April Whole 30 2020

[Emily127]

I have been thinking about doing another round of Whole 30 and with all that is going on in the world right now I realized now is the perfect time to spend time working and rebuilding my relationship with food and myself. I hope others will join me on this journey!

[Sullivan94547]

Yes yes yes!  I am excited to start another W30 tomorrow.  I think that the structure of the W30 will help to restore a sense of control in a world that is currently spiraling out of same.  

[halfpint_aggie]

My husband and I started today. This will be Whole30 number 7 for me. 
 

I have a horrible attitude about it right now. I know I need to do this because I just feel awful all the time & have no energy. And W30 will shell so much with those. But, I.do.not.want.to.do.it. 
 

Doing it anyway. 

[Revelate]

Moved to Austin, temporary housing for almost exactly 30 days under shelter in place orders anyway.

Whole point of moving was chasing a better life, and I had read most of the original book a few years ago in one of my failed forays into eating better... so with 30 days in social isolation in a new city anyway and finding what appears to be a local(ish) quality meal service that offers this as one of their diet plans?

Whole30 Day 1 almost finished haha.  First time, this is going to be interesting to say the least.

[Revelate]

Might as well update as we go along ;).

Day 5 now, things were going well the first several days then sometime yesterday stopped retaining water though I had stayed compliant and no obvious culprits other than the change in diet itself.  That drove the worst night’s sleep I think I might ever have had... I seriously remember 5 dreams from last night which is more than I can remember from the last decade.  I almost never remember them.

We talk about small victories, had two of them today:

1) Late afternoon after doubling my water intake from the last few days saw a shade of urine distinct from the toilet. Cheers, water went somewhere other than straight through me!  Baby steps.

2) I wondered if I just wasn’t getting enough calories and I was hungry and in possible need of additional sodium (I don’t know what the right balance is Na to K I should google that) so I supplemented with the W30 lifestyle bowl at Chipotle and I noticed the salt in the meal.  I have eaten at Chipotle quite a few times in the last decade or more, arguably one of the healthier options I frequented... and I never noticed it in a bowl previously.  Chips sure, but not in the rest of the meal.

Not sure if that’s an increased sensitively or if I was craving it but I’ll take a more refined palate even temporarily as a win for now. ;).

The hydration bit scared me enough to convert slow runs into walks and I did manage to swing the sledgehammer a bit so haven’t thrown in any of the towels yet.  I don’t feel absolutely miserable right now but I know I don’t feel well; on the plus side for day 5 apparently that’s right on schedule so maybe I’m doing it right for once.

Hope all is going well for the rest of you!

 

[BabyBear]

@Revelate congrats on starting your whole 30 and your two NSV!  Yes day 5 can be rough and I will say the dreams get funky but then die down at least they did for me. 

I also started a round on April 1st.  This is second round for me, my first was January.  I learned a lot about me and relationship to food.  I find so much of my issues with food is more emotional and mental than it is physical.  

[Ego00]

I am already bored.

I know what I wanted to know and my goal is achieved.

And I am on Day 21th. 

I'm wondering if I have to continue to make it 30 ?

[Revelate]

15 hours ago, BabyBear said:

@Revelate congrats on starting your whole 30 and your two NSV!  Yes day 5 can be rough and I will say the dreams get funky but then die down at least they did for me. 

I also started a round on April 1st.  This is second round for me, my first was January.  I learned a lot about me and relationship to food.  I find so much of my issues with food is more emotional and mental than it is physical.  

Thanks @BabyBear!

I think I split somewhere between mental and physical: I have gone down to one meal a day at times in my life (when sedentary) and can pretty much ignore hunger when needed... but after the Chipotle trip I upped my calories another 400ish a day and actually feel pretty darned good even at the end of Day 6 after an exhausting day at work and another not great sleep night (did get to deep sleep in a 4 hour stretch at least).   Didn’t remember whatever awkward dream either this time so closer to normal heh... though funny story one of the dreams from the other night would have mortified me 20 years ago, now got more important things to worry about than being in a some sort of dorm in my underwear haha.

So far almost all the impact has been physiological, mentally doing OK other than I am slower after the sleep issues for sure.  Just not as quick as when I am tanned rested and ready but that’ll come.
 

 

[Revelate]

Interesting experience on W30; other than the Day 5 fiasco, generally I have been feeling surprisingly good and performing work at a pretty high level compared to where I was before.  Admittedly I was stuck in LA and moving to Texas has a non-trivial placebo effect if not more than that, but still.

I know not everyone’s experience is the same but I was expecting more withdrawal symptoms.

More to the tally of NSV’s:

I am getting tired at normal hours and falling asleep faster.

I can focus better, I can do everything intellectual longer than I did just a week ago where I so stupidly easy to distract.  Also after an almost awesome sleep last night, I was feeling ready and  mostly rested though I am nowhere close to tanned heh.

I am enjoying the pleasantries of passing people more than usual and had a quality conversation with my dad’s neighbor which both suggest I am in a pretty good mood.  Heck this was after a two hour work call which normally would have exhausted me (heavy introvert).

I am eating more than before, strange to think that but I have been pretty eating on a fairly regular schedule and this seems to be working well eating 1600ish clean calories vs the junk I was eating before.  Energy level is definitely better through the day and this is the end of Day 7.  I am actually a little hungry right now sadly no good snacks before bed time available.  Drinking a gallon of water a day is probably helping on that front too, no longer seemingly dehydrated.

Quality of sleep is still a little shaky but that isn’t the diet’s fault I think other than the one terrible night and maybe night 5/6 too which was short.  Two jobs both of which have been busy and accidentally turned on the alarm this past morning which is a whoopsie.

Overall I think the biggest benefit of this Whole30 is teaching me to pay attention to the positives and don’t worry about the scale.  I might have gotten the same benefits from Paleo over the last 7 days but I have done that before and never really noticed much difference other than weight coming off.  

I didn’t even bring the scale with me to Texas, I will get another someday but it just seems so irrelevant right now.

Thank you to everyone that has posted on this forum, it’s still a great resource for all that the volume seems way down.  Perhaps with the W30 at home challenge it will pick up again, but if there were any good time to do this, it seems like now.

[BabyBear]

23 hours ago, Revelate said:

Overall I think the biggest benefit of this Whole30 is teaching me to pay attention to the positives and don’t worry about the scale.  I might have gotten the same benefits from Paleo over the last 7 days but I have done that before and never really noticed much difference other than weight coming off.  

I found it both alarming and interesting how much “that” number provided only by an angry piece of fabricated material that shoots a number at you because you stepped on it can do to greatly affect our perceived outcome causing us to miss all the other changes and victories, which are the ones that actually matter.

[Revelate]

 

On 4/8/2020 at 10:48 PM, BabyBear said:

I found it both alarming and interesting how much “that” number provided only by an angry piece of fabricated material that shoots a number at you because you stepped on it can do to greatly affect our perceived outcome causing us to miss all the other changes and victories, which are the ones that actually matter.

That is very true: I never worried about my weight much as I am apparently genetically well adapted to the typical grain based diet, but working two jobs and still eating badly saw I was roughly 20 pounds over my in-shape weight and knew I wasn’t right... but in times prior that I’ve tried to do better I’d used the scale daily to track my victories and that was clearly wrong.  I don’t know what the right frequency is, the number matters some but can’t be a slave to it.  Might try measuring the first of every month in my case? Still catch long term trends without the short term stupidity?

General update: I am a late bloomer in this as in so many other things in life.

Felt wretched yesterday, and this morning I want basically nothing to do with people contact and just want to go back to sleep... slow day at both offices, I may just do that and write up some documentation over the weekend instead.  Probably will extend this through May though I am starting to loathe some forms of cauliflower.  On the plus side sweet potatoes that I only had on special occasions as a kid are apparently a comfort food for me, who knew?

One potential big, monster NSV though assuming it lasts: in the last six months to a year I had picked up an occasional full body twitch when lying down to go to sleep.  I didn’t really think much of it but it regularly occurred every 2-3 days.

Struck me last night that on Day 10 now and I haven’t had that since Day 1.  Google suggests it was an electrolyte imbalance which seems sort of obvious when I think about it but the increased dietary potassium and the lowering of sodium intake apparently is the trick for me on that front.

 

[Revelate]

Day 11 chronologically, but according to the almighty W30 timeline I am on Days 6-7.

I admittedly worked an unexpectedly long day for a Friday and by 8:30 pm or so I was just wiped and went to sleep.  Got up around 4:30 today, ate an early breakfast, around 5:30 I went back to bed.  Up at 10:30 and I want nothing more than to crawl back into the bedroom, shut the door to the world, and just sleep on the floor.  I am assuming I could make it to the bed but it’s a bit of a stretch mentally in my current state.  Unfortunately sitting on an extremely nappable couch while typing this.  I am really glad this is a Saturday.

I have one thing I have to get done today and I am likely going to go do that now, but everything else is a non-starter.  On the flip side it’s probably better to soldier through this and not go back to sleep to my thinking (yo body, like 15% body fat use it!).  

That timeline and this forum are helpful though, knowing this passes as otherwise my thoughts were turning to a nostalgia DQ run since I haven’t been there in decades and sadly that sort of food would spike my blood sugar enough to feed my habit.

[Revelate]

Day 12: energy level back to normal, hungrier than expected though.  Did admittedly do a sledgehammer workout and while I crashed a little after that (was well beyond an aerobic heart rate) bounced back after a short nap and things been good since.

Sigh, roasted cauliflower it is haha.

[Revelate]

Day 13: realized I just wasn’t eating enough and may have been treading the edge of low carb.

Felt pretty good today actually, was perky for a 10 hr/week side hustle set of interviews, but started making a conscious effort to eat more as well.  Was going the meal service route but it was coming routinely under 1300 calories per day and that was too restrictive for me.  Added an additional meal every few days to balance it out, also today not only did the Chipotle bowl also found a local restaurant that cooks an excellent flank steak, roasted potatoes, and figured I’d just ignore the onion rings but they were willing to sub a vegetable (Roasted cauliflower) and who knew, I don’t hate cauliflower as I was thinking up thread, I just can’t have too much if it.  Once a week or so will be fine.

Things are totally coming up aces for everything except I am still not working out as much as I would have hoped when I began this... totally slacking on my walking and jogging.

Speaking of which though I am really digging this sledgehammer training, there is just something thoroughly satisfying with swinging a hammer over and over at something and while I’m still figuring out form somewhat it’s absolutely a full body workout:  winner!

 

[Revelate]

Day 14: another 4 meal day, hardest part is just keeping up variety.

Everything good except still hungry; had a better than expected workout, maybe this weekend will strap on my shoes and get my slog on.  Sleeping really well, only problem is I haven’t figured out the right amount of water before bed and waking up seriously thirsty.  Figured Texas humidity would help offset that but not yet.

Have to admit I am pleasantly surprised how friendly more restaurants are towards this diet: looking through Yelp today and for giggles looked up the Pho place thinking no way, but lo and behold they not only do the traditional bed of noodles, they also have a salad option!  Hold the fish sauce and totally compliant: protein, egg, various vegetables over a few kinds of lettuce.  Score!

This is more expensive than I would have planned but the convenience factor can’t be dismissed and when picking up another gig (this one thankfully part time) to add to the others, ain’t got time for learning how to cook.

 

[Revelate]

Day 15: Not much to talk about today though had a bit of intestinal awkwardness today which was strange as from that perspective things had been astonishingly sanguine previously. Will work through it like everything else going on these days.

Also seemingly starting to crave a Starbucks mocha latte... not dreaming about it but thoughts have veered towards it a few times in the last two days.
 

Still right with the diet but it’s starting to drag.

[Revelate]

Day 17ish.

Working hard and tired as a result but NSV: my tummy be tighter!  Not sure if that's weight loss or just gut health, I know I'm eating less and better calories but staying the course in that I haven't even bought a scale for the new place yet.

Also in general I have less flatulence than before too.  I'm simply clearly better eating like this than I was before, there's no doubt in my mind on that front though I do somewhat expect to expand my diet post W30+Some.

Though I must admit to rolling my eyes at myself, pretty sure my Day 1 reintroduction whenever I get there is going to be a Starbucks mocha latte. 

[Revelate]

Day 18: Totally off, read a book, watched a pair of Netflix movies, focused on restoring sleep pattern, eating and drinking water regularly.

Feeling pretty good for as awkward as falling asleep at 5 pm was the other day.  Did take two naps today.

No surge of energy but I do seem to be concentrating somewhat better and that’s nothing but a positive.  Next two weeks getting moved to Houston is going to be awkward.  Figuring if I can hold it together maybe Day 24 will be the hotness.

[Revelate]

Day 20.  Dragging a little but nothing to do with the diet which I am still over the moon with.

I’ve been logging wins and losses in here, far more NSV than not but today I possibly had one that dwarfs the others.

I‘ve run off and on for a while, and nobody including physiologists were able to explain why I only had a very narrow aerobic band and then it just shutoff.  I could be running a 10k or half marathon at a 170-180 HR and just be chatting away... total sugar junkie getting energy anaerobically.  It was so consistent that I learned to pay attention to my breathing patterns and trying to exercise where I was breathing the heaviest.  Weird stuff.

Anyway I was walking around, and I know I am out of shape, maybe I could jog a few miles, slowly, maybe.

But what was interesting was going up a slight incline and my HR touched 100 or so and low and behold I was breathing more heavily than normal:  well below my normal aerobic zone, at a low level of exercise.  Use of oxygen means burning fat for energy and I haven’t been doing any aerobic training at all for months.

It requires more testing, but this is truly profound.  Got work to do and I need a nap but I hope I can find time to get out and jog a bit over the next week and play with this some more as if I have broken my sugar junkie physiology: that is an enormous win, like blue whale huge.

[Revelate]

I guess this is Day 25 now.

I found the magic that is Lara Bars and various beef products for snacks.  Beaten the hunger issues, been dragging but that’s because of working super hard through Wednesday (all three gigs wanted stuff Right Now! /sigh) and my sleep pattern has just been off.

I don’t really see any reason to quit doing the Whole30 diet for now as I am getting enough variety of foods and the meal service keeps on rocking; I may take May 1 as half day off (I would still kill for a Starbucks mocha latte right now and honestly I was never a big coffee drinker) and the go another 30 May 2nd - 31 and re-evaluate June 1 but I may try low carbing it: I was eating more potatoes over the last week and change too.

Didn’t get much exercise this week, could be a part of why I am dragging but probably would have exacerbated it.  If I feel good tomorrow (please let me sleep 8 hours without waking up again) I want to strap on my shoes and check that NSV I posted on last time regarding my surprising VO2max estimate from my walk... when I looked at the health data, that silly little walk gave me a higher VO2max estimate than any soccer match I have refereed in the last two years.  Have to go see if that was a fluke, a misread, or F’n awesome!

[Revelate]

Day 26: literally no change from before.

At this point not holding my breath to be experiencing TIGER BLOOD! but honestly I also don’t really care right now.

I have had many NSVs through this expedition and while it has had it’s up’s and downs soldiering on.

Packing up the month long Airbnb and headed for Houston tomorrow.  Taking a cooler and plenty of snacks so I will make it through the last 3 days even if things are going to be awkward as hell this next week... so many things happening that it is going to be hard to keep things straight and then another busy weekend next weekend with at least one more trip this time Houston to Austin and back for my remaining stuff.  I may take something of a cheat week before I get going on round 2: still eating the W30 meal service but I am nostalgic for the best cheesesteak I have ever had from a place near my dad’s house... one hoagie style roll and some dairy won’t kill me before getting back clean W30 style.

[Revelate]

So I blew it on Day 28.  I was in transit yesterday moving to Houston and my meal service order went sideways and I wasn’t in a position to correct.  Unfortunately I picked an Airbnb in what appears to be a food desert only a few miles from where the new place is because Internet service is being more challenging than it needs to be to establish and I can’t be without that as my paychecks are dependent on it.

So fallback plan for my jobs, wasn’t really considering fallback plans for diet.  I was planning to transition into Round 2 soonish anyway so it’s not like I have long term screwed up but it’s just unfortunate... ultimately I asked for no cheese on the omelet, it came with cheese and I ate it anyway.  Fairly greasy too, admittedly not a high quality restaurant.  That standard advice about having better quality food laying around is absolutely on point: hunger can lead even me to suboptimal decisions.

If there is a silver lining to this at all, I just don’t feel as good right now post meal as I normally do so it’s pretty F’n clear to me that eating better has marked improvements for me physiologically and there is no reason not do eat similarly over the long term.

Additionally trying to be rational, attempting to do W30 when you don’t cook and you are in process of closing on a mortgage, subsequently moving, and working 2.5ish jobs at the same time without much time off... it’s admittedly a little insane and was almost assuredly overly optimistic.

So I will get settled in the new place, and I will be switching the meal service to delivery, two less things in my life and I will hit W30 again hard with a more detailed plan with the lessons learned from this one.

 

 

[Revelate]

Hrm dupe my apologies.