Let's Support Each Other — doing a January Whole30

[MizRik]

2 hours ago, Aliem999 said:

@tiffysquid That's great you did not blow it with two more days to go! So close! You can do it! If you are PMSing, maybe extend through after your period so that you end on a good day! I know I would be bummed ending it on a bloated day.

I actually started my period today. Tomorrow is day 31 and I was just thinking….. maybe I should extend it until I wake up not feeling bloated and crampy. Otherwise….. is it cramps? Or my gut doesn’t like dairy.  
 

way to screw up my plans of getting icecream tomorrow stupid body! 

[tiffysquid]

1 hour ago, MizRik said:

I actually started my period today. Tomorrow is day 31 and I was just thinking….. maybe I should extend it until I wake up not feeling bloated and crampy. Otherwise….. is it cramps? Or my gut doesn’t like dairy.  
 

way to screw up my plans of getting icecream tomorrow stupid body! 

rikki, maybe it's SMART BODY trying to tell you All the Things! (coconut faux-ice-cream might be a good compromise?)

i just realized tomorrow is Day 31! now i have to decide.

i also got my period last night. it happened just about exactly at the moment of the New Moon (in Aquarius, for those who care, and conjunct Saturn / square-ish Uranus), which is also  lunar Imbolc this month. very woo woo!

[tiffysquid]

3 hours ago, Aliem999 said:

@tiffysquid That's great you did not blow it with two more days to go! So close! You can do it! If you are PMSing, maybe extend through after your period so that you end on a good day! I know I would be bummed ending it on a bloated day.

thanks alie! i did plunge a banana into the cocoa powder today, which took the edge off. getting my chocolate fix somehow or other!!

i noticed that the Whole30's official January W30 happened to start on Day 1 of my period last month. and now here i am again. officially this is my last day of my Whole30.

weirdly, the only thing i really want to eat off-plan is to try this drink Aurora Elixirs. they're a new client of mine, and i love so much about what they do, how they source their ingredients, etc. — but i haven't been able to try their product yet, because there's a small amount of sugar! they do non-alcoholic, celebratory drinks (people use 'em as mixers for cocktails, too), some containing hemp and CBD, some containing hops. i don't mind a *little* sugar when i'm off-W30. sure beats alcohol in terms of ultimate sugar content, effect on the gut & habits, etc.

so maybe i will just do semi-W30 for another month, and slowly add in a couple cheats.

but i have to stay off the serious carbs, the rice and bagels and gluten-free bread and all that other stuff. it's just not good for me. seems like that's easier to do when i'm *really strict* though.

[tiffysquid]

So I celebrated the end of my Whole30 with a bottle of Aurora hemp - Lavender Orange flavor. It was delicious, and not particularly sweet, so that seemed allright.

Resisted the urge to buy chocolate again today, even though officially I'm off my Whole30.

Did make a pancake-like omelette, dusted with cinnamon and a *tiny* bit of maple syrup.

Am I on the slippery slope to crummy eating???? I don't know.

[MizRik]

I did not stop and get me an icecream today as I had planned. Since I am still having menstrual cramps I didn’t want to question any discomfort. 
 

I did have a little sugar though in the way of a bite sized unreal brand coconut chocolate bar. The ingredients are not too crazy and it was pretty good …. Organic Coconut, Organic Cassava Syrup, Dark Chocolate (Chocolate Liquor, Cane Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Vanilla)
 

didn’t seem to upset my gut. So we shall see how I feel tomorrow. Hoping my cramps go away soon. I really want ice cream. 

[MaddMac]

So happy Day 31 for me - I pretty much am sticking to the W30 during the day, but for the reintro I made a grain free pizza crust from paleorunningmomma.com, cashew cheese, and turkey pepperoni (SF), artichoke hearts and pizza sauce (also SF).  The only reintro is a nice chilled glass of white wine. Husband made a dirty martini.  Focusing on control!

Hope everyone is doing well regardless of which day you are on!

[Aliem999]

Well I did not make it past day 31. Got the flu. Barely ate yesterday. I had some shu mai (wheat and soy) cause eating something at that point was better than nothing. I plan on finishing it today, but breakfast was compliant. I aim to have a compliant dinner and be compliant tomorrow. I desperately need to go grocery shopping if I want to be compliant tomorrow. We will see if I am up to it. Breakfast tomorrow should be fine, but past that I will definitely struggle. Pretty much out of veggies.

[MizRik]

Glad I didn’t reintro anything other than sugar yesterday. I woke go with a wicked headache which was right on course with my typical period headaches. They tend to peek on day two or three. Sooo yup if I had eaten anything other than sugar, even knowing my headache cycles I would t have triple questioned the food. 
 

reintro should be able to start in another two days or so. 
 

For now I have a bunch of meat in the Sous Vide cooker and veggies ready to go too. Meal prep made easy. 
 

Gonna lay off the sugar again too. Just because I can. 
 

@Aliem999 sorry you got sick right at the end!! hope everyone else is feeling good. 

[tiffysquid]

@MizRik sounds good, waiting on the reintro!

@MaddMac sounds like a good Day 31!

@Aliem999i hope you get to feeling better. flu or Covid or unknown?

 

I tried another nonalcoholic drink tonight, with some sugar. Either the sugar or the natural flavors are causing a weird sensation in my mouth and tongue. I sometimes have citrus/orange allergies, so I suspect that is the culprit. I was kind of hoping that had gone away. Oh well!

Otherwise still on-plan. Felt the urge to go get a bagel and cream cheese. Didn't.

[MaddMac]

Tiff, applause for trying some nonalc ideas. Another idea is to try shrubs - a few weeks ago I purchased a key lime balsamic vinegar (kind of like a shrub) and the gal at the store (it's a specialty olive oil/vinegar shop) and she mentioned it was delightful in a sparkling water  - tasted a bit like seven-up!  And it did, w/o the sugar!

I've dived right back into true drinking - but in moderation. Tonight we made margaritas but I used Swerve.

The husband and I are in a groove not needing breads, dairy....but we are going to have vegetarian enchiladas (with grain free home made tortillas), no cheese, but trying pinto beans to reintroduce some legumes.  Adding the cauliflower mexi-rice... 

Really encouraged with this last W30 - today at the doctor's office, my BP was completely normal...also, I think I might have mentioned I've lost 11 lbs. I feel like I really really can't go back to 11 lbs more and super motivated to keep it that way.

Best of luck to everyone and the continuing journey

 

 

J

[MizRik]

Still no reintro for me yet. I am now thinking I might skip the ice cream, aka dairy reintro, and go for sushi on Monday instead. Pretty sure doing sushi I can trial rice but keep everything else out? I will just need to be mindful of any breaded shrimp in the mix of the sushi rolls. 
 

Thoughts? I honeslty don’t know too much about what’s in Sushi. I just know I enjoy eating it 

 

 

[MizRik]

2 hours ago, MaddMac said:

Tiff, applause for trying some nonalc ideas. Another idea is to try shrubs - a few weeks ago I purchased a key lime balsamic vinegar (kind of like a shrub) and the gal at the store (it's a specialty olive oil/vinegar shop) and she mentioned it was delightful in a sparkling water  - tasted a bit like seven-up!  And it did, w/o the sugar!

I've dived right back into true drinking - but in moderation. Tonight we made margaritas but I used Swerve.

The husband and I are in a groove not needing breads, dairy....but we are going to have vegetarian enchiladas (with grain free home made tortillas), no cheese, but trying pinto beans to reintroduce some legumes.  Adding the cauliflower mexi-rice... 

Really encouraged with this last W30 - today at the doctor's office, my BP was completely normal...also, I think I might have mentioned I've lost 11 lbs. I feel like I really really can't go back to 11 lbs more and super motivated to keep it that way.

Best of luck to everyone and the continuing journey

 

 

J

Congrats on the blood pressure and weight loss!! That’s awesome!! 

[Aliem999]

@tiffysquidunkown but likely the flu. Vomiting and such. I fell off the wagon, but I have a plan to be back on starting tomorrow. Between vomiting and not being able to shop and barely eating, I just struggled.

Lost 14.6 pounds....but likely only 8-10 of them are real weight loss (see my post on my journal). I plan to pretty much be complaint all next week, though maybe I'll add like a gin and soda next weekend. Don't plan on deviating food wise though for the next 8 days.

@MizRik Sushi would have rice, could have soy if you dip it. If you are having rolls, it could have all sorts of things. Soy, sugar, wheat if it's tempura. If you have previously done a reintro, why not. If not, maybe just stick to the fish and rice? Don't reintroduce things first that you don't really want.

[tiffysquid]

@MizRik rikki, i'm with alie on the sushi -- sushi kind of has *everything* in it. sugar, definitely... often soy... the various fishes and seaweeds... it would make more sense, to me, to start with a plain bowl of rice, or rice with on-plan additions (such as ghee). try that a couple days in a row and see how it goes. though i sure love sushi and can see the appeal!

 

@Aliem999 sounds like a doozy of an illness! i really hope things improve for you.

 

@MaddMac glad you are also enjoying some non-alc goodness! i'm a pretty serious kombucha fiend, and years ago used to do "drinking vinegars" (shrubs, basically) which were popular in Portland then (i'm an ex-Portlander), popularized through the PokPok empire of Thai-inspired foods.

Another fun thing: Lime Salt. i was in south India, Tamil Nadu / Chennai and Mahabalipuram areas, for a friend's wedding. and alcoholic drinks were not common among our Tamil hosts, but menus at the restaurants always had these lime sodas listed. you'd order as "lime sugar" or "lime salt." to your table would be brought fizzy water of some sort, like Perrier or club soda, and a small flagon of freshly squeezed lime juice. you'd add the lime to the soda.

and then -- sprinkle in either sugar or salt. this was the fun part, when our Indian friends laughed, because the Americans and Brits didn't understand what was going to happen. the salt gets in the mixture, and WHOAAAHHH -- it bubbles up all over, like a baking-soda-and-vinegar volcano at school! sugar even bubbles a bit. anyway, it was great fun but also delicious, perfect for the hot weather.

so that's another non-alcoholic drink i enjoy: seltzer or club soda + lime + salt.

 

[MizRik]

I don’t know what I was thinking…. Clearly I was in a post Night Shift fog and NOT thinking.
 

A co-worker and I grabbed breakfast together on our way home from the hospital. I made the decision that I would intro gluten/flour. So I got a breakfast sandwich that was grilled chicken on a biscuit. No cheese. No sauce. Nothing else. Just chicken and a biscuit. I didn’t even add egg because I already know those can give me headaches. 

I felt good about my decision. Enjoyed breakfast and the company. Went to bed feeling fine. 

Woke up this afternoon  to head back to work and suddenly had a full thought process. Well crap! That biscuit …. It’s not just made of flour alone!!! It most likely had eggs, milk and even sugar in it. It had all the things!!! 

I still feel fine. No reaction. No bloating. No issues. Still screwed that reintro up! LOL. 

Sooooo now back to Whole30 I go. No plans for what to do next other than no more post Night Shift breakfast runs! 
 

whoops! 
 

 

[Barbara M]

On 1/29/2022 at 9:59 AM, Aliem999 said:

@Barbara M I see a lot of greens and raw veggies. For me, those tend to be super bulky and it's way harder to eat 5 cups of raw spinach than one cup of cooked spinach (and that's probably the same amount of spinach.) You could also try some bulkier veggies like carrots (cooked are super yummy), broccoli, cauliflower. Also, how much avocado are you eating? At least half? Shrimp is super lean. You could probably eat like 10 of them (small - medium size) to get the calories you need (I know we don't count calories, but it takes a lot of shrimp to equate to 4-6 oz of chicken in terms of sustenance). If you do a quick google search 100g (3.5oz so not even a full serving) of chicken breast is about 180 calories with 9 grams of fat and shrimp is about 99 calories with zero grams of fat. Super good for you, but not super filling. Note: Once again. Not saying count calories. Just trying to give an example on why a palm sized portion of shrimp will probably not keep you full.

Not sure what portions you are eating besides your half of an apple.

Also, do you work out? A mini meal after might be good.

Those are some great NSV!!!!!

Thank you so much, @Aliem999! Also, I hope you feel better soon! I really appreciate it. Good to know about the raw veggies. I'm trying to increase my portions overall, but it's just hard to have enough time and energy to cook so much food. Still, I'm planning to do a Whole40, since my joint aches and pains haven't gone away (they've kind of gotten worse), to see if I just need a bit longer. 

Big congrats to everyone who has finished the program!!! Cheers to all of you!!! Anyone have any Tiger Blood (catching up on posts now)??

[tiffysquid]

I had a pretty darned good day! I have moved on to "Whole 30-ish". Today I went to my favorite brunch spot in a nearby town, sat outside in the cold Because Covid, and had Eggs Benedict -- but instead of bread or English muffin, I had them put it over spinach.

So yummy!

Went on a nice walk, maybe 2-3 miles, with a friend on the river nearby.

 

 

[Aliem999]

Back on track today. Tomorrow's breakfast and lunch are prepped and tomorrow's dinner will be Whole Foods.

I have been a bit more relaxed though. Did not really have much of a dinner since lunch was late and larger. Grazed off of my kid's plates. Did their roasted broccoli touch rice and ketchup? Probably. No visible contamination, but something I would not do during my 30 days. This was not eating after I was already full and I feel better about less food waste. Dog got the extra chicken nugget and some rice (haha), but I cleaned up the veggies.

[MizRik]

I am literally the worst at reintro. I mess it up every time. 
 

bad bad bad weekend.  
 

Plans…. Heading back to Whole30 for an unknown amount of time. Maybe two weeks, maybe 30 days, maybe longer. Then I REALLY need to do a proper reintro. 
 

Good luck to all of you 

Rikki 

[tiffysquid]

@Rikki - Do you do a full reintro every time? I figure I already know from previous Whole30s what foods trigger me.

And I'm weirded out that Melissa Urban is now rolling out a plant-based Whole30 diet! I mean, if she was wrong about meat, what else was she wrong about????

Meanwhile, I'm eating plenty of meat, avocados, bananas dipped in cacao powder. I tried a couple corn chips and immediately felt sick. I think I'll just keep doing a Whole30-ish, meat-and-fat diet until our trip to Mexico in March...

And I'll keep checking in here, if some of you decide to keep posting! It's nice to hear everyone's perspectives and processes.

[MizRik]

@Tiffy Squidwell…. Sadly, despite doing countless whole30s I have never nailed the reintro. I always mess it up. So I have never done one right. Major fail. I only know that eggs give me headaches. I’m oblivious to all other food items. Except I also wake up with a headache if I drink a soda too close to bedtime. That however is knowledge I obtained without the Whole30. 
 

Did Melissa introduce a plant based Whole30 because she now is against meat? Or just because it was for popular demand? I seen that it happened but didn’t read up on it. 

[tiffysquid]

Looks like Plant-Based has just been introduced as an option, and Melissa Urban isn't doing it herself. She says for her, meat works.

 

Well, I am off the Whole30 and Whole30-ish, but still not having gluten or legumes. Minimizing random carb-fests like rice, GF noodles, etc. Keeping the sweet potatoes rolling. Had an unfortunate encounter with my chocolate addiction! It's back.

I'm not sure how to move forward -- I'm thinking I'll wing it for a couple months, then check back and do a real Whole30. Maybe if I did like 3 a year, it would help ground me???? Maybe I'll do one in May?