ja9doeswhole30
Ja9 Does Whole30
Just a girl eating her vegetables. No infringement intended. Not to be construed as medical advice.
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Just invented a Whole30-compliant sauce that makes spaghetti squash taste like Pad Thai, excuse me while I eat nothing else for the rest of my life.
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Whole30 Round ??, Day 28
As I explained in my prior post, I started a round of Whole30 in early January. Originally I’d planned to start on the 2nd, as is the custom, but with New Year’s being a Friday I decided to take the long weekend and start on the following Monday.
While preparing for surviving a Whole30 is typically challenging for me, this time it was a bit more hairy because for 3.5 months I didn’t have use of a proper kitchen. Until last week, my cooking accouterments consisted of a toaster oven, microwave, slowcooker, and single-burner plug-in stove. In addition, because of my kids’ school arrangements this year, all four of us are eating three meals at home. Tl;dr during this interval i spent much more time cooking than usual but these efforts yielded considerably less food given the appliance constraints.
On top of this, there were the usual hurdles that Whole30 presents. I don’t think it’ll ever be easy for me to make my kids peanut butter & jelly knowing that I can’t lick some of either off of my fingers should it wind up there. Also, since we’re living in pandemic times and often looking to cuisine as a form of entertainment, I’ve made my kids numerous treats in which I couldn’t partake. However, one nice recent discovery in this vein is that Thai soups - Tom Yum and Tom Ka - are Whole30 compliant (so long as they’re made with no sweetener, soy, or peanut). For all the work I’ve been doing preparing whole-food-based meals - and whatever crap everyone else in my house eats - in a makeshift kitchen, it’s truly nice to have some clean tasty takeout options.
For some reason, my biggest struggle is finding Whole30 compliant carbs. Of all the types of squash in the world, none interest me lately. Preparing potatoes in any kind of interesting fashion can be kind of labor-intensive. Beets are always a nice change of pace but I wasn’t sure how they’d come out in the toaster oven so I didn’t attempt them this time.
Lamentably, at times I’ve viewed this Whole30 sort of like a roller coaster that I’m just trying to survive, instead of a mindset-shift toward permanent clean eating. The last few days I keep looking forward to the month being over so I can get a skim latte and share my kids’ popcorn and lick the spoon from the PB&J. Ironically, we’re getting hit with a huge snowstorm tonight/tomorrow, meaning that I’ll spend my last two days of Whole30 largely stuck inside with the kiddos... who will inevitably want to spend our downtime eating every sweet, treat, and goodie we have in the house. On the one hand, I’ve made it this far and can therefore get through the next two days. What I really need to do, of course, is plan out how to tackle the Reintroduction phase this time around.
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Whole30 Round ?? (catch-up)
Once again, it’s been a while since I posted here. I honestly can’t remember much about how my last Whole30 went in May/June. To the best of my recollection I made some concessions towards the end regarding beans and tofu, fueled by a fear of eating too much animal protein, but otherwise followed the program adequately.
It accomplished the desired affect in that I lost the few pounds I’d set out to shed, and curbed my ever-burgeoning habit of random grazing. Nonetheless, I finished that Whole30 right on the heels of my birthday, which falls toward the beginning of the summer - or, as it might as well be known, Ice Cream and Day-Drinking Season. Somehow, despite our commitment to COVID-conscious behavior, we managed to enjoy takeout treats outdoors with various friends and family in our backyard or nearby parks. Not necessarily gratuitous eating, but indulgence that might have exceeded our non-pandemic levels, since we couldn’t travel or recreate in other ways. I did my best to opt for healthier choices where possible - ordering salad instead of sharing some pizza, abstaining from ice cream some of the time - but it felt like a losing battle at times because there were simply so many opportunities to eat like crap.
Hence, I went to my August endocrinology appointment ready to start the new medication that my NP had long indicated would serve as a weight loss agent and dietary panacea. I still don’t love the idea of relying on pharmaceutical assistance to do something I ~should have done already, via diet/exercise/the other medications I was already on. But, I just kept thinking that the time was going to pass either way, and I might as well give it a try since the other stuff clearly wasn’t working on it’s own. The NP was pleasantly surprised, having assumed that I was a lost cause in trying the new meds. (I’m going to make a separate post about pharmaceutically assisted weight loss & body image & all that good stuff & link it here... eventually.)
The yadda, yadda, yadda of it all is that since August I’ve lost something like 15-20 lbs. This has brought me to my lowest weight since, easily, my preteen years. And for the most part I feel good about that. It’s been a big relief/nice reward that my clothes and jewelry fit more loosely, and my perpetually round face looks (slightly) less chubby. I also feel relieved, in some way, that the medication has in fact quelled my previously ravenous appetite and sweet tooth.
However. However. Shortly after going on the new medication, my kids went back to school (one remotely, one at a few-hours’-length outdoor preschool), and another few weeks after that we began a pretty hefty home renovation project centered around our kitchen. Tl;dr, life has been a spinning shitshow for the last four months, and for the entire month of October I found it nearly impossible to keep to a good diet. Between not having much time or space in which to prepare my ~usual healthy foods, and not having much of an appetite due to the medication, I took quite a few liberties with eating whatever was around. Beyond backsliding from the Whole30/Food Freedom Forever guidelines, for a minute there I eschewed the basic healthy human adult guidelines I’d always prided myself on following.
As a result, my November lipids were absolutely horrible, despite my having already lost 10 lbs. at that point. Furthermore, that same blood work showed mildly elevated platelet levels, which we’ve since connected to my chronically low-ish B12 levels (itself the result of another medication I take that blocks B12 absorption). Also, despite that same NP insisting otherwise, follow-up blood work from a hematologist showed that I’m also anemic. This all explained why I hadn’t felt great for a while. It was easy to attribute the fatigue to simply being too busy and active, but it got to the point where I would often tuck my kids in at around 8:30 and be unable to stay awake past 9:00, even if I drank a fuckton of coffee.
Thankfully, I’ve since started a course of B12 injections that already have me feeling much better. Moreover, the situation provided renewed motivation to eat better, both in the short-term and sustainably for the long haul. Starting the annual January Whole30 was a challenge I readily embraced, difficult as it would be without a proper kitchen.
Stay tuned for a post about how the latest round is actually going.
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WholeQuarantine: Day 8
Yesterday I had a realization about what makes any eating restriction difficult. For me, it’s not the food itself but rather the deprivation of choice/freedom. I can close my eyes and imagine the taste of pizza (or apple pie, or ice cream) to the point where I ~experience it enough to live without it for a while. But any time one is under circumstances of deprivation, it’s a little kick to the ego or psyche or whatever. I guess this is why the Whole30 books advocate framing it as a choice you’re making to better yourself.
But it’s not one choice; it’s several choices throughout the day. Mixed in with other non-food-related decisions we make every day. So it’s natural that taking on a project like Whole30 is stressful under normal circumstances, let alone during the current state of the world.
That said, following Whole30 hasn’t been terribly difficult so far. The first day or two always require a lot of effort to remember not to lick the knife when I make my kid’s peanut butter sandwich, but after that it goes back to being second-nature. The other day I really missed cheese, and the one after that could have used a beer (or 4) in the evening. But otherwise I’m managing all right, indulging in my roasted veggies and salads and grilled meats and trying not to think about the off-limits temptations.
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WholeQuarantine
I’ve been meaning to check in over here for a while and, well, I guess I don’t have to tell anyone how strange and overwhelming and busy the present circumstances are.
As far as eating behaviors are concerned, allow me to present the following thesis:
While preparing all meals at home can be good for maintaining a balanced, clean diet, being in one’s home literally all the time is disastrous for healthy eating.
Restaurant and celebratory eating usually pose the biggest obstacle for me when doing a Whole30. So, when we first went into isolation, it occurred to me that if we’d be eating at home for the foreseeable future, it might be worth giving it a shot. (In general we don’t do take-out very much, since I’d rather just cook, and especially in the early-isolation days I was very paranoid about potential coronavirus exposure.)
Then, I had the thought that I’m sure lots of other folks also conjured up, which was something along the lines of “life is about to become a shitshow and a half, and I am not going to survive a Whole30 under these circumstances.”
As the Whole30/Food Freedom Forever philosophy goes, we’re adults and can make our own choices, including choosing to limit foods to those that are best for our bodies and lifestyles. But the stress, man. This situation has turned life upside down and the deprivations abound. We can’t go to work, or school, or parks, or restaurants, or the homes of family and friends. With all those restrictions, it seemed insane to opt into a highly reductive, labor-intensive eating plan.
Another big obstacle for me is the composition of my household— namely, a spouse who’s retained his teenage self’s metabolism and two small children. Before lockdown, things were manageable enough: I cooked their plain pasta and cut their fruit and did my best to resist sneaking handfuls of their packaged snacks. On the weekends, my husband would take them out for pizza or bagels, and if we ate dinner in a restaurant I ordered the best wholesome meal I could manage. And we’d also embark on the occasional outing for ice cream or visit to a relative’s house where extra goodies would be served.
With the four of us stuck at home, additional temptations have joined us in quarantine to compensate for the deprivation otherwise - a giant container of popcorn kernels to pop on the stove, a huge industrial sized box of Oreos, copious frozen desserts, a weekly tray of baked ziti (one of the few dishes in my husband’s repertoire), and a 25-lb. bag of whole wheat flour to fuel the universally-recognized coping mechanism of baking. And, because we’re home all the time, it’s been far too easy to take liberties with the available wares.
There have been some accomplishments, & I’m proud of myself for those. Most significantly, I’ve been pretty successful at intermittent fasting. I’ve also consumed approximately one (silver-dollar-sized) pancake out of the hundreds I’ve cooked my kids over the last nine weeks. I wasn’t able to exercise as rigorously for a while, due to an abdominal injury that’s now resolved, but I’ve been as active as I can be. And, in contrast to many of my peers, I’ve consumed very little alcohol during quarantine.
It hasn’t been enough, though, and I’ve gained 5 lbs. right as I’m supposed to be making an effort to lose more weight. I recently saw a healthcare provider who said she isn’t that concerned with the small weight gain considering the totality of the circumstances, but she keeps advocating for me to go on a weight-loss drug and the mere idea of it scares the crap out of me.
So, with my motivation firmly in hand, I’ve decided that tomorrow will be the start of another Whole30 for me. Details of that to follow in subsequent posts.
#whole30#ja9doeswhole30#nutrition#nutrition in isolation#coronavirus isolation#healthy eating#foodblr
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Pssst! I’ve started a blog about coronavirus isolation & it will probably consist mostly of food pics.
COVID-19 Isolation: Day 1 - cooking recap pictorial
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Q: Can I live without my cauliflower rice stir-fry?
A: I’d rather not even attempt to do so.
#healthy food#cauliflower#cauliflower rice#will post the recipe if people want#whole30#foodblr#fitblr
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Whole30, Round 3: Day 29
For literally... 3 weeks... I’ve been trying to draft an update, since I haven’t been doing my daily logs. This is the end product of that piecemeal process.
The beginning
I came very close to postponing the start of this round until sometime later in the month - after a day in the city with my mom & sister, after my cousin’s baby shower, etc. But then there’d just be another excuse to wait. So I decided to suck it up and start on January 2nd to get it going as quickly as possible.
Unfortunately, overnight between Days 1 and 2 my husband’s grandfather passed away, which meant (just like last year) I was once again be staring down a week of shiva meals and desserts while on Whole30. The thought of postponing it again crept in, but I knew that the right thing to do was proceed and just deal with it accordingly. This meant toting my own food around - an added stress in addition to packing the kids up for the back-&-forth to their great-grandparents’ house - and eating it while others had bagels and cream cheese for lunch or catered trays of lasagna for dinner, to say nothing of the platters of cookies and humongous cakes.
Once again, I’m very proud of resisting temptation with minimal anguish. More importantly, I’m quite grateful that I started Whole30 because if I hadn’t, Lord knows how many cookies I’d have eaten. A family-friend once said “a week of shiva is good for 5 lbs., easy!” and he’s absolutely right. (Of course, my husband ate basically half of a giant babka the other night and probably won’t gain an ounce, but fuck him.) I definitely drank more coffee, though, because Hubs’s grandma always seems to have a pot brewing and if I wasn’t eating all the good snacks I was more liberal with the caffeine indulgence.
Looking back on it, I’m struck by the realization of how pervasive this reflexive mindless eating can be. We took our kids to Disney on Ice that next weekend and they’ve been indoctrinated by the societal impulse to snack while watching something, so the 4yo got a hot dog at 10:45 AM and the 6yo required popcorn. Later they negotiated cotton candy.
The middle
The weekend after that, we had a family baby shower. In discussing it beforehand, the hosts assured me that the catered lunch - Greek food - would offer me plenty of compliant options. I felt bad making a special point of mentioning my diet, especially considering the mom-to-be is a diabetic vegetarian, but they were very reassuring that there would be food for everyone’s various needs. And they were right! I ate grilled chicken kebab, lamb gyro, roasted lemon potatoes, and salad (the feta was in discrete chunks I could easily avoid). I skipped the pita bread & hummus but partook in a babaghanoush that may well have had honey in it because it tasted vaguely sweet. Whoops. It was a little hard that day, ignoring the brownies and ice cream for dessert, but I was able to have fruit as well as some nuts I’d brought along. I also had some flavored seltzer and partook heartily in the crudite platter prior to the meal being served.
The following day, we went to visit some family-friends who unilaterally decided to order pizza before we arrived. Their forethought was entirely appropriate given that it was a bit of a long drive and the kids were eager to eat as soon as we got there. And, as usual, I’d brought an emergency meal for myself, which I ate while hoping not to draw too much attention to myself. (My mother also brought her own food, due to her own unique dietary restrictions, and surprisingly managed to do the same.) We wound up staying there through dinnertime, and ordering from a local kosher deli. As it turns out, this was a fantastic turn of events because I got a cobb salad that I knew wouldn’t contain dairy or sugar-laden bacon bits.
Otherwise, things rolled right along. I did my best to keep up with the semi-daily cycle of shopping for veggies and meats, then grilling and eating them. In reality that’s what I’ve ~always done, but there’s more pressure on Whole30 because I wind up toting my own food around for certain meals instead of making the best of whatever options are available at parties or elsewhere in the wild.
One particular challenge I’ve experienced involves on-the-go compliant carbs. By the strictest of interpretation of Whole30, potato chips and french fries are strictly verbotten because they violate the spirit of the regimen. However, I’ve incorporated them where necessary because there is nothing grosser than a cold sweet potato. This past week I roasted some beets, which are an acceptable form of cold or room-temperature compliant carb.
The end
Speaking of bending the rules, another thought that crossed my mind prior to starting this round was to modify the plan to eliminate the ban on legumes. This prohibition is difficult for me only because without plant-based sources of protein I find I eat too much meat and too many eggs, which I can’t imagine is good for my lipids. Still, I avoided them until last week, when I made some three-bean and veggie chili, which I incorporated every other day so as to mitigate the over-meating issue. Initially, I was wary about reintroducing peanut butter, which I have a tendency to eat directly out of the jar as a snack, but thankfully that’s been kept to a minimum.
The results
I know I’m not quite done, yet, but I posted the other day that my blood results on Day 22 were much better than I’d expected them to be. The one downside is that my cholesterol is “backwards” - my HDLs are low and my LDLs high. My weight is also up a few pounds from where I’d been previously. Last April, after my first Whole30, I was 5 lbs. less, representing the least I’d weighed since I was 18. For perspective, a few years prior to that, I weighed about 20 lbs. more. Part of this whole process for me has been trying to figure out how to sustain weight loss and then maintain it, i.e. why is it that I can Be Good for so long and then let things creep back to where they were before.
To be clear, I fully understand that the scale isn’t the whole story, and wouldn’t be so concerned about it if health professionals weren’t telling me I needed to be. At my appointment the other day, my endocrinological NP mentioned (for the second or third time now) the option of certain drugs that act as a metabolic reset and promote weight loss. I haven’t liked that idea because I’m already taking the maximum allowable daily dose of metformin (which I’ve now been on for almost 20 years) and am hoping to decrease that at some point. She stressed, though, that she’d only try me on one of the weight-loss meds for around three months, to see what effect it might have. Moreover, she said that I’ve been doing so much hard work but I just seem stuck, and one of these drugs would help me get over the hump. I’m still not sold, but it’s been on my mind as a logical next step.
The future
Given all of this, I think a goal I’d like to set for myself is to continue to follow Whole30 as closely as possible for another month, to see where that gets me. I feel like I’ve come a long way in resisting temptations, and I’m up for the challenge of continuing to eat my grilled veggies and meats and compliant carbs. We’ll be on a short family vacation for four days in mid-February, and I’m sure there will be other challenges, as is always the case.
Historically, it’s been easy for my brain to switch into the mindset of “well I’m eating so well day-to-day, I can indulge on a special occasion”. Then, gradually, the “special occasions” magically become more numerous (read: I’m interpreting any little thing as a special occasion so as to afford opportunities for noncompliant eating), Then, that mentality bleeds into the day-to-day, when we’re so busy and my kids are stressing me out to the point where a spoonful of peanut butter from the jar or a handful of their Goldfish seems like a perfectly reasonable course of action. Food Freedom Forever acknowledges the ebbs and flows of healthy eating and provides some tips on how to stay close to the Whole30 path without living in a self-imposed food prison. Maybe I need to re-read that for inspiration.
If anyone has any tips/helpful strategies, I’d love to hear them! If you’re reading this, thanks also for sticking with me through this ridiculously long recap post (...which I didn’t proofread, sorry). Cheers.
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Whole 30, Round 3: Day 22
I cannot even tell you the last time my triglycerides were in range. In March 2018 they were 155 but since then they’d been fairly high again. I was suuuuper concerned about this test because I’m up 3.5 lbs. since the my last one in mid-September, but I guess this is further proof that the scale doesn’t tell the whole story.
(I also have a long summarial post in the works, about how Whole30 is going this time overall. I could have included this there but was too excited to wait to post about it.)
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Whole 30, Round 3: Day 6.
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Whole30, Round 3: Day 1
Today was not only my first day of Whole30 but also my kids’ first day back at school after a l o n g holiday break.
My biggest misstep might have actually been not eating enough. I waited to have my first meal until 9:00 AM, when I’d gotten the children off to their respective places of educational enrichment. This “breakfast” consisted of a chicken leg, roasted potatoes, Brussels sprouts, grilled eggplant, black olives, & coconut flakes. Then while doing my errands & household chores I had cold brew with almond-coconut milk.
Unfortunately, as sometimes happens because of quirks in scheduling, I was due to be ready for lunch right around the same time as my first school pickup. I had planned to make a salad to eat quickly either right before or right after, but got distracted and never prepared it. In between pickups I was able to grab an apple, & when we got home I had some nuts & fruit while I got them settled with a snack & homework & threw some turkey meatballs into the slowcooker. Then we had friends over but I used the time while the kids were playing to clean up my kitchen, & before long it was dinner time.
I had planned for the meatballs to be dinner but we wound up going out for Italian. Staring down a bread basket for my first Whole30 dinner wouldn’t have been my first choice but I managed with my salad & shrimp primavera & everyone else was happy. I had to nibble some potatoes at home before & after to get my carbs in but otherwise I can’t complain.
I wasn’t able to get in my usual elliptical workout in the morning but what with all the rushing around with children I still got plenty of steps in. Something else to improve on in the coming days, though.
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Whole30, Round 3: Day 0
...bout that time again.
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Made butternut squash & zucchini soup yesterday & it’s been basically the best part of my week.
#whole30#nutrition#foodblr#healthy eating#fitblr#whole30 goals#nutrition goals#healthy food#butternut squash
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I owe this blog a proper update but in the meantime please enjoy this photo of my breakfast - salad w/ leftover Rosh Hashanah briskest (& yes the white stuff is mayonnaise, we all have our vices 😬).
#whole30#nutrition#foodblr#healthy eating#fitblr#whole30 goals#nutrition goals#healthy food#ja9 does whole30#breakfast#salad
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Whole30, Round 2: Day 22
If I forgot to photograph my healthy, delicious, filling breakfast, did it really exist? Did I really eat it? 🤔
(It was London broil, Brussels sprouts, butternut squash & apple soup, & some sundried tomatoes, if anyone cares.)
#whole30#whole30: round 2#whole30: day 22#nutrition#foodblr#healthy eating#fitblr#whole30 goals#breakfast
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Whole30, Round 2: Day 21
Polishing off the last of the red curry for breakfast.
#whole30#nutrition#foodblr#healthy eating#fitblr#whole30 goals#nutrition goals#healthy food#ja9 does whole30#thai food
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Whole30, Round 2: Day 17
Getting some slow cooker Thai curry on. Hopefully it comes out okay without the fish sauce & brown sugar.
#whole30#nutrition#foodblr#healthy eating#fitblr#whole30 goals#nutrition goals#healthy food#ja9 does whole30#thai curry
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