Beware the Dragons!

[Beets]

My periods, which are like Greenwich Mean Time--so on schedule--are weird on w30. The first one, this round, was late and the next three days early. Never happens! 

 

I think you are wise to not take on too much. You'll know when you can handle it! Interesting because I am having such better reactions to w30 this year v last. Last year when I started I was still recovering from 18 mos of a darling daughter who wouldn't sleep for more than an hour at a time (I was psychotic!) and subsequent caffeine abuse. I found the AIP to be a burden and I slogged through it. There were moments of clarity but for the most part it was a struggle. 

 

This time I'm better rested, my kids are a little older and I'm better able to stick with an exercise routine. (BB! Still loving it!) You're younger than me so you will probably bounce back faster but--well--yeah, trust your gut on this stuff. 

[Noelle]

Thanks for the support, Beets. One thing I really underestimated on Whole30 the first time (and this time, too) was the importance of sleep. Reliable sleep is crucial to feeling awesome—or even just feeling good. My daughter was 4 months old the first time around. Now, she's 21 months (as of yesterday), and it's a whole new world! She starts her days early, but she's finally got a good thing going with her sleep at night. Naps are getting easier, too. I'm so thankful to be (apparently) over that hump.

 

AIP is still on my mind, but definitely on the back burner. I'm feeling better as of right now, and I'm really glad about that. Still pretty bloated, especially at night, but that could be anything: eggs, more raw veggies, gobs of mayo lately, or this hormonal weirdness where my period is still not here.

 

I think if I'm going to tease it out, I need to be more on top of my log—food and symptoms both. I've been awful about logging this time around. Dinner the other night was roast chicken and veggies, but I made ranch instead of regular mayo. Elf tasted it and said he didn't like it. This isn't the first time he's rejected ranch. I think I may have the only 6-year-old on earth who doesn't like ranch!

 

Yesterday looked like this:

 

{Day 28}

 

Breakfast - 3 eggs fried in coconut oil, 2 salmon cakes with homemade mayo, romaine, carrots, radishes, coffee.

 

Lunch - can of sardines, beet salad with half an avocado, 2 soft-boiled eggs with asparagus, decaf with almond milk.

 

Snack - big slice of roast beef, juniper-apple kombucha.

 

Dinner - (munched on a homemade, fermented(!!!) pickle while cooking) cottage pie topped with butternut squash puree, red cabbage with coconut oil.

 

* * *

 

Today is Day 29! I'm slightly Tiger Blood-y. It's cool. I want to feel this way forever.

 

I probably needed to go to bed a little earlier last night, but I slept like a log. My mood is good. I think I've been nicer to my family lately, which is an interesting side-effect that I hadn't attributed to Whole30, but I think is probably related to lots of good food and no sugar.

 

Sugar makes me whatever the sugar-equivalent is of a mean drunk.

 

Bear's birthday is this weekend, and we're going out to celebrate. I'm excited to finally be getting a date night, but I'm not all that jazzed about the food. I thought I would be really excited to eat off-plan food that I didn't have to cook, but I looked at the menu for the place we're going and thought, meh. Even fancy-looking "dirty" eating doesn't seem all that exciting right now.

[Noelle]

Day 30. I may have cracked my eating disorder recovery code: Whole9-style food + Brain Over Binge (Kathryn Hansen) thinking + Geneen Roth eating guidelines mindfulness.

 

Good food is mood lube. (Say that five times fast!) Eating Whole30-friendly food boosts my mood enough that I care about recovery and actually want to get better.

 

Brain Over Binge completely changed my relationship with my eating disorder. I am not sick. My perfectly healthy brain has gotten into some bad habits.

 

The eating guidelines give me a taste (so to speak) of what normal, healthy eating looks and feels like. They are goals as much as they are guidelines.

[Noelle]

Whole30 Round 4, Day 31--Results!

Weight/appearance-wise, nothing great: I'm up a pound, and my measurements are all slightly up as well. The difference is most noticeable in my Before and After pictures (which are not fit for public consumption): the belly growth is undeniable. Very pregnant-looking. I'm attributing this to my still-missing period. Tomorrow it will be 2 weeks late, and I'll take another pregnancy test.

But! BUT! I feel really good. Energized, my moods are nice and even, my patience is up, I'm even catching myself acting more...extroverted, I guess. Talking to people, smiling, saying hello... It's very unlike me, and I think I like it.

My sleep still has room for improvement, but whose doesn't with two young kids? Pistol has been waking us up at the crack of dawn, and while I'm not EXCITED to get up with her, it's not a huge hardship either. And I fall RIGHT asleep at night--no lying awake for an hour or more.

Oh, and my cravings seem to be gone. Really GONE, which is scary-weird-awesome to me. Bear and I are going out tonight to celebrate his birthday and I just Do Not Care about the food. We did proper reintros last time, and I feel like I know how to make good choices. But I thought I'd WANT something decadent, and I really...don't care. It's a little sad. I'm not mourning the food so much as I am mourning the RELATIONSHIP with food, which is...I was going to say fucked up, but looking a gift horse in the mouth for sure. Not having cravings is a wonderful thing, and it's also kind of alien to me.

(Who am I, if I'm not obsessed with food and my weight?)

I look pretty good. I'd like to look better and FEEL leaner and less flabby. But the energy and the happiness boosts trump any disappointment that I may have had about not looking amazing after 30 days.

I don't recognize parts of myself anymore, and I think that's a good thing.

[Beets]

Yeah, my w30 last year was pretty much all about healing my hideous long term sleep deprivation.

I hear you on the "who am I if I'm not obsessed with food and weight," but I promise there is a whole YOU there if you take that stuff away. 😉

[LadyM]

Day 30. I may have cracked my eating disorder recovery code: Whole9-style food + Brain Over Binge (Kathryn Hansen) thinking + Geneen Roth eating guidelines mindfulness.

 

Good food is mood lube. (Say that five times fast!) Eating Whole30-friendly food boosts my mood enough that I care about recovery and actually want to get better.

 

Brain Over Binge completely changed my relationship with my eating disorder. I am not sick. My perfectly healthy brain has gotten into some bad habits.

This is so great! That book was really helpful for me, too. Mostly in shifting my belief that I was irredeemably broken. That belief is deadly. So happy you got past it too!

W30 this time around has delayed my period like never before. Some things I just chalk up to the mystery.

Congrats on completing this W30! You sound like you're in a really good place. That's awesome!