Feeling Relieved - Day One

[beachchic85]

Your pastas and my baked goods - what a change!

I'm actually baked goods too haha I have home cake bakery!!!

[Emma]

I'm actually baked goods too haha I have home cake bakery!!!

You have a home cake bakery! Ha. That's too funny! That also must make this process very difficult.

[Emma]

Today, our house, which had fallen apart the last few weeks, finally looked put back together. When some neighborhood teens stopped in late afternoon, I looked and saw what they saw - a picked up home with the smell of cinnamon in the background and two little kids hanging out playing contentedly. It felt great to be back to normal. It seems like a long time since I've gotten so many things done without multiple cups of coffee to just get me moving.

I did have two cups of coffee today, but I didn't need them. I surely liked them and they certainly helped pep up my head, but they weren't like flailing attempts to stoke a fire that was bound to go out. And all this with a body that slept HORRIBLY last night due to a cough.

Today's breakfast: Two scrambled eggs with coconut oil and coconut milk, one paltry roasted beet, a few baby carrots

Today's lunch: Leftover beef with broccoli and onions, sauteed red cabbage with onions and apples, and mustard. The kids dipped all their food in mustard so I tried it too and the mustard was a perfect complement with the flavors.

Today's dinner: Spaghetti squash Bolgnese with ground turkey and carrots and celery and whatever else goes in it.

I made some apple egg muffins for later in the week in case any of us need something to eat while waiting for our next meal. The kids and I split one muffin and it was good - they gave it the thumbs up. I thought it left me wanting more, but not enough to actually go eat more.

A few nights back we had a red curry dish and the next day the tendonitis is my knee was hurting again. A day later it was again gone. I realized that the red curry has chili peppers in it which are in the nightshade family. I've been trying to avoid nightshades for this month to give my inflammation tendonitis prone body a good chance to be irritant free, though I don't know if they actually bother it. Tonight's dinner had tomato paste in it. I'm curious to see what will happen with my knee tomorrow. Perhaps nothing.

Day eight is a nice place to be. If I can kick this cough and stuffiness, then I'll be feeling pretty darn good.

[Emma]

I traveled out of town for two nights and it went great! Great is a bit of an exaggeration, but I stuck to the program and ate the foods I brought with me and came home ready for our hearty better balanced meals. While traveling I ate hard boiled eggs, sweet potatoes cooked in microwaves and almonds, carrots and an apple. And, I ate some organic baby food that comes in squeeze containers - sounds gross, but it really wasn't. The baby food was a mix of carrots and parsnips and apples and squash or some mix like that. It was quick and easy and worked to semi enrich the things I had with me.

What was the most impressive thing for me was how I was not tempted by all the food choices that I usually would have visited. When I travel and I'm running errands, I love picking up General Tso's chicken from the grocery store deli, along with some fruit and maybe some cracker jacks. I love stopping in at McDonald's as well for a cheeseburger or picking up some chinese to go or some sushi rolls and a croissant. The point is, when I travel I usually eat. This time the urge/yearning just wasn't there.

I feel satiated. I feel no cravings. I kind of tried to let myself relax to try to feel the craving to see if it was there (just hidden under this month's focus on eating well) but it was scary to really test the limits. It reminded me a bit of when I quit smoking. After the first week I just didn't really want a cigarette. Well, sometimes I DID, but it was my head that wanted it and not my body. But, I knew that if I had just ONE puff of a cigarette, I'd be hooked. I kind of feel like that with food. I don't want any of the sugars and breads, but I think if I had just one bite, I might reintroduce that desire.

Ultimately, I'm just finding that I'm not hungry - and that my sensation of being done eating has changed from feeling FULL to feeling just kinda done eating. Of course, I could eat more, but then I realize I kind of do feel full. It's a nice change.

I slept poorly on my trip because of long work hours and now have a nasty cough that kept me up much of last night so my energy isn't so hot today, but overall, I just feel like a healthier person. It will be nice to be done with this cold.

Today's meals:

Turkey sausage, pineapple, banana, sweet potato

Chicken, spaghetti squash with pesto

Ground beef meatballs, roasted beets with fennel, asparagus or something else to be determined

Some tahini based desert to take to a children's birthday party tonight for my own kids to have

[Emma]

Breakfast - Sweet potato slices, scrambled eggs with onions and a turkey sausage

Lunch - Scrambled eggs, little bit of chicken, raw carrots, apple slices, beets with fennel

Dinner - Baby portobello mushrooms stuffed with ground beef and italian/fennel spices, asparagus with cumin, sauerkraut

SICK. My daughter and I seem to have picked up a new virus or are hosting a losing battle with the last one. My energy was sluggish today and I've been having asthma attacks the past few days so I've been using inhalers, not sleeping well at all and generally getting more reactive so last night I used some hard core cough syrup so that I could get needed sleep. I slept 7.5 hours which was not as much as I needed, but enough to help me feel far better than yesterday. Hopefully things begin to ease up tomorrow.

Also, my knee is hurting again which I think is because I'm bloated. I suspect I triggered it by drinking significantly less water the days that I traveled. So, this morning when I ran to the store to pick up some eggs, I grabbed a bottle of sparkling water. My plan was to actively drink more water today to clear things out.

I saw a two liter bottle of soda water that was much cheaper and larger than my normal perrier so I grabbed it, paid and ran home. I drank that whole thing in the next three hours without even trying. I just kept filling my glass and having some more. THEN, right near the end, I looked at the ingredients and wouldn't you know it, there was SODIUM CITRATE in it!!! All this great sparkling water I was drinking and enjoying with the hopes of washing out my body was filled with sodium. As well, I don't think it's whole30 compliant. I don't think it's the end of the world, but I sure do suspect that it threw a wrench in my water retention reduction plan.

The result? I think all that water, plus some tap water is just hanging out in me and in my knee and my face and my stomach. I am now looking forward to tomorrow where that water might begin to flush its way out.

[Emma]

Meal One - Zucchini fritters (zucchini and egg), turkey sausage and pumpkin pancakes (kids' request)

Meal Two - Leftovers of scrambled eggs with veggies, chicken, baked sweet potato slices, banana, carrots

Meal Three - Cumin carrots, asparagus with a savory spice, Bora Bora meatballs with pork

I am a bit dumbfounded at the amount of food we are putting away (away meaning into our bodies). I know I'm eating past the point where I'm no longer hungry, but I'm a little worried about getting hungry before the next meal and a LOT worried that the others (like my voracious children) will eat my fair share of these delicious things we've been preparing.

I also have not been exercising. I've been walking some, but that's not really substantial. I used to get up early and go to the gym, but these days I really want the sleep and with this cold and cough and asthma, I really need the sleep. As well, my knee has been inflamed again so I don't really want to go run on it. Excuses? Lack of focus?! My focus has been on getting the meals prepped so it's been easy to let the exercise slip. It would be nice to see exercise come back in this week. I do miss it.

[Emma]

Yesterday:

Sweet potato hash with eggs

Mustard chicken with a bok choy/ginger/carrot/mushroom stir fry

Yellow squash julienned with ground pork/peppers/onions

The kids are insatiable! I got home from work and the seven yellow squash were completely consumed. It's mind boggling to me how much they are eating and how willing they are to eat new things (except for broccoli).

Today:

Ground pork/peppers/onions, banana, apple slices

Sweet potato hash with eggs

Spaghetti squash with pesto, leftover chicken

Still coughing. Still tired. Can't wait for this cold virus and asthma to pass, but SO glad that I don't feel guilty this time for aggravating it with foods I'm eating. I know I'm eating well and it's nice to think that now it's not my fault that I'm having a tough time getting healthy.

[Emma]

Meal One - Ground pork with peppers and onions, banana, apple slices

Meal Two - Sweet potato hash with an egg

Meal Three - Pesto chicken, kabocha squash, asparagus

I feel full pretty much all the time. I get hungry and I eat as much as I want, but I know I'm not lacking for food. With that knowledge, I decided to start portioning my kids' meals a bit. They've been eating crazy amounts of food and we've just watched, but now they are eating more than me and so I think I need to step in and portion a bit. They say they're still hungry, but ten minutes later they don't say anything at all. They're also not asking for snacks or falling apart right before the next meal. I think they just like to eat till they're stuffed - especially if it's tasty, so now we will start trying to eat till we're no longer hungry. I imagine it will be a process for them to reach that new definition of being full and I don't want any power struggles so I'm just kinda doing it and trying to stay low key. It's helpful when we have bananas because that seems to be a good post meal food for them. Other than that - not much is new. I'm still got a nasty cough, but it's nice to know that everyone else in town has a cold as well. My knee has been sore this week. My energy is low, but I still feel better than I did a month ago.

[Emma]

My knee. My knee. What the heck is up with my knee! I swam yesterday for 30 minutes. Almost immediately upon entering the pool, my kneecap felt swollen. Today it's a swollen mess and I can't go up and down stairs or bend it when I walk. Argh!

The thing that is great however is that in the past when I've had joint inflammations or tendonitis, I've always secretly harbored the realistic fear that much of it is my fault. I know foods affect me and I've been a good eater of lots of non-healthy things in my regular life. This time, however, I know that I'm eating good foods and I'm avoiding tomatoes and peppers (just in case) so it's frustrating to have the inflammation return, but nice to not internalize guilt around it.

Our meals the past few days:

Sweet potato hash with eggs

Ground beef with sweet potato buns

Red cabbage sauteed with onions and apples

Molliflower (Mashed cauliflower) with garlic and onions and cabbage

Carrots, bananas, egg and apple frittata

And other paleo things.

Today the plan is:

Sweet potato hash with sausage

Pork chops with sauerkraut and carrot soup (if I get off my rear and start making it)

Roasted chicken, creamy chard and spaghetti squash with pesto

A friend is coming to dinner tonight and that means we need to make even more than the crazy amount we already make, but I'm excited to have her here to see how we're doing. She visited last month as we were about to begin whole30 and had no clue what to expect.

[Emma]

My first food dream was last night! I was somewhere doing something (as is the case with dreams) and we all went down to get in line for snack and I was hungry and tired and it had been a new situation all day and a lot of hard work and social navigation and I wanted to just eat what was there. I was looking forward to seeing the snack set up. But somewhere in my head I knew I wasn't supposed to eat that stuff, but I didn't really care. And then I saw a big unpeeled non-organic carrot wrapped in plastic and I knew I should eat it, but carrots are on the dirty dozen and I didn't want it. Then I saw a fruit cup with pineapple and watermelon. It was soaking in some sugared substance. I thought it might be a better choice but I didn't want it. Then I woke.

This was not a very exciting dream, but it was a dream about something that could easily happen. Luckily I have had no cravings whatsoever. A couple of times I've had some small almost cravings when I've been in the store and also late for a meal, but as long as I eat on schedule (or have a hard boiled egg in my pocket), I'm okay.

Tonight, walking to work with an egg in my pocket and almonds in the other I felt quite content - a bit like a hobbit about to embark on a journey with the basics of sustenance thrown in one's pack. But I also reminded myself of those freaky hippie friends of mine who choose to eat crazy boring things from home while sitting in the midst of a festival filled with food booths.

Am I going to choose these foods as well instead of five dollar dishes from the different restaurants selling their tastes?

I think it will ultimately be a choice. Right now I'm quite content eating as I am. Once, however, we consciously choose to eat something different (something from our old life), I don't know if I'll be able to feel so content. Or maybe the discontent won't be as bad as I think it might be. And why would we choose to eat the old ways? I don't know. Because my husband missed his grape nuts in the morning. Because the kids like plain yogurt. Because it's nice to have a beer with friends.

But I really like that I know I'm doing right by my body while I'm eating this way and never before have I felt that.

[Emma]

Feeling anxious.

Did some damage to my knee so I came into the city and will see a doctor tomorrow.

My knee aches and hurts and throbs and it's hard getting around on crutches and I can feel a part of my brain saying that I deserve to just have something else to eat.

But thankfully I have a few things in my bag and hopefully I'll pick up some more. My few things aren't very exciting but they do include a kombucha and that's a nice treat.

The kids are going to a daycare sitter for the next couple days while I'm out of town. Eating like dinosaurs will face its own challenges, but so far my kids have made choices to do the dinosaur thing - now just hoping my husband packs enough food for them so they don't begin to look wistfully at the sugary treats that are bound to abound.

Today - sweet potato hash and chicken/ leftover ground moose with mushrooms and pineapple / roasted chicken and brussel sprouts and zucchini n mushroom stir fry / an egg and some almonds

[pjena]

I'm so sorry about your knee! I hope the dr can help you feel better quickly. Great job sticking with the dinosaur thing!

[Emma]

Great job sticking with the dinosaur thing!

Back at the hotel with baby carrots, almonds, hard boiled egg and some prosciutto and kombucha. I made it through the day. I went through multiple stores and drove past multiple tasty food places and I tried to imagine the flavors of a cheese roll in my mouth, but I stuck to my packed away foods! The thought of eating something else doesn't really sound appealing in my gut. It sounds very appealing in my head, but not in my body. I hope it stays like that tomorrow as well.

[Emma]

Another day in the city and I ate all the good foods! I found some roasted turkey breast from applegate. I also discovered some coconut/sprouted seed/date cookies. I worried I'd eat the entire package, but there was no salt and so I was content with just a few. Just to be safe, I left them in the car and did not bring them in to my hotel room where I am dining on egg, carrots, almonds and sweet potato with the computer on my lap and the tv on TLC. I know. I know. I should be eating mindfully, but this is so much FUN! We don't have a tv at home for exactly this reason!

As for my knee - argh. Nothing solved. No torn meniscus. There are signs of osteo-arthritis, but nothing enough to warrant all the inflammation. No lab work showing anything of significance yet. The Uric Acid number was in the normal range, but it is possible that it could have been higher during the flare up. It was a pretty intense flare up and I really was out of commission mobility wise. Yet now it's just the regular tight achy sore that is inconvenient, but not horrible.

And that's it for today.

Oh - and I have this sneaking suspicion that I may have lost some weight. I didn't expect I was because I've been eating heartily, but looking at myself in the hotel mirrors makes me wonder if things are going on. I wouldn't be adverse to that one bit.

[Emma]

Back at home and it's Day 29. I've been quite content in this process and am not really looking forward to the end! I also haven't felt any magic happening, but I have been feeling better. This morning I woke up early and went to the pool and swam a mile. It makes me think that I am feeling better because I'm making the early morning thing happen again. I didn't even begin to try this month when I was so exhausted and then sick and then injured. Maybe tiger blood will come my way in the next few weeks if I keep on with this nice way of eating? Or maybe my dang gut and inflammation levels are so high that it will take years and years to begin to counteract all the damage!

My doctor's appointments were a bit depressing, but also made me extremely appreciative that the changes I ought to be making for my health have already been started.

One lab test that checks for overall inflammation in one's body (and has links to cardiac disease) was higher than it ought to be. It's kinda crazy. I'd been eating an anti-inflammation diet (whole30 without nightshades) AND was taking ibuprofen AND have been taking an antihistamine consistently for a long time and I still was testing with high numbers. No wonder my poor body gets injured easily. No wonder my poor system can't recover from colds well and breaks out in asthma attacks.

And this is my current concern:

I came home and finally received ISWF in the mail. I read through it and all the parts about our immune system in our gut. It seems like my gut needs some help, but I'm taking fexofenadine (allergy meds) and now NSAIDS (nabumetone) which both aggravate the gut and prevent all that leaky gut stuff from stopping.

So as my whole30 comes to an end, I feel like I haven't been doing it as well as I could have. I'm actively putting things in my body that might be working against me. But the alternative doesn't sound so great. As I type this, and think about my travels to pollenated areas this coming month, I think my plan will be to continue on as I'm doing with allergy pills and doctor prescribed NSAID and let the current problem in my knee get its break, and then maybe - just maybe - eliminate everything in June and focus in on a tighter whole30. I suppose it's not ideal, but I'm really not up for for the onslaught of allergies and associated asthma attacks. But in June....no travel....no classes to teach. If I get sick, oh well. If my knee flares up again, I can know I'm working on the long term proactive process of healing my gut (and then go see my doctor to try again to figure out why it's so bad)

Yesterday:

sweet potatoes, caribou and eggs

turkey breast, broccoli stir fry, banana, pineapple, beets

czech pork meatballs, stripetti squash, pineapple, carrots

[pjena]

Can you believe it's been 29 days? Are you going to start reintro anyway or keep with the W30 until June when you may cut out the meds? I'm sorry the drs don't know what's up with your knee.

[Emma]

Can you believe it's been 29 days? Are you going to start reintro anyway or keep with the W30 until June when you may cut out the meds?

I don't know!

I like plain yogurt, but don't really have any burning desire to be eating it. I don't have any burning desire to be eating any differently than I have been this month. However, we are traveling for ten days to a music festival and part of the festival is eating fun foods - not sugary treats, but the thai food and indian food and all the good things. I think I'll probably continue on and then try to have those festival treats in moderation. (This is what I think at this very moment - totally subject to change!)

[Emma]

Today I had my three month appointment for diabetes prevention. It's a community wide program and every three months you get a pin prick blood test and a reading of your blood sugar and cholesterol. You also get your blood pressure and weight. My weight (I am one day early I know) is down nine pounds from my last appointment three months ago. My blood sugar was fine, but nothing great. My good cholesterol was really good. My triglycerides were good. My bad cholesterol (LDL) was higher than good and my overall was higher than good. Shucks. I was hoping for some magic "you've got super human body"news, but of course that's not the case. It does, however, encourage me to keep going on this whole foods thing. I'm rather curious what will happen to those numbers over time. My body has forty years of regular person eating going on. It's going to take more than one month for it to trust me enough to start showing some good signs of change.

Breakfast (not till 10:15 because I had to fast) - two hard boiled eggs, dried apricots, almonds, coffee

Lunch - chicken, carrots, red cabbage with pumpkin

Dinner - crab with stripetti squash and hopefully some pesto

[Emma]

Day 30 and I wonder if I've actually completed the Whole30 with integrity. I know I've missed things on a technical level, but I've also inadvertently cheated and then cheated once I knew better. These are the issues beginning with the least heinous:

1. The Vitamin D I've been taking has Rice Bran in it!!! (Never occurred to me to look till the other day when I read about it in the Whole Daily)

2. I've been taking NSAID's. They are prescribed by the doctor, but they are kind of counter productive to the whole gut healing thing. I've been also taking allergy pills as prescribed so technically I'm cool on this one, but it doesn't seem like I'm in the spirit of the healing process.

3. When I was having coughing asthma attacks a couple weeks back and only sleeping a few hours because of them, the inhalers were only partially effective, the prescribed major powerful cough syrup was ineffective, but honey was helpful. It was the one thing that actually helped bring enough relief so that I could fall asleep. For three nights, I made hot water with honey in the middle of the night so I could fall asleep. When it happened, I knew honey wasn't kosher on the Whole30, but I googled and decided there were worse things in the over the counter meds AND the need to sleep was imperative in order to give my body a chance to heal.

4. I've had paleo sweets. This is the one in which I'm shrinking into the chair as I type and looking around hoping nobody sees me. On three consecutive weekends, we took our two kids to children's birthday parties. Our children (ages two and three) opted to eat like dinosaurs and not partake in the party foods so we made treats. The first week was a tahini/maple syrup/coconut cream thing. The next weekend was nut bars with honey and little cocoa truffles and the third week was cocoa cupcakes. Our kids were absolutely amazing and embraced the dinosaur thing and didn't seem to mind that their treats were different. All the ingredients were okay in the paleo world. I actually didn't really realize how non-okay they were in the Whole30 world until just last Friday when our ISWF book finally arrived. And of course I know it's okay for the kids to help the process and all, but you know - me and the hubby had those treats too. And to make it worse....AFTER reading about how it's definitely not cool in the ISWF book, we continued to split the remaining cocoa cupcakes till they were gone.

Now for the learning part. I really think I've been pretty crabby this week. I also have noticed a sense of wanting that I hadn't had before. I don't really feel a big problem with the Sugar Dragon and eating these sweets was nice, but didn't have me falling apart. However, there were a number of times this week when I felt a bit like week one. Was that just from these little honey/maple syrup forays? If so - wow - that's powerful stuff. And could it be those weekend treats were enough to prevent me from experiencing the tiger blood? I wouldn't doubt it.

Now for the part where I think we really did well by Whole30. We completely changed the way we eat at home. We are cooking and planning and preparing foods and our meals are really good hearty meals. Nobody goes hungry in our house. We are sitting at the table together for most of our meals and watching in awe as our kids ask for seconds and thirds of squashes and sauteed cabbage and things that just weren't part of our life before. Every meal we have is pretty dang impressive and it feels really good to know that the foods at our meals are definitely nourishing our bodies. I think we've completely embraced the idea of eating real foods.

And that's where we're at. Do we say we completed another day of Whole30 or do we say we screwed up and need to start all over again? It's been haunting me since last Friday (when we got our ISFW and I gleaned a bigger picture of the process).

[Emma]

I feel like I didn't really complete whole30 with as much integrity as I could, though I do think I came away from it with some big essential learning pieces. With that, I'm going to say that I completed it, but I'm going to plan to stay as close to plan for this month and to re-do the Whole30 in June but with a bit more intentionality about what all the little things mean. At least I hope so! I'd sure like our physical ills to clear up so our bodies are in a healthier space. Hikes with kids and camping could prove challenging without the treats of homemade honey nut bars, but as for now....that's the plan so I'm now going to post in the Post Whole30 forum.

[pjena]

Congrats! You definitely completed your W30. I think it's inspiring that you've transformed how you and your family eat at home.