This would've been a bit better to post on Day 15, right?? Anyway, I'm halfway through the 30-Day Reset Diet portion of Chris Kresser's Your Personal Paleo Code (sometimes easier to describe as a Whole 30). I didn't want to be one of those people who posts everything I do and everything I eat, but I figured an update couldn't hurt..
It has been.... interesting.
I will say that Google and various Whole 30 forums have been my best friend. The initial transition wasn't bad. We don't eat gluten at all in our house (I already know I'm intolerant), and we're about 80% Paleo anyway. My co-worker decided to join me, and he had a miserable first three days because he was breaking the gluten/sugar addiction. I wish more people were properly prepared for this. There is of course a school of thought (I'm not going to tell you how to eat) that believe gluten is poison whether you're intolerant or not. It is proven fact that wheat/gluten spike your blood sugar worse than, well, actual sugar, and gluten and gliadin get into your blood and get into your brain. If you choose to give up wheat, understand your reasons, and be prepared for the process. You will go through actual withdrawals.
Anyway, back to Dear Husband and I... things started out fine. We have several Paleo recipes already, and many weren't hard to turn Whole 30. For example, my stuffed peppers.. just omit the butter and cheese! I even managed to tweak my beef stroganoff recipe to make it Whole 30, served atop squash 'noodles'. But, while my co-worker was admitting within a week that he felt better and had more energy, I was feeling, well, nothing. No reduction in bloat (in fact, a few painful bloat/gas issues), no extra energy, and I was crabby and blue. I had one run where I felt like I had a much better energy reserve than normal, especially considering I've had to abandon pre-run fuel, but otherwise, nothing.
I was ranting to Dear Husband, as I am prone to do, and he mentioned that he too was feeling bummed out. Ok, off to Google I went! After a few searches, I realized that we probably weren't eating enough carbs. We're obviously both active, and by eliminating white and red potatoes, we weren't getting in as many carbs as normal, partially because I really don't like sweet potatoes, and partially because, well, it's harder to get carbs in on strict Paleo! Since then, I've made a point of including carbs at every meal, and I think we've both noticed an almost immediate difference. I don't like sweet potatoes, but if you fry them in coconut oil for morning hash browns and actually get them crisp, they aren't bad. Our Costco has organic bananas, and they're almost always green, so I've made sure to have at least one per day, and we recently grabbed some plantains! I fried them the other night, then topped them with cinnamon and sugar. Tonight, we're going to try mashing them as part of this recipe from PaleOMG. I do not believe Paleo automatically means low-carb, despite the odd association we've all made. But, on Whole 30, you definitely have to put a bit of thought into getting them. Here's a good carb source chart from Balanced Bites. We're active. We definitely need more than 100g of carbs each day, or our bodies don't have the fuel they need to support us, and we will suffer!
It took a while to figure out why I was still getting painful bloat, and I figured it out almost by chance. I thought maybe it was from eating raw broccoli, but then bloated painfully (and oh, the gas! Yikes!!) on a day when I had no green veggies. Well, it's cherry season. I love cherries, especially Ranier. Costco had those too. It took me exactly 3 days to down a 2 pound package. On a bit of a whim, I googled if cherries can cause gas. Lo and behold! A blog post with pages of comments about an obsessive love of cherries followed by an equal portion of GI distress. Two days of no cherries, two days of no issues. Bummer. Guess I just have to figure out the safe limit!
On the Whole (30, lol), I am glad I'm doing this. I imagine I never would've figured out the cherry thing if I wasn't, and I'm excited for Step 2, when you reintroduce foods and determine what works for you. I AM looking forward to having white potatoes again, which I don't think will be a problem for me.
In the last few days, I've noticed that I'm sleeping deeper, even if I still need to change some of my habits around sleep. I have energy on my runs despite no pre-run fuel, and the insane humidity. I'm making gains in the gym, and with the combined effort, I have noticed a few things fitting better, even if I can't see a change yet. I'm much less obsessed with food, which seems funny given how limited it is. I know that everything I'm putting in my body is good, and I no longer crave the bad things. I don't give a second thought to the office candy bowl.
Surprisingly, I haven't had a single craving or longing for dairy. I looooooove cheese, so I honestly thought that would be my worst craving, but it's been pretty easy to walk past the dairy section when I'm out shopping. I am ready to have alcohol again, but also realizing the alcohol-socializing connection might be a bit strong. I don't see a problem in relaxing with a drink, or having wine with dinner, but I am seeing some interesting things in the frequency and reasons for my drinking. And hey, my skin is clearer, so I guess not drinking for a bit isn't a bad thing! My strongest craving so far is for corn tortilla chips (hey, I said we were only 80% Paleo!) I'm not sure if this is a salt craving, or where it's rooted, but it is almost my only craving at this point. I know some people who think organic, non-GMO blue corn is fine. It'll be interesting to test corn in Step 2 and see if I can have it every now and then, or if I'm craving it because I'm breaking some unhealthy connection in my body...
I'll try to post a few recipes soon, and yes, I took before pictures, so I might share those eventually...
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