Concentration and Cravings

[deuxieme]

It's day 5 for me, and I am super sore, cannot concentrate, and am craving foods I didn't even eat before. All I want is sugar, carbs and chocolate; I barely ate sweetener before starting and have not had chocolate in 2 years. I have been having headaches off and on. Is this normal?

[SugarcubeOD]

22 minutes ago, deuxieme said:

It's day 5 for me, and I am super sore, cannot concentrate, and am craving foods I didn't even eat before. All I want is sugar, carbs and chocolate; I barely ate sweetener before starting and have not had chocolate in 2 years. I have been having headaches off and on. Is this normal?

It sounds like you're probably not eating enough - all of these are symptoms of not only being too low carb but being too low nutrient.  Can you list out what you've been eating with portion sizes and meal timing and we can take a look?

Also, are you salting your food and drinking 1/2oz of water per pound of bodyweight?

[deuxieme]

@SugarcubeOD For today (I went to the gym for an hour)

pregym: 1 egg, 1 orange (5:40 a.m.)

breakfast: 2 eggs, 1 palm-sized potato, asparagus, chimichurri (maybe a thumb sized portion...), coffee with almond milk (7:30 a.m.)

lunch: 1 handful lean ground beef, 2 cereal bowls cabbage, sunflower butter (maybe 1-1.5 thumb sized portions), 1/2 cucumber, 2 potatoes (both together almost covered my palm, so they were tiny!), chimichurri (1 thumb sized portion), coffee with almond milk. (10:50 a.m. because I got too hungry to wait)

snack: large carrot, sunflower butter (maybe a thumb sized portion), an egg, an egg white mini frittata (baked in a muffin tin) (2 p.m.)

dinner: chicken (maybe a bit smaller than palm sized), zoodles (about a cup?), chimichurri, coffee with almond milk. (4:40 p.m.)

I am thinking this is what I had. I may be overestimating portions of sunflower butter and chimichurri. I would estimate I had about a cup of almond milk. And I think I am salting my food enough-- I add salt to my cabbage and my cucumbers, and there is salt in the chimichurri. I also try to drink around 60-64 oz of water a day, and I weigh 111 lbs (or did last Friday).

If it would help, I could try to take pictures of my meals tomorrow.

[laura_juggles]

That you were too hungry to wait for lunch is a really clear indicator that you've not been eating enough. At this point, your body's just screaming at you to eat more. So eat more  

The pre-gym egg is fine, but maybe add more fat and ditch the fruit. Unless you have super tiny hands, then I'll bet you could easily hold 3 eggs in one hand (which is how you determine how many eggs is a serving for Whole30). The pre-workout egg doesn't count toward that total. If you're like me and not *that* keen on eggs, you can add some more protein. 

If you think that you're overestimating your fat servings, increase them for future meals. 

[deuxieme]

I will probably not buy fruit for the coming week. My biggest issue is being ok with eating more; mentally it is just a struggle. Fat especially is hard, but I am going to challenge myself.

If I eat fruit, should I do it with another meal? And this may be a dumb question, but one thing that I worry about in eating eggs (although I absolutely adore eggs) is I know they have a high cholesterol content. My cholesterol is fine (which, at 18, I would hope it is!) but I don't want to cause problems down the road.

[laura_juggles]

I think moving the fruit from pre-workout to any of your other meals would be fine  

This is a good article to take a look at regarding cholesterol: http://whole9life.com/2014/10/truth-cholesterol/

The increased fat is tough for many people, so you are 100% not alone in that! If you like olives, you can throw some of those in with your meals. Or avocado. They're both good fat sources but don't have the same "omg there's so much fat" look that a baked potato slathered in ghee does (know what I mean?). It kinda just looks like another veggie and not like an oil-based fat. If you can tolerate coconut and have a milk frother or a blender (I like the little $1.99 battery operated milk frother I got at IKEA), you could alternately try mixing a little regular canned coconut milk (*not* the lite kind) into your coffee. 

[deuxieme]

Thanks for the advice. The cravings have mostly subsided.

This afternoon I completely went off meal plan-- I was not mindful about what I was eating and am pretty sure I overate. However, everything I ate was compliant. Does this mean I should start over? Last night I had a long and very stressful test, so I may not have eaten enough yesterday or this morning; in addition, I was tired and not thinking. I just feel guilty for not being more present in what I was eating and not stopping when I was satisfied!

[ShannonM816]

2 hours ago, deuxieme said:

Thanks for the advice. The cravings have mostly subsided.

This afternoon I completely went off meal plan-- I was not mindful about what I was eating and am pretty sure I overate. However, everything I ate was compliant. Does this mean I should start over? Last night I had a long and very stressful test, so I may not have eaten enough yesterday or this morning; in addition, I was tired and not thinking. I just feel guilty for not being more present in what I was eating and not stopping when I was satisfied!

You only need to start over if you ate something that doesn't follow the rules:  https://whole30.com/whole30-program-rules/. So the fact that your meals maybe didn't look like the meal template or that you snacked between meals doesn't matter -- those are just recommendations.

[deuxieme]

Not sure if this is the best place to put this.

I am not sure I should continue my Whole30. I know I am not supposed to weigh myself, but I have been feeling so weak and so tired the last few days, I did. In the last nine days, my weight has dropped 3 lbs. If I lose any more weight, I will be under BMI 18, which is not good, since that's well below underweight. I am eating a lot (in the last two days, I have eaten three avocados) but that amount of weight loss is really worrisome to me.

Am I misunderstanding the weight loss? Is it just water or should I really be concerned?

[laura_juggles]

Here's the thing: you've been consistently undereating. You're going to lose some weight if you do that. In the grand scheme of what you've been eating recently based on what you listed, 3 avocados in 2 days isn't going to miraculously reverse the undereating situation. 
 

Once you get to a place where you're consistently eating enough at each meal and pre/post workout (you should probably eat both, in addition to 3 meals a day), it'll level out. 

[deuxieme]

I am not happy to say this-- I have decided to stop my Whole30 for right now. Between the stress of trying to overcome disordered eating patterns enough to properly fuel myself and the stress of college and the stress of maintaining my exercise routine, I was really struggling.

My plan is to conduct a proper, more focused Whole30 in the interim of spring and summer semesters, when I don't have added stress of midterms and deadlines. 

The weight loss was the final straw of emotional breakdowns, anxiety attacks, extreme fatigue... I was not fueling myself right, and I know it, but it is so hard to be ok with choosing those things that I have been afraid of for so long. I will do this again, and I will do it right. I just am not at a place, mentally or physically, where losing weight is acceptable. I plan to continue to eat mostly on plan-- even the short time I did it showed I have a MASSIVE intolerance for dairy-- and will be back in May!

[laura_juggles]

1 hour ago, deuxieme said:

I am not happy to say this-- I have decided to stop my Whole30 for right now. Between the stress of trying to overcome disordered eating patterns enough to properly fuel myself and the stress of college and the stress of maintaining my exercise routine, I was really struggling.

My plan is to conduct a proper, more focused Whole30 in the interim of spring and summer semesters, when I don't have added stress of midterms and deadlines. 

The weight loss was the final straw of emotional breakdowns, anxiety attacks, extreme fatigue... I was not fueling myself right, and I know it, but it is so hard to be ok with choosing those things that I have been afraid of for so long. I will do this again, and I will do it right. I just am not at a place, mentally or physically, where losing weight is acceptable. I plan to continue to eat mostly on plan-- even the short time I did it showed I have a MASSIVE intolerance for dairy-- and will be back in May!

I think that sounds like a really great plan. I hope that you're on the road toward feeling better (and staying away from dairy, apparently!) and when you come back to Whole30 in May it's a much less stressful time in life for you. 
 

You can do it! <3