I have to go to the oncologist every 3-4 months. STILL. Just for checkups and blood work and to make sure my lymphoma does not return…
Apparently sometime around finishing radiation treatment in 2012 my thyroid also stopped working. It’s kind of a pain and there’s a TON of stuff you can read about on the internet – but my biggest issues are energy (lack of) and not being able to lose weight no matter what I do. I mean, I ran 6 half marathons in 2015 and I weigh 10 more pounds now than I did before all that. According the the “charts” I am almost morbidly obese. No. Really. I wear a (currently snug) size 12 in women’s clothing and I am 5′ 6″. Here’s a picture of me (credit: Kelly Moore, Rome, GA, November 2015)
Yeah, I’m not skinny, but I’ve never really thought I was OBESE, much less MORBIDLY OBESE. Wrong. The charts aren’t good science (based on my reading and opinion and according to my trusted healthcare professionals…) and while yes, I’d like my pants to fit better and to be more comfortable in a bathing suit, all I can REALLY think about is HOW MUCH FASTER I could run if I lost pounds!
In any event, in talking to my oncologist, she referred me to a nutritionist and my nutritionist immediately suggested the Whole 30 as a nutritional/metabolic reset. So, I got the book It Starts With Food (which I cannot recommend highly enough) – the book explains how your body uses food, and what all the processed unhealthy food we eat does to your digestive system, and how we become insulin resistant and unable to properly manage our relationship with food.
So – Step 1) read the book. It is really worth the time and not boring.
I kind of knew I wouldn’t be able to get my husband (and kids – 10 & 11 now!) on board with a full on no-bread-no-sugar-no-dairy, etc. eating plan, so I started talking to them about how *I* wanted to do it. My husband was very supportive and I knew if I was going to do it I would need to get really prepared mentally and by cleaning out the cabinets and pre-planning. So here are the results of that:
I spent the week before Christmas getting my ideas together. I pinned a bunch of things on my Whole 30 Pinterest board, I read a lot of “first week” blogs (which inspired me to do this one) and I publicly committed by sharing on social media, etc.
Then I made a meal plan, and a shopping list from the meal plan. I got this handy dandy pad at Amazon, and it makes meal planning and grocery-list making a lot easier. (I also use the AnyList app on my phone…highly recommended. Auto-sorts ingredients by category (aisle)):
After I made my plan and my shopping list I knew I’d have to go to a couple stores to get everything. I wanted to go to Sam’s Club to get my produce and some other things (meat if they had what I needed)… but I knew a lot of things would be hard to find at Sam’s in normal quantities so I also went to Publix (we don’t have a Whole Foods or a Trader Joe’s or anything like that. We have Kroger, Walmart and Publix…oh and now we have Aldi which I love but sometimes is hit or miss…)
So this was my cart at Sam’s:
And when I got back home I started to prep. I made spaghetti squash and Whole 30 spaghetti sauce (in the crockpot) and doubled a batch of easy paleo meatballs and made lunches for me and for my husband for the week:
So, we were prepared. And here’s how it went the first week:
Sunday – Day 1- PREP DAY – this was the day I shopped and prepped. It was a fairly easy day because I was busy and committed after spending hundreds between Sam’s and Walmart. I drank a lot of water. I had chicken salad on lettuce wraps with homemade paleo mayo and melon wrapped with proscuitto. Life was good.
Monday – Day 2 – HANGOVER DAY 1 – the Whole 30 site gives you a timeline of what to expect. HEED THIS WARNING. I woke up a little queasy and headachy and just could NOT get it together but I had to go to work and do the work things and ugh. I don’t know why I felt so bad? By the end of the day I was tired but ok. It was pouring, and LATE by the time I left the office and my aunt was in town so we went to Longhorn (testing myself early, eh?) and I had a steak salad – literally just sirloin on greens with vinegar and oil, water with lime. I resisted the bread and the beer and every other NON-COMPLIANT thing there.
Tuesday – Day 3 – HANGOVER DAY 2 – I was less hung over, still mostly just tired. And THIRSTY. I wasn’t hungry. I got up and ran 3.5 miles with my friend Julie and came home and had fried eggs with avocado and some fruit. The rest of the day passed without much incident.
Wednesday – Day 4 – feeling better. A little tired, but generally more together. I had my leftovers packed for lunch, I got a TON of stuff done at the office (December 30 = end of year crunch for all business owners!), and I headed home a little early to clean up the kitchen from all the mess I’d been making in there (didn’t happen, the kitchen cleaning… but still.) We made a boat load of salt & vinegar wings (we were a little off on our schedule….)
Mid week – here’s some of the things I ate the first half of the week – eggs with sugar free bacon and banana, that steak salad from Longhorn, eggs with avocado and berries, hamburger with homemade guac on romaine bun and sweet potato hashbrowns, eggs with guacamole and mandarin orange, salt & vinegar wings and green salad.
Thursday – Day 5 – New Year’s Eve – lots of folks asked didn’t I want to wait until the first of the year to start this radical eating thing? Well 1) I’ve realized it’s not THAT radical, really, I haven’t been hungry at all. and when I am, I eat… and 2) No. I wanted to get a jump start. I didn’t want to dread it. I was excited and the sooner I started the sooner I’d feel better. We rarely go out on new year’s so I drank Perrier and lime and we had burgers on romaine buns, and it was fine! Plus I got a 5 mile run in with my friend Julie and was feeling pretty great. After my run I did come home with every intention of cleaning the kitchen (still) but I took a 3 hour nap. Yep. THREE HOURS. It’s not like I’d been staying up late, but this must be the I NEED A NAP phase in the timeline. That’s ok because it was fabulous to rest.
Friday – Day 6 – HAPPY NEW YEAR! I’m feeling awesome by Day 6. A little trepidatious about the children coming home on Sunday but – still feeling great about almost finishing a whole week of this Whole 30. I ran the Resolution Run 4 mile Race at Jackson Hill here in Rome. I finished in an hour, which was my goal. (Normally my goal for 4 miles would be faster but I ran the day before AND Jackson Hill is literally, well, a hill, which makes it hard – but I got to run with my good friend Molly who came to Rome to run…
Saturday – Day 7 – A FULL WEEK! I’m doing this thing. I feel better already, my skin is clearing up, I’ve slept well the last two nights, my run yesterday was fun and not miserable (though it was slow I’m ok with that…) Tonight I will plan another week’s worth of meals. I didn’t get to the salmon or the sausage/sweet potato soup this week so we will move those to next week and add some more fun. Stay tuned for Week 2!
And here’s some other things I ate this week: Another burger with paleo homemade mayo, mustard, dill relish (sugar free of course) and tomatoes on lettuce bun and whole 30 compliant veggie chips; gala apple with organic almond butter (OH MY HOLY OATS THIS WAS DELICIOUS); Grilled chicken with tarragon mushroom cream sauce and broccoli, leftover salt & vinegar wings with guac and carrots; sweet potato hash with onions and sugar free sausage and 2 fried eggs and berries; dessert craving fix – mashed ripe banana, GoGo organic apple sauce, and cinnamon – yum.
So here is my wrap up and some thoughts on the Whole 30 so far:
- I like knowing how food works in my body and I like choosing food that makes me healthier, not food that makes me less healthy.
- If you are thinking of doing this do your due diligence and take the time to PLAN IT OUT… that has been the one saving grace when I’ve been tempted is that I had a plan and I had things I COULD eat when I was hungry.
- While you should take the time to plan – if you’re thinking about doing it – JUST DO IT – don’t wait until next week or next month or next season – I started on Sunday after Christmas because my kids were gone and I had time to plan and get my life together for this adventure and I also had a week (they’re with their dad in Alabama this week) to kind of play around without having to be tempted by things THEY want to eat.
- This isn’t hard, but it is a challenge. They say that on the website – that cancer is hard (check, done that), that childbirth is hard (double check), that losing a loved one is hard (check) – but that drinking black coffee isn’t hard – well, that part is debatable, but I found whole 30 compliant (Blue Diamond unsweetened) almond milk that I splash in my coffee and it’s bearable. (Pro tip – if you have to have coffee during this BUY GOOD COFFEE that you can drink without cream or sugar or splenda)…
- The challenge is worth it. I can’t wait to see how it goes the rest of the 30 days!
Will & J.J. 