Sarah's Whole30

[saraht]

We started April 6, but just discovered this log category! So glad to have a place to keep track.

My husband and I are the 2 strict ones of the family, but our 3 kids are 5, 7, and 9, so they mostly eat what we eat - we send school lunch every day.

So here are the meals we have already completed, specifically what I have eaten if there is any difference with the rest of the family.

Day 1, Saturday, April 6

B: Scrambled eggs, fruit, black tea

L: Shredded sweet potato & onion stir-fry in coconut oil, tuna mixed with unsuccessful homemade mayo.

D: Crock pot spice-rubbed pork (Eastern NC style with vinegar, no sugar, lots of smoked paprika in the rub), green beans, slow-baked sweet potato

Day 2, Sunday, April 7

B: Scrambled eggs, leftover sweet potato stir-fry, 1/2 banana, coffee with coconut milk (must acquire this taste)

L: Make-ahead Italian brunch bake (http://blog.stuffimakemyhusband.com/2012/09/make-ahead-italian-brunch-bake.html), salad

Afternoon Tea: A rainbow of fruits, cucumbers and nuts. This is not a normal meal but a snack before we go out in the evening. Previously this was when we would have our main dessert of the week, so I'm kind of OK with eating "occasional" foods.

Evening snack: Italian brunch bake

Day 3, Monday, April 8

Pre-workout: Small handful of toasted almonds

B/post-workout: Scrambled eggs, leftover sweet potato stir-fry, plain black tea

L (school, packed): 1/2 hard-boiled egg, 1 link chicken sausage cold on a bed of lettuce, grapes, cherry tomatoes.

I have lost a few pounds, but that is not a problem yet. So far feeling fine but still thinking about the whole30 too much. My kids seem hungry all the time, so I am planning to let them eat a regular serving of meat, then as many veggies as they want until they aren't hungry. After-school snacks will be different.

Any suggestions, encouragements, or corrections are welcome! Thanks!

[Tom Denham]

Your plan to let the kids eat until they are satisfied sounds good. And more than one serving of meat is okay too. The meal template applies to everybody... http://whole9life.com/book/ISWF-Meal-Planning-Template.pdf

[saraht]

Oh, good. The reason I started to think through "how much to let them eat" was the cost of that local pork roast the family loved so much... the 5 of us ate up a whole 3-pound roast at dinner - not too cheap. I'm pretty sure it was more than a palm-sized portion for each person, but of course it also cooked down from its raw weight so it wasn't quite as bad. I hadn't made enough veggies in proportion, so we ate them all up and they kept asking for more meat. So next time I'll make more veggies. But I'm not planning to starve anyone.

I have to say that I'd rather spend a lot at the farm than Walmart, though!

Thanks for posting!

[saraht]

Day 3, Monday, April 8 cont'd.

L (for me at home): Chicken vegetable soup, a big salad!

D: Roasted mixed veggies, tilapia cooked in olive oil (I keep the heat not too high)

Day 4, Tuesday April 9

B: Italian brunch bake, coffee with a LOT of coconut milk (1/4 cup? seems high but tasted good)

L (packed for school kids): egg muffins with c-milk, ground beef, peas, and wrapped in prosciutto; unsweetened applesauce; a little lettuce with vinaigrette. School snack - seeds, almonds and raisins.

This morning both my daughters (5 and 7) got a stomach bug! So they aren't eating much yet. Thanks to these wonderful forums, I'll try to sustain them with applesauce, bananas, mashed sweet potatoes and butternut squash when they can hold down food. I assume it is just a bug that has been going around.

I need to go shopping as we are out of fresh fruit and salad ingredients. The quantities we are eating can amaze me, but I can also be very thankful everyone has been devouring such nutritious food!

Oh, also - I made dinner for friends including some cheese, and I *didn't* eat even a little cheese while putting it together! (In the past I would always have sneaked some.) Kind of a strange thing to do at this point, but this was when they needed it and I don't want to drop everything else in life - so very thankful that I could resist that force of habit.

[saraht]

Day 4, Tuesday, April 9 cont'd.

L (home): more vegetable-chicken soup, a clementine

snack: apple with almond butter

D: burgers with guacamole, salad, cherry tomatoes

Day 5, Wednesday, April 10:

B/post-workout: Scrambled eggs, more shredded sweet potato stir-fry, 2 clementines (very small); plain tea

L (packed for school, 9 yo boy): same egg muffins as yesterday, apple slices, sun gold cherry tomatoes, a little nuts & raisins - he was enthusiastic about this lunch! Hooray!

I feel like I've been eating too much (including fruit, and especially the guacamole last night - we parents ate the kids' share after they only tasted it)... but it's still the first week and we will adjust as time goes on. I didn't feel great at the gym this morning because of that, but I haven't reached that "Day 8: Boundless Energy" stage either!

The stomach bug seems to be over and we are all eating normally again... So far so good!

I noticed that we have not been experiencing spring allergies yet, although the pollen season is beginning - I hope that eliminating dairy will help, even though we haven't been doing it that long.

[saraht]

Day 5, Wed. April 10 contd.

L: chicken soup, fruit

D: spaghetti squash with meat sauce, salad

Day 6, Thurs. April 11

B: eggs, cantaloupe

L: tilapia sauteed, salad, spinach-egg muffin

D: chicken, sweet potato, salad topped with nuts and raisins.

Rats - tonight I found out I had accidentally deviated from the rules - included peas in my first batch of egg muffins on day 4. The fact that peas are legumes had slipped my mind. I probably ate one on day 5 too.

"Do I have to start over?" This question must be motivated by the desire to make a proper experiment.... It's not worth it if my goal is to say I have done it. So now I have to decide if it's worth missing my son's birthday cake (I know that is not a good reintroduction first food anyway....). Probably I won't want to waste my investment of time, money and effort so far and will keep going at least till then.

[saraht]

I reread the rules and discovered that I shouldn't be weighing myself... Hadn't realize that was official. :-) So I will stop!

Day 7 (or 2?), Friday April 12

Pre-workout - a hardboiled egg - I never ate before workouts until doing the whole30, fearing nausea, but this time it was fine! Yay!

B: scrambled eggs, cantaloupe, grape tomatoes.

I'm going to a lunch with friends today, to which I am contributing a big green salad and vinaigrette. I'll bring my own food otherwise and coconut milk for coffee. Hope you all have a great day!

[saraht]

It has been a while since I wrote down what we've eaten! (The past few days have been busy!) But we have continued and have been feeling good. I do seem to have more energy - hardly get physically tired unless it is past my bedtime. I used heavier weights in the gym today and feel that my diet is definitely supporting strength-building.

Other improvements - My skin hasn't gotten worse and seems to be slowly improving (I never mentioned that was one of my cautious hopes!). We've been able to resist temptations at all the food events we have been to. I haven't been eating fruit as much (cutting down from ~3 times per day our first week) - our bodies may be adjusting to less carb-y meals. I've become more organized in the kitchen. I've learned from my cooking mistakes the first week and the food is tasting better this week.

I am planning to continue with my original day numbering, even though I ate those green peas on day 5... it was unintentional and a small amount, and I'm really quite interested in tracking how many days I have gone without grains, dairy and sugar still (this is really the first time in my life I have tried to do this, and I'm so glad to see the results!)... I hope that is not discouraging to anyone!

An incomplete food record to catch up:

Day 7, Friday, April 12 - meatballs, "cauli-rice" (junk food substitute or just a pleasant way to eat cauliflower??), salad - we ate outside with the lovely flowering trees!

Day 8, Saturday, April 13 - (breakfast fun - tried salting our own pork belly for bacon!); salmon, sweet potatoes, green beans

Day 9, Sunday, April 14 - (luxury breakfast - whole Italian sausage links with our eggs!); chicken vegetable soup, salad

Day 10, Monday, April 15 - pulled pork, sweet potatoes, braised greens with homemade broth

Day 11, Tuesday, April 16 - bunless burgers and guacamole, spinach

Day 12, Wednesday, April 17:

B: Eggs scrambled with leftover quiche filling (broccoli and ground pork); thawed peaches and blueberries

L (packed for kids): prosciutto-lined quiche with seasoned pork and broccoli. Almost a repeat of breakfast unfortunately, but hopefully tomorrow they will get better variety.

I feel really blessed to be able to try this. Even though I haven't been on the forums much, I think the support and organization of this plan has helped me to feel like there are endless possibilities for the future. (The summer growing season is going to be wonderful!) And I like supporting our farmer, buying at least 3x more.

[saraht]

Still going fine here.... Not exactly "boundless energy", but I would need to get enough sleep for that! I think I need to do some more tweaking, since I keep falling into snacking. My goal isn't so much weight loss as strength building (gym performance) and skin health - and I have seen good results so far! - but I still think snacking is not healthful.

So Day 18 already!!

I got to go to a health food store yesterday and was pleased to find ghee, unsweetened coconut, raw cashews not roasted in potential peanut oil... All things I cannot find normally. I spent a good amount of money, all worth it. So much fun. :-) However, as I read labels, the word "orthorexia" kept banging around in my brain. I feel a little sheepish being so picky about my food when I don't have a medical diagnosis of any food allergy, celiac, etc. So I have to come back and read here again to motivate myself.

My thoughts have turned to the reintroduction plan. I usually feel the need to plan menus pretty far ahead since I might need to get something at the farm, which I only travel to every other week. I need to read more, but it looks like people just choose which item to reintroduce first... I am not eager to discover a sensitivity, but if it's there.... Guess it's good to know!

I might be happier continuing with paleo eating anyway, but I know my family is looking forward to their treats. In the past we usually would take weekends off whenever we would try a diet, so maybe we will attempt to eat paleo except weekends? I don't know. A week or two ago, I would have been afraid to even think about it, for fear I would want to cheat, but I've gotten so much more comfortable and don't fear that now!

[pjena]

However, as I read labels, the word "orthorexia" kept banging around in my brain. I feel a little sheepish being so picky about my food when I don't have a medical diagnosis of any food allergy, celiac, etc. So I have to come back and read here again to motivate myself.

I've had that thought, too. The way I see it, though, is that it's all about balance and attitude. If you choose to be super picky about your food and eat a certain way at home, but can function in the bigger world without anxiety, I think it's fine. If it's causing you anxiety and not being able to enjoy parties, friends, etc, then it is a problem. I try to do that with my son and his food allergies (not life-threatening - that would be different). We avoid all of his allergens, even in small amounts, at home, but if we're at someone's house for dinner, I don't worry about some butter in the mashed potatoes or soy in the vegan chocolate chip cookies the host made with best intentions. When I tried to be 100% compliant all the time, it was no fun for anyone and was only making us all neurotic. Good luck!

[saraht]

Well, it's been a while, but we are still at it, and today is Day 29!

I've had that thought, too. The way I see it, though, is that it's all about balance and attitude. If you choose to be super picky about your food and eat a certain way at home, but can function in the bigger world without anxiety, I think it's fine. If it's causing you anxiety and not being able to enjoy parties, friends, etc, then it is a problem. I try to do that with my son and his food allergies (not life-threatening - that would be different). We avoid all of his allergens, even in small amounts, at home, but if we're at someone's house for dinner, I don't worry about some butter in the mashed potatoes or soy in the vegan chocolate chip cookies the host made with best intentions. When I tried to be 100% compliant all the time, it was no fun for anyone and was only making us all neurotic. Good luck!

Thanks for the thoughts! I think I would still try not to eat small amounts of butter while on the whole30.... I want to be careful, but thankfully when I have gone to people's houses (only a few times this month), I have been with excellent cooks who are understanding or it has been easy to bring my own food depending on the situation.

On that subject, tonight we are going to a Mexican potluck. We are bringing carnitas, guacamole, and Mexican coleslaw. So my husband and I will definitely have something to eat. But there are several others who are gluten free or off sugar, etc, so some of them are bringing good food and we can all share, yay! I'm looking forward to the evening.

Our CSA box started this week - so so happy to have vegetables coming in without my even shopping for them! I realize that was even one reason I liked this plan - my farm sells meat, eggs and vegetables, and the less other stuff I eat, the more of a locavore I am. :-)

Looking back at this month, I have definitely made some mistakes that are discouraging. I need to make a stricter plan about snacking for myself. But it has been a good learning experience for the next time! AND I have had no new skin problems all this month, so I will call it a win. I think I'll want to do it again in July/ August.

Of course I'm curious about the reintroduction/testing phase and don't want to rush that. Since my son's birthday is on Day 31 - Monday, I'm making a paleo dessert and we will celebrate on the weekend. Good thing he is not strictly on the diet.