Day 4

So, I've been really tired all day, not sure if this is still the caffeine withdrawal or what. Also, I just feel sort of slow, mentally speaking, like in a fog or something. Fortunately, I got to work from home, so I actually ate supper at a reasonable time and can go to bed fairly early tonight, maybe that will help. I have noticed that over the last few days I haven't sat around watching tv as much -- mostly because I'm in the kitchen trying to cook all the time. I will say I'm eating better tasting food than I've had in a long time.

Anyway, the food:

Breakfast -- This one was sort of a fail. I ate it anyway, but those are supposed to be fried eggs there -- I forgot how fast eggs cook when you fry them, and they got a bit overcooked. So that's two overcooked fried eggs, with the last of my egg muffins I've been having all week, with a sweet potato (baking them overnight in the crockpot turned out perfect -- just wrap them in foil, throw them in the crock pot, put the lid on it, put it on low, and go to bed.) I added coconut oil to the potato, since I can't have butter because of the no dairy rule.

Lunch -- Big handful of salad greens, with part of the breakfast salad stuff I've been having every morning because it's starting to look kind of sad and I want to finish it before it gets too soggy, plus the last of the roast chicken, half an avocado, and a mix of olive oil, coconut milk and lime juice for dressing.

Supper -- leftover orange cinnamon beef stew (still one more serving of that left in the fridge, eventually you will see something new here), chopped zucchini, roasted cauliflower and carrots, and half an avocado.

I've got the remains of the roast chicken, some celery, carrots, onion, garlic, rosemary, and thyme all in the crockpot simmering to make chicken broth -- hope it turns out good, I've never made my own broth before. Tomorrow, I'm going to go to the farmer's market here in town -- in addition to the obvious veggies and fruit, there's supposed to be a spice company and someone selling grass-fed organic ground beef, so I'll have to check them out.

Day 3

I decided to give up coffee starting today. I didn't really think I had a problem, but judging by how tired and cranky I was all day, I must've been a little more caffeine addicted than I realized. I didn't think I really drank that much, a cup or two a day, but I guess that was enough. Also, even though I came into this not expecting a lot of the carb withdrawal symptoms people usually experience -- because I did that back when i started Medifast and came from Medifast to this -- that may be playing into. Whole9life.com has put together a handy timeline for what to expect during the Whole30, and based on my experience with Medifast, which caused similar stages, it seems pretty accurate. So if you know me in real life, and I seem a little grumpy the next few days, this is why.

Anyway, other than being tired and cranky, today went well. I added in a snack between lunch and dinner, and it helped a lot, so I'll probably start making sure I have one with me when I have to work or I'm going to have a long day for some reason. I actually asked on the Whole30 support forums if my meals seemed reasonable, and they suggested I might need to add more, particularly healthy fats. I feel like I'm eating a ton of food already, so I'm not sure about that, but I'll keep trying to pay attention to how I feel and how hungry I am.

And now to the food, which is pretty boring, I probably could've just pasted in the pics from yesterday, because they're basically the same. Fortunately I'm not bored too easily eating the same things over and over.

Day 3 Breakfast -- egg muffins, same as the last two days, breakfast salad leftover from yesterday, blackberries, macadamia nuts

Day 3 Lunch -- bunch of salad greens, carrots, snap peas, celery, roast chicken, with olive oil and lemon juice for dressing

Day 3 Supper -- leftover orange cinnamon beef stew, riced cauliflower, blackberries in coconut milk with a little cinnamon

Tomorrow, i'm having a sweet potato, I hope. I have some baking in the crock pot, I hope they turn out since I've never done them that way before.

Day 2

Day 2 has been pretty good. I ate my three meals, I did pack more for lunch than I ate at the meal, but then I went back and finished it a few hours later because I was hungry. I was trying not to do snacks, because they encourage you not to eat between meals to give your body plenty of time to process all the stuff you already ate, but they do say it's okay if you're really hungry and not just eating out of boredom -- and I was really hungry. It's probably because I'm coming off of Medifast where I ate 6 meals every day, so my body is just used to eating every two to three hours. Tomorrow, I'll actually take a snack with me in case I need it. I'm also trying to follow their recommendation to actually sit at the table and eat, without watching tv or turning on the computer or checking the phone. It's kind of nice, actually, to just sit for a little while with nothing to do but concentrate on the food in front of me. I think I notice more how it tastes, as opposed to when I'm just gulping it down while checking facebook.

So here's what I had today:

Breakfast -- egg muffins, same as yesterday, equivalent of about 3 eggs, breakfast salad inspired by this one at Stupid Easy Paleo (jicama, carrots -- lightly cooked so they weren't so hard, apple, celery, zucchini, plum, blackberries, cucumber (should've peeled it, I cut it in big hunks and the peel was really bitter), and I think I'm leaving something out, but then all that mixed with the juice of one lemon -- made it last night, enough for a few days, it was really good.) Oh, and some avocado, maybe 1/3 of one small one, and coffee with coconut milk. I may just give up coffee while I'm doing this, not the same without some creamer or some sugar.

Lunch -- bunch of salad greens, celery, carrot, half an apple (I'd actually put this in the rest of the salad dressing yesterday so it wouldn't brown -- worked great, and actually made the dressing taste better since it really needed a little sweet to offset the tartness of the lime juice), snap peas, leftover roast chicken, the rest of the avocado from breakfast, and a dressing of olive oil, lime juice and coconut milk.

Supper -- leftover orange cinnamon beef stew from yesterday, with cauliflower that I "riced" in my ninja blender/food processor and heated in the skillet, one apple, and some macadamia nuts (they're mixed in the stew)

 Oh, and somewhere between breakfast and lunch I had a cup of Celestial Seasonings Mandarin Orange Spiced Tea, which I really, really like, but I just looked it up to link to it, and it contains soy, which I'm not supposed to have (who puts soy in tea?) so I won't be having that anymore. I'm going to assume it wouldn't be enough to make much difference this one time, but I was going to have it again tomorrow. Oh, well, I'll find something else instead. 

I did finally take my before pictures, I think I'll put them on a separate page rather than in this post, so look up at the top of the page for the Pictures tab. 

Day One

Day one is basically over now. It wasn't too bad. The no sugar for my coffee in the morning is no fun -- I tried a little coconut milk in it, but it's not the same. I think my first meal of the day was a little low on protein, the second had a little too much, and then I was so hungry by the time I got to my third meal that I piled more on my plate than I could eat.

Here's what I had:


Day One breakfast -- Mixed cooked vegetables (carrots, snap peas, celery, zucchini), egg muffins (4 mini muffin sized, equals about 2 eggs, with prosciutto and sauteed leeks, garlic, and mushrooms), blackberries, macadamia nuts, and coffee with coconut milk.



Day One lunch -- (that's in a small serving bowl, there really are veggies under there!) two handfuls mixed salad greens, carrot, celery, half an apple, roast chicken -- salad dressing was olive oil, lime juice and a little coconut milk)

Day One supper -- Orange Cinnamon Beef Stew from TheHealthyFoodie.com on a bed of steamed zucchini slices (instead of the rutabaga she used, because I wouldn't know a rutabaga if I saw one, and I had lots of zucchini in the fridge)



It felt like a lot of food, although I'm not sure I got all the proportions right each time. Pretty sure I overdid the fat at breakfast, since I had coconut milk and macadamia nuts -- I really  only remember there being like 4 of those nuts on my plate, I'm not sure how those others ended up there. Even with them, I was hungry pretty quickly, so tomorrow I'm adding a couple more egg muffins, and probably extra veggies too. The beef stew was pretty good, it would be better as a fall/winter meal when it's chilly outside, and it could use something else, something smoky flavored maybe. Or maybe I'm just still used to artificially enhanced flavors and my tastes will change? I don't know.

Oh, and I almost forgot -- I weighed myself this morning for my official pre-Whole30 starting weight, and was down another 3 lbs since last week -- I'm now under 300 lbs at 298.1! That makes me very happy. Also, I really am going to take a before picture so I'll have some basis for comparison at the end of the month, it just didn't quite get done today. Anyway, I'm exhausted, and I've still got to prep some food for tomorrow. I'm not used to having to actually plan what I'm going to eat in advance like this.

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Whole30

I started this blog a while back, at my sister's suggestion, but then never actually told anyone about it, because I wasn't sure if I really wanted to blog regularly, and I didn't want to tell people and then stop posting. But then I posted anyway, which is kind of silly, I guess, since no one was reading it. Anyway, so now I decided to actually tell people about it. I even wrote a lovely intro post, it's here, but basically, after struggling with weight issues all of my life and then surviving cancer a few years ago, I'm finally trying to get healthy. Not that I haven't tried before. I've lost weight before, and then gained it back. This time, I want to lose weight, and then stay healthy. So I started on Medifast, and since June I've lost 35 lbs. Which is great. But Medifast is a bit restrictive, and I'm getting bored with it, so I've noticed I've started adding things to make their food taste better. I haven't added things that are totally off plan, but I'm definitely not following the plan to the letter either. 

I've known since I started MF that it was not a plan that I would be on forever -- it's not designed to be something you stick to your whole life, it is specifically a weight loss plan -- once you lose the weight, you transition back to eating real food. So I'd been reading up on options for post-MF, starting with looking into glycemic load/glycemic index, which is just a diet that takes into account how all of your food affects your blood sugar, the idea being to keep your blood sugar levels even throughout the day, without the ups and downs you get when you eat a lot of sugary/carb-laden stuff. That is something that really makes sense to me, as someone from a family with a history of type 2 diabetes. But I also kept hearing about this Paleo thing. It is not specifically focused on counting carbs -- in fact, it doesn't necessarily count anything. There are variations of it out there, people can't all seem to agree on what exactly it is, and some of the why it's good for you that focuses on eating like our Paleolithic ancestors is something I'm just not educated enough on the subject to judge, but I like the explanation from whole9, which they've summed up with their Whole9′s Nutrition in 60 Seconds:

We eat real food – meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, fruit, healthy oils, nuts and seeds. We choose foods that were raised, fed and grown naturally, and foods that are nutrient-dense, with lots of naturally occurring vitamins and minerals.This is not a “diet” – we eat as much as we need to maintain strength, energy, activity levels and a healthy body weight. We aim for well-balanced nutrition, so we eat animals and a significant amount of plants.Eating like this has helped us to look, feel, live and perform our best, and reduces our risk for a variety of lifestyle-related diseases and conditions.

(They stress that if you cannot find things like grass-fed beef, or you can't afford to buy all organic everything, that you can use conventionally grown options.) I'm sure I'll talk more about their way of doing things, as I'm about halfway through their book, It Starts With Food. Their way of eating, and their reasons for eating that way, really struck a chord with me. 

Whole9 has developed a 30-day plan, the Whole30.  Basically, for 30 days, you commit to cutting out grains, sugars and sweeteners (all of them, sugar, honey, stevia, splenda -- no sweeteners), dairy, legumes (beans and peanuts), potatoes, and alcohol (that one's so not a problem for me, I can't even remember the last time I had a drink). Also no MSGs, sulfites, or carrageenan, each of which can be in things like spice mixes and prepared sauces. The point is to cut out these things for 30 full days and see how you feel, because each of these things can cause problems in people's diets, and if you're used to eating them, you may not realize how much they're affecting you, because it may not be obvious. And they focus not just on physical effects of the food, but emotional -- so for instance, during the Whole30 they ask you not to try to Paleo-fy desserts using ingredients that are allowed. So even though you can have bananas and you can have 100% cocoa (like cocoa powder), they ask you not to make banana ice cream with frozen bananas and cocoa powder, not because there's anything inherently wrong with that, but because instead of learning that you can, in fact, live without ice cream for 30 days, you're just making an ice cream substitute. I'm guessing people who've never really had issues with food, who have never felt like a meal just isn't complete without a little dessert, won't get that, but when I read it, I understood it completely. They want you to learn to enjoy the taste of real food, not the sugary stuff we've come to expect in our modern diet.

Anyway, getting a little long-winded here, sorry. Basically, I'm going to do a Whole 30, starting tomorrow. I've been getting ready since yesterday, stocking up on veggies and fruit (yay! fruit! I haven't had that since June when I started Medifast), tossing out the cheese in the fridge (which seems so wasteful, but fortunately there wasn't a lot left in the package), I've made some egg muffins (mine are not exactly like that, I couldn't find sausage that met the requirements for the plan, so I used some prosciutto -- possibly not ideal, but with only pork and salt as ingredients it met the requirements, and hey, I'm giving up cheese here, give me a break! -- and I added some sauteed leeks, mushrooms and garlic). I've got a whole chicken roasting in the oven (that's almost certainly not going to happen every week, but I figured it would make a lot of meat with little effort, and I'm not sure how much time I'm going to have the rest of the week to cook, so I want to be prepared). Each meal, I'll eat lots of veggies (raw or cooked), some meat or eggs for protein, and possibly a little fruit and a bit of healthy fat, like part of an avocado or coconut or adding a little oil to my food or certain nuts/nut butters (but not peanuts). After months of Medifast meals, it actually sounds like an awful lot of food at each meal, but then they encourage you to only eat three meals a day and avoid snacking if possible. (The official meal template is here with an explanation of amounts/portion sizes.) 

I've resisted doing something like this for a while -- who wants to give up bread and cheese and butter and sugar for the rest of their life, after all? But on the other hand, who wants to be tired and fat and miserable the rest of their life? And really, it's 30 days, and if at the end of it I don't feel any better than I do right now, what have I lost? 30 days that I would've been eating something, and at least the stuff in this plan will taste good, which is a step up from a lot of the Medifast stuff I've been eating for the last few months. (Of course, the fact that it will taste good is one reason a part of me is still going, this can't possibly work. They say I can cook in oil -- that doesn't sound like a way to lose weight, not according to any diet I've ever heard of.)

So, I'll be starting tomorrow. One of their rules is not to step on the scale during the 30 days, the focus is not supposed to be on weight, but tomorrow morning I'll do one last weigh in before I start, and maybe take some measurements, so that at the end of 30 days, I can see if it's affected my weight at all. And during the 30 days, I'm going to try to post every day, probably toward the end of the day, about how everything went

Very uneventful weigh in today. For the last week I lost a whopping 0 lbs. Of course, I didn't gain any either. It's very frustrating when this happens, because I know there's no way that what I ate should have made my weight stay the same. I'm just not eating that much. Very frustrating when my body decides not to cooperate with me. 

It's been a weird week, though. I'm just not hungry. Well, when I first wake up, I'm hungry, but after my first meal or two, I'm just not anymore. Maybe because lately I've been having egg beaters for my L&G a few times a week and volume wise, that makes a huge meal, even if I am splitting half a serving of them and half a serving of reduced fat cheese. Yummm, cheese. I can't even eat my vegetables with that meal, except maybe a serving of mushrooms cooked in with it if I'm in the mood for them. Maybe I should stick to grilled chicken salads for a few weeks.

I've been reading Dr. A's Habits of Health.  It's recommended reading with the Medifast/TSFL program, he's on the board of Medifast and started the TSFL program (Medifast food combined with a personal health coach). It's interesting reading, and there are definitely aspects of his long-term approach to staying healthy I want to adopt once I've lost the weight I need to lose. I also find it interesting that he has an alternative to the Medifast 5&1 that uses more food and less Medifast meal packets. I'm not sure I want to change things up just yet, but I'm definitely studying that and making note of the recommended meals and snacks (he calls them "fuelings") because I can definitely see me getting bored with the 5&1, especially since I'm not ordering any more of the soy-based products, which limits my choices. I mean, I know it's supposed to just be fuel, you don't have to enjoy every meal, but I don't see why I should be bored having the same four meals (that's how many I like/can tolerate of the non-soy-based stuff so far) over and over again, when I could instead have small servings of fruits and vegetables paired with proteins like cottage cheese or cheese or peanut butter. 

Anyway, Dr. A's program is based on a low-carb, glycemic index based system, so I've also just started reading another book, The Glycemic Load Diet, but I'm only a chapter or two into it, so not a lot to say about it so far, although I am finding some of the information about insulin resistance and how that affects people interesting. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that I have the gene that makes people more prone to insulin resistance, since type II diabetes runs in the family. 

And on another note, exercise is still just not really happening. I know I need to work on that, but the thought of getting on the treadmill or going outside in the million-degree heat (okay, slight exaggeration, but only very slight -- this is Texas, after all) is just not appealing. I think maybe I'll look into exercise videos. I think I still have my old Walk Away the Pounds DVDs around here somewhere, I used to not mind those. Maybe it's time to dig them out and plug in the old DVD player. 

Weigh In Wednesday

I didn't post anything last week. I've been feeling kind of down, I'm not really sure why. I've stayed more or less on plan the whole time, although there were a few days I went over on condiments and had an extra snack, and I didn't track everything in myfitnesspal like I usually do, but I didn't go wild and have cake or anything, and I didn't just completely give up, so I'm okay with it, and I'm back on track now. 

As far as my weigh in, I weighed 301.1 this morning. So close to being under 300! That's just over 35 lbs lost total. I'm thrilled with my progress so far. I hope that I can stick with it. While the plan itself is simple to follow, sometimes it's boring, and sometimes I just plain want to eat things that I'm just not allowed to eat on this diet. I'm not really working on exercise, even though I know I need to, I just seem to be lacking motivation right now.