Day 7 - Feeling Stupid

[alchemiholic]

I don't know how else to say it. For the past few days I've felt somehow dumber. It takes longer to finish a thought or to come up with an answer, words don't come easily, decisions are harder to make. Do others encounter this? Eating to template. Any recommendations?

[ShannonM816]

Are you drinking plenty of water? Salting your food? Eating at least one serving of starchy vegetable each day? Any of those, or just not eating enough, could cause you to feel this way. Or it might be something unrelated to Whole30 -- hormonal stuff can sometimes cause this, or not getting enough sleep, or being stressed. 

[alchemiholic]

I haven't been tracking my water intake - I've been so thirsty due to the protein boost that I feel like I'm definitely drinking lots of water, but I'll start tracking to make sure.

I definitely salt each meal. But maybe I should salt a little more. The vagueness I feel definitely reminds me of a friend who would fast and go saltless for a week each month... by Day 4 he was invariably acting dumber. 

So far I have been eating a potato or sweet potato with at least one meal each day. My sleep has actually gotten kind of awesome since starting Whole30. I'm often stressed but very used to negotiating those patterns, and this is definitely a new feeling. Not sure about hormones of course.

 

I feel like it might be related to the glucose loss from cutting out the complex carbohydrates I get from grains, and wondered if anyone had tips/tricks for balancing out the loss of concentration. Overall I'm enjoying this reset but not going to lie, I'll be looking forward to adding grains back in during the reintroduction period.

 

Possibly related - I'm so obsessed with sweets right now! Can't stop thinking about them. I wasn't even that big a sweets person prior to this! On a normal day I'd have honey in my tea or coffee daily, maybe like a few squares of dark chocolate a couple times a week. Only an occasional dessert eater, and always preferred savory breakfasts to sweet ones. But now I can't stop daydreaming about donuts.

[ShannonM816]

4 hours ago, alchemiholic said:

I feel like it might be related to the glucose loss from cutting out the complex carbohydrates I get from grains, and wondered if anyone had tips/tricks for balancing out the loss of concentration. Overall I'm enjoying this reset but not going to lie, I'll be looking forward to adding grains back in during the reintroduction period.

If you feel like you need more carbs, you can definitely add more starchy vegetables. Most people seem to do well with a serving a day, but some people do need more. So maybe add more root vegetables (carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, turnips, rutabaga, parsnips, beets) or winter squashes (butternut, acorn, kabocha squash or others like them) or plantains and see if that helps. 

If you menstruate, you may need more food in general and more starchy vegetables during the week or so leading up to your period and the first few days of it, so if that's a possibility, eat what you feel you need to eat, even if it seems like a lot, and then once you're past that time, you may find you don't need as much.