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Have I already messed up?


helenalena

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Hello,

I'm an American living in London, and I've decided to do whole30 because I've suspected I've had some food intolerances for a while now and I really want to get to the bottom of it.  My main symptoms are skin breakouts which I am not attributing to skin care products.  I know it's got to be something deeper.

I'm on day 4 now, and it's been tough getting going while living abroad, because I live in student accommodation so I don't have all the kitchen tools I have back in the US, such as a crockpot and an immersion blender for mayo making.  I don't see it as a worthy investment since I'll probably only be living here 6 more months.  Grocery stores here are also way more limited compared to the US.  For example, there are two main grocery stores here, Tesco and Sainsbury's, and Tesco doesn't have ANY whole30 compliant deli meat.  I wanted to check Sainsbury's yesterday but turns out they close at 5 pm on Sundays.  I did find some at a small expensive store called Organic Planet, however.

My main question is that I wonder if I've possibly already messed up my whole30.  There are products here that I love from a company called Very Lazy.  Basically they sell little jars of chopped ready to use garlic in vinegar that I use all the time.  I also recently got their chopped ginger in vinegar.  The label, however, says the ingredients are "garlic, white wine vinegar (sulfites)".  It does not specify whether the sulfites are naturally occurring or added.  I emailed the company and they have not gotten back to me yet.  And I kind of doubt they will because the average person manning their emails probably just doesn't know.  I really like these products because I put the garlic in basically everything I cook.  It's a million times easier and faster than keeping fresh garlic around.  Plus, once the jar is almost empty I add in and shake up salt, olive oil, compliant mustard, compliant mayo, etc. and it makes an amazing salad dressing.

My question is:

1) If these sulfites are added and not naturally occurring, would this be enough to have invalidated my entire 3 days of whole30 already?  I know it's only 3 days that I've done, but I'm going to be really disappointed if it was a waste because over the last few weeks/months I slowly phased out everything non compliant so that I could begin.  And I won't be able to start again for a few months because I timed it so that I'll be done with whole30 and reintroducing in time for my destination birthday trip abroad.  On the other hand, I would be somewhat relieved if I had to give up already, because I'm just not feeling full after meals.  I'm normally NOT a snacker at all, but whole30 has me so hungry throughout the day I'm having to eat nuts/fruits between meals to keep myself full.  It seems backwards that the idea is to reduce snacking, but whole30 has me started snacking.  I don't think it's an easy fix such as "just eat more during meals" because I'm normally a huge eater, so the increased volume of food I'd have to eat for whole30 meals is kind of unrealistic.

2) Perhaps someone in the UK dealt with this and has information about these products already?

Thanks and happy Whole30ing!

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The way the label is written shows that the sulphites are not added but s byproduct of the vinegar. If it said 'white wine vinegar, sulphites' then it would indicate these have been added so you're ok there. 

You shouldn't be starving on the program so it might not be a matter of volume of food but the composition of your meals. Do you add fat to each meal?  If you want help, list out what you've been eating along with approximate portion sizes and meal timing and we can see if there's a few tweaks to get you on track. 

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Good to hear about the sulfites!  That makes sense.

For breakfast I've been doing 2 scrambled eggs with green onion, 3 slices of bacon (UK bacon is not like American bacon at all, it's more like ham), 125 g (a whole package) of asparagus, frank's hot sauce over everything, sautéed in either coconut oil or olive, and coffee with or without some nutpod added.

The first day one of my meals was two orders of salmon sashimi (10 pieces total) with coconut aminos and a side cucumber salad with evoo, acv, and cayenne.

I took about a pound of sliced beef and a head of broccoli and followed a whole30 beef broccoli recipe that's probably floating around that made a sauce of ginger, coconut aminos, lime, garlic, and probably some other things I forget.  I actually added almond butter to the sauce to make the whole thing more hearty.  I split this amount into two meals.  When I was reheating round two I sautéed in another package of asparagus to make it bigger.  Served it over two medium sized baked potatoes.  This seemed like a pretty large volume of food and I was basically force feeding myself the potatoes at the end but still felt unsatisfied.

I made one bowl size serving of kimchi soup using a small amount of beef I stole from the above 1 lb container.  Soup is pretty light so I had ham on slices of lettuce with french's mustard on the side.  This was a pretty light meal but having a liquidy soup made it hard to eat a lot.

Another two meals was a salmon salad I made with a can of pink salmon, compliant mayo, grapes, green onion, nutritional yeast, cashews, and mustard.  I usually make this as either salmon or chicken salad and eat on a whole baguette with lettuce and cheese, but of course I just ate it in lettuce.

I've been snacking pretty much before and after every meal.  Snacks have included cherries, grapes, nuts, more ham on lettuce with mustard, a UK brand of bars similar to larabars which I can't find here, dried prunes (because every other dried fruit had some kind of unpleasant additive).

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First, check that ham because it's very hard to find ham that's not cured with sugar or other sweetners - you may be fine but it's definitely an item that causes concern for compliance.

You're very short on fat in all your meals it looks like and fat is what keeps you satiated between meals as it slows the body's absorption of protein. We generally suggest not counting the cooking/sauteeing fat because it gets split between portions so we'd recommend a plated fat like avocado, olives, pesto etc.  The first day that salmon meal had no fat.  The beef and broccoli you made had the almond butter but how much of it did you add and then split between two portions it likely wasn't enough.  The kimchi soup and ham meal has no listed fat.

Take another look at the meal template (linked in my signature below) and try making your meals to match.  Until you get where your meals get you between 4-5 hours between without needing to snack, if you need to eat between meals, make it protein and fat, not fruit, nuts and dried fruit/bars.

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Have you tried making clarified butter? I love that as an added fat on veggies and some people put it in their coffee. Ghee is really expensive, but sticks of butter are cheap and readily available, so making clarified butter is more economical. All you need is butter, a sauce pan, and something to strain it with to remove the dairy solids. It's a little time consuming, but I kind of enjoy the process. It's also easier to justify using in every meal because it's so much cheaper.

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@helenalena I started out snacking all the time too - for about the first week. It was REALLY hard to follow the meal template and to therefore eat enough to stop the need for snacks - we have so many wrong headed ideas about food quantity and how we need to have tiny servings on our plate. I load mine up with compliant food - it's been one of the best things about the W30 - to rediscover my appetite and my satiation points. I let my body decide when it's full - it's rather a miracle. To top it off, after almost 3 months (W37 followed by 95% compliance since), weight is falling off my body in a way it hasn't for more than a decade.

@megbeveridge Totally agree with making ghee. That stuff is crazy expensive pre-made!

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On 3/26/2019 at 3:44 PM, SugarcubeOD said:

First, check that ham because it's very hard to find ham that's not cured with sugar or other sweetners - you may be fine but it's definitely an item that causes concern for compliance.

You're very short on fat in all your meals it looks like and fat is what keeps you satiated between meals as it slows the body's absorption of protein. We generally suggest not counting the cooking/sauteeing fat because it gets split between portions so we'd recommend a plated fat like avocado, olives, pesto etc.  The first day that salmon meal had no fat.  The beef and broccoli you made had the almond butter but how much of it did you add and then split between two portions it likely wasn't enough.  The kimchi soup and ham meal has no listed fat.

Take another look at the meal template (linked in my signature below) and try making your meals to match.  Until you get where your meals get you between 4-5 hours between without needing to snack, if you need to eat between meals, make it protein and fat, not fruit, nuts and dried fruit/bars.

I'm positive the ham I got was okay.  I had to go to a few different stores until I finally found some imported Italian brand at an organic store.  Unfortunately it is very expensive but I also found a compliant turkey at a more conventional store.

I can see now that you're definitely right about me being short on fat.  I will be making adjustments.  Does it matter if I was not doing an optimal whole30 the first week?  Like I have only been eating compliant foods but not in an ideal way.  I'm wondering if I should go to day 32 or something.  Also I have decided not to eat any more of that garlic or ginger that was in question.

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20 hours ago, megbeveridge said:

Have you tried making clarified butter? I love that as an added fat on veggies and some people put it in their coffee. Ghee is really expensive, but sticks of butter are cheap and readily available, so making clarified butter is more economical. All you need is butter, a sauce pan, and something to strain it with to remove the dairy solids. It's a little time consuming, but I kind of enjoy the process. It's also easier to justify using in every meal because it's so much cheaper.

Sounds good, but that's the kind of thing that my housemates in my shared kitchen would think I was crazy if they saw me doing, lol.  I'll probably pick up some ghee.

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1 hour ago, helenalena said:

I'm positive the ham I got was okay.  I had to go to a few different stores until I finally found some imported Italian brand at an organic store.  Unfortunately it is very expensive but I also found a compliant turkey at a more conventional store.

I can see now that you're definitely right about me being short on fat.  I will be making adjustments.  Does it matter if I was not doing an optimal whole30 the first week?  Like I have only been eating compliant foods but not in an ideal way.  I'm wondering if I should go to day 32 or something.  Also I have decided not to eat any more of that garlic or ginger that was in question.

I think it's important to remember that there isn't only one way to do Whole30. It's a learning process, so now that you're aware of some adjustments you can make, it's totally fine to finish your 30 days as scheduled. As long as you're not eating non-compliant foods, there's no reason you have to keep going after 30. It's totally your call, but don't feel like you have to!

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