Chopper 1st whole 30. March 1st

[Chopper9994]

OK. I guess this is where I start my log/Journal.

I'm a little late as this is day two but I'll start by saying day one went very well. I'm not going to list everything I eat for each meal etc but just a synopsis of how the day went overall and random experiences, thoughts etc.

Just a short bio: Been overweight my whole adult life and have tried pretty much everything from the Metabolife craze back in the 90's (anybody remember that killer stuff??) to Phen Fen to Atkins to semi-vegetarian etc. I have always had the best results with low carb and to me seems the best route to a permanent lifestyle change. My body responds well to low carb and I'm very happy in full blown ketosis. The semi-veggie actually went O.K. but I cant handle the fruit. It's like giving methadone to a heroin addict. I was eating very well but stayed fat from all the fruit carbs etc. Plus it just didn't feel right to be avoiding meats/fats.

Long story short: Here I am, just turned 50 and realistically need to lose about 100 lbs. I have been very lucky so far in that I don't seem to be suffering anything more serious than slightly elevated blood pressure and some knee and hip pain. It's no wonder huh? Can you imagine the kind of stress the leg/hip joints must be going through carrying an extra 100 lbs? I read an article that compared it to carrying a full size refrigerator around on your back. How screwed up is that?

Also, my job (commercial helicopter pilot) requires me to pass a fairly strict physical every year and I can get grounded for a variety of reasons (blood pressure, diabetes etc). FAA doesn't want sick pilots flying around for some reason! I'm planning on at least 15 more years left of flying so it's pretty darned important that I get my weight under control or I may be your newest WalMart greeter or cart shagger!

So after years of trying different diets and hundreds of hours of research it's pretty obvious that this type of eating (Whole 30, Whole 9, Paleao, Primal etc.) is most likely the way to go for me. As of this writing, I will be adopting this WOE for life and will not/cannot ever go back to SAD. I refuse to get sick and old like the average SAD person as I have way too much to do before I die. Good luck to all and I look forward to this journey.

[Cavegirlmegan]

Good luck chopper! Great ready to rock!

[Chopper9994]

Hey All

Day 2. Ate all good stuff. No cheats. Good clean day. Roasted chicken, crock pot chuck roast and BAS (big ass salad)! Homemade balsamic/olive oil dressing. Also, tried making homemade ghee. Did a little research online and found some good info. Not very hard at all and I will never ever buy pre-made ghee. It's waaaayyyy cheaper to make it yourself.

I'm really starting to feel the carb-flu now. Unfortunately I started real dirty (eating super bad right up to start day) so the carb-flu is going to be a little worse than it should be. Fortunately I can start to tase ketones in my saliva which is a great sign that the change to fat burning is progressing. I'm working nights right now which actually makes thing a little easier. I get all my eating done before I go to work and my appetite seems easier to control when I work nights. I used to take a big bag of junk to work with me and gorge on sweets/pastries etc. (Little Debbie is a bitch!)... Now I bring a couple of hard boiled eggs for emergency cravings. Not exactly a Nutty Bar but it works! Drinking black coffee in the a.m. and water the rest of the day.

I also got some good/bad news that I will be travelling to the home office in Louisiana for a week of advanced training Mar 15th thru 21st. This is really good for my career but will very much challenge my third week of Whole 30. I don't do very well when I travel but I'm going to look at this as a challenge. If I'm going to eat like this for life I better figure out a way to travel and eat clean. I'll be in a hotel room with a kitchen so I should be fine. Just going to take some pre-planning and preperation. Good training!

Anyway, feeling really good and bad at the same time. Good to be on plan but this carb-flu is kickin my ass... Going to go take a long nap. Later... zzzzzzzzzz

[Chopper9994]

Day 3 success

Carb-flu still firmly in place. No cheats. Cravings starting to wake up (damn Dragon)...

Was able to drag myself to the store and bought ingredients for Caveman Soup. Just something I made up. Lots of stew meat, ground beef, some bacon and a bunch of Whole 30 approved veggies. Came out more like a stew. Added some of my homeade curry (cayenne, turmeric, cumin, sweet curry mixed together). Turned out super good. Yummy! Definitely be eating off that big giant pot of goodness for a few days.

Well, I had a long night at work so it's going to be a short visit today. Steak & Eggs for breakfast then off to bed. Glad it's kinda yucky outside as I absolutely hate going to bed when it's sunny. Just doesn't feel right. G'nite all...

[simonec]

that caveman soup sounds good. good luck!

[Chopper9994]

Good Morning

Missed a day here as I'm on nights and we've been pretty busy. I usually don't go to bed first thing in the morning when I'm coming off a night shift as I normally use the mornings to get all my domestic chores done i.e. shopping, prepping, cooking now that I'm eating right again. Top that off with all the household chores (I'm single and keep a clean house!) and it's pretty easy to stay up till about noon when I lay down and get 5 or 6 hours of sleep before work. Carb-flu kicked my ass yesterday so I went straight to bed... zzzzzzzz...

Last two days went well. Made some roasted pork chops with lot's of veggies. Browned the pork chops in ghee, placed them in a big roasting pan topped with broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, asparagus, brussel sprouts, red onion, mushrooms. Drizzled with some olive oil and melted ghee and roasted for 1 hour at 350 degrees. Cranked the oven up to 400 and let it go another 15 minutes. Absolutely unbelievable good! Oh, yes... also had some roasted garlic going at the same time. Good thing I don't have a girlfriend right now! Talk about garlic breath. Yummy!

Today is day 6 and It feels like the carb-flu is finally starting to wear off. Energy levels are up and the mind staring to clear. I can definitely taste ketones in my saliva and the swollen, bloated feeling I usually have when eating dirty is gone. I can feel a loosening of clothing also and it's getting easier to tie my shoes with each passing day. Amazing how that little chore can be so unpleasant and a constant reminder of how much I need to lose weight. I'm not using the scale everyday like I used and I like that. I used to weigh every single day and keep a tablet on the coffee table with my daily weights written down so I could see my progress. I wasn't aware how much stress that little detail actually made until I stopped doing it. It's feels less like a diet and more like the desperately needed life change I need right now. Who cares what the scale shows as I'll be eating like this for the rest of my life anyway! However, I am really looking forward to the day 30 weigh in for sure.

Some major differences in the way I'm doing this now as in the past: Again, I have had terrific results before eating "low carb" but I have never been so clean as the Whole 30. In the past I used lot's of butter and especially cheese. I was eating waaayyy too much cheese and was making bacon/cheese omelets for breakfast pretty much everyday and even putting cheese on top of a steak... Yuck now that I think about it. Also I was consuming gallons of ranch and bleu cheese salad dressings in the past. Now it's strictly balsamic vinegar and olive oil. I used way too much mayo also (mayo on asparagus is better than crack cocaine!) Now it's homemade macadamia oil based mayo. Tastes way better than store-bought mayo anyway. And let's not forget about the God's gift to the low-carber: BACON!!! Yay bacon!!! Not so fast... damn I knew there was a catch. Did a bunch of reading and I'm consuming a fraction of the bacon I used to in the past. I did find some sugar free stuff at the local market but it's going to be a rarity now that I know how dirty regular store bought bacon is. Going to buy the premium clean stuff from now on and that stuff aint cheap! ChaChing$$. I also used to consume alot of Splenda in my iced tea everyday. That was kind of hard to get used to at first but it's like drinking black coffee. I got used to it pretty quick and actually prefer it that way now. I'm not eating any fruit just yet as that is definitely a "trigger" food for me. It's much easier if I absolutely stay away from any type of sweet taste at all for a few months until the Dragon is at least soundly sleeping. The only thing sweet that I taste is when I brush my teeth and even that bothers me so I may switch to straight baking soda for that. Also cutting back on the salt/sodium as it does make a difference in my blood pressure.

O.K Enough for now. I'm actually feeling for the first time that I'm finally doing it right and the daily Whole 30 e-mails REALLY help me stay focused and on track. No shopping/cooking today as I'm all caught up for now. Going to grab some breakfast: eggs and a pork chop with roasted veggies (damn that sounds good!). Good luck everybody. See you tommorow.