After 5 days of my Whole 30

I woke up with very little knee pain!!!  Very surprised by this. 

Last night I felt as though I had a lot more energy too and was quite alert, even at 10.30pm.  Usually a get an energy slump around 3-4pm and then again around 10pm.  Not last night.  I also woke up and felt alert - not my usual just woke up groggy feeling at all.

So what have I been eating?

Most breakfasts have been eggs of some sort - fried with bacon, fried with sautéed grated sweet potato, etc.  One morning I had 2 pork sausages with sautéed veges and this morning I had left overs from last night's dinner.

I made a batch of chicken soup and have been having that for lunch.  Dinners have been Apricot chicken (my fave), Lasagne with zucchini noodles (a bit wet), slow cooked Beef Goulash (forget the other 2).

The day I made the soup felt like I was cooking all day.  A draw back of this style of eating I suppose.  But now it is made all I have to do is reheat a bowlful.  I think that is the key to making this easier - precook a bit of food and batch it into single serves to be reheated over the next few days.

When I went shopping on Monday my fridge was chock fill of meat and veges - so much so that I couldn't fit it all in the appropriate areas.  But I did plan and shop for 2 weeks of meals.

I will admit that I have not been following the Whole 30 plan strictly.  I have tried it and decided that I still need/like to have 3-4 cups of tea a day with milk.  I have cut down the amount of milk I use to around 1 tablespoon - enough to make it a brown tea as opposed to black or white.  The Whole 30 police will probably be on my back about this but it is my life and diet and I should be able to do and eat as close to the program as I feel I can possibly manage.  Who knows, once summer hits I may not drink tea at all.  I have not eaten anything made from grains of any sort, not eaten any legumes or sugars - except what is naturally in fresh/frozen fruit.  So there....

Oh, my sleeping patterns are still roughly the same - disturbed at least once a night.  Unless of course the cat sleeps with me.  Then it's more like every time I need to turn over I get disturbed.  He likes to sleep hard up against me or even on me.  I have a large personal space and when he invades that of a night I find it hard to sleep well.  Solution - shut the bedroom door and hope that hubby keeps it closed when he goes to work at ridiculous am.

Starting a Whole 30

is going to be tricky.  I have read the book 'it starts with food' and it all makes sense.  I have also read a bit about eating paleo and the reasons behind it all and that all makes sense.  So now it is time to be the lab rat and JFDI.

I will try to be here daily to write about what I eat and how I feel - both physically and emotionally.

Today is Day 1.

Physically:

My knees hurt when I stand, so much so that getting out of bed in the morning is a slow and painful process.  My legs seem really stiff too.  It does loosen up during the day and I am sure the pain killers I take with my morning vitamins help take the morning pain edge off.

It is spring here in Australia so my hayfever is playing up too.  I spent the last week bush camping among trees that were shedding their seed fluff and that certainly hasn't helped the allergies.

I find I don't sleep well either; possibly due to allergies but more likely due to age related hormonal changes.  As a result I wake up groggy and it takes a bit for that feeling to go away.  Though i find playing some games on the computer helps with that.

Emotionally:

I am apprehensive (is that an emotion?) about doing a Whole 30.  I can get my head around dinner and lunch - I just need to be organised.  Dinner is probably the easiest meal to plan.  Lunch I need to ensure I have food ready to go - either precooked or at least easily and quickly cooked.  It's breakfast that I am going to struggle with.  What is breakfast if it's not toast or cereal or pancakes?  Ok, I can do bacon  and eggs and even add in some grated sweet potato - but eating that everyday is going to get rather boring after awhile.

Snacking is not allowable within Whole 30 'rules', but at least if I get really hungry I know I can eat some fruit or some nuts.  Eating anything else is not difficult as I tend to not buy biscuits or cake, etc anyway.

I am going to miss my tea - haven't had sugar in it for over 30 years but I do add milk.  Looks like I will be having weak black from now on.  At least I will be if I can stand the taste.


So why am I doing this?

Initially it was to lose weight, but after reading a few blogs and some books on eating paleo I am now doing this to see if I feel any better - with my knee, with my sleeping habits, etc.  Previously I have cut grains from my diet for around a week and noticed less knee pain and an alertness in the afternoon not felt before, so i am hopeful this will do me good.

So, wish me luck.  I am off to have some eggs and bacon and sweet potato and plane some meals for the next week....