Day 3 CRAVINGS

Coming out of the 'carb flu' from Day 1 and 2, Day 3 is when I started having the cravings.

You know the little voice in your head that says you really are hungry? But your not...but wait...are you?

See Day 1 and 2 I was on team Never Hungry. I was forcing food in and felt terrible. Day 3 I finally stopped feeling full (managing my fat/protein/veggie intake was key).

Day 3 I also followed the "Eat Immediately After a Workout" rule of Whole30. I ate half an RXBar an hour before class and the other half immediately after.

I also adopted a new Whole30 Rule...make it work for you. This may be in the book somewhere, but along this journey, I decided there are some things they say that don't work for me at this juncture.

1. Eat when you wake up.
I will eat earlier but not right when I get up. I have such a hurried morning and I love to sleep. I seriously don't want to get up 20 minutes early to eat before school. So I made a big ole frittata, divided it into 5 pieces and decided to eat as soon as I get to school. Eating at 7:45 am vs. 9:30 am has to be early enough to count as 'when you get up'.
Since I sleep in a little bit on the weekend, I do get up and make my breakfast. That one is easier. :)

2. Don't weigh yourself.
I know...I know...It's another one of those mental challenges the book talks about. Yes, I can slay my sugar dragon AND my scale dragon, but guess what? I don't really want to. I want to kill that sugar dragon they talk about, but I don't really mind the scale dragon.
See the scale doesn't cause anxiety or dread for me. I didn't even own a scale until John I decided to get healthy after our wedding. (Another blog post - John lost 100 pounds and I lost 40 on that journey. We have kept those off for 10 years. YAY us!) So when we bought a scale, the needle just kept moving down. It was a great thing to see that hard work we put in take effect in our clothes, on the scale, and in our lives. So the scale and I aren't enemies.

Back to Day 3. I was super excited to try out my lettuce wrap idea. Remember, on Day 2, I had found the Whole30 compliant lunch meat! Now I wanted to imitate on of my favorite fast food 'healthy' options, the Unwhich from Jimmy Johns. My lettuce wasn't big enough (solved that problem), but all in all, it was just what I wanted. So much so, that I had it again for dinner.

But it was that 3:00-4:00 hour where it was quiet. The boys didn't have an activity to be rushed to. The laundry was done and put away. John had left for rehearsal. The boys were playing happily. Now, you say, SURELY you could have found something to do. Of course. But my brain was starting to play tricks on me. Snack snack snack snack.

One of the Whole30 rules I am trying really hard to follow is no snacking between meals. The exception is when I know my meals are going to be pushed back by activities. For example, I ate lunch at noon one day because there was no other option. I was hungry, so that is a good enough reason, but it wasn't an option to push my lunch back to 1 pm. I knew I had stuff going on that night and my dinner was going to be closer to 8:30, so at 4:30, I snacked on carrots. Again, I am making this work for me! 

But on this day, the voice was super loud. Snack snack snack snack. Every time I had a craving to eat, I stopped and asked myself if I was really hungry. I would even put my hand on my stomach like I was asking its permission. ha!

I beat that craving into submission! I didn't snack at all because I really listened to my BODY. My brain just needs to catch up.

Day 1 and 2 - this sucks

Day 1 and 2 were the worst. I mean the worst. I knew this going into the month. I knew that I am addicted to sugar. I knew that my body was going to go through detox.

I just didn't realize what that would feel like.

It's hell. I really feel for people addicted to any substance now. It's not a pretty site.

I went into Day 1 pretty confident. I have dieted before. I have cut calories. This was not a new thing for me. I was great until after lunch. See, after lunch, I *always* have a small bite of something sweet. Usually chocolate. My meal is really not complete until I have eaten that. I knew that wasn't going to happen today, but in no way expected what actually happened.

My mouth watered. And I don't mean that figuratively. I literally could not keep the spit from continually filling my mouth!! Not only was I amazed, I was mortified. I was like a damn Pavlov dog. My little bite of chocolate was never a need for my satiety. It was a need for my brain.

Again, at 3 pm every (school) day I eat a Kashi cookie. You might say I am a creature of habit. But on Day 1 at 3 pm, I began to crash. I felt terrible. I felt like I had the flu. I felt fatigued. I was irritable. I had a headache. I ate a luna bar, which was breaking a Whole30 rule of no snacking, but I was convinced from my reading, my lunch didn't have enough protein or fat to fill me up. We also had friends coming over and I couldn't feel like that.

I still felt terrible but fixed my first true Whole30 meal, Sweet Potato Hash from the Whole30 book. This is sweet potatoes and green bell pepper seasoned and sauteed then combined with ground turkey and onion. We served it with a fried egg on top and garnished it with chives. It was delish. I had seconds.

The red plate really takes away from how pretty this actually was!

Day 2 - Whole30 tells you to eat as soon as you wake up. This is not something I am used to, but I am a rule follower, so eat is what I did!

My egg and veggie scramble (with black coffee) was delightful, but I still felt pretty bad. The book describes it as 'carb flu'. I made it through a workout (barely). Again, Whole30 wants you to eat within half an hour of working out. So eat I did....but I wasn't hungry. I was forcing food down and miserable. 

I have been calories counting for about 15 years. I tend to eat between 1200-1400 calories a day. My body was adjusting from such a low-calorie diet.

But I ate the leftovers from the previous dinner and headed out to Whole Paycheck Foods.

Even though I wasn't hungry for the first two day, I was parched. I drank more water and never felt fully hydrated. I could not GET enough water these first two days!

I was able to get Whole30 compliment lunch meat which opened my lunches to a whole new world of possibilities! I got some other things to help me along this journey like Vanilla Bean Powder, compliant dijon mustard, RXBars, etc.

But just like the previous day, my 3 pm slump hit.

We went to dinner that night and I ordered a salad with lettuce, veggies, and grilled fish. Again, I wasn't hungry so I didn't really enjoy it. Plus, it was day two and I thought I was going to be strong than I was. My son had a huge pretzel and beer cheese and my husband and french fries....my favorite kind of french fry. I stayed strong but drew the line at Gracie Bleu fro-yo. I had to stay in the car so I couldn't even lay eyes on the stuff.

But this whole time, I wasn't hungry! According to the book, you can fall into two categories these first couple days; always hungry or always full. I probably would have been grumpier if I was always hungry.

I went to bed on Day 2 slightly discouraged because I felt so bad, but happy that I had survived so many temptations. Both nights brought horrible sleep, but something unexpected was to come!

Whole30 Starts NOW

This journey for me has been a long time coming. I have had stomach issues my entire life.

I have been to several doctors. I've tried several different drugs. Nothing helped. I just learned to live with it.

About 7 years ago, my friends who were also chiropractors suggested me cutting out gluten and diary to fix some stomach issues I was having. I laughed...like literally laughed at them. I told them that was never going to happen.

Fast-forward to 2 years later. I was done having (and feeding) kids. My body was adjusting to not being pregnant or breastfeeding. I started having these strange symptoms. I would sweat profusely when I was cold. I gain weight even though I was exercising vigorously and eating under 1200 calories. And finally, my raynaud's disease was out of control. On top of all this, my stomach issues never went away.

I went back to my doctor. He did every kind of blood work and physical exam imaginable. Nothing. Everything was 'normal'. I didn't back down, and he gave me some medicine to try. I was on that for four years.

Fast forward to November 2016. My insurance wasn't going to cover my medicine anymore and to be quite frank, I was over having to take a pill every day. So I stopped. Easy as that. (btw- it was not easy. Weaning myself off that med was horrible.)

Now we are in 2017 and you guessed it. 3 months after stopping my meds, all my symptoms are back.

I looked at the Paleo diet a little bit in 2015. I thought it might be something to just 'try' to help me lose a couple pounds. No real reason other than pure vanity. I never jumped on that wagon because, to be honest, my weight was fine where it was. There was no other motivation.

I have had several friends who have gone through the Whole30 with differing results. Yes, most lost weight (added bonus!), but most started and continued with it because of a medical reason. So I ordered the book

I won't go into the entire science behind Whole30. If you want to learn more, buy the book off Amazon. It's only $12 and I believe it's worth every penny, even if you never do day 1 of Whole30. But, I am a 'knowledge is power' kind of girl. I like knowing as much about topic as I can. This book really does give you the entire picture of the food we eat. (Their website is pretty good for info as well - but the book is better!)

I am hoping and praying my body is able to 'reset' and these symptoms go away. If I lose a couple pounds, great. :)

So I am going to try it. I got the book on Thursday. By 9pm that night, I knew Friday would be my day 1. Zero prep, zero trips to the grocery store. It was now or never. That and we have a big trip planned in 30 days. To be it was just fortuitous!

This blog is really just for me. To document my journey along the way. Remind myself how I feel each step. What changes I see, feel, notice. A place to document recipes/food I like. Somewhere that if I continue after 30 days or want to start up again this summer, I can be reminded, yes, that first week is not fun, but keep it up. You will feel great soon.

Wish me luck!