Results

I have a bit of catching up to do.  I have completely lost track of what "day" this would be and lack the motivation to figure it out.  What I can tell you is that my first Whole30 ended roughly 6 weeks ago and before getting into how I'm doing now I'll begin with a little recap.

About 3 weeks into the program my wife and I really feel into the groove.  We were both feeling really good, sleeping well, we were craving free, and really cruising through the program and beginning to think that this way of eating could become our new normal.  Then Day 30 began to approach and something very strange happened.  I began getting nervous about what was going to happen after we were done.  The schedule of reintroducing food began to sound daunting but I knew that I couldn't just stay on the Whole30 indefinitely; I was going to have a damn beer at some point, but how do I proceed.

It turns out that the rigid rule structure of the the Whole30 that sounded so strange and difficult at first, began to give me comfort.  It gave me a guide on what to eat, when to eat, and more importantly it took away some of my "food guilt".  I don't know where this food guilt came from but I definitely felt it when I starting eating more meat than I was used to and generally larger portion sizes of vegetables as well.  It could stem from the old adage that if you want to weigh less you need to eat less, which the Whole30 unequivocally debunked as total bullshit.  Eat less crap, sure, but no one ever got morbidly obese because they ate too many carrots!

The results of my first Whole30 were amazing.  It was so much more than just losing weight.  I really believe that the weight loss was secondary effect of generally being more healthy.  If you have been reading this blog you are probably sick of hearing me say, I sleep better, no long have acid reflux, feeling slimmer, have more energy, better blood pressure, no more headaches, etc., and would like me to cut the crap and get to the weight loss.  The thing is, the weight loss is the crap, who cares?  If you feel great, and think you look great, then what the heck does it matter what the bathroom scale says?  But it always seems that the weight loss is either the first or the second question that anyone asks.  It really isn't a secret but I want to stress that the results are so much more than a number on a scale.  My Day 31 weigh-in concluded that I had lost 11 pounds and I couldn't have been happier.  30 days of eating good food, not being hungry, and adding absolutely zero additional exercise outside of my normal and I lost 11 pounds.

I'll catch you up on my progress since in my next post.  ...and yes, it does involve beer.

Day 30 - Nearing the End

Wow, Day 30 is already here!  Believe it or not, Day 30 kind of snuck up on me.  They say that you need to do something for 28 days, or so, before it become habit and the Whole30 has definitely become that for my wife and I.

I am really dying to weigh myself.  I don't think that I have lost a ton of weight but I have conflicting thoughts on this.  I don't think I've lost much mainly because I've been eating like a hog for 30 days.  The Whole30 says nothing about portion sizes; we're not supposed to snack or skip meals, so when mealtime hits, I eat!  I get hungry, but since we're not counting calories, I eat.  Everything I have eaten has been, at least to my knowledge, Whole30 approved, so perhaps this is one of the points of the Whole30, eat as much as you want, just make sure you are eating good, healthy food.

So why conflicted on the weight gain/loss?  For one, everyone keeps telling me that i look better.  I mainly discount this because nearly everyone knows I doing the Whole30, so they could be biased.  It might also be that everyone is just trying to be polite.  "Oh you're on a diet?  You do look like you've lost weight." or "wow you look great", etc.  Not that there is anything wrong with compliments; everyone has been super supportive and it's great, I just don't consider it empirical data.

What I have noticed is two things that are measurable.  First, my blood pressure is generally down.  I've always been borderline hypertensive, mainly because I am (maybe was) 40 lbs overweight, but lately I have been down close to or below the 120/80 standard.  I don't recall ever being consistently around 120/80, typically I'm around 135+/90+.  Second, I am two belt holes down on my belt! Two!

Exhibit A

Judging by the wear marks on my belt, it hasn't been this small in a long, long time.  I've had this belt since high school, so it's probably 17 years old, give or take a year.  Anyone remember the store Structure?  There was a Structure in the Summit (Scum-it) Place Mall in the mid-nineties and that is where this baby came from.  Either I am losing some weight or at the very least I am storing it somewhere other than my ass and waist.  Don't call me fat-head, it's not nice.

I have resisted the urge to weigh myself this long, so I won't know until morning.  12:00 a.m. February 3rd, is technically morning.

I do have a bit of anxiety that is building up.  Tomorrow is Day 31, what do I do!?  You would think after 30 days of abstaining from so much that I would know exactly what non-Whole30 food I was going to eat first.  I haven't a clue.  I like being off sugar, I don't want to go back.  A glass of wine, maybe, but we don't have any at the house.  I'm seriously thinking of just continuing the Whole30 just to make it easy. The program may have won, I honestly don't have a strong urge to go back to any of those non-Whole30 foods...

...I am gonna have a damn beer this weekend though, that I can promise you! #drinklocal #drunklocal

Day 21 - Routine

I don't really have much to write about today but it's been about a week since I last posted so I felt like I needed to post an update.  Everything is great.  The only thing really new is that I'm sleeping notably less than I used to before.  I used to average around 9 hours of sleep a night but now I am regularly only getting/needing 7 hours.  It's an important distinction that I'm only needing 7-8 hours.  I still going to bed at the same time at night but I frequently wake up between 5 and 6am feeling completely refreshed.  I've also learned to not fight my natural sleep cycle; instead of fighting to get another 1 or 2 hours of sleep, I just get up and start my day now.  Starting my day at 5 would typically have resulted in a need for an afternoon or evening nap but I find that I have plenty of energy for the entire day still.  Less sleep, more energy, so I got that going for me.

Since I don't have much to report I'll do a little plug for a pretty neat device that we purchased recently.  It came highly recommended from some friends of ours so we (my wife) picked up a food spiralizer.

We purchased this Paderno 3-Blade Spiralizer from William-Sonoma.

I was a bit of a skeptic at first but I've really started to enjoy this thing.  My wife and I have been making a lot of salads using the spiralizer with zucchini and cucumber.  Pasta is on the "No" list for Whole30 so we have also used zucchini "noodles" as a substitute for the real thing with a variety of sauces for dinner-ish meals.  I am surprised by how much I like spiralized vegetables as well.  For instance, I would have never imagined eating a raw zucchini (yuck), grilled or baked in a muffin, okay, but never raw.  I still would never think of biting into a raw zucchini, but turn it into little noodles and its good.  Maybe I'm weird, it's probably all in my head, but I like it.  This spiralizer is pretty easy to use, pretty easy to clean, and I've been a fan so far.

A little over a week to go.  It's time to start pondering what my first non-Whole30 food choice will be.

 

Day 13 - Normal Plus

The two week mark of the Whole 30 is quickly approaching and I, to be honest, that was not easy!  My digestive track is finally back to normal after a two-week roller coaster, I'm sleeping better, and I feel like I have more energy.

I would image that how difficult the first two weeks are would vary dramatically based on an individual's habits and lifestyle leading up to the program.  For me, I definitely underestimated my body's addiction to sugar.  Before starting the Whole 30 I mistakenly believed that I didn't really eat a lot of sugar on a daily basis.  I was so wrong, so very, very wrong.  I was actually feeding my body sugar on a very consistent and regular basis mostly without thinking about or unknowingly.  Sugar finds it's way into what seems like everything!

My old daily routine included coffee for breakfast, a sandwich from a variety of sandwich shops around the office for lunch, and dinner at home, and then a snack around 8-9pm.  Where's the sugar?  I wasn't typically eating baked goods, I opted away from the giant cookie at lunch, and my wife and I made fairly healthy dinners at home, what gives?  Here's a list of foods that I would consume regularly: coffee creamer, deli meat, diet soda, chewing gum, bottled pasta sauce, etc. and guess what, sugar, or sugar substitute (which may actually be worse), is added to all of them.  I'd wake up in the morning and have my first hit within 20 minutes of waking up.  I'd follow it up with a double for lunch with the deli meat and Diet Coke.  Our dinners however were fairly varied and didn't always contain any added sugar, but my snack at night often did!

I still have cravings around 9 o'clock on more nights than not.  What I have realized is that I'm not actually hungry at this time of night.  One night last week I gave in to these "hunger pangs" and had a bit of leftover vegetables in a tomato sauce we had made.  I ate some, but still felt "hungry" so I had some more, and a bit more, until I was nearing the "uncomfortably full" stage and yet still felt "hungry".  I have realized now that it wasn't my body that was hungry, it was my mind, and my mind wasn't hungry for food really.  What it was really telling me was it had been about 8 hours since my last hit of sugar.  Believe it or not, that is what it was.  When I think back and take an inventory of all the crap that I would eat at night nothing really satisfied that false hunger feeling like chocolate, a piece of cake, a slice of pie, etc.  My body wasn't hungry, my brain wanted it's sugar fix.

I'm off sugar now and I feel liberated!  Hello, my name is David, and I am a sugar addict, I have been sober for 13 days.  I quit smoking about a year ago.  I had smoked for about 15 years or so, which was quickly approaching half of my life here on earth, and decided to quit, again.  Smoking is a brain addiction.  Your brain gets rewired to think that it needs the nicotine to survive and when it doesn't get it, the reactions are incredibly emotional and sometime violent and painful.  At least they were for me.  Quitting was the hardest thing I've ever done.  The only time I have ever felt craving attacks was after I quit smoking, and last week.

Day 7 - The Dam

Day 7, in a few short hours I will have completed the first full week of the Whole30 program.  I have a couple quick updates tonight.

1. The "Flood" has turned into the "Dam".  The book states that constipation is common and normal and well, I guess I'm a common/normal kinda guy.  Hopefully this too shall pass, smoothly, and pain free.  A good poo can't be over-rated.
2. For pretty much my entire adult life I have had borderline hyper-tension.  High blood pressure runs in my family but even so, I have flat refused to do any medication for it.  It's borderline, whatever.  BUT tonight I checked my blood pressure at home for Ss&Gs.  (And yes, its borderline enough that I have a BP cuff at home but I'm not taking medication.)   Tonight my BP was 111/80, which is the lowest I ever remember it being. For reference, Doctors are typically looking for 120/80.  I'm not saying that the Whole30 has lowered my BP to healthy levels, but my BP cuff certainly is!  This is huge in my book, BP medication scares me.

No new food today, I've been chomping on leftovers but my wife did show me how to use our new food spiralizer.  I used to to help her make the Thai salad recipe that I'll be having for lunch tomorrow.

Week 2 starts tomorrow.  It also happens to be the time where most people that fail to complete the Whole30 quit/falter.  I'm in good spirits, Week 2 is going down.

Quick word on clarified butter, it's awesome.  It doesn't burn easily like normal butter and it's super easy to make.  Just simmer regular unsalted butter for a few minutes and the milk solids float up to the surface.  Skim these off then pour the butter over cheese cloth and what you have left is beautiful clarified butter.

Warm clarified butter just after straining.

This is the skimmed off milk solids, yum.

Cooled clarified butter that can be stored in or out of the refrigerator.

Day 6 - The Feast

Day 6 ended with a feast!  My wife and I ended our day with BBQ ribs, butternut squash puree, and a cauliflower mash.  It was delicious and Whole30 approved!

What's even more exciting is that the "Flood" has...receded?  In other words, I'm pooping better.  The Flood lasted for a few days while my system got used to things.  The first real craving hit the other night as well.   The night of Day 4 was rough, I had a terrible craving for potato chips.  This was a skin crawling, itchy all over, full out attack.  The only other time I have experienced this was when I was quitting smoking.  One good thing is that, after a few hours of sleep, the attack had passed.  Another, is that now I know that this diet is working by how badly my mind is playing tricks on me.  Skin crawling for potato chip? That can't be right.

Since that craving attack I've been sailing through this program.  I'm starting to feel better, I'm sleeping better, and my pants seem to be a little bit bigger than I remember.  I'm sure I'm in for another fall at some point but I'm riding this for as long as I can.

New Food

Breakfast Sausage (revisited) - with a bit of help from Alton Brown's recipe.  The recipe in the book needed some spice so I added some thyme, rosemary, cayenne pepper, and some red pepper flakes and it was much better.
Baby Back Ribs with Tangy BBQ Sauce - good, but next time we will cook them lower and slower in the oven to get that fall-off-the-bone tenderness.  Great spice in this dish though.
Butternut Squash Puree - very good as a side dish or as a soup of sorts
Cauliflower Mash - a bit strange for me.  I liked the mixture of both the butternut and the cauliflower
Sweet Potato Soup - I made a double batch of this for lunches.  I just made it basic for the first time but there is a tip for a more savory variation that I'll try next time.

Riding high for now, I'll check back in later.

Day 3 - The Flood

In case you were still wondering, Oakland lost in a nail biter to Youngstown State on Monday night.  I was also successful in staying good and making it to Day 2 and subsequently Day 3 now.

By tonight I will be 10% complete with this program and even though it is very early I have been noticing some side effects to the new diet.  Late in the afternoon Monday (Day 1), I was hit with a major headache.  I can't completely blame it on the new diet but it could be the cause so it is worth mentioning.  Typically, my headaches are caused by dehydration, stress, tiredness, illness, or low blood sugar (assumed).  I can eliminate some of these causes but I can't narrow it down enough to directly blame the diet.  For instance, the first week back from the holidays is very stressful at work and certainly can't blame that on the Whole30.

Yesterday (Day 2) I was also feeling pretty foggy by around 4:30-5 o'clock, but no headaches.  I'm optimistic that Monday's headache was a fluke.  What did start yesterday and has continued through today is what I'm calling "the flood".  I will try to describe this without getting too gross and graphic, but lets just say that the flood gates have been opened.  At some points during the day it is now harder to not poop than it it to poop.  It isn't that it is bad, its not painful or uncomfortable, its just now and I certainly feel lighter.

Another thing that I am noticing is that I am beginning to sense a craving for particular food.  I am not a heavy "sweets" person but I find myself thinking of/longing for chocolate, specifically caramel covered in dark chocolate.  I can taste it and my waters just thinking about it.  In fact, I had to swallow three times while typing that sentence.  Fruit seems to be helping with these cravings and it could be all in my head but, the fruit seems to taste sweeter than I remember.  I just had the sweetest orange I ever remember, perhaps it was just that good of an orange...

New Food

My wife and I have found that the recipes in the Whole30 book are a bit under spiced, in our humble opinion, so we've been kicking up the amount of spice we've been adding to the recipes.  For instance, she made the ratatouille recipe last night that was wonderful; I had my fill and more! She also found a health food store, a few towns over, that has chicken sausage that is Whole30 approved.  I was very skeptical when she had told me but we scoured over the ingredients list and found nothing that even sounded like it could be off plan, I was thrilled.  We have had absolutely no luck in finding anything in the way of sausage, bacon, or deli meet at our local supermarket that would be Whole30 approved.  Why do they put sugar in everything!  Perhaps there is something at the deli counter but I'd feel like an ass asking to see the ingredients list of all the meat at the deli counter.  I might next time though, just nicely, and I'll blame it on my wife's allergies...I just want some ham!

...

The foggy feeling upstairs is kicking in again.  It's starting to feel similar to quitting smoking. I've been smoke-free for almost a year now, and nicotine free for 6-9 months. The thought of a smoke makes me want to hurl though, but chocolate...mmm...it wouldn't surprise me if I start dreaming of chocolate at night. I think I need another orange.