Whole 30, Week One Recap

Week One Recap
I’m keeping my daily Whole30 log on the “Whole 30 Logging” tab above…or just click here:  https://fittyvsfatty.wordpress.com/whole-logging/

1 week down, overall feeling: not as awesome as I had hoped to be. Having done 6 days of Whole30 compliance near the end of August as a trial run, and had started to feel awesome (energy, sleep, mood) I was hoping for the same when I took on the real deal. Unfortunately I’ve had headaches, nausea, shitty sleep, low energy, bloating and fluctuating moods. I refuse to get discouraged because it’s only been the first week and that was a week coming off of holidays and heading into my period. So maybe, all things considered, it was alright!

Hardest aspect: I guess the hardest part right now is trying to stay in the moment and trust the process rather than projecting myself ahead and then getting upset that the changes that I want to see haven’t occurred yet.

Easiest aspect: completely surprising to me, but not snacking between meals has been the easiest thing and something I was pretty worried about going into this. If I stick to a proper template meal and drink a reasonable amount of water I don’t get hungry until the next meal. That has been really nice! I’ve had a couple days where I’ve chose to have a “mini-meal” that still fit the Whole30 template (Day 2 because my lunch wasn’t big enough and Day 7 where I probably could have just had some tea or water instead).

Most surprising discovery: I have been shocked in the last 7 days to find out how many times, when not on Whole30, that I would have put food or drink in my mouth mindlessly. It’s been a real awakening just how often I was using food as something other than fuel or nourishment. Boredom and wanting to distract myself or change my mood are the two main ones. I really, truly did not think that I would learn anything new about my psychological relationship with food during this process….and I’ve learned a big one in the first 7 days!

Food Summary
Eggs – 20
Bone Broth – 5.5L
Water – 9.5L
Veggies – cabbage, green beans, cucumbers, bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, mixed greens, swiss chard, beets, potatoes, carrots, onions, yellow beans, zucchini, sweet potato, mushrooms, fennel
Fruit – 7 prune plums, 5 apples, ½ peach
Fat – black olives, green olives, lard, mayo, olive oil
Protein – ground turkey, ground pork, chicken thighs, sockeye salmon fresh, salmon canned, eggs, ground beef

Skin, Hair, Nails: nails are awesome, skin is normal (for me) and hair is also awesome!
Energy: as noted above, not the gangbusters I was hoping for….but not hooooorible, either.
Mood: I would say over the last 7 days that my mood has fluctuated between irritable and kind of quiet. I won’t use the words “depressed”, “blue” or “bummed” because I wasn’t. Just….quiet.
Green Time: 238 minutes over 7 days…an average of 34 minutes/day. It’s mostly felt really good and I will continue that as we go. Fortunately it was gorgeous weather and that is about to end….but it’s fresh air even when it’s raining, so I’ll give it my best shot. I’ve really listened to myself for this green time as well….on lower energy days we go for a stroll and when I’ve got lots of energy we burn up the trails! The only requirement is to be outside moving around for 30 minutes or more.
Sleep/Sleep Habits: I’m patiently waiting for solid uninterrupted sleep followed by bushy-tailed wakeup. Hasn’t happened yet but I’m hopeful!
Digestion/Headaches: Blergh, I’ve had a couple headaches and a couple digestive horror shows. Hopefully this is coming to a close though!

Other Thoughts: Because I knew that my period was coming, I chose to include starchy carbs (beets, potatoes, yams) at least one meal per day in the first week. This might be why I haven’t had any huge cravings even though it’s pre-Alien week. I am going to scale those carbs back a wee bit though because past history has told me that I feel better with less of the roots. I’ll keep watch on my mood and energy though and will not feel badly about adding them back if needed. Plus, I finally figured out how to BAKE crispy yam fries this weekend and they were deeeelicious….so I definitely forsee those in our future!

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Of Misunderstandings & Great Books

I slept like a rock last night. Solid sleep with minimal interruption. You know why? Because I am doing Tara’s ACC this month and because of that, I walked 10.1 kilometers yesterday (6.3 miles). Let me explain. I walked home….a little over 7 kilometers (and nearly got run over TWICE…..both of which involved screaming and swearing on my part….the adrenaline of which certainly fuelled my speedy ascent). Let me back up. On Monday night Ray asked me if I wanted to go on a date on Friday. He said “Drive home on Friday and then walk from home to the pub (3km) to meet me for dinner.”. I thought that was very sweet and fully agreed….and then decided I would walk Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Mid afternoon we talked on the phone and he asked if I would switch date-night to that night instead of Friday….mostly because we would never get into the pub at that time of day on a Friday. I agreed and said “But you know I’m walking home today, right?”. He acknowledged and I assumed that he would be at home waiting for me and we would pop over to the pub together. About 2 kilometers left in my walk I got this text from Ray: “Here.”  Do you see where this is going?? I got home after a 7km march uphill (and a solid jog at the end) to find that there was no one home, door was locked. A quick phone call revealed that Ray had mixed up our conversations about the date night and went from work right to the pub. And then asked if I could just walk over….you know….since he’d already ordered beer. My first reaction was “absolutely not” and then I realized that if I did walk over that I could add to my ACC tally. Once my irritation wore off I made pretty good time over to the pub. When I got there I was soaked with sweat and looked like the backside of ass…..but what do you expect when you walk over 10k in 90 minutes?

Dinner (and my gluten free Omission beer…which I used as an electrolyte replacement, LOL) was delicious after all that walking! So that was the extent of my Tuesday. By the time we got back from the pub and went and picked my car up it was 8pm, I had a hot bath and then crawled into bed! I have a pretty wicked headache (yesterday too) that I wish would just die…..so I’m trying to drown it in Coconut Oolong tea. It’s not working yet but I’ll keep at it! 😉

Last night I finished the book “Eat the Yolks” by Liz Wolfe. I’d ordered it from Chapters after seeing all the hype online about it (I’m not normally a hype-chaser….I think I was bored at work that day) and it came in early last week. I’d kept reading reviews about how it was funny and witty and I couldn’t imagine how a book about the science of food could be so….but it was! It was a very entertaining read, I found myself chuckling more than once. It’s very much like listening to a very smart girlfriend talk in a dry, witty way. The book completely changed my view of cholesterol, saturated fat (even though I already knew it wasn’t bad), heart disease and various other lies that the government has banded together with big industry to “educate” us on. The book is ultimately that, an explanation about why the things that we’re brought up to believe are untrue, where they came from and what the actual science says. I will fully admit that it is even more difficult for me now, to sit and listen to people I know make comments about avoiding saturated fats and animal products and subbing in “vegetable” oils (NOT made out of vegetables, btw) and how milk should be our source of calcium. I’ve learned over the years that most people aren’t interested in hearing different points of view and many people are seriously attached to what they think they know and often act like you are attacking them when you try to mention that things may not be as they think. Of course, there are studies that prove almost any point of view and people cling to these like a drowning man to a life raft…..but Eat The Yolks explains why those studies aren’t exactly honest and it’s actually a bit infuriating once you understand what BS you’ve been fed. She also discusses why supplements aren’t an awesome idea; mostly because they are often synthetic and because they are always singular…and real food does not have singular nutrients, it has co-nutrients that all help each other get absorbed, converted and utilized.

I do have to say that there was one main turn-off about this book and that was the fact that she talks on about properly raised animals and the products that come from them as well as healthy soil…and she talks about them A LOT. It isn’t until the very last page or two that she makes a concession to say that getting and eating only properly raised animals and produce raised in healthy soil is simply not feasible for everyone. It isn’t until the very last page that she says to make whatever small change you can and let it build on the next. To find eggs from a local chicken pasture or to use the farm markets when possible. At various points throughout the book I thought to myself “you can stop now, you’ll never be able to achieve this level of “goodness””. Of course, I didn’t stop reading and the book has so much useful information in it that I am very glad that I didn’t. But I had to remind myself more than once that I do the best I can with the resources that I have and that simply has to be good enough. Would I love to be able to meet my cattle farmer and watch the cows range and know that my pork came from happy pigs that wandered around eating grubs and small animals like they are meant to do? Of course I would…but I can’t. I found the book a bit aggressive in the repetition of “properly raised animals, raw dairy (which is illegal in Canada), healthy soil” and how produce and meat raised in any way other than completely naturally, is stripped of most nutrients. I get why she says it, I do, it’s the absolute dream to be able to turn our backs on factory farms with their inhumane treatment & feeding of animals and to snub our noses at any produce that comes from an industrial farm. But I felt that this was all said to the exclusion of simply doing the best you can with what you have available. Yes, meats and produce raised in industrial farms DO have less nutrients than their natural and organic counterparts, they just do. But you are STILL better off eating grocery store meat and produce than ANYTHING that comes in a box, bag or package…..and I felt that point was missed a bit along the way.

In all I would highly recommend this book to ANYONE who has an interest in their health or who cares to further educate themselves on the science of nutrition or who had a funny feeling that government recommendations have purposes and motivations that have nothing to do with our health. Read it! Then read it again and then pass it around!

February In Review

Another month has come to a close.  This month had a few bumps and bruises in it that were entirely unexpected and which did some damage to my momentum but since I can’t change the past, I am just going to keep moving forward.  Although I didn’t come in as successfully as I would have liked to (or as I had expected to), if I ask myself the question “Are you further ahead now than you were on February 1?”, I would have to answer yes.  I feel good and balanced and steady.  I haven’t thrown the map in the garbage just because the car got a flat tire.  The tire is fixed and the map is crisply refolded and I’m going again.

Let’s take a look at February.

MONEY

Spending (groceries):  the goal was to come in at $740 for the month of groceries.  We came in over the line at $853 for the month.  Two weeks we came in on target and two weeks we were over.

Spending (personal):   I had a $50 budget for the month.  I came in at $50.14 which included a cup of tea each weekend, a discounted Christmas decoration and face wash.  The face wash I’m not totally convinced should count towards my spending total since it is more of a “need” than a “want”.  If I don’t include it, I came in at $16.59 for the month.  YAY for no spending!  It is amazing to me what a habit “buying” had become.  In January I struggled with “wanting” things….in February, definitely less struggle!  So far I haven’t missed out on anything or kicked myself for not purchasing something.  This is Great!

Spending (eating out):  the goal was to only eat out twice this month, one breakfast and one dinner. I completely succeeded…..Ray mostly succeeded but he is known for a donut or a muffin in our travels.  But as far as meals eaten we were successful.

FOOD

Eat at Dinner Table:  the goal was at least three dinners each week.  We did not succeed.  I fully admit to being the one who dropped the ball on it and in some cases Ray was starting to get the placemats out and I asked if we could just curl up on the sofa instead.  It was a complete cop out in most cases and was the result of needing mindless time and some physical comfort (after having been hurt and then heading back to work).  For complete success we should have had 12 dinners at the table and we ended up with 8.  Not awful but it definitely could have been better.

Completely exclude dairy, grains, sugar: I will only abide by 100% compliance in order to call this one successful.  I was not.  Chocolate almonds when I was laid up on the sofa.  Deep fried pickle at pub night fundraiser dinner.  A Dark Chocolate Himalayan Salt Caramel yesterday.  Maple syrup on the Oven Pancake.  It’s not HOOOOORRIBLE….but it is a fail.

Limit alcohol to only Friday and/or Saturday:  Success!  Two weekends were completely dry, two weren’t.  One had the “Chardonnay Incident” and the other I had two glasses of decent red wine….which may have actually fueled the fried pickle issue from above.  Meh.

FITNESS

Gym, 3/week:  Complete fail.  I don’t even want to talk about this.  February was a disaster for fitness.

Outdoor jogging, 4 times around Perimeter Trail:  as per above

Do Coquitlam Crunch: again….no. However…on the two weekends that I actually did line up time to do this….the weather was horrid.  Torrential rain or heavy snow.

Bicycle to work:  Nope.  As above…I slotted in time on two different weekends to take care of this and it was miserable both times.

NOTE: I will be planning in a HUGE turnaround in March…February was simply unacceptable.

 

PERSONAL

Sort spice cabinet:  this is quasi sorted and will stay this way for a while. It’s mostly functional and I don’t want to spend money on it right now.

Finish organizing cookbook:  ya…no….this is still an enormous pain in my ass.  All the recipes are in a binder and in page protectors with page numbers on them…..my sticking point is in developing some sort of index/order.

No handheld technology after 6pm:  I wouldn’t call this a complete success…..but an enormous improvement!

Claim Wednesday nights:  YES!  I look forward to my evening to do whatever.

Get a haircut:  Yep and I love it!

Paint nails once/week:  Err…nope….not even once.  Told myself to get after it a couple of times…but ultimately didn’t even consider doing it.

Maintain both dining room tables free of clutter:  complete success! They both look GREAT!

 

RELATIONSHIP

Three “location” walks:  we did two….and they were fun.  Our third long walk ended up being at our regular park by our house…but it was REALLY snowy so it was like being somewhere different.  The purpose of this one was to get out of our same-old and go somewhere new, hold hands and just be with each other.  Success!

“No TV” Friday evening:  this happened on a Saturday, not a Friday but it happened.

I’ve gone on long enough now , so in summary…..I didn’t do as well in Feburary as I had planned…..but I still had the map and I kept referring to it.  I kept my goals in mind all month and whether I chose to do things that would achieve them or not….I went through the month awake and cognizant of what was happening.  As mentioned, March’s list is pared down significantly to include only spending, eating and exercise goals.  I feel that some of the habits I’ve been trying to form (eating at the table, no tech after 6pm) are fledged enough that I can keep them going without putting them on the list.

We have a weekend away trip booked for the end of March and I want to hit that trip at the end of the month on an upswing, going strong and feeling good.  I can totally achieve that!  I see March as an opportunity and I’m not missing it!