My 1st W30, start April 3d

[lexgem]

So I've made up my mind, despite my indecisiveness just a week ago (I seriously went from "I could never do that!" to "I'm starting after my friend's wedding on April 20th" to "I'm starting on April 3d!" - within a week).

I have been eating "nearly compliant" for the past 3 days (I just had to finish up some feta cheese and to test-drive whole30 meals to see if I could do it, I also indulged in some Easter chocolate, lindt because it has to be worth it!).

And I'm pretty sure I can do this.

I am 25 years old, I live in France and I have a 4 1/2 month old daughter. I had issues getting pregnant and I have had digestive issues since childhood, I just live with them but I'm happy to see there may be another way.

So I'm doing this. I'm going to miss alcohol, but I've done 9 months without, what's another 30 days? I'm going to miss dairy, a LOT, but it may only be 30 days. I won't miss grains that much I don't think and I hardly ever eat legumes to begin with.

Last night I made clarified butter (filled up an entire nutella jar and a jam jar).

I travel for work once a week, so it might be challenging (for me) to plan my meals ahead of time and NOT FORGET my tupperware full of food!

As for the wedding I will say no to champagne, in fact it will make me the designated driver I guess. It's a small wedding so there may not even be cake, and if there is dessert I'm sure my husband will discreetly agree to take it off my hands. Thinking back to most wedding meals I've attended recently, I'm sure I'll be able to discreetly make sure what I eat complies with the plan, since it's in a restaurant and most restaurants will agree to modify menus to accomodate allergies/food sensitivities.

I have been looking at different grocery stores and I even asked my neighbor, who I know goes to the farmer's market, which stands are the best and I now know of a good butcher and a good place to buy veggies.

I am enjoying taking the time to learn how to cook a variety of veggies and meats, and I'm pretty happy with my breakfasts.

My go-to breakfast will be eggs fried in ghee topped with salsa, and either some avocado slices or guacamole, carrot sticks (to dip in the guacamole) and some fruit - I like grapefruit or melon. (it used to be whole wheat toast and eggs with bacon, or cottage cheese with jam or berries)

I have already tried "zucchini noodles" and they are great with tomato sauce, spices and ground beef.

And I tried artichoke for the first time in years (I didn't like it before, turns out I do now!).

Based on these past few days, I know I can do this!

My one concern is eggs. People tell me I eat too many eggs as it is (around 8-10 per week) but I know I'm going to end up eating more than that. I've ordered it starts with food and I'm sure the book will address this concern but should I worry about it?

My starting measurements:

Squat 5RM: 51 Kg

Deadlift 5RM: 52 kg

OHP 5RM: 21 kg

Bench press 5RM: 29 kg

Resting heart rate: 80 BPM (ouch! I was at 65 before pregnancy)

Weight: 62.6 kg

Neck: 12 inches

Waist 27.7 inches

Hips: 39 inches

L. Thigh: 22 inches

Bust 32.5 inches

Midsection at navel: 31.8 inches

Military calculator BF%: 29.5%

I've been keeping a log of all of these measurements every week, so going a month without checking will be tough for me (I'm used to weighing myself every morning) but I'm glad I have them to compare start/finish.

[Tom Denham]

I eat 3 to 5 eggs per day. There are a lot of egg eaters around here. See a recent post on the topic... http://forum.whole9life.com/topic/8689-how-many-eggs-do-people-eat-per-day/

[lexgem]

DAYS 1 & 2

Breakfast:

Eggs, chipolatas (I actually found compliant, organic pork ones after searching for a long time in the store!), clarified butter, banana

Workout/post-workout snack:

Squats 53 kg 5x5 / Bench Press 28 kg 5x5 / Barbell Rows 26 kg 5x5 + 3 sets of 4 reps of assisted chin-ups

I ate 2 eggs after that

Lunch:

Artichoke, chipolatas (they were 50% off but I had to eat them TODAY)

Dinner:

Roasted chicken from whole organic, grass-fed, raised-outside chicken, with lemon, thyme, laurel, onion, carrots and organic sweet potatoes and a few slices of avocado

I feel good, I haven't had dinner yet but I've planned it ahead and I've eaten all the other meals.

Tonight I also have to pack a breakfast and a lunch for tomorrow since I'm travelling for work.

Tomorrow's planned meals:

Breakfast: hard-boiled eggs, avocado slices, banana

Lunch: chicken (cooked in clarified butter), stuffed eggplant (stuffed with chipolata meat and the insides from eggplants, courgettes, tomatoes and onions)

Dinner (at home): organic ground beef, tomato sauce and courgette noodles

I have been reading It starts with food and it really does answer most of my questions. A lot of the "rules" seemed very arbitrary, unfair, extreme and just plain mean at first when I found this website through a friend, but reading the book, it makes sense. I feel really good about doing this.

[lexgem]

So my travel day went mostly as planned. I ended up packing a sweet potato and I was glad I did since I ended up having 3 meals while I was away in addition to "dinner". I had a breakfast at 5 AM, lunch at 12 (and I was STARVING), a "snack" of chicken & sweet potato on the train at 5 PM and my planned dinner at 9 PM when I got home and cooked it.

I'm on day 3 of full compliance and it's been a week since I started being more aware of things and started making changes (dairy and ALL sugar were the last to go, but I cut out grains a week ago and I never really ate many legumes anyway).

A few things I've noticed:

• I just had beets, fried eggs in clarified butter (what seems like "a lot" to me, but the eggs taste so much better and stick so much less, which means less cleanup time, which means that making fried eggs is no big deal like I was afraid it'd be) and half an avocado for breakfast. And that actually tasted GOOD!
  
• I have more energy. I travel for work and my coworker who was with me yesterday had the same schedule, took the same train and does the same job I do. His meal was 90% grains, 10% veggies, no animal protein, and he doesn't eat breakfast. He spent the morning yawning, took a nap on his lunch break, and had brain fog all afternoon. That used to be the story of MY life on a day like this. Just one week in of no grains, and 2 days into my whole30, I didn't need a nap, I WAS tired, but I still was productive and in a much more pleasant mood than normal.
  
• My stronglifts workout I did on day 1 felt easier than usual even though I'm still going up in weights! And I didn't need a nap that afternoon (I mostly work from home, I only commute one day a week, so I *can* take a nap if I need one).
  
• On the negative side, I think my bathroom schedule will take a bit longer to adjust. It's not too bad though, just different.
  
• It's so much easier to resist temptation to quit EVERYTHING. I had to ask for change at the train station's bakery to use the bathroom (ugh, hate coin-operated toilets) and since I knew there was nothing there for me it was easier to not give in and buy something.
  
• Guilt. I live next door to a baker who I am friendly with and who makes amazing breads and almond croissants especially. I feel bad he is losing my business this month and maybe even longer.
  
• Sugar cravings are BAAAAAAD.
  

A recipe I like I just remembered I can have :

I chop up pork, cook it. Then I add (clarified, now) butter, chop up some apples, and cook them on low after setting the pork aside. I add cinnamon. It's SO GOOD. I wonder what veggies would go well with that dish? I used to eat it on rice.

[Jumbly]

Cauliflower is my go to substitute for rice. Blitz it up a bit in the food processor and it goes ricey in texture. http://nomnompaleo.com/post/1626071845/another-simpler-version-of-cauliflower-rice this recipe can easily be tweaked to be W30 compliant.

Good to hear you're doing well and feeling so full of energy.

[lexgem]

Thanks Jumbly, I tried it and it works well.

Today is Day 6 but on the timeline I'm feeling about 2 days ahead as far as my experience of the whole30 psychologically. I had a bit of an energy slump on Saturday/Sunday and last night I dreamt of ice-cream and I've been craving sugary/carby/dairy crap like crazy. But I'm staying strong!

I had a really delicious lunch today, several slices of compliant smoked salmon, half a cantalope and a whole avocado. I really don't eat much fruit, usually less than 2 servings per day, so I figure it's ok to have cantalope for lunch sometimes.

Beets with my breakfast so far are a huge success, I really like the taste of beets with eggs and I stomach them really well in the morning. I have nothing against spinnach normally but I tried having it in an omlet for breakfast today and it made me feel nauseated. I was able to finish it but I didn't enjoy it much. My eggs were perfectly fresh and so was the spinach so I have no idea why. I hope I'm not pregnant... yeah my mind goes there, morning sickness was really traumatic for me last time lol! I don't think I am but surprises happen.

During the first 3 days I kept cheating and weighing in. I finally asked my husband to hide the scale so I would stop doing that. It's weird how that's the only rule I have broken so far! Well, no more. I will weigh in and measure at the end of the 30 days.

I feel really good. I have started doing yoga on a more regular basis, I took some classes last year so I know some positions. I don't have time for classes right now but I've started doing it at home in the morning before dropping my baby off at daycare and going to work. She enjoys being in her bouncy chair and watching me, of course it's not as focused as it could be but it's better than nothing.

Yesterday at church I wanted to take communion. And then I remembered the whole30. I thought about it for about 30 seconds and made a decision. I read the forums coming home and realized that my decision was a bit different than what the mods said to do, but I'm ok with it. Basically I took the bread, prayed with it in my hand and did everything the same as usual spiritually but slipped it into my purse discreetly instead of my mouth. I did drink the wine though.

The logic behind it for me is that this is the whole30 and I'm not letting dietary choices trump my faith. However I strongly suspect I am sensitive to gluten and even a little bit can derail the purpose of the elimination diet, so I thought to what I would do it if turned out I indeed am intolerant to gluten or even have celiac. Just like when I was pregnant I abstained from the wine, if there was grape juice I'd take it but if there was only wine, I wouldn't.

[lexgem]

I'm already thinking about life post-whole30 just because I like to plan ahead and I'm just like that!

First off, I think I'm going to go to 30, weigh in and measure myself and take pics just to see my progress, but I'll probably keep going as-is if I'm happy with how I'm feeling for a bit longer than the originally planned 30 days. I do have a wedding in June. I'm planning on sticking to my whole30 at the wedding I'm going to in April, but the one in June I'd like to eat mostly like the other wedding guests (I might pass on a few non-compliant foods that don't appeal to me if there's an easy alternative). So I'll need to do my one-potential-allegen at a time reintroduction sometime during the month of May so I know ahead of time if I really shouldn't eat dairy at all, ever, or gluten, or all grains, or whatever else.

I think the first thing I'll try is whey protein mixed into water, just for convenience, I'll admit that it's just so much easier that if I can stomach it just fine that would make my life much easier.

Then I'll try yogurt, cheese, milk, etc.

As for grains I don't see myself ever going back, or at least not more than once in a blue moon, but I'll still test out gluten and a few other grains to see if I can tolerate them or not because it's good info to have.

I see no point in ever going back to legumes - ick! I used to eat them because I thought they were "healthy".

[lexgem]

Day 7

The food dreams are getting really bad. I dreamt I ate cheerios with milk, a big bowl, then decided to start again on day 1 of whole30 and I felt horribly guilty in my dream. But since I'd already messed up for the day I made chocolate chip cookies and ate 24 of them. It took me almost 10 minutes after waking up to realize that didn't actually happen. Thankfully my cravings are much more managable during the daytime.

Tonight I'm making modified moussaka, I'm going to use almond flour and coconut milk and clarified butter for the sauce, and I'm using eggplant, zucchini etc. for the layers. I'm excited about it!

Add cauliflower to the list of veggies I can't stomach at breakfast (so far, spinach & cauliflower). I might have to stick to beets, sweet potato and fruits at breakfast.

I was really excited to find sweet potatoes at the grocery store today, I rarely see them there and usually have to go to the health food store to find some, so that's good anyway.

It's pretty challenging to buy foods without sulfites & other baddies, especially somewhat processed ones like saucissage, bacon & shrimp. I also read the label on about 5 different brands of green olives before finding one I can buy (they were in the pasta sauce aisle, not with the fresh foods!)