Whole30 for August 2012 page 6

[namelesswonder]

For beef, I always pour pan drippings back on the meat when I'm done cooking. Since my steaks get liberally buttered (ghee'd now that it's August! wonder how that'll taste), that is usually incredibly delicious. I haven't tried it for burgers, but I bet it would add back a really tasty amount of moisture. I'll experiment soon enough, since we bought ground beef recently (we freeze everything).

Day 1 is off to a really rough start for me. Last night, I realized, "Oops, I've been pretty constipated lately," and decided to take Exlax. I'm kind of regretting that, because despite the cramping I know I'd have, coconut oil or epsom salt in water would have gotten things out last night instead of this morning, at work. My stomach is feeling very delicate now and I'm really glad I didn't eat breakfast because I'm pretty sure it would have come back up!

Good luck, everyone!

[cavequeen]

Well, I was going to continue on to August for the rest of my whole 30. Today is day 17 but after several days of stressful funeral planning, I caved in and had a delicious strawberry cake and some cheese with my ham. I was hungry and away from home. The cake was really good so it was worth it. I went back to eating right went I got home that night as I already had dinner ready and it didn't set off any cravings but of course it is not whole 30.

I was actually kind of hoping, it would make the scale move since I have been stuck for over a week but no such luck. Anyway, I may try again later on for a perfect whole 30 when things calm down. But, I am going to continue on with primal and try to keep as close to whole 30 as I can and go back to avoiding sugar and flour. I need to pack more food supplies with me today. I had fruit and nuts so I thought that would be good enough along with some sliced meats but since it was that time of the month, I got hungry as I also didn't have a big enough breakfast. Live and learn. Good luck everyone!

[impala454]

Don't quit on day 17 cavequeen! That slip up is totally understandable and funerals can be a very stressful time. Don't expect amazing results with all of that kind of stuff going on. Keep it going!

Nameless I hear you on the rough start, I probably went a little overboard getting rid of leftover beer on Monday night . Eggs and coffee (black of course) this morning though and I feel ready to go! If you think you can't have coffee black, just give it a try for a few days, it's really not bad and to me you really get more of an idea of the flavor of the coffee.

[cavequeen]

Don't quit on day 17 cavequeen! That slip up is totally understandable and funerals can be a very stressful time. Don't expect amazing results with all of that kind of stuff going on. Keep it going!

Nameless I hear you on the rough start, I probably went a little overboard getting rid of leftover beer on Monday night . Eggs and coffee (black of course) this morning though and I feel ready to go! If you think you can't have coffee black, just give it a try for a few days, it's really not bad and to me you really get more of an idea of the flavor of the coffee.

Thanks, Chuck!

I am trying to battle the perfectionist thing. Probably why I lean more to primal than paleo. Paleo is harder to be compliant all the time. I will do my best to keep to whole 30. I have lost 9 lbs over the last 5 weeks so I am doing okay with it.

I will be attending family events all weekend and I will have to eat what's available. I just can't bring my little lunch and deal with grieving family members. So it won't be the perfect whole 30 I did for the first 15 days but I will keep as close as I can under the circumstances. I am gearing up now to eat a big breakfast and to start figuring out what I need to pack foodwise and get done today.

[jenn26point2]

Why no stevia??

This is what the book "It Starts with Food" says about Stevia and artificial sweeteners:

"Because the sweetness of sugar is addicting, eating an excess amount is easy. The more sugar we eat, the more we get acclimated to hgh levels and the more we want. Artificial sweeteners may be even more problematic because they are designed to deliver a sweetness hit that is far beyond what you could ever find in nature." pg 89

"These artificial sweeteners provide taste and reward sensations the likes of which we (biologically) have never before experienced, burning our taste buds (and pleasure centers) out on stimuli that are simply otherworldly. It thus becomes harder and harder for us to experience the same level of pleasure and reward that we did the lsat time we ate them - and makes it darn near impossible to appreciate the antural flavors found in fresh foods." pg 90

"Nutra-sweet, Equal, Splenda, stevia - none is any more "natural" than the shoes on your feet right now. Some are derived from nature, but after chemical processing, Splenda has more in common with pesticides than table sugar. (And stevia isn't any better. We dare you to find a stevia leaf and chew on it for a while. It ain't that sweet. At least, not until it's refined into white crystals in a laboratory somewhere.)" pg. 92

[jenn26point2]

This is officially Day 1. Feeling good. Back down to 189 so I'm no longer battling poor choices at the start of this one like I did with the second one. That's nice.

Plan for today:

B:
3 eggs
4 sausage links

L:
leftover pastured pork chop
leftover steamed broccoli
leftover sweet potatoes

D:
dunno yet... possibly pastured chicken legs and chicken breast

Movement: either a walk or LHT - haven't decided just yet.

Good luck to all!

[wendyland]

I will be after this weekend. I'm traveling for a funeral in a small town and I don't know what my food options will be. I'll stick to being wheat-free for the weekend and try to do my best otherwise.

[impala454]

Thanks, Chuck!

I am trying to battle the perfectionist thing. Probably why I lean more to primal than paleo. Paleo is harder to be compliant all the time. I will do my best to keep to whole 30. I have lost 9 lbs over the last 5 weeks so I am doing okay with it.

I will be attending family events all weekend and I will have to eat what's available. I just can't bring my little lunch and deal with grieving family members. So it won't be the perfect whole 30 I did for the first 15 days but I will keep as close as I can under the circumstances. I am gearing up now to eat a big breakfast and to start figuring out what I need to pack foodwise and get done today.

The important part is if you do slip to not let it change your mindset completely. If you let one slip turn into 2-3 slips, then let a whole day slip, then that turns into a few days, and before you know it you're fighting just to have one good day. It sounds like you're doing great! (especially given the circumstances!) Forget the slip and keep it going!

[JackieKessler]

Cavequeen: What Chuck said. You're awesome. Keep going!

[wendyland]

I'm in. I've run into massive mood swings previously while doing Whole30 and wound up ditching it, but in retrospect, I think that if I would have stuck it out, the mood swings would have ended. I'm in a very good mindset and have been for more than three weeks; I've been very good about taking my vitamins and exercising. So I think I'm in a better place to go Whole30 this time around. I'm also doing this as part of the Primal Blueprint Challenge for August (begins 8/1) and the challenge at Nerd Fitness (begins 8/6). I started today. I'm a little nervous, because the mood swings were very, very bad. But as long as I go into this with open eyes, I should be alright.

I also had bad moodswings. I only made it 3 weeks last month. I also felt obsessed about food around the clock. I don't usually think about food so much. I didn't like it. Maybe I just didn't give it long enough. I want to make it to 30 days next time and see if I still feel that way. It was tiring.