Overall feeling: Sunday not included, I was starting to feel really great. Even, balanced, well, healthy, sane. Slimmer and like my body was running more efficiently. Optimistic and energetic.
Suckiest thing this week: the out of town wedding…which was a disaster, chaotic and ridiculous in and of itself, but apparently the “safe” salmon was marinated in something that made me feel HORRIBLE. Flared up eczema, super stiff and sore joints, uncomfortable stomach/b’rooming. My guess is probably a soy-based something-or-other….which pisses me the HELL off! I’m not super worried about it because I’m Whole100’ing….but it was a grind to get to where I was on Saturday morning which was feeling pretty awesome…..and then to get pushed down the stairs in one stupid meal, not impressed.
Interesting observation: it has been interesting to me to observe when and where I actually want to eat food (or beverage) outside of meal times and why. Especially interesting because I was positive when starting this, that I would not discover anything new about my mental relationship with food. So far I have desired “something” when out riding on a sunny afternoon and arriving at a coffee shop and then this week realized that I really want “something” on a rainy, dark evening while snuggled up on the sofa watching television. As a seasoned emotional eater, I am surprised to find that I haven’t gravitated towards wanting food when sad or stressed (both of which have happened at least once in rather high intesity in the past three week), but that I gravitate towards wanting to “celebrate” and give myself “comfort” in situations where I’m ALREADY happy or comfortable. So odd. I have avoided snacking altogether with two exceptions which were due to not packing enough food…not due to psychological reasons (and the snacks were mini-template-meals). One night last week while comfy on the sofa sipping a decaf tea with coconut milk, I could have “legally” eaten an apple with almond butter….but in the effort to figure out and understand my psychological connections with food, I chose not to go down that path. I hope that during the duration that I am doing this, that I can suss out further what those triggers are (and if there are others) and how to best handle them. I will say that the horror show of adapting to this more balanced way of eating over the first 12-15 days was (I hope) enough incentive to make sure that the content and frequency of future off-roading better be really, really worth it.
UPDATE: after that was written we went on a Sunday afternoon ride for coffee…I ordered a decaf tea, sat on the patio with my hubby and enjoyed the time…while he ate an almond croissant, I had just my tea…and felt perfectly happy about it.
Volume: I cannot believe the volume of vegetables that we are going through. I mean…yes, we’ve always eaten a lot of veggies….I have always said that our diet is vegetable based and includes meats and fats. But I replenished our veggie stash at Costco on Thursday and it included:
- 2 bags (2lb each) fresh green beans
- 1 large bag baby kale
- 1 large bag spinach
- 2 cauliflowers
- 3 cucumbers
- 2 lbs cherry tomatoes
- 6 large bell peppers
- 5 lb sweet onions
- 5 lb bag apples
- 1 head each green and red cabbage
I want to say that some of this will last us into the next week….but the percentage of that is quite small. When really concentrating on balancing the right amount of veggies over three meals and trying to get variety, the volume adds up! Out of interest, the rest of my cart included:
- 2 pkg (6# each) ground pork
- 1 tray chicken thighs (25 thighs)
- 5 lbs ground beef
- 1 tray of wild pacific cod
- 1 large jar stuffed olives & pickled onions (YUM!)
- Avocado oil
- Olive oil
- 3 dozen eggs
- Lemon juice
In fairness, the meat/olives/oils portion of the cart will last us much longer than one week.
Skin, Hair, Nails: my nails are ah-MAY-zing! Hair is pretty good also! My skin needs more consistent attention and then I think it would be awesome also.
Energy: building….staying consistent and even through the day.
Mood: was in a good mood all week. Except Sunday. Sunday I felt like pewp.
Green Time: 174 minutes. Dropped the ball a bit this week….but am picking it back up for Week Four
Sleep/Sleep Habits: overall really solid. Not sure about sleeping right to my alarm though. Pre-Whole30, I woke up before my alarm….about every 3 minutes…for an hour. Not sure if sleeping solid TO my alarm is better (ie, more sleep, deeper and consistent) or if it’s because of a lack of energy that I am not waking up early?
Digestion/Headaches: Monday and half of Tuesday (Day 15 & 16) I had a wicked headache, AGAIN. But by Tuesday afternoon it was gone and hasn’t been heard from since! Digestion has been great also…until this weekend.
Other Thoughts: I’ve really come to value my Green Time and am so glad that I bit the bullet and wrote that into my expectations of this 30 days. Admittedly, sometimes I would rather just get home, make dinner and put my pajamas on…but then I get out into the fresh air and away from my phone and my house and away from multi-tasking and my chores. The only thing I can do when I’m out walking around…..is walk around. My thoughts slow down, my heart rate increases a bit (or a lot if I have tonnes of energy) and everything else takes a back seat. It’s lovely. I’m grateful to myself for assigning a duration rather than a distance or speed because it feels more natural and self-respectful and because it can then be whatever I need or want it to be that day.
Going into Week Four I’m bringing in morning gym time. I’ve got the basic W30 plan down, I have and continue to dial in my portions and now it’s time to make another big step and work in consistent morning gym time. I’m going to assign time to this as well and go for 45 minutes of any combination of stretching/yoga, cardio/rowing, bodyweight and heavy lifting…and I’m going to assign it as 3 days per week for the first week. There’s no reason that I cannot get some morning exercise 3 days out of the next 7 because it can be ANY combination I feel like doing. Plus the gym we built is beautiful!
Fitty vs Fatty 