#3: A Good (30) Days to Die(t) Hard

Adjusting to the New Diet:

The thing about blindly committing to a challenge without any prior research is that sometimes you don't realize you're in over your head until you're gasping for air, trying to rip the inflatable alligator arm floaties off the 6 year old next to you.  Thankfully for the 6 year old in this metaphor, the Whole 30 challenge at this point has been more manageable than I had originally thought - although you wouldn't have thought that after some of the conversations and cautionary tales I've experienced with friends and Whole 30/Paleo 'survivors', after I told them what I was doing. You'd think I was about to start chemotherapy, or was about to sober up from a nasty cocaine and heroine addiction like Leonardo DiCaprio in The Basketball Diaries.  Apparently I am supposed to be moody, ill-tempered, lethargic, experience pounding headaches, and have a wonky and unreliable digestive system. Even the Whole 30 website attests that it's going to be a rocky 30 days:

The timeline continues in a less chart-friendly way to include:

Day 8-9: For the love of Gosling, my pants are TIGHTER. 

Days 10-11: The Hardest Days

Days 12-15: Boundless energy! Now give me a damn Twinkie. 

Days 16-27: Tiger Blood

(Interlude) Day 21: I am so over this.

Day 28: 28 is as good as 30…right?

Days 29-30: HolyOprahIt’sAlmostOverWhatAmIGoingToEatNow?!?!?!

 

I'm currently on day #13, and I'm happy to report that I have experienced very few of the sugar, carbohydrate, dairy, and legume withdrawal symptoms listed above. I think the worst of it to-date may have happened on day #2, when I was feeling exhausted - although I attribute this to the daylight savings time change and the subsequent four hours of sleep I received, rather than my new diet.  In addition to that, I also experienced an unusual lack of energy which hindered my gym workout on days #6, #8 and #11. 

My normal food pyramid

That said, my gym day today was great!  It must be all that 'boundless energy' I'm supposed to have at this stage.  Hopefully this is not a fluke moving forward.  I've also been in a great mood at work this week - not nearly as mean, snarky, condescending or sarcastic to my coworkers.  Hopefully this whole 'cheery' side effect will pass, and I can get back to how I normally treat them.

For me, the biggest dietary challenge so far has not been adjusting to the side effects of my new diet, but rather calibrating my dietary restrictions with my shopping list at the grocery store.  Once you start Whole 30, the food pyramid you're used to turns more into a food rectangle, with the subtraction of grains, legumes and dairy. Pictures are the best way to demonstrate this:

This is a very sad before and after photo of all the sugar and carby deliciousness I had to pack up for 30 days.  Gone are the cans of soup, graham crackers, flour, cornmeal, pasta, couscous, rice, and all other banned substances.  Tears were streaming down my face as I said my farewell.

The picture on the left shows what my cupboard now looks like.  Please note the coconut, almond flour, sun dried tomato, garlic, and all other (mostly) organic, un-preserved and less delicious items.  On the right is what my fridge currently looks like, with all the herbs, veggies and (mostly) grass-fed and organic meats blocking out the sun.  Covered by all the veggies is the 18-pack of eggs I purchased.  I've  never eaten more eggs in a (almost) two week span than I have now.  Same with avocados - I've eaten more of those than I have in the last 5 years.  

While adding more veggies to my grocery list helped to offset the cost of organic and grass-fed meats, buying base ingredients such as coconut oil and almond flour caused my first grocery bill to spike.  I had to get most of the ingredients at Whole Foods (or as my friend Kate calls it, 'Whole Paycheck') because Stop & Shop either only have brand items with banned additives, they didn't carry it, or because I left the store in a cloud of anger and frustration when I couldn't find where in the store these new and unfamiliar ingredients were supposed to be located.  Moving forward, I can now make 80% of my food purchases at either Stop & Shop or farmer's markets, but I'll still need to go to Whole Paycheck to get most of the organic and grass-fed meats that don't contain hormones, preservatives, or other additives. 

Obviously what goes along with new ingredients are new recipes, and I'll talk about that in a future post.