The Whole 30 Days 2-3: This is VERY Time Consuming!!!!!

So, I was reading in The Whole30 "Bible" what, in general, we might expect to be feeling right about now, two-three days in.  This is what it says (edited down somewhat):

"The alarms rings on Day 2 and you pop out of bed expecting to feel great, just like you did yesterday.  Instead, you feel headache-y, a little sore, foggy...kind of like a hangover.  You're pretty sure you didn't down a fifth of tequila in your sleep, so what happened?  Let's revisit what you were consuming before you started the Whole30 (a list of a bunch of "bad stuff")...Here's a little math equation for Days 2 to 3.  The amount of suck you experience in this phase is directly proportional to the amount of junk you consumed before you began the program."

This likely explains why neither one of us feels necessarily "suck-y" right now, the morning of Day 3; because we were already on a low-carb diet (ok, we totally blew it the last month, but we'd been on it over 2 1/2 years prior) before we began our Whole30.

Personally, I'm thinking this is WAY TOO MUCH FOOD to consume day in and day out for the next month.  I'm also more freaked out by the amount of time we'll be spending planning, shopping, and preparing food than as to how my body is feeling (mind over matter; shut-up, body, THE BRAIN is talking now!)  I'm also wondering how much more water can I possibly drink in a day plus I'm already getting tired of eggs and avocado.

Yesterday I could not finish my breakfast of leftover chicken salad, so I had it again at noon, along with some fruit; all the while memories of me and my sisters sitting at our kitchen table when we were little kids until we finished our gigantic plates of spaghetti flashing through my brain. All those years ago, it took Ann one hour, me one hour and a half, and Kathy two hours. In all fairness to my Mom and Dad, it was likely more like 20 minutes, 30 minutes, and 40 minutes, but it seemed like FOREVER.

That's what yesterday was like; a never-ending plate of chicken salad (now I'm  thinking about Joan Crawford forcing her kids to eat cold raw meat for three days in a scene from the campy movie "Mommie Dearest".)

No more wire hangers EVER!  Oh wait, that's another scene

Note to self:  This is YOUR choice, remember?

In place of our evening cocktail hour, we took Hesed for a long walk and then returned to make our third meal of grilled steak, roasted sweet potatoes and onions, and blistered green beans with roasted cashews.  Ok, this was more like normal times as it's one of our standard go-to meals (minus the cashews in the green beans which we needed to add last night to get our portion of healthy fat). Also minus the bottle of red wine we likely would have consumed with the meal, but who's "wine-ing" (obviously  me).

Looks so sad and lonely without its glass of red wine :-(

The meal was even more normal due to the fact that Apollo and Pete showed up to beg. Hmmmm....maybe they want to do The Whole30, too?  Apollo and ghee.  I can just see it.

WE WANT STEAK!

This morning Mark made a spinach frittata with a side of jalapeno bacon.  I added chopped tomatoes to the top of mine (it would have been better if I'd just slathered it with salsa).  I took one look at the plate and said, "This can't be right, it's huge!"  Mark said, "It says "Serves Two!"   

Holy Cow!

Needless to say, I ate about 2/3 of it.   Mark doesn't seem to have any trouble cleaning his plate; he must have belonged to the "I Eat All My Spaghetti Club" as a child.  Actually, I know it's because he weighs roughly 40 pounds more than I do so he requires more fuel.

Case in point.  Now it's 12:30 and he's back in the kitchen making his lunch.  I'm like, "blech".  I know I need to eat something, though.

We've realized we simply can't make 3 meals per day, so, in general, we'll have a "Ploughman's Lunch" mid-day; hard boiled eggs, lunch meat, olives or nuts, carrot sticks, fruit, etc.  Maybe some leftovers.  Otherwise, we'll literally be in the kitchen cooking and eating more than half of the day.

How am I feeling physically?  Actually, pretty decent.  Maybe the train wreck will hit in a few more days?

Speaking of which, I'll be missing a few days of blogging since I have a lot of other things going on the rest of this week and into the weekend.

Signing off to go eat.

Sigh.

Mrs. B

The Whole30 Day 1: I've Got Food Coming Out of My Ears!!!!!

I woke up raring to go!  Seriously!  After over a month of planning, it's time to do this!

I leaned over and said to Mr. B:  "Happy Day 1!"  Grunt.

We did both brave the scale.  I didn't really want to (for many reasons, I typically avoid the scale) but I figured it would be good to know IF I lost, gained, or stayed pat during this experience.  The number was about what I expected having spent the better part of this past month on vacation, celebrating, and in general getting rid of everything in the house we are not supposed to eat (aside: we did give a lot of it away, too). 

First up; drinking my iced coffee with no creamer or sweetener.  And, no flavored coffee, either; just plain old coffee (Paul Newman Organic K-Cup).  STRONG.  I made do with a splash of plan approved coconut "creamer" stuff. I'm on the fence as to whether I'll continue to use this after the cartoon is gone as I could hardly tell any difference; the coffee was just STRONG.  No need to worry that I'll want more than the suggested two cups per day.  No way.

Found it at Fresh Market, although Publix has something similar 

Because I had a meeting at church at 9:15, this meant we had to eat our breakfast before I went.  I'll admit, I was not hungry in the least but knew it was right to do it, anyway.  So, turning to our trusty three day/3 per day meal plan, Mr. B rustled up our breakfast of eggs scrambled in ghee (if the sound of this grosses you out, all ghee is is clarified butter), topped with avocado and the homemade salsa I made last week plus Mark's sausage (which is in essence the Jimmy Dean recipe minus the MSG).  I ate it all and was totally stuffed.

Someone commented on Facebook that they thought this looked "disgusting", but it's really that I'm not a food photographer!

After my church meeting, I spent the better part of an hour preparing our lunch; chopped chicken salad using the chicken Mark had prepared last weekend and Whole30 mayo (in essence nothing more than egg, tasting olive oil, dried mustard, lemon juice, S&P).  I added additional lemon juice, garlic, and a bunch of chopped cilantro to turn it into Citrus-Cilantro Mayo.  I threw in celery and radishes into the chicken and tossed it all with the mayo.  We spooned the chicken salad over a bed of arugula, topped it with more avocado and we each had a side of fruit (him 1/2 a grapefruit, me a handful of cherries).

Pretty flavorful and something I might have ordered in a restaurant.  Next time, I'd add more cilantro to the mayo

We ate this at 1:00 and I almost immediately began to stress out about eating dinner at 5:45 (earlier than we usually eat as Mr. B had his own church meeting to attend at 6:30). Additionally, I realized the Meal 3 I'd planned wasn't going to work out because it called for Mr. B to grill steaks and sweet potatoes.  This also meant our Day 2 Meal 2 wouldn't happen because it called for leftover sweet potatoes.  So, course correction!  We opted for pork chops, Mark's sauce, and zoodles (the pork already having been braised in Mark's sauce as he made it last weekend).  

Roll me over, Beethoven!

Mark went off to church, I cleaned up the kitchen, played with Hesed, and then I took her for a long walk.

Believe it or not, two hours later, I was actually feeling the stirrings of hunger.  Nothing awful, just a small twinge.  And, honestly, I was really missing my evening cocktail (another reason I took Hesed out for a long walk; distraction!)

Mark came home and said, "I'm hungry.  Are you hungry?"  It was close to 9 so I didn't want to eat but he ate the leftover zoodles and sauce plus a small handful of cashews (that he'd roasted himself so we knew there was nothing bad lurking in them like peanut oil, a big no-no).

So, why so much food at each meal?  The basic rules are this.  Each meal you need to have:

1.  Protein

2.  Vegetables and/or a small portion of fruit (carbs)

3.  Healthy fat (avocado, approved nuts, seeds, unsweetened coconut, etc.)

The proportions are to be a palm size or two of the protein, 3 1/2 cups of vegetables PER MEAL and then the fat; not over doing it (e.g., maybe 1/2 an avocado) but that fat is needed for sure.

Note:  Snacking isn't forbidden but you're really supposed to eat enough at each meal that you don't really need to.  If you find yourself hungry, you've either not eaten enough or not had all three components.

The likely culprit for why Mark was hungry last night was we didn't have any healthy fat at dinner (cooking fat, yes, but not that much).  And, if you have a snack, you need to have at least two of the three components.  So, some fruit and half a hard-boiled egg.  Or, some fruit and a handful of cashews.  Or, some carrot sticks dipped in guacamole.  You get the picture.

So, live and learn; don't forget the healthy fat (which, of course, runs counter to the way most of us have been eating since the late '80s (the whole non-fat craze)).

How am I feeling this morning of Day 2?  Ok.  I slept ok, not great.  My body was probably wondering what happened to my sugar-alchohol, so, I was a bit fitful.  Plus, I got up more than usual to use the facilities because I drank a lot more water yesterday than I am used to.

Breakfast this morning was a repeat of yesterday's lunch.  If you've not yet realized it, there is a lot of "make a lot of this and use it for several meals" or, "cook this item and use it four different ways".  Or, if you make a batch of something that can be frozen and saved for later, make a double batch." This helps so that you're not continually in the kitchen or at the grocery store.

Happy Day 2!  On wards!

Mrs. B

The Whole30 Day 0: Do I REALLY Want to Know How Much I Weigh?

Mark and I are about to embark on The Whole30 experience.  Tomorrow.  Gulp.  

What is this and why?

Well, our fitness trainer started gushing about this back in late June.  Ok, "gush" may not be the correct term since she was, admittedly, miserable when she first mentioned it to me; probably in response to my query, "Are you feeling ok?"  She told me she was on The Whole30 and was a little under a week into it and was "struggling", but was determined to continue because, after all, not being able to have creamer in your coffee is not life or death. Not imbibing in a glass of wine after work is not the end of the world (well, maybe for her, LOL!)  Because going without grains, dairy, legumes, added sugar, artificial sweeteners, any alcohol whatsoever, added sulfates, MSG or many other additives and preservatives was not as difficult as having a baby, losing a parent, or getting a divorce.

This is what she was spouting off to me, and I was like, "HUH? This sounds totally crazy and I don't want anything to do with it!"

Fast forward about two months and now I'm crazy, and I'm dragging Mark along for the ride. 

Have I mentioned lately how much I love this man?

Back to Michelle (our trainer) and The Whole30.  The next Friday she was looking decidedly better.  She said "Yeah, I miss my wine, but I've been amazed how great the food I've been eating tastes.  I'm not counting calories or weighing myself but my clothes fit like they should, I have a lot more energy, and I'm sleeping better."  At this, I felt the beginning tugs of interest since I can't remember that last time I've slept through the night.  So, I asked her to share some more, to which she replied by showing me a book called "The Whole30:  The 30-Day Guide to Total Health and Food Freedom."

You can eat more than you'd think on this plan (although maybe not what you think you want to eat!)

I glanced at it, and thought, "Well, the cover recipe looks decent."  I thumbed through it and checked out a few more of the recipes.  "Hmmm...this doesn't look too awful, I ventured." She jumped all over that opening, "No!  It's not.  What totally grabbed me and made me pull the plug and do it was the whole bit about how going without fill in the blank for 30 days is not hard compared to other things I've experienced in my life."  I was sufficiently intrigued that I went home that very afternoon and bought the book via Amazon Prime.  Ok, it basically sat in my kitchen for a month before I picked it up, but I DID buy it.  

The next week, now about two and a half weeks into her experience, Michelle was bouncing around and was positively glowing with good health.  Shoving down my misgivings about whether I could give up wine, Greek yogurt, beans, and chewing gum all at the same time, I went home and began in earnest to plant the seeds with Mark regarding our venturing into the world of The Whole30 "at some point".

I said, "We certainly won't start until after our vacation, because we'd never be able to do this on vacation.  We can start when we get back in mid-August!"  

Backtrack.  Mark and I have been down the "diet fad" path many times before in our 13 years together.  Most recently, as in two plus years ago, we went low-carb and have stuck with that relatively well.  Yet, the philosophy, research, and The Whole30 program rules pulled me in me because it all makes so much sense and is very difficult to argue with; and, not the least being, the mantra that most people who go on this repeat to themselves over and over again; "It's ONLY 30 days!"  

I could go on and on about the philosophy, research, and rules but I figure if you're interested in it, you can Google The Whole30 and read all about it.  My intent with blogging about it is to document my experience with it; the good, the bad, and the ugly.

We initially picked August 23rd as our Day 1 (August 22nd being Mark's birthday and he did NOT want to be deprived of scotch and cigars on his birthday (BTW smoking is also not allowed on The Whole30)).  The weekend before, we removed everything from the house that was not plan approved.  We went out shopping and bought only Whole30 approved items.  I even went on-line and bought some Whole30 approved bacon.  We planned out our initial three days of meals (9 in total:  breakfast, lunch, and dinner whereby you eat for each meal protein, a lot of vegetables, maybe some fruit, and some sort of healthy fat like avocado or olives).  In other words, we PREPARED; a integral key to success.  I also went on-line and found all sorts of resources with the most helpful being The Whole30 Forum where you can find out with a few keystrokes if, say, that ferrous gluconate in your canned black olives is plan approved (it is but they'd prefer you find ones that don't have it (and they do exist)) or if you need to ditch your carton of chicken broth because it has yeast extract in it (you do).  That same weekend, Mark made homemade sausage, pasta sauce (which we'll enjoy minus the pasta but Zoodles are great), and stock from two whole chickens (added bonus being we now have a ton of plan approved shredded chicken).  

So, we were all ready to go, but then I got seated on a jury Monday the 21st that was scheduled to go at least through Thursday (it went through Friday).  We postponed (wisely) until August 28th.  Tomorrow.  Gulp.

Seriously, I am ready for this challenge because I want to find out if there is something I am eating or drinking that is causing me not to feel as great as I should be feeling.  I mean, I'm 53 and in pretty decent health and shape; it seems I should feel better than I do.  Maybe I'll lose weight but that's not why I'm doing it.  I'd like to know if the Stevia I used in my coffee is making me gassy (I know, TMI, sorry, my Blog).  Or, are sulfates causing my eyes to swell.

Or, is dairy causing roiling stomach issues or beans causing me to bloat and puff up.  I already know giving up alcohol can only result in positive results; physical, mental, and emotional.  

So say I now, today, Day 0.

Oh, and I probably will weigh myself tonight, as well as take measurements (after tonight, the scale and tape is off limits until Day 31).  I'm drawing the line at the "before" and "after" pictures, though.  

Stay tuned for the journey.