One day at a time

[CaseyD]

I'm on day 2 of what I intend to make a Whole100. I actually started with the January 100 group, made it almost the entire first thirty days, then abandoned ship. I ignored emotional triggers and wound up "medicating" with food instead of dealing with the stress directly. It actually took me by surprise as I had thought I had broken that habit last summer during a Whole50. Oh well. You live and learn.

I have been on this rollercoaster ever since, doing four days Whole30 style and then 2-5 days sugar demon style. It hasn't been fun and it made me very reluctant to come on here and start a log. But, I restarted the email daily and the one for day 2 resonated with me big time. I have to truly live this again and decide I am going to be successful if I have any chance of finishing what I started in January. And I really want to finish what I started.

Today is Day 2. I'm 28 or so weeks pregnant and my due day actually falls before day 90 of the 100 days. But, I was 15 days late with my first so I know better than to expect anything. :-) I am ready for this, though, as I have made a huge push to have a ton of precooked meals either canned or frozen for after the baby. I made them all Whole30 clean. So, no excuse, right?

Also, my pregnancy hormones are causing my food allergies/sensitivities to worsen and created a new one - shellfish. Eggs seem to be an issue right now as well, so I will sadly eat very little to no eggs during this.

OK, Day 1:

Meal 1: pastured/clean bacon, spinach cooked in the fat

Meal 2: buffalo chicken salad (adapted from a recipe that was on this site)

Meal 3: BBQ salmon, asparagus, a little grass fed burger and sweet potato

Meal 4: the other half of the sweet potato and an orange.

I'll post Day 2's meals later. Today I am suffering big time from the carb/ sugar hangover AND kill all the things at the same time. I think the transition is sucking more this time due to pregnancy hormones because WOW, this blows. I'm going to reread my journal from January and August last year to remind myself it gets better now.... :-)

[Krista Billows Rodriguez]

Good luck! You and baby will be all the healthier for your efforts!

[CaseyD]

Thanks!

Day 2 was rough. I felt like garbage the entire day, but I made it.

Meal 1: leftover salmon, asparagus and sweet potato

Meal 2: leftover eggplant strata from Well Fed (no eggs), buffalo chicken salad

Meal 3: sweet potato in coconut oil, a couple strawberries

Meal 4: bacon and burger lettuce wraps loaded up with veggies and avocado

I got almost ten hours of sleep last night despite going out to a show. So, I hope that helps me through day 3!

[CaseyD]

Day 3 done and I survived. I felt very depressed and tired today.

Meal 1: pastured bacon and cooked spinach

Meal 2: small amount of leftover eggplant strata

Meal 3: kelp noodle stirfry from Nom Nom Paleo app. This was amazing!

Meal 4: filet mingone, broccoli and potato

We got a pastured half hog and grass fed quarter beef, so the filet mingone was wrapped in bacon and they both came from out meat stash. Very awesome and way better than going out to eat!

Day 4 and 5 are coming, and I am nervous. I don't have my daughter tomorrow so I am going to have to be on top of the sugar cravings big time. I may just batch cook tomorrow and can stuff so that I am just too busy to think about sugar.

[CaseyD]

Whew, I have survived Day 4. And I owe it all to leftovers.

Meal 1: leftover salmon, asparagus and a little bit of leftover potato (we got 10 stupid lbs of these from the coop and I am not a fan but we're too broke not to eat them. Yeah, we'll see if that really happens...)

Meal 2: lettuce wrap burger with veggies and mustard, sweet potato (because I needed to eat a real potato again!)

Meal 3: leftover eggplant strata

Snack: a couple bites of almond butter

I really, really wanted almond butter today. I wanted it yesterday too, but since I usually don't dig a spoon into a jar unless absolutely necessary, I figured I'd hold out. No, it had to be done. Before I went paleo, I'd occasionally just want a couple bites of peanut butter instead of eating a meal or snack, so I guess that's where this came from.

Wow, I just had a weird flashback to my old lunch favorite: peanut butter and banana sandwiches. I can't even remember the last time I had an actual sandwich on bread. I'm sure I'll dream about this tonight..

I also managed to get to a yoga class today. I had a weird week last week where I had zero desire to do yoga or anything, so I just took the week off. I don't usually get like that so I'm blaming it on the pregnancy hormones. I'm just glad I have some energy back to do yoga again. I've been dragging the last couple days!

[CaseyD]

Posting in my log early today because I'm having a rough day with this! Not so much sugar cravings but a strong desire to off road with anything possible. It isn't helping that my daughter is obviously feeding off my "kill all the things" mood today and throwing lots of fits too!

I'm staying strong, though. Instead of my first plan of eating out for lunch, which could present way too much temptation, I made us a very late lunch. It feels much better that I did the right thing by going home.

Day 5 so far:

Meal 1: pastured/clean bacon with cooked spinach

Meal 2: Thai chicken, broccoli, cauliflower and spaghetti squash with a banana

For dinner I'm making skirt steak, kale salad and probably a sweet potato or another green side. I guess I better get on trying to figure out how I want to cook this steak!

[CaseyD]

Ok, dinner last night was actually more of what I had for lunch.

Day 6:

Meal 1: skirt steak, mushrooms, onions and sweet potato

Meal 2: lettuce wrapped burgers with avocado, tomato and onion

Meal 3: I'm eating the kelp noodle stir fry again, only this time with kale instead of spinach!

I waited way too long to eat dinner because of obligations this evening. Time to chow down!

[CaseyD]

Day 7:

Meal 1: leftover kelp noodle stir fry

Meal 2: (more like snack) skirt steak and sweet potato

Meal 2: (another snack) canned tuna and banana

Meal 3: salmon, broccoli and cauliflower, potato (we are half way through this awful 10 lbs bag!)

All I want to do is eat fruit today. I'm not craving actual junk food, I want fruit. I'm not sure if this is sugar cravings in disguise or pregnancy related or I just generally would like fruit today. Alas, we are pretty much out of fruit. We do have a pineapple that hasn't been cut open yet, so I may end up doing that after my daughter goes to bed.

I have had no desire to cook today, but not much in the way of leftovers. I also don't want to break into the canned/frozen food for after the baby is born, so I just did ultimate lazy today and picked at stuff. I had to cave and cook dinner, and luckily I had easy stuff lying around to make.

One week down!

[CaseyD]

Day 8 and I am dying with these sugar cravings/ rage. If this was my first Whole30, I'd probably throw in the towel since I feel worse than I do off roading. But, I'm sticking with it and tightening the reins where I can. I haven't eaten much fruit so far, so I can't blame that. Maybe I am eating too much nut butters/flours on things? I don't know, but I am tired of feeling this angry over sugar.

I had the opportunity to eat fresh baked cookies this morning. They looked amazing, but I refused and I think now I just can't stop feeling angry because of it. And, of course because of a super cranky toddler, the roast I planned for dinner is going to be two hours late. I just want to scream. Ugh, ok, I won't because she's actually taking a nap right now. I need to figure out something to do to feel better fast.

[CaseyD]

Ok, day 8:

Meal 1: compliant pastured ham steak, pineapple

Meal 2: lettuce wrap burger with avocado, onion, bell pepper, and sweet potato

Snack: banana

Meal 3: pork roast with carrots, leek, celery and onion, and potato (oh darn, the rest appear to have gone bad... )

Hmmm.... It just dawned on me that maybe the potato is actually making my sugar cravings worse. That seems insane because they are so bland. Sweet potatoes are far sweeter and I just like them so much more, but maybe the potatoes are not helping.

I know they're not technically Whole30 because of the whole SWYPO thing, but that is a non issue for me considering my mom used to have to fight me to eat them. Well, maybe there was more to that I didn't know.

I'm just glad I made it through today. Tomorrow is going to be a test. I have a birthday party to go to at lunch.

[Donna]

Hey Casey:

I didn't know you were doing one too! I have a thread W30 Detox....glad to see you on here!!!!!

[CaseyD]

Yes, I finally accepted that I can't keep going back and forth with the sugar, so I recommitted myself to doing the 100 days I had wanted to do at the start of the year.

I'll look for your thread. Glad you're on here doing one too!

[CaseyD]

Ahhhh! I blew it on Day 10!!

Yesterday, we went to the circus and then we celebrated birthdays/Easter at my parent's house. There was cake and a lot of candy. My mom didn't make me gluten free brownies, but right before we left, she plopped down these dark chocolate Easter bunnies in front of everyone and said, "I bought this before you told me you quit sugar again, so here you go."

I didn't eat it, but my husband took it. He set both bunnies on the book shelf in our house when we got home. I didn't touch it all night, and most of today. Then, sometime this afternoon I just grabbed mine and ate it. I didn't even allow myself to think about what I was doing before I did it - I just walked in there and promptly ate it. :-(

I have seriously had intense sugar cravings and just general anger at things for the last ten days. I ate the chocolate and felt happy. I think that's the most depressing part. I don't really get why I'm having such a hard time moving past the hard sugar cravings.

Anyway, my disappointment aside, I'm getting right back on board. I'm just starting over, Day 1 tomorrow and that is that. I'm just going to keep doing this until I've completed my 100 days that I owe myself. But, this time I need to figure out how to handle the anger/stress I feel going through all these cravings because clearly I am not managing that. So, my challenge has to have an added element of de-stressing this time. Along with the clean eating, I will either do at least 20 minutes of yoga every day or at least 10 minutes of sitting meditation every day. I'm going to log this here with my meals to make sure I do it.

Also, I'm going to make sure I'm not feeding sugar cravings with anything or making foods that might be setting this off. I'm actually revisiting my old threads here and seeing exactly what I ate and sticking to a lot of that. I just have to make this work!

[Donna]

good for you Casey, this is a tough time of year with the holiday. Easter means sweets and they are my downfall... Hang in there and get back in the saddle....all is well....