I’m starting whole 30 tomorrow but...

[MyW30]

@Oaklandish1 keep up! You are doing great! Maybe it'll help to buy sliced food or a kitchen machine or something to speed up the cooking process? I also heard great stories about slow cookers. And for the burning, maybe use timers on ur phone or something? 

I recognize the feeling you describe about social situations. But maybe its also that tipsy people are just harder to level with. And I always feel tired earlier when I dont drink, so that makes it harder to keep up with conversations.. plus, it may just be a bit scary to not just act the same as your friends when it comes to drinking alcohol, which could feel a bit awkward at the beginning. anyway, don't give up right away. See this as a learning process rather than blame yourself! You're doing fine, you just have to get used to this new lifestyle and that does not always go easy. But you will get there!

 

[Oaklandish1]

I’m on day 10 and I can honestly say the time is flying by in many ways! I’m still struggling with mood in the sense that my tolerance for stress is 0. Everything sets me off. My temper is kind of through the roof. I’ve had a lot of hunger between meals, moreso than before. So today I decided to increase my intake a bit to see if that helps.

I ate out with my boyfriend for the first time since starting and it was easier than I thought to get a simple grilled cut of meat with some steamed and roasted veggies. The pork was a bit blah and over-cooked which was a little disappointing (I knew I should have ordered the steak! Lol) but at least I didn’t go hungry or spend the time fighting off the urge to have some wine -  yay NSV’s!

And on that note, what are your favorite beverages? I’m so sick of water, sparkling water with citrus, tea and coffee. I was never a big soda or juice drinker but without wine as an option, I’m feeling a bit waterlogged! 

[SchrodingersCat]

16 hours ago, Oaklandish1 said:

I’m on day 10 and I can honestly say the time is flying by in many ways! I’m still struggling with mood in the sense that my tolerance for stress is 0. Everything sets me off. My temper is kind of through the roof. I’ve had a lot of hunger between meals, moreso than before. So today I decided to increase my intake a bit to see if that helps.

I ate out with my boyfriend for the first time since starting and it was easier than I thought to get a simple grilled cut of meat with some steamed and roasted veggies. The pork was a bit blah and over-cooked which was a little disappointing (I knew I should have ordered the steak! Lol) but at least I didn’t go hungry or spend the time fighting off the urge to have some wine -  yay NSV’s!

And on that note, what are your favorite beverages? I’m so sick of water, sparkling water with citrus, tea and coffee. I was never a big soda or juice drinker but without wine as an option, I’m feeling a bit waterlogged! 

Have you tried herbal teas and fruit tisanes? There's some great varieties and they can be really nice chilled!

[MyW30]

6 hours ago, SchrodingersCat said:

Have you tried herbal teas and fruit tisanes? There's some great varieties and they can be really nice chilled!

I also saw a great recipe for (peach) Iced tea on the whole30 recipe insta!

[Oaklandish1]

1 hour ago, MyW30 said:

I also saw a great recipe for (peach) Iced tea on the whole30 recipe insta!

Confession: I hate hate hate tea. It’s something I only drink when I have a sore throat,  choking it down like medicine. Even with honey and lemon it’s just so chalky and bitter to me.

[ShannonM816]

1 hour ago, Oaklandish1 said:

Confession: I hate hate hate tea. It’s something I only drink when I have a sore throat,  choking it down like medicine. Even with honey and lemon it’s just so chalky and bitter to me.

There are different kinds of teas, bitter often means someone steeped it too long or maybe the water was too hot for the particular tea. 

I sometimes drop a tea bag or two into my big 32 oz thing of ice water. I've used regular tea, but more often I go for herbal/fruit teas. My local grocery store (HEB) has a hibiscus blend that I like, it is a little tart, in the way that some florals or citrus can be. Celestial Seasonings brand makes a Watermelon Lime Zinger that I like too. Good Earth brand makes one called Sweet and Spicy that is good, but I like it more when it's cooler outside, just because it's heavy on the cinnamon and feels more like a fall/winter tea to me, but it might work fine for you. Peppermint tea is nice too, I've tried several different brands, none really stood out as being better or worse to me. If you know someone near you who drinks teas, see if they'll give you a few individual tea bags of different flavors to sample, or split the cost of buying some flavors you'd like to try. 

You can make infused waters -- put any fruit, vegetable, herbs, or spices into a pitcher or jar of water in the fridge overnight, and in the morning you have flavored water. I like cucumber and lemon, sometimes with a little mint -- just a few slices of cucumber, a whole lemon sliced, and some crushed fresh mint in a pitcher. Or throw in some cubed melon, or some berries (you get more flavor if you slice or squish them rather than leaving them whole). If you Google infused water, you'll find lots of combination suggestions.

There is also kombucha or water kefir. Kombucha has a bit of a vinegary taste, but it's more noticeable in some brands and flavors than others. GT's Synergy is a pretty common brand in the US -- their watermelon, strawberry, or guava flavors are the least vinegary tasting and most sweet. Their Trilogy flavor is somewhat sweet but with a more noticeable twang, and their original and ginger flavors are the least sweet, at least of the ones I've tried. I didn't care for water kefir when I tried it, so i don't know what brands to recommend. This article explains what to look for as far as compliant kombucha or kefir:  https://whole30.com/2016/08/kombucha/ (in addition to water kefir, there is also milk kefir, but as far as I know, there are not any made from nut milks or coconut milks, and anything made from actual milk obviously doesn't work on whole30. It's like a drinkable yogurt.)

[Oaklandish1]

Thank you I will try the tea and infused water suggestions.

kombucha is off-limits. Something about the fermentation or fizziness doesn’t agree with me. I always get terrible bloating, belching and gas from it... most carbonated beverages have this effect, but kombucha is especially bad for me for some reason. 

[SchrodingersCat]

9 hours ago, Oaklandish1 said:

Thank you I will try the tea and infused water suggestions.

kombucha is off-limits. Something about the fermentation or fizziness doesn’t agree with me. I always get terrible bloating, belching and gas from it... most carbonated beverages have this effect, but kombucha is especially bad for me for some reason. 

Tazo tea has a lot of compliant 'tea' (which doesn't contain tea) with some really interesting flavours: https://www.tazo.com/us/en/products/tea-bags.html

[Jihanna]

I'm a southern-girl sweet-tea lover, myself... which means that black tea is almost entirely off-limits during Whole30, because it's SO BITTER if you don't have anything in it for sweetness. I did find that a 1:1 ratio of black tea to fruity tea bags works well enough for me, but I much prefer to go straight fruity tea for my non-water Whole30 drinks. For water, I totally agree with fruit infusion, but don't get stuck thinking it has to be only fruit -- throw a few fresh mint leaves in with cucumber slices or citrus slices, and you'll put a crisp finish on a fairly average drink.

Also, you mentioned ADD and not hearing a kitchen timer... try putting the timer on your phone (or watch, if you have a smartwatch) instead of relying on the one in the kitchen. What I do is set the oven timer for the actual cook time, and then put on on my phone for about 5 minutes less so I'll go into the kitchen with enough time to make last-minute preparations to pull something hot out of the oven but not with enough time to get totally bored before actually doing what I went in there to do! Another option is to get yourself a toaster oven, since you can set the cook time on there and it will turn itself off at the end, whether you're there to collect the food yet or not.

It's interesting that you struggled with how you feel in your own skin without alcohol, rather than struggling with alcohol cravings. To me, this sounds like you're trying to find your feet without a habit, so to speak... which means there's light at the end of the tunnel, even if you decided not to go back to alcohol after all of this. When I quit smoking, there was a period of time (months) when I couldn't read a physical book without thinking I should have a cigarette in my hand... when I quit drinking, the same thing happened with writing (I could type stuff out but taking a pen to paper to get my thoughts out just wasn't happening, and I still don't write a physical journal nearly 5 years later). We do find ways to settle into life without the things we've given up, but it does take time to figure out what that looks and feels like.

[Oaklandish1]

Thank you! I tried the fruit infusion with some grocery store pre-chopped fruit mix that was about to go bad. A little meh. Today I will make a mint cucumber infusion to go with my little carnitas dinner with the boyfriend. I’m so excited because I LOVE carnitas and I’ve never made them.