30 Days. 30 days of no sugar, grains, legumes, dairy, alcohol, processed foods or additives.
I completed my Whole 30 just over two weeks ago now. Throughout the 30 days, I got asked a lot of questions, I think the most popular being, "What do you eat!?" which I covered in my halfway mark post. This post is going to be my wrap up- what I learned, how I felt, how I feel now that I'm done, etc and the answers to the questions that have come up over the last 30 days. How did you feel? Honestly, I can't say I felt a whole lot different while I was on it. The original challenge says you will likely feel pretty junky the first week or so, however, I never really experienced this. I didn't notice much of a difference when I started, but this is likely because our diet is pretty clean to begin with- we don't really consume much gluten or bread, I have very minimal amount of dairy and I avoid all processed foods for the most part. Was it hard? Yes and no. It was hardest starting out because there was a lot more planning that had to go into it and a lot of 'staples' needed to be figured out- like mayo, ketchup, marinades, etc. There was a lot of label reading and a lot of realization just how many products contain sugar. (The answer= A LOT). This was probably the most challenging part because we use marinades and spices for a lot of our cooking- even our favourite Jerk marinade which we have almost weekly contained sugar, so a lot of recipes/meals needed to be adjusted. However, once the ball started rolling on these it became a lot easier and a lot of the recipes we found we loved and will go into our regular rotation. What did you miss the most? Chocolate. Hands down, for me, chocolate. I craved it at the beginning, in the middle, at the end. I could do without the rest but the chocolate I missed. I also think this may be because I might be Magnesium deficient since I did notice more leg/calf cramping over the 30 days. I think this is probably because I am nursing and could benefit from a nutrient boost in general. Magnesium deficiency can present with chocolate cravings. However, I really love chocolate so it may just be that too... Did you have 'tiger blood' in Week 3? If you read the full Whole 30, they claim you will have a huge boost of energy by week 3- you will feel as though you have tiger blood. I also did not notice this just like I didn't notice the run down feeling at the beginning. I think this is again because I didn't feel badly before starting this and my energy has always been pretty good. Well it's as good as can be expected for having a 3 year old and 1 year old who still doesn't consistently sleep through the night. And my diet wasn't horrible to start with. What I did notice Though it was not my goal or the reason for doing this, I did lose weight and my pre-pregnancy clothes fit well again which is a great bonus. I also found that my skin was fantastic. Disclaimer: I do have pretty good skin to begin with but do tend to have the odd blemish here and there, however, while doing the Whole 30 I had no issues at all and I found my complexion improved as well. I also learned I can not tolerate a lot of eggs, at least not the amount I was eating on this diet. I ended up with a slight rash on my abdomen, I cut back on the eggs and it improved. Now that I'm finished Since finishing, my diet has definitely gone a bit crazy- my last day was a Wednesday (though I broke and ate chocolate after dinner on Day 30), Thursday was our anniversary and my daughter's preschool Mother's Day celebration, Friday we took the in-laws to the ROM for the day, Saturday was my son's first birthday party and Sunday finished off with Mother's day. It was a sugar/gluten/dairy filled weekend! Thursday kicked off with a Mother's Day celebration with my daughter's preschool at Rumbletum Cafe in Conestogo. We had the most incredible Lemon Blueberry Scones. Seriously, I am still thinking about them. However, within about 20 min, I felt terrible- nauseous, fatigued, bloating- just overall not great. Totally worth the amazing scones which I will have again, but still terrible. The rest of the weekend went similarly, however, nothing shocking. This is where I noticed the difference the most, when I added things back into my diet. Because I have done gluten/dairy free and hypoallergenic diets before, I did know what to expect. For myself, I know that I can tolerate dairy quite well- it's only if I gorge on it that it really affects me. My diet is very low in diary in general so I don't worry about this too much. When it comes to gluten, I can tolerate small amounts, but the less the better. Generally, I find if I have maybe one serving of gluten in a day, I'm fine, but if I was to have it more than that in a day, not so good and likely if I was doing this daily it would be worse. I also find my gluten sensitivity is worse if it's combined with sugar- think amazing scone. I find just the shear amount of sugar/starch is too much and I feel awful. Even now, about 2 weeks after finishing, my diet isn't back to where I want it to be as we've had my husband's parents staying with us from Ireland so our routine has been a bit thrown off and I can definitely feel it. We are slowly getting back on track and I do want to adopt a majority paleo/no sugar diet for our 'normal'. Will I do this again? Absolutely! I think it was a great experience and really not as hard as you might think. Again, once you have a bit of a game plan and get into it, it's actually pretty easy. I found this was a good time of year to do it (Spring) since a lot of fruits/veggies are coming in to season and bbq season is kicking off as well. I could live on grilled chicken and vegetables. I think this will become my 'detox' of choice as I still find sugar (chocolate) my greatest challenge. I am already planning my next round for September (Fall). However, I don't think I will do the full 30 days again, as I found it a bit long. Because I am going to make this a routine detox, I will probably do 14-21 days (2-3 weeks) instead to make it a bit more feasible, though I would recommend doing it for the full 30 days at least once. I will also add some liver support supplements as well once I am no longer nursing to really up the benefits. Overall, it was a great experience! Disclaimer: Naturopathic Doctors strive to provide individualized health care. The information contained in these topics is not intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, it is provided for educational purposes only. This information shouldn’t take the place of seeing an ND for individualized health recommendations.
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Today is Day 15 of my Whole 30. The halfway mark. Fifteen days of no dairy, no grains, no legumes, no preservatives and no sugar (even natural maple syrup, honey, etc). I decided I wanted to do the Whole 30 since having my second child. He turned one this past Saturday and for the last year, I have been eating too much sugar and craving sugar after meals. I didn't want to feel like that anymore and I really wanted to cut down on the sugar so, The Whole 30 seemed perfect. I have to admit our diet is pretty clean to begin with- limited gluten and dairy and aside from my sweet tooth, not much sugar, so I haven't actually found this diet too hard to do. I miss chocolate, sure, but I was very motivated to make the change so I find every time I want sugar, it almost reinforces my desire to break the habit and increases my willpower. There is however, a lot I have learned in the last 15 days both with recipes and things I plan to continue indefinitely and things I know I won't. I have also gotten the comments, "Why are you doing that to yourself" or "So what are you eating"- well I answered the why above, but I will also share the what I've been eating as well. Here is my half way mark insights: What I Have Been Eating I have actually been loving what I am eating! And pretty much all the new recipes we have tried, we have been super happy with and plan on keeping them in our regular rotation. Here's a little photo recap of most of our meals (I tend to be a creature of habit and can eat the same left overs for days without complaint so I don't have photos of every meal since there would be a lot of overlap and some days I just forgot to photo!). This is a good array of the meals we have been eating- from left to right and top to bottom:
1. Veggie Scramble with homemade ketchup, 2. Spinach salad with chicken and apples with cinnamon and almond butter, 3. Lemon Pepper Salmon with hollandaise and steamed broccoli, 4. Chicken Fajitas with salsa and homemade guac and coleslaw, 5. Mixed greens salad with sunflower seeds and chicken, 6. Bun-less burgers with baked sweet potato 'fries' and coleslaw, 7. Egg Salad with Almond rosemary crackers and field green salad with sunflower and pumpkin seeds, 8. Chicken Korma with cauliflower rice, 9. Coconut ginger chicken 'stew' with broccoli, cauliflower and green beans, 10. Marinated grilled chicken with grilled peppers and coleslaw, 11. Left Over Coconut ginger chicken stew with raw veggies and apple slices; 12. Grilled marinated chicken with grilled peppers and mushrooms and field green salad, 13. Sun dried Tomato Meatballs with steamed broccoli, 14. L/O Meatballs with mixed green salad, 15. Turkey Burgers with grilled pineapple, baked sweet potato 'fries and coleslaw, 16. Scrambled eggs with sautéed peppers and onion, bacon and apple slices with almond butter, 17. Apple Slices with cinnamon and almond butter (a dessert), 18. L/O Turkey burger with pineapple, mixed green salad and raw veggie slices, 19. Marinated grilled chicken with grilled peppers and baked kale 'chips', 20. Scrambled eggs, field green salad, sautéed mushrooms and onions and bacon. I dare anyone to say that those meals look boring. Some are breakfast, some are lunch and some are dinner but all have been delicious! Flops and Learning Curves Mayonnaise: I never really liked mayonnaise growing up but then I met my Irish husband. The Irish put mayonnaise on everything. Mashed potatoes and mayo is potato salad, mayo based coleslaw, baked potatoes get mayo not sour cream, they will even slather bread with mayonnaise and have a mayo sandwich. You can also find turkey/stuffing/mayo mixed and put on bread to form a pretty much bread/mayo sandwich at any gas station, grocery store or airport in Ireland! Needless to say I have come around and it is probably my guiltiest pleasure. However, the processed conventional stuff is filled with not great ingredients- from junk canola oil to preservatives to sugar. It's not exactly a health food. However, by making it yourself, you can skip all the added junk and make a spread that isn't all that bad- it's really only eggs and oil, and on this Whole 30 it's pretty non-negotiable since you will be hard pressed to find a pre-made version that is compliant. I did my research and decided the immersion blender method looked the best- and most difficult to screw up. My first 2 attempts were disasters. They were egg/oil soup. The problem was the mixing jar. Our immersion blender was my husbands before we even met and it did not come with a blending jar (or so I am told). So I first tried using a magic bullet cup- it was too small so it didn't let the oil down into the blade and when I lifted the blade to get the oil- disaster. Next I tried a jar we had from honey- it was too wide and allowed too much to mix, too fast without creating the emulsion. Apparently, you can't just buy the mixing jar and I did not want to buy a second immersion blender just to get the jar. Then I found this blog with instructions. She used a wide mouthed 500mL mason jar. Perfect. I popped out to Canadian Tire and bought the mason jar (actually 12 of them since they are only sold by the case of course but glass mason jars are my storage of choice so c'est la vie). This time, nailed it! And I have done multiple batches since without fail. And it's already in the storage container, soooo convenient. My first few I just used egg, lemon juice, salt and pepper. They were good but not like the standard Hellman's. So I found a copycat recipe and have tweaked it a bit to get what I think is almost identical. I use:
You can mix all the ingredients into the mason jar in that order preferably. Give it a minute to settle. Place your immersion blender over the egg yolk and press it all the way to the bottom of the jar. Switch it on and just hold it there. I am extra paranoid about it turning to soup so I go painfully slow. I hold the blender down for a good 30 seconds and will ever so slowly then start to raise the edges of the blender to try and encourage more of the oil down. Once I am getting no more oil movement, I will slowly start to raise it slightly to encourage more down. When I'm finally left with only a few tbsp of oil on top I'll try to start mixing it a bit. The whole process probably takes me a good 1-1.5 minutes and I NEVER stop the blender until it's done. A few notes: the light olive oil is VERY important as apparently the extra-virgin version makes a very bitter terrible mayonnaise. I did not try this, I took everyone's word for it and stuck with light. Do the same. Yes, this uses raw egg. I am fine with that since we get our eggs local from St Jacobs and the risk of salmonella is extremely low (1 in 20,000 eggs). However, you can apparently find pasteurized eggs (in the shell) but I haven't looked for them. Honestly, I don't think I will ever purchase mayonnaise again. It's so easy to make and I find more convenient to just make more than to go out and buy more and I get to control the ingredients! Turkey Burger Mush: You may notice in the photos above that the turkey 'burgers' look more like cooked ground beef than burgers. That's because they were. They turned pretty mushy and wouldn't hold their shape at all. I went back to the original recipe, and read that if you use fresh pineapple juice then you can not let them marinade longer than 30 min or they turn to mush. The author's hypothesis is it may be the enzymes in fresh pineapple juice that is to blame. Well, I didn't buy juice at all, I simply pureed some of the pineapple I had bought for the rings in the bullet and added that. And after reading that and thinking about it, it makes perfect sense. Pineapple is a source of bromelain which is often used as a digestive enzyme. All pineapple juice you would get in the grocery stores would be pasteurized which would destroy enzymatic activity. But fresh pineapple would have all it's enzymes intact, hence turning my turkey meat to mush. Though the texture wasn't great, the flavour was and I will definitely try this recipe again but this time just leave out the pineapple juice in the patty completely. Compliant Bacon: A lot of people are surprised to hear that bacon contains sugar. It does. We usually get our bacon from Dar's at St Jacob's Farmers Market. When I started this I went in and asked if it contained sugar. The man who makes the bacon said no but dextrose (a simple sugar) is used. I passed and went to Goodness Me where I had seen a brand that had no sugar, Mark's Mennonite Meats. I actually ended up meeting Mark as he had a little sample booth set up at Goodness Me, and was able to speak with him. His bacon also contained dextrose, however, it wasn't on the label because it was undetectable. It is added because the meat is cured with live culture/bacteria and dextrose is added to feed the bacteria. However, it's consumed by the bacteria so it won't actually be in the final product. So, moral of the story, added dextrose is fine and we have been using both Dar's and Mark's. Thing's I'll Maintain and Things I Won't
Overall, my husband and I agree that we will strive to continue to be grain and sugar free throughout the week and be less strict/indulge a bit on the weekends. We want to get to a point where being grain/sugar free is second nature. And yes, both my husband and my children are doing this 'diet' as well for the most part. My children still have oatmeal with unsweetened apple sauce and cinnamon for breakfast and will have rice cakes and hummus for snacks. However, because we all eat the same dinner and usually lunches, the majority of their meals are Whole 30. And no, I am not concerned about this not being healthy for them- increasing vegetables will never be unhealthy. I feel great eating this way and I know the weekend I end (actually my last day is a Wednesday, Thursday is our wedding anniversary, Saturday my son's first birthday party and Sunday Mother's Day) I will be indulging...a lot...and I'll probably feel like garbage. So by Monday I will be more than ready to get back on the train. The big question though, will I do this again? Absolutely. I think this will actually be my 'detox' of choice. Disclaimer: Naturopathic Doctors strive to provide individualized health care. The information contained in these topics is not intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, it is provided for educational purposes only. This information shouldn’t take the place of seeing an ND for individualized health recommendations. With temperatures finally rising, spring is officially here and it's the perfect time for a detox! I've said it many times before but the way I like to recommend doing a detox is as a way to reset the diet and get back on track. Holidays, vacations and life can have us slowly sliding off the healthy path we have for ourselves and a detox can be a great way to refocus. This is also the time I like to add a good supplement to give the body a boost depending on an individual's health goals- Skin issues? Liver need a boost? Just want a general nutrient support? For myself this is an even better time to do a detox! After 9 months of pregnancy nausea and a diet that focused on anything that didn't make me want to get sick, I am ready to get things back on track. However, since I am currently breastfeeding, I will be skipping the supplement this time and just focusing on diet. Again, even by just cleaning up diet and focusing on fresh, whole foods will boost your health! My husband will be adding a supplement and my 2-year old will be eating the same foods as well! Tomorrow is my family's official start day, so today is my prep day. By making a plan and having snacks and foods on hand it can make the diet changes much easier to follow and stick to! So what am I prepping today? Chicken Stock I made sure to make a roasted chicken for dinner last night so that I could make stock today! Just add the left over chicken bones, carrots, celery, onions and any spices you like to a stock pot of water. Bring to a boil, then simmer for at least an hour. The longer you simmer, the more flavour you'll have. For anyone who is vegan/vegetarian, you can prep a vegetable stock by omitting the chicken bones. Grain Free Granola One of my favourite cookbooks is Nourishing Meals by Alissa Segersten and Tom Malterre. This is the second cookbook they have released and over the next two weeks, you will see many meals made from their recipes (both their cookbook and blog). They have also just released another book (though I don't have it yet), the two I do are well worth the investment! In this book, Nourishing Meals, they have a wonderful grain free, nut based granola. I use this recipe as a base and add to it to make my own. Ingredients: 3 cups chopped nuts (walnuts, almonds, pecans but you can use whatever you'd like), 1/2 cup raw pumpkin seeds, 1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds, 3 tbsp chia seeds, 1/4 cup hemp hearts, 1/4 cup ground flaxseeds, 2 tsp of cinnamon, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1/4 tsp sea salt, 1/4 cup (generous) maple syrup, 1/4 cup (generous) melted coconut oil. Mix together, spread on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and bake at 300F for 35-40 min. Remove from oven and mix in any add ins you'd like (dried cranberries/fruit, raisins, coconut, chocolate chips, etc.) and let cool! Raisin Seed Cookies These raisin seed cookies are amazing and egg and nut free (for anyone who can't have nuts or teachers in a nut free school). However, if you don't have to avoid nuts and don't have sunflower seed butter on hand you can easily use almond butter instead (which is what I do). Find the recipe here at The Paleo Mom. I will even let me daughter have these for breakfast since they are so low in sugar and so high in healthy proteins and fats! Disclaimer: Naturopathic Doctors strive to provide individualized health care. The information contained in these topics is not intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, it is provided for educational purposes only. This information shouldn’t take the place of seeing an ND for individualized health recommendations. |
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