My Whole30 Update – 10 days In!

I haven’t been updating my blog much because I don’t think that dieting is that interesting right now, but maybe you’ll find something interesting about my experience. The first day was super hard. I had to stop eating the addicting foods and find something else to eat or avoid the kitchen altogether.

The Whole30 detox experience

I did not expect to feel any negative side effects from getting rid of grains and dairy, but on the second day, I did get a slight headache. It was a day that I was being pretty lazy and reading a lot on my couch, so the headache could have been a result of neck strain.

My detoxing ramped up on the fourth day and I started getting the rash above my eye that I get when doing elimination diets. It is itchy and uncomfortable but doesn’t last much longer than a week if that. Luckily, I didn’t have the rash above both eyelids, just the left one.

In my first few days, I had a bit more bowel movements. They were pretty normal, so I figure that it was just my body getting rid of any excess. They have pretty much normalized. My last bowel movement was indicating a small bit of constipation based on the shape according to the Bristol stool chart.

Overall, my detox hasn’t been too bad. I’ve adjusted to the foods quite well. Then again, this is not my first rodeo when it comes to elimination dieting!

My Whole30 health benefits

This is a bit hard for me to admit, but I haven’t seen many health benefits just yet. When I started I had been waking up with a tiny bit of congestion. This has gone away for the most part.

I haven’t had any seizures on the diet, but my seizure pattern was very sporadic, so I didn’t expect to have any. I do feel like my brain is working a bit better, but it is a bit hard to explain. I have still had moments of forgetfulness, but they seem to have diminished.

My hair is not yet growing, which is the main reason that I do these diets. I keep looking for little hairs here and there, but I can’t say that there are any new ones. This is easy to tell with a completely bald head.

My Whole30 eating out plan

One of the things that can be challenging about Whole30 is eating out in restaurants with friends. I had planned on eating brunch with a good friend this weekend, but we got a snowstorm.

How was I going to navigate the whole30 diet in a restaurant where most ingredients are off-limits?

I had checked out the menu ahead of time. I saw that the brunch menu had steak and eggs on it. They included a side dish of hash browns and toast. I planned on eating the steak, eggs, and hash browns and not worrying about whether they used vegetable oil when cooking it. I didn’t want to worry about it because I felt a little bit of vegetable oil was unlikely to harm me.

I do know that some people request to have their foods cooked in lard or butter, but since I rarely eat out, I was going to let it slide. Besides, steak and eggs are pretty nutrient-dense whole foods.

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My mistakes on Whole30

I have not been 100% compliant with the[easyazon_link identifier=”B00QEGI2GS” locale=”US” tag=”mcurle08-20″]whole30 rules[/easyazon_link]. I did allow a few seemingly whole foods into my diet that had bad ingredients in them. I bought uncured, nitrite-free, pastured bacon from a local farm. It was high quality and I assumed that it was clean. It was sugar-free, but when I checked, they used evaporated cane juice in the smoking process. It isn’t a lot, so I decided I’d go ahead and finish the package.

On the eighth day, I made a salad. My mom suggested using olives and for a brief moment, I forgot that I was doing whole30 and didn’t check the ingredients on the can. There is an additive that I didn’t recognize that is questionable. Again, it isn’t a lot. I will probably not consume more, so I am not going to worry about it too much.

I have used a supplement. I use cod liver oil to keep my vitamin D levels high and prevent seizures. It isn’t a whole food and does have synthetic vitamin A and vitamin D added, so that isn’t 100% compliant, but I do feel better with higher levels of vitamin D. I do think that it is preventing seizures.

My successes on Whole30

Ok, now that we’ve gone over my failures with the diet. I need to celebrate my successes. I was able to eliminate dairy and I don’t really miss it! I have gotten the grains out of my diet and I’m not craving bread or crackers. I haven’t touched a sugary product in 12 days.

My confidence is rising in my ability to eat healthily. I feel like I will probably be able to continue this way of eating beyond thirty days. It is only day 12, but I have gotten into a good routine with my food.

Overall, I feel pretty great about my progress on the Whole30 diet.