kg × 5 × 5.

Adding two more sets before I missed a rep in the dips was nice, but as I've lost about 2kg since the previous workout (I know you're not supposed to weigh yourself, but as these weights include clothes and are later in the day, they're not directly comparable to the weigh-in at the start of the program, and I need to know how much weight I'm lifting) it's actually a slightly worse result.

[Aelfric]

Day 14

Food

B: A banana and egg smoothie. Woke up feeling off colour, and the thought of eating turned my stomach.

L: Pineapple and nuts.

D: Banana, blueberry, and egg smoothie. Was planning on fish pie (I figured I could make the roux using olive oil and tapioca starch), but realised it would be very late by the time it came out of the oven. So I put it in the fridge instead of the oven, and will bake it Tuesday night.

Exercise

Kettlebells

Much happier having tweaked the routine. Needed to extend a few of the rest periods as I was cooking the pie, so needed to take the fish and sweet potatoes off the stove in the middle of all this.

[Aelfric]

Day 14

Food

B: Omelette and salad.

L: Smoked kippers and salad.

D: Fish pie. Luxury, but a little bland without mustard in the sauce (but the only mustard in the house had wine in it, so off limits).

Late night blueberry and banana smoothie.

Exercise

Kettlebells

Rode to work and back. The inbound journey (31:48) felt good; but I struggled on the homeward journey (35:04).

[Aelfric]

My mother passed away mid-January. We were estranged, but as a parting shot she set something up in her will so that she was messing with my head even after she died. As a result my depression has been playing silly buggers for the last two weeks, and I haven't felt the least like blogging.

I feel I should however, at least log the results.

I've kept to the letter, if not always the spirit, of the W30 diet. Depressed or not, one has to eat, and eating W30 compliant food was easier than not most days. OTOH, given that there were many meals where I didn't want to eat (food, even curry, tastes remarkably like cardboard when my depression is bad, and actually eating in the summer heat was just too much effort), there were a large number of smoothies consumed (throw some almond milk, frozen berries, and eggs in the ninja and blitz for 15 seconds, drink, done).

Results:

• Weight dropped from 88.7 kg to 81.9 kg (that's 195½ to 180½ lbs for the metric challenged)
• Body fat dropped from 31.5% to 26.3% (but my exercise activity level increased, and the scale figures that into it's calculation). Body fat decreased from 27.9 to 21 kg.
• Lean body mass changed only slightly from 60.8 to 60.4 kg,
• Waist dropped from 102 cm to 98 cm (40⅛″ to 38⅝″).
• Hips dropped from 101.5 cm to 100 cm (40″ to 39⅜″).
• Waist hip ratio dropped from 100.5% to 98%.

Conclusions:

For something that isn't a weight loss program per se, losing almost 7 kg in 30 days is remarkable. It's not false water loss, as my glycogen stores are not depleted, nor am I dehydrated. Given that I usually pile on the weight when my depression is bad, this is even more amazing.

The weights and kettlebells provided enough stimulus for muscle growth that I held on to my muscle mass (which is a good thing) while losing almost exclusively unwanted body fat.

Summer is a bad time to do Whole30, as the heat makes one disinclined to cook and/or eat. A lot of smoothies isn't in the spirit of W30.

Prepping a large batch of a single meal, and then eating it exclusively until finished, gets boring, even if you dress it up in different disguises.

Prepping large amounts of salad doesn't work well in summer as it won't keep long, even in the fridge, if the heat gets too extreme (the salads I made for Christmas, when it as relatively cool, lasted until New Year, but the salads I made in mid-January were looking sad and tired the next day).

The Nutri Ninja is a great little blender, wonderful for smoothies and mixing omelettes, but it's not really up to making almond milk.

Rinse and Repeat

Will there be another W30 for me? I'd like to try it again during winter and more time to prepare.

Each week from now until then, I'd cook one W30 compliant meal, and freeze four portions. This would give me all the lunches and dinners, with enough variety that repeats will only be at weekly intervals.

There is one brand of commercial almond milk, commonly available in supermarkets in Oz, that is W30 compliant (no sweetners, no carrageenan, no soy derived lecithin), but it's damn expensive. In the four or five months between now and winter, it will hopefully go on special at least once, so stock up on a month's supply (it's UHT, so it will keep).