Whole30 Findings

Oh, hey. Remember when I did Whole30 (which feels like a lifetime ago) and then my life blew up between the move and surgery? The whole point of doing that program was to learn about what foods do or don't agree with you and how you can shift your eating to feel better. So for those of you that are interested in my takeaways, here's what I learned through the process:

1. I have a sensitivity to dairy. I had a feeling I'd reach this conclusion after doing the program, but when I reintroduced dairy, it was VERY obvious that it does not agree with me. I felt sick to my stomach and bloated and the next morning I woke up congested and with a terrible headache. These are all signs I can't ignore so going forward I will try not to eat dairy. I will make exceptions occasionally, like when I eat a meal at someone's house or when I really want a treat like ice cream, but in general, dairy will not be part of my diet. I've gone dairy-free before so I know it's something I can stick with. 

2. Sugar really messes with your energy levels. After Whole30 ended, I let myself have some treats that following week and quickly noticed how much my energy level would tank after eating something with a lot of sugar in it. I also realized how sick to my stomach sugary foods make me feel. I don't bake very often but going forward, I'll try to use recipes that use ingredients with naturally occurring sugar, like honey, agave syrup or apple sauce. I'm not saying I'll never have sugar because that is not realistic but I will be careful about how much sugar I will consume going forward.

3. The cleaner you eat, the better you will feel. This is a pretty obvious conclusion to reach but something I definitely realized during the reintroduction phase. I found that I feel best when I am fueling my body with fruits, vegetables and meat. It's not realistic to exclusively eat those things as it requires so much grocery shopping and meal prep to eat that way, but I want to try to eat that way as much as possible.

Whole30 was definitely challenging, but I would be willing to do it again, especially in the summer when there is lots of fresh produce available. I can see myself doing a modified Whole30 later this summer; the modification I'd make is allowing myself to have legumes as I don't think I have an intolerance to them and they are so good for you and cheap to eat!

Whole30: Week 4 Review

Tomorrow is the last day of Whole30! Woo hoo!  It's definitely been a challenge to follow this program but I have actually enjoyed the process. That said, it will be nice to be less restricted. Although the program ends tomorrow, it's not like I go back to my normal eating habits on Wednesday as the next step of the program is the reintroduction phase which I'll describe more at the end of this post.

Since I am coming to the end of this program, I thought I'd skip the "what's  helping me succeed/what's been the hardest" section and focus on what I tried this week. 

New recipes I've tried:
- Moroccan Chicken Salad - I highly recommend this salad as it has so many great ingredients with different flavors and textures. Modifications included leaving out the avocado (felt there were enough ingredients without this) and making a white wine vinaigrette because I couldn't stomach buying another bottle of vinegar (I had to replace my red wine and balsamic vinegars since they had sulfites in them so I've purchased enough vinegar recently). 

- Banana Soft Serve - I needed a little treat after my RA injection last week, so I made some banana soft serve. You just put 1-2 chopped frozen bananas in the food processor or blender (let them soften a bit first) and add almond milk until it reaches the desired consistency. Then you can add a little cocoa powder at the end if you'd like (I did). This is borderline cheating as you aren't supposed to recreate treats with Whole30 ingredients, but oh well. I really need a pick-me-up after my injection because I still hate doing them, even though I've been giving them to myself for 2.5 years.

 
- Chicken Chowder - This is from the Whole30 cookbook but I couldn't find the recipe online. I know the green color is a bit off putting but it was actually very good! The green comes from the broccoli in the soup as you puree cooked broccoli with coconut milk and chicken broth. It also has jalapeno in it so it has a hint of spice. I'd definitely make this again!

- Crockpot Thai Beef Stew - This is probably the best recipe I've made during Whole30. The combination of flavors and spices is so delicious and the crunch from the jicama and carrots gives it great texture. This will definitely go in our regular meal rotation. We ate it over cauliflower rice. 

  What comes next:
- The reintroduction process starts on Wednesday. The way it works is I add back one food group for one day, starting with legumes, and have something from that food group with every meal. So on Wednesday I'll have black beans with my sweet potatoes and eggs for breakfast, an apple with peanut butter at lunch, and chickpea curry for dinner at our favorite Jamaican restaurant (but no rice). Then the next 2 days I go back to the Whole30 diet and assess how I feel. The order of reintroduction is legumes, non-gluten grains, and dairy.  I obviously won't be reintroducing gluten since I already know I have an intolerance to it but that would be the last thing non-gluten sensitive people would add back. 

- I'm curious to see how I feel after introducing things back. I am pretty sure I will not go back to eating dairy as I think that's the main stomach issues culprit. Also, in week 2 I ran out of the medication I take for my acne and decided to not refill it and see how I do. So far I haven't had any breakouts. I've eliminated dairy from my diet in the past to help with my complexion so I know there is a connection there. I haven't really missed dairy all that much during Whole30 so avoiding it in the future wouldn't be too hard. But we'll see how I feel when I add it back during the reintroduction phase.

Are there any foods that you have a sensitivity to or think you might have a sensitivity to? 

Whole30 Week 3 Review

3 weeks down, 1 week + 2 days to go!  I can see the finish line!

Last several people asked about Whole30's recommendation to not snack, so I thought I'd follow up with their brief explanation for this. First off, though, this is not a program rule; instead, it is a recommendation. The rules (i.e. no sugar, dairy, alcohol, legumes, etc) are not optional. However, the recommendations are ideal, but you can still stay true to Whole30 and not follow the recommendations. Here's an article that explain the rules and the recommendations, which includes a brief explanation of the no snacking rule.

Now back to my weekly review! My grocery shopping haul was much smaller since I had made and froze my evening meal of sweet potato chili the previous week.

As usual, lots of vegetables, some meat, and eggs

What's helping me succeed:
- Reminding myself this is Whole30 not WholeForever.  There is a reason that this program only last 30 days. For me, it's not a sustainable lifestyle but it's not meant to be a sustainable lifestyle since they only have you do the program for 30 days. So when I find myself getting frustrated, I remind myself that it's temporary.


What's been the hardest:
- There is sugar in waaaaay too many things. One thing Whole30 has done is open my eyes to how many foods have sugar in it.  WHY must there be sugar in sooooo many things. It's incredibly frustrating, especially when you plan to make a recipe where you think all of the ingredients will be fine until you get to the last thing on your grocery list (chipotle peppers in adobo sauce this past week) and realize you can't get them because they have freaking sugar in them.

New recipes I've tried:
- Paleo Pad Thai - A coworker recommended this to me after she found out I was doing Whole30 as this recipe is Whole30 compliant. Phil said I should make it again so it was definitely a hit. I skipped the egg step at the recommendation of my coworker, added shredded carrots, and served it with zucchini noodles instead of spaghetti squash. Next time I make it I'll add thinly sliced red peppers. Also, just a heads up in case anyone is curious, the recipe does call for snap peas, which are technically a legume. However, Whole30 allows you to eat them because the peas are so small compared to the pod they are in. The same goes for snow peas.

I topped mine with cilantro and chopped cashews

- Crockpot Barbacoa - This is a chimichanga recipe but I obviously only made the meat part of the recipe. I'm all about crockpot recipes these days since they are easy peasy. I had to made a couple of modifications to this recipe - I substituted coconut oil since vegetable oil isn't a Whole30 compliance fat and I had to leave out the chipotle in adobo since all three brands of that ingredient at my grocery store had sugar in it.  Bleh. But even without the chipotles, it was still very good and is something I'd make again.

- Ratatouille Zucchini Boats - When my friend Erin shared this recipe with me last month, I immediately added it to my meal plan for Whole30. I love ratatouille and I love zucchini boats so it was like this recipe was made for me! Of course to make it Whole30 you need to skip the cheese but they were still great without it! I served them with the barbacoa.

How I feel:
- I'm still having weird dreams about food. For example:  one night last week I dream that I was at a mall (which never happens, I hate malls!) and I took a sample of sunbutter that someone was handing out, which makes no sense because who hands out samples of nut butters? After eating it I freaked out because I didn't ask to see the list of ingredients and there was likely sugar in it. I guess I am super paranoid about making a mistake and eating something forbidden by the program!

- My stomach still feels better than it would normally, but I honestly do not feel the "boundless energy" that others have described. It probably does not help that it's been rainy/cold for the last week or so. A friend of mine who did the program in January speculated that I don't feel as much of a change in energy since I ate so healthy in the first place. I certainly don't feel less energy so I'm not concerned and I recognize that everyone will react differently to the program.

Whole30: Week 2 Review

Greetings and happy Monday! I hope that everyone had a great Easter weekend! As of today I am half way through Whole30 - I have to say that it's gone pretty fast so far!

Here is my week 2 grocery haul. Not pictured is the ingredients in the crock pot for the carnitas pork I made. I bought more groceries than usual this week as I made an extra meal to freeze as I knew I wouldn't have much time for meal prep over Easter weekend.

As usual, my grocery haul contained a whole lot of vegetables and some fruit

What's helping me succeed:
- Finding simple meals that come together quickly. While I do most of my meal prep on the weekend, I do occasionally throw together simple meals. One simple meal I've been enjoying lately is a sweet potato hash with onions and chicken apple sausage topped with an egg cooked over easy. It's delightful!

I know this is a BIG plate of food but the Whole30 program encourages you to eat bigger meals and minimize snacking in between.

- Finding new Whole30-compliant snacks. Like I said about, Whole30 doesn't encourage snacking so I have really limited my snacks between meals. However, on days when I'm particularly hungry, I've been trying new snacks like the one below which is a banana with sunbutter (which I had to order online because I couldn't find one without sugar - even at Whole Foods!) and a grind of sea salt. The sunbutter I bought has no salt in it so I need that little grind of salt to add some flavor.

What's been the hardest:
- Program fatigue.  The program has been going pretty well for me but I did have a night last week where I just felt tired of preparing Whole30 compliant meals. The meal that night felt pretty uninteresting, too, as I made roasted chicken breast and roasted cauliflower for Phil and I and it just sort of felt "meh," not to mention monochromatic. I guess nights like that are inevitable occasionally and luckily I've rarely felt bored with my meals.

- Easter temptation. Oh boy, this weekend was a bit challenging as there were so many Easter sweets and treats around me. Phil is not doing Whole30 so I've seen him eat ice cream and salted caramel chocolates and such but this weekend was especially tough since his mom had some Easter treat bags for us. But I stayed strong!


New recipes I've tried:
- Slow cooker sweet potato chili - I actually made this in a dutch oven on my stovetop as my crockpot was already in use. I was nervous that I wouldn't like this since it has cinnamon and cocoa powder in it but it was delicious! I'll definitely be making this on a regular basis going forward. I ended up freezing most of this and will have it for dinners this week.


- Crockpot mojo pork - This recipe wasn't actually new to me as I'd made it before, but it had been about 9 months since I made it so it felt new to me. It's such an easy recipe and the results are so delicious! I've been eating it with sweet potatoes and/or brussel sprouts this week.

How I feel:
- I definitely felt less tired than last week, thank goodness! Last week I felt like a zombie some days, so I am glad that feeling has passed.

- I do feel much less bloated/gassy (sorry, that's probably TMI!) than I normally would and I think my stomach is less noisy than it normally is. It's nice to see some positive things that are happening as a result of the program.

- Besides the day where I felt bored by my options, overall it still has not seemed ridiculously hard. Sure there are days when I struggle a bit and miss non-compliant foods but overall I still feel like I have a lot of options and I try to focus on what I can have.

- I've started to have dreams about food, which is common when you do Whole30 apparently. The 2 dreams I've had involved situations where I was somewhere where there was nothing that was Whole30 compliant so I wasn't able to eat. 

Here's hoping the 2nd half of this program goes as well as the first half did!

Whole 30: Week 1 Review

As I said in my post yesterday, I'll be checking in weekly to share how Whole30 is going. Here's my week 1 check-in!

What's helping me succeed:
- Meal planning!  There's no way you can just 'wing it' and be successful at sticking to this program (unless you are the kind of person that wants to grocery shop multiple times a week and/or has time to spend making meals every day - that's so not me). I've always been a meal planner but I've had to do way more planning for this.

- Keeping it simple. This wouldn't work for everyone, but I've made my meal planning as simple as possible and pick one breakfast, one lunch, and one dinner to have for the entire week, Monday-Friday. I know that would bore many people but I value simplicity over variety and I make things that I really truly enjoy so having them every day doesn't bother me. Besides eating the same thing all week for breakfast, lunch and dinner, I have been making easy meals, like roasted chicken with a sweet potato for dinner. To offset the repetition during the week, I try to eat different things for every meal over the course of the weekend since I have more time/energy for meal prep then.

What's been the hardest:
- Grocery shopping is so time consuming. And expensive. Grocery shopping definitely takes way more time. I went through this when I went gluten free in 2009 as I had to learn just how many things have gluten in them. Now I'm going through it again and it's opening my eyes to how many things have sugar in them!  Luckily most of what I'm buying is fresh produce and meat, but I still have to buy some non-perishable goods and it's time consuming to read the labels to check for sugar or other additives I can't have. Also, since I'm buying mostly non-perishable goods and organic meats and eggs, grocery shopping is more expensive. But I'm reminding myself that it's an investment in my health.

This is most of the food that I bought for week 1. As you can see, it's mostly vegetables, meat, and fruit, hence the higher grocery bill.

- Feeling high maintenance. We are going to Phil's mom's for Easter so I sent her an email giving her a heads up about my restrictions. I felt so bad because I know she already gets anxious cooking for me as she worries something will have gluten in it so now I know she'll be extra nervous. I told her to not modify the menu and that I could supplement the meal with sides I can eat but I just feel bad that I'm potentially adding some stress to her meal planning process.  I also felt high maintenance when we went to a taco night birthday gathering with Phil's friends as I had to bring my own meal since I knew that the taco seasoning mixes people tend to use had ingredients I couldn't have, like corn starch. They were all understanding, of course, but it drew a lot of attention/questions.

- No coffee creamer. I obviously can not have vanilla creamer, so I tried almond milk, coconut milk and coconut cream (separately, not all at once!). After basically choking my coffee down on day one, I decided that I needed to switch to a caffeinated tea and give up on coffee during whole 30. I miss it so much but I am learning to like tea.

New recipes I've tried:
- Chicken Sausage and Spinach Frittata: I had this for breakfast last week.  The verdict?  Meh.  I think I'm so used to eating frittatas/egg dishes made with cheese and milk so this kind of underwhelmed me. It's not bad, it just wasn't great.

 I rarely use my broiler so I over-browned it a bit but it didn't impact the flavor.

- Healthy Breakfast Sweet Potatoes:  I had these with the frittata for breakfast last week. The verdict? YUM. Whole 30 is going to turn me into a person that likes sweet potatoes. In the past I did not care for them but I have learned that I like them when they are prepared in a savory way. I'll definitely be making these again and in the future instead of pairing them with a frittata, I'll put a fried egg on top of the potatoes.

- Overnight Banana Chia Pudding:  I had this for breakfast last Friday as I needed a meat-free breakfast since it's Lent.  The verdict?  It tasted OK but the texture was kind of "interesting" and it was not nearly filling enough. I tried it again later in the week and have decided it's just not something I look forward to eating so I won't be making this again.

- Halibut with Citrus-Ginger Glaze:  I found this recipe in the Whole30 cookbook (which I recommend). I served it with roasted fingerling potatoes and asparagus. Halibut is a bit pricey but I splurged on some from Whole Foods since it was the Friday night meal I made for Phil and I and I figured it was OK to spend a bit more since we won't be eating out while I'm doing Whole30.  The verdict? The halibut was great and so easy to make but we'd skip the citrus ginger glaze next time as the fish was great on it's own and we didn't love the glaze (probably because I don't love ginger).  I'll definitely be making fish more often as this meal reminded me how quick and easy it is to make!

How I feel:
- Overall, I would say that I felt more tired during the first week. However, it's hard to say how much is due to the Whole30 program as I also lost an hour of sleep thanks to daylight savings time and I had a very busy week with several very long days.

- I know it's early in the program but so far it hasn't felt all that hard. Sure there are things I miss like my greek yogurt, coffee creamer, and gelato, but overall I don't feel limited by this program as there are still so many things that I CAN have.  However, since this is only day 9, I expect it to feel harder as the days progress.

Starting Whole30

As I mentioned last week, I started the Whole30 program last Monday and so far it's going pretty well.  In case some of you are interested, I thought I'd share a little bit of information about the program as well as while I am doing it.

Program rules:
- no sugar of any kind, real or artificial (I can have fruit, but no honey, agave nectar, etc)
- no alcohol, not even for cooking
- no grains (includes typical glutenous grains as well as corn, rice, quinoa, etc)
- no legumes
- no dairy

There are some other rules, but these are the main ones. After reading those rules, most of you are probably thinking:  "ok, what CAN you eat?"  I've answered that many times already in the first week of being on this program.  While there are a lot of limitations for this program, there is still a lot I can have like meat, vegetables, fruit, eggs, nuts, coconut products such as coconut milk and coconut cream, and sunbutter, to name a few (fuller list can be found here).

Thoughts on the program:
Is it challenging?  Absolutely.  But is it doable?  Absolutely. It does help that I eliminated gluten from my diet 7 years ago and have eliminated dairy in the past.  The program definitely requires a high level of discipline and fortunately for me, I'm good at things that require discipline. I know it sounds 'braggy' to say that, but it's one of my core strengths (whereas flexibility is NOT!).

Why am I doing it?
While removing gluten has certainly helped with my stomach problems, I still feel like my digestive function could improve as I still have trouble with stomach pains, bloating and general discomfort. And, my stomach is abnormally loud - like so loud that Phil has commented on it multiple times. I've been meaning to try to eliminate certain foods and after reading more about Whole30, I decided this would be a good program to use to figure out if I have sensitivities or an intolerance to other foods.

Additionally, many of the foods that are prohibited in this program tend to cause inflammation. Since I have Rheumatoid Arthritis, I already have an elevated level of inflammation in my body, so it's especially important for me to eat foods that won't elevate the level of inflammation in my body.

I don't want to bore you all with updates about this program but I know there are some people that will be interested so I plan to check in on a weekly basis. Feel free to mark these posts as read if Whole30 is not your thing!

Have you ever experimented with eliminating certain foods from your diet? Would you ever try Whole30?