Whole30 Groups are the Best

[Donna]

hi all....

I have had a busy week at work and school, etc....every Friday night, I go out with friends. We eat at a local Italian restaurant and decompress, laugh. Sometimes our table is 20 people long! Last night we had a meeting, and someone brought in soft pretzels and mustard in a bag....OMG....calling my name! RESISTED Next, met my friends for dinner and everyone's eating the home made pizza bread....place is crowded and takes 20 minutes for our orders to come.....RESISTED I ordered a simple seafood marinara over fresh spinach greens....delish! Out comes a 20 ft cake for somebody's birthday....whipped cream (my favorite) RESISTED.

So I have proved to myself over and over again these last 28 days that I can do this. I didn't feel deprived because I played the tapes in my head. If you eat that, it's off to the races.....do you really want to stop feeling this good? I am on day 28 day and survived a tempting Friday out with good friends but had a great time and feel good about myself this morning!

Casey: That book sounds awesome. Hope it comes on kindle!

Beets: go you for homemade yogurt! I miss Greek yogurt on occasion....hope I can reintroduce some dairy as it has NEVER been an issue for me...

Jessica: I go to university in the evening and it is tough....do you live at the school?

Medlmen: the first two weeks are the worst and so you are almost there....good for you!

[Collegegal82]

Donna-- thankfully I don't live on campus, I live off campus with my family. Most of my family within the exclusion of my dad is following some extent of paleo. They still give in to a lot of treats however. My sister being the worse who will buy bag after bag of junk food.... Literally her entire pay check goes to junk food every month.

GREAT job on resisting all the junk food last night, It's tough I've been faced with a few of those situations already. Birthday cake, cheese danish's, ice cream...etc. Now it just becomes second nature to just say no.

[CaseyD]

Hi all!

It's been a busy weekend here with great Spring weather. We had a bunch of people over yesterday and today we're just spending most of the day outside. My poor husband is on-call for work and his phone just keeps ringing.

We BBQ-ed pork ribs for the first time yesterday and they turned out amazing. I just put some spices on them and wrapped them in foil. I think the sugar cravings are giving me a break, but I know they come and go over the course of 30 days. The one downside of this Whole30 business is that I think eating clean is making the baby turn into superman. He is just non-stop moving and kicking, especially at night. So, sleeping is tricky.

I'm very low on energy, so I'm making sure that I eat 1-2 sweet potatoes a day. I think no matter what I eat, though, I'm just going to have the exhaustion because I'm in my third trimester. Keeping up with my daughter is starting to wear me out since I'm not moving as fast right now. I've also had to pull back on how many yoga classes and what kind I take a week. I've dropped my intermediate classes because I just feel too worn out by the end. So sad. Oh well, I won't be pregnant forever!

Glad to see everyone is doing great!

[Beets]

Casey I just want to thank you for the book rec. I'm really getting a lot out of it.

For so long I've known I had to seriously change my diet. But while I've taken small temporary steps (eliminating sugar or wheat for a period then going back gradually to my old ways) I've always been afraid of taking a big permanent step.

The book really helps with that.

Hope you guys are all doing well!

I need to log a couple days worth of food but I'm still chugging along. Started feeling good yesterday, didn't need to snack, felt strong in my class last night. Then today I got hit with allergies. Boo! Thought they would magically disappear but I guess I've only been strict Paleo for a week.

[CaseyD]

Hi everyone!

Congrats, Donna for hitting the 30 day mark!!

Beets - I ended up reading that book in three days (which is big considering I'm at the mercy of my toddler). That's part of why I haven't been on here in a few days! Also, the weather has been perfect so we've been spending all our time outside.

I feel like, after reading that book it is hard to not just do this. Now everything comes with this decision of "do I really want to be healthy (and list of goals), or not?" Putting it in that perspective is really helping me right now! Also, he's got me pretty convinced to reconsider how I exercise (particularly after the baby is born). I actually tried out his EP Life fitness site last September, but morning sickness put an end to that before I got to far with it. Maybe I'll try it out again, once I'm recovered.

I lost count of what day I'm on, and I think it is because I read that book. I'll have to go back on here and figure that out. But, I'm rocking the clean eating and feeling better for it! All except my energy levels. But, it dawned on me that my iron levels are low. I just had to take another test to see where they were at, and I wouldn't be surprised if I'm still anemic, or that maybe it's worse. I have that problem from time to time, and did in my first pregnancy.

So, I'm adding liver to my diet again (which I should have never stopped with, but I hate liver so much). I do a really gross thing with it to get it down, but it is the only thing that works for me! I actually grind raw liver up with lemon and water to make a shake and drink it, then chase it with hot sauce. It works. I wish I could stomach just eating the stuff though!

Ha, I had a dream about eating liver last night. Very lame dream indeed!

Hope everyone is doing well!

[Beets]

Yay Donna!

How is everyone else? I haven't been on or logged my foods on the site because of the warm weather/allergy combo. I've been passing out at night. I have all of my food noted elsewhere and have been doing well on that front, though reading a lot about autoimmune issues (I have psoriasis which got really bad after my daughter was born) and thinking I might have to go the autoimmnue protocol route.

And I too have been reconsidering adding some more serious strength training. I have been doing my Tracy Anderson workouts--which I'm sure are ridiculed in the world of CF thanks to her silly statements about not using any weights heavier than 3 lbs. (If you aren't familiar with her she is a much-mocked "celebrity trainer" who tells people to eat horrible, low-fat, calorie-restricted diets, says silly things about "teeny tiny arms." That said, her workouts gets good results--for me, at least.) I used her stuff before I got pg with #2 and really liked my body for the first time in years.

Then again, really vigorous yoga for me combines the mental and the physical in such an efficient way. But can't be hurt with more strength training.

I used to like liver as a kid. But now I don't know how to cook it besides in pate. I've been reading about people eating pate with cukes and carrots so maybe I'll do that this weekend. My husband loooves it too. That sounds like a crazy shot!

[Beets]

I feel like, after reading that book it is hard to not just do this. Now everything comes with this decision of "do I really want to be healthy (and list of goals), or not?" Putting it in that perspective is really helping me right now!

Ditto! His chapter about taste v health will stay with me for life.

[Collegegal82]

Still doing great here! Weather here has been horrible. Spring has not come to michigan yet unless you count the last 4 days of cold and rain. Ideally I'd like to get out for a walk, but with this weather that's not happening. Blah!

[Beets]

I hear you. We had two days of 80ish weather (bizarre!) and today it's windy, pouring rain and bitterly cold. A happy medium would be nice, please!

[KayJay]

Day 45 for me on Saturday. Still going strong.

I've noticed I'm sleepy during my last hour or so of work, which is a very nice, very normal change for me. This is at 2am in the morning, the end of a ten hour shift. Not exhausted, not tired, not bleary or foggy or ugh. Just sleepy. (There are days where I am all those other things, too, usually after a very hard go-go-go shift.)

I'm taking it that my cortisol levels are beginning to even out, and that's something I don't know if I've had since... no idea. I've almost always been either wired or exhausted after work for a very long time. I'm also discovering that an 8 hour job would be better for me to have, since I'm fairly alert until midnight, then things get harder.

We are going on a trip the 23rd thru 25th, so I'm starting to plan remaining compliant.

I'm toying with adding some short workouts to my yoga, feeling a lot more physical lately.

Onward!

[Donna]

Hi All!

Been MIA here and I apologize. Had a busy week of parent teacher conferences and grad school. So after my W30 I derailed from Tues to Friday....Last night eating fried rice and I feel not so great this am! So today I am back in full force. I am not going to do another W30, but comply daily....it's more doable for me! But anyway....glad you are all doing well. So I lost 11.5 lbs in my W30.

Also, I started acupuncture this week. I went for a frozen shoulder but he is amazing and is helping me with my metabolism which is screwed up since my thyroidectomy in '93. This guy is 4 doors from my house. I walk to his place on the main road off my road. He spends one hour with me. I have needles placed and a heat warmer on my front body and then sleep for 20 mins then I have needles placed in the back of me and I rest with a warmer on my body on a massage table for another 20 minutes. I can't believe how great I felt after this...so my insurance covers the whole thing! I hope to have 2 sessions per week for 10 to 15 weeks to improve my metabolism. Also, he is giving me chinese herbs all on insurance! He wants me completely off dairy and certain grains (duh)...wants me eating more fish and kelp or seaweed. He gave me a liver detox the other day and I spent half the night in the bathroom! (TMI) and will tell him my body cannot take whatever herb that was! So back in the saddle ladies and glad to have all of you...

[CaseyD]

O.k. I think I'm ready to finally do this. I'm going to change up my Whole30 for the next three weeks to follow an Autoimmune Protocol. I've been doing a lot of research on this to figure out exactly how I should do it, and I think I'm ready.

It has been recommended to me by a couple people that I give it a try, and I'm pretty convinced I could benefit from it. I already have to cut eggs out above all the other W30 rules, but I've always wondered if I'd do even better to experiment with taking out nuts, seeds, nightshades, and my occasional decaf coffee as well.

I think I need to ease into it by first cutting the sugar before I did the rest. Quitting tomatoes is going to be very hard for me. I think I'm going to feel lost in the kitchen for a while. But, I feel like this is something I need to do so I can just know once and for all!

Tomorrow will be the first day of the three weeks on the AI protocol. Deep breath!

[Collegegal82]

Sounds like everyone is still doing awesome. I'm switching things up a bit this week and will be preparing a beef stew, a 12 egg frittata (yay! Leftovers) and a beef stroganoff (using coconut milk no heavy cream) we'll see if it works out.

Lately I've been doing a lot of tomato based things and think I'm ready to try something different. I'm really craving salmon currently but I don't want canned and I don't want to cook it myself... Lol

Haven't given into any sweets yet, I almost caved yesterday for some Ben and Jerry's cannoli ice cream that my family brought into the house but decided it wasn't worth it and passed it up.

And on that note I need to go back to studying for my final exams.