Meet Me Halfway

Yesterday, February 22, 2010, marked Day 15 of the Whole30 diet.  I kind of expected a parade, but that didn't happen.  Perhaps for Day 30?  (hint, hint)  I did get a mini blizzard (snow, not DQ) that morning which was  pretty awesome even if it did melt rather quickly.  Sledding this weekend?  I think so.  Since I'm halfway through the diet, I thought I'd take some time to chatter on about why I'm doing this and what I've discovered so far.

WHO:  Me!!  I'm getting older, more active and basically want to be healthier.  I've got a few little weird things going on with me (hello, night terrors!!) that I'd like to see if a change in my diet and what I'm putting in my body has any sort of affect.

WHAT:    The Whole30 diet.  In basic terms, it's an elimination diet of extreme proportions.  Take 30 days and remove all the crap we typically eat on any given day.  Once you've made it through the 30 days of "clean" eating, you can add back in some basics (like dairy, wheat, sweet fruit) and see how it affects you.  Get sick?  You probably have an intolerance to whatever you just added back into your diet.  The diet is supposed to change the way you live, the food items you crave and perhaps jump start weight loss.  This of course, is just my little interpretation of the Whole30 diet... Cruise on over to their website if you really want to read more. 

WHEN:  I had several friends do this diet last year.  Some have done it more than one time.  Some continue the diet past the initial 30 days.  A small group of friends started the diet for the first time at the beginning of January.  I should have done the diet with them but I wasn't prepared.  I don't cook.  I know nothing of whole foods, nutrition.  I go to the grocery store only under dire circumstances (starvation being one but since I've got crap in my cupboards that expired in 2005, it's highly unlikely I'll starve to death and my cats will eat me).  I watched my friends work through the diet and mentally cursed them because they couldn't go for sushi with me.  Longest 30 days.  Ever!!  I kept saying I'd start in February but I never really planned to start.  Flash forward to the Saturday before the Super Bowl.  Not sure if it was food poisoning or what, but I got sick.  The idea of eating (or drinking) made my stomach cringe and the following Tuesday (2/8/2011), I started my Whole30 journey with zero planning or shopping ahead of time. 

WHERE: 

• My kitchen (previously unused area of my house)
• My refrigerator (that nice, cool, place where my various juices and not much else hung out)
• My oven/stove (mostly a large paperweight and/or dust collector)
• The store (Safeway, Fred Meyer, Lemongrass Natural Foods, Wenatchee Natural Foods)
• My friends (who've patiently explained the most basic nutritional things to me, provided recipes, and encouragement)

WHY:  Back in my early 20s, I had bad headaches.  When I say bad, I mean debilitating, send me to the ground in tears type of badness.  I went to various doctors, who sent me for various tests, gave me various medications and assigned all sorts of various diagnoses to me.  None of that helped.  I still had the headaches, a huge medical bill and an aversion to medications.  A family friends suggested going organic and seeing how well I did on that.  She loaned us a juicer, I bought a juicing recipe book (I can't remember the title and it's packed away somewhere otherwise I'd link to the book.  It was really well written, had tons of options) and started to change my diet.  As a college student and full-time employee, I was surviving off microwave meals and sodas and my mom's dinners.  Once I cut out the sodas and the microwave meals, it was amazing how quickly the headaches stopped.  This sort of proved that I had a sensitivity to over-processed things and the chemicals in those processed foods.  I don't eat many microwave meals any more and I also limit the number of things that I eat out of a can.  Mostly frozen veggies for me.  I haven't juiced in years but I'd like to get back to that.  My favorite juice is still a combination of Granny Smith apples and celery.  I dislike making my own tomato juice.  It's yucky looking. 

Now that I'm in my 30s, I get the occasional headache but have different weird little ailments that no doctor has been able to successfully identify.  Seriously poor circulation.  My fingers will turn shocking white.  I freeze all the time.  My feet and legs tingle.  I must have Restless Leg Syndrome!  No, wait.  It's got to be Raynauds Disease.  Cue more pills, more tests and more discomfort.  I also experience Night Terrors, something none of my doctors are familiar with.  Their solution was (1) drugs and (2) behavior modification.  It's been happening for over a year now and I think it might be related to a sleep disorder since night terrors typically do not occur in adults.  It's a frightening experience (for me and the animals), especially since it usually occurs when I'm alone.  My house is scary.  I don't want to take drugs for the rest of my life.  I have little to no energy even with all the exercise and training I've been doing.

The Whole30 diet is supposed to help cleanse your system of pollutants that might be causing all these various ailments.  It's just for 30 days.  I can do anything for 30 days and since it didn't cost me anything but thoughts, planning ahead and being creative, it's definitely worth a shot.

THE DIET:  I've unintentionally cheated twice, but in small doses.  The curry that I made the first couple of days uses fish sauce which contains soy (a no-no on Whole30) and the jarred spaghetti sauce I used last week used agave nectar (a naturally occurring sugar) which is also forbidden during the first 30 days.  Since these were in really small amounts, I didn't bother starting over but I won't use the spaghetti sauce again.  I found a recipe to make my own marinara so I'll try that.  I'll keep using the fish sauce because it really is a minuscule amount.  I've also probably eaten way too much fruit.  According to the diet, you should be eating mostly protein (meats) and vegetables and limited amounts of fruit.  That's because they are sweet and you're supposed to be curbing your body's cravings for sweets.  For the next two weeks, I'll try laying off the fruits a bit more (once I finish off the jar of Apple Butter - that stuff is the $h!t). 

It wasn't as hard to stick to the diet as I thought it would be.  I was kind of a healthy eater before and mostly I just had to cut out a few of my favorite things (wine, popcorn, potatoes, raindrops on roses, whiskers on kittens) and learn to substitute in some other things (coconut oil).  I've started cooking more, I love looking at recipes and figuring out how to make them Whole30 compliant.  I get to be creative, JOY!!  I just started taking pictures of my culinary adventures (makes the blog posts a little more interesting, I think).  My friends have been AWESOME in providing advice, recipes and encouragement.  I don't think I would have made it this far without them.  I would like to see what it would be like doing the Whole30 completely without any cheats but I might wait a while to try that.  I felt a bit of energy returning around Day 8-10 but now I'm at Day 15 and feeling sluggish.  I caught the crud, ate a lot of fruit and it is a lot colder so I don't know if that's the cause. 

I have roughly 15 days left on Whole30.  I'll probably stick to the diet fairly close even after the 30 days.  I will be celebrating Day 31 (Thursday, March 10), with the reintroduction of Sushi Thursday but I'll bring my bottle of Coconut Aminos (a Whole30 approved substitute for soy sauce).  I'm going to be one of those people.