Day 20: After an amazing 2 weeks, I'm back to being bloated, but why?

[Monskimoo]

I'm doing Whole30 for the first time together with my partner. I never experienced any of the symptoms in the suggested timeline (no "hangover", no wanting to nap, no wanting to kill all things). I did have an easier time waking up in the morning and in 1 week my bloating had significantly reduced, and before the end of week 2 I had my flat tummy! However, 4 days in, and I'm as bloated as I was at the beginning of week 1. I'm female, 5'6'', started off at BMI 23 (10 stone 2lbs, or 142 lbs), and my bloated stomach makes me self-conscious as I always worry that people will think that I'm pregnant.

Some hopefully relevant information that can help you help me: I live in the UK, but am originally from Bulgaria, which is why culturally I don't snack between meals. I love savoury things, and used to have a big bar of chocolate only when on my period (I'm not a massive fan of sweet stuff), but the main thing that fed my Sugar Dragon was Coke Zero, and lots of it. (I'm happy that my Coke Zero habit has been kicked, I drink lots of water and nothing else, definitely hitting at least 2L a day.) I don't use scales, because growing up we never had them and weighing yourself was something you did at your doctor's check up appointments. 

I meal planned for the entire month in advance, so no meal repeats itself and it's always something new and interesting, based on paleo recipes from which I removed the non-compliant items. We did our big shop with the detailed ingredient reading and googling. Again, all great during the first 2 weeks. I don't like any nuts, aside from baked in salt sunflower seeds, but I can only buy the brand that I like in Bulgaria, so those weren't a problem; so any recipe that suggested almonds or walnuts or whatever, I omitted it (hate the smell of peanut butter, almond and nut butter just as much, but the only time we used it during the first week, it was mixed in a homemade dressing). We couldn't find any compliant sausages in the UK, so we made our own sausage meat instead.

So aside for when I have breakfast (which is not everyday but every other day), and I have 2 fried eggs and 2 slices of crispy bacon, here's what we had to compare:

Edited to add: I use CookSmarts for the meal planning, and each meal makes 4 servings (according to their website), so we have 1 each for dinner with my partner, and then we take the leftovers with us for lunch the next day at work. 

WEEK 1:
1. Spanish meatballs (and roasted cauliflower and olives)
2. Vietnamese shrimp bowl (with green beans and carrot slaw)
3. Spinach, artichoke, and sausage frittata (with spiced roasted butternut squash)
4. Asian meatball stir-fry (with mushrooms, carrots, bell peppers)
5. Chimichurri burgers (with green bean “fries”)
6. Skillet tortellini (with spinach, zucchini, roasted bell peppers)
7. Shrimp tacos with chimichurri (with avocados)

WEEK 2:
1. Steak salad (with apples & roasted sweet potatoes) (this is when I realised that apples make me gassy)
2. Lemon roasted chicken (with sweet potato and Brussels sprouts hash)
3. Herb pork chops (with Italian green salad)
4. Mediterranean shrimp sauté (with olives, green beans, artichoke hearts, tomatoes)
5. Rosemary-Mustard Chicken (with roasted carrots & simple green salad)
6. Balsamic chicken and spinach salad (with strawberries, avocados)
7. Jambalaya (shrimp, homemade sausage meat, cauliflower)

WEEK 3 (so far)
1. Salmon Piccata (with roasted cauliflower and green beans)
2. Eggs baked in portobello mushrooms (homemade salsa, avocado, kale crisps)
3. Pork chops with olive caper sauce (with roasted broccoli)
4. Portobello mushroom and Swiss chard flatbread with green salad and pears)
5. Celeriac leek soup with pancetta (and warm shaved Brussels sprouts salad)
 

Is it FODMAPs? Am I retaining too much water? I used to go number 2 twice a day, nearly every day before this, but now it's once a day every other day.

So Day 20, bloated again, I had a short spurt of Tiger Blood on Day 18 (my most productive day), but then the next day I was lethargic again. I don't have cravings, I'm not tempted by anything, but I do get upset when we're out and I can't buy anything, because nothing is compliant (it just reminds me of when I was poor, and would stare at food I couldn't afford to buy, and the memory sets the mood down).

The only thing I've binge ate so far was last night, feeling upset about looking bloated again, so I had 4 anchovy fillets (I really really really like savoury things)

I just want that flat tummy from Day 10. 

[ladyshanny]

Maybe try limiting your cruciferous veggies (broc, cauli, brussel sprouts) and see if that helps. It may be a limitation issue on brassica.

[SugarcubeOD]

On 5/20/2019 at 12:35 AM, Monskimoo said:

Skillet tortellini

What is skillet tortellini?

[SugarcubeOD]

On 5/20/2019 at 12:35 AM, Monskimoo said:

Portobello mushroom and Swiss chard flatbread

Also this? Is it a recreation of flatbread with compliant ingredients? 

[Jihanna]

You noted that you use CookSmarts, which looks amazing (I found them a while back and was interested, but never did do anything other than read articles -- seriously considering trying out their paleo options for after my next round of W30, though).

The caveat here is that for some of the meals you noted above, you're giving the "original" recipe name and not the one for the paleo version, which makes it difficult for us to understand for sure if you've eaten tortellini and flatbread... or if you used the paleo versions of these recipes for your meals, which replace the grain-based products with eggs.

I will say that the paleo versions of those meals look totally delicious, though, and may very well find their way into my W30 (I'll just sub in coconut oil in place of butter!).