Day 12 of 30 - Elimination Diet

Hubby and and I are more than a third of the way through the Whole30 program.  I'm feeling good - not super energized - but, not bad.  I'm not as hungry as I was week one which is really good. I thought I would discuss more of the specifics - if you're not into over sharing skip over a section.

FOOD:
We have tried a lot of new recipes and thrown in a few old favorites.  We joke that we are eating like my Dad insisted we did growing up - meat, potato and vegetable.  I have been using the book,  The Whole30: The 30-Day Guide to Total Health and Food Freedom as a guide. All the recipes that are not mine come from this book.   I made their salmon cakes substituting pumpkin for sweet potatoes.  They have been my go to for breakfast.  They taste great and are very filling.  This week we tried Melissa's chicken hash - colorful and tasty with shredded sweet potato and diced granny smith apples - sweet, tart and walnuts give it crunch.  I made my Bloody Mary pot roast one night and last night we had their stuffed peppers and a salad.  I made a version of my thousand island dressing - I combined my failed attempt at making mayonnaise (tasted great but was very runny) with the homemade ketchup (tastes great but, is really thick), a little Worcestershire, apple cider vinegar and dill.  So far, all the food has received a "keep this in rotation" review.  And trust me, the family would say otherwise.  The kids and I decided the stuffed peppers needed a little bit more spice next time. I would add a little more herbs to most of the recipes in the book. I also made a big batch of the chicken stew - using cauliflower instead of broccoli and smashing it with a potato mashers instead of pureeing it in a food processors - less work and clean up. This is the second time I made this recipe. It's really easy and tastes great. I added a bunch more vegetables to the stew as well.  If you haven't figured it out by now, I use recipes as a guideline or inspiration and then make them my own.

SUPPLEMENTS & MY BREASTS:
I stopped taking my herbal supplements as they are alcohol tinctures.  I also stopped taking the few vitamins I was taking.  They are gel tabs and contain contraband ingredients.  I don't taking a multi vitamin just a couple key ones - one I show deficient on in blood work without it plus I have so much more energy when I take it - and the other because when I stop taking it my breasts hurt.  It took a week but, by day 8 my breasts started to hurt.  It's not noticeable all the time - you wouldn't want to wear anything tight and you definitely do not want to have your nipples touched.  Just sayin'.

BOWEL MOVEMENTS:
I normally have a bowel movement every morning pre-coffee.  I still do.  I have noticed that though still formed they are softer.  Instead of a solid brown they are now a more yellow-brown. Hey, I warned you.

WEIGHT:
I'm not supposed to be weighing myself - it might wreck my self-esteem so says the book and its rules.  It is the only rule I'm breaking - It's an elimination diet and I've been perfect about avoiding all those things I shouldn't eat. And if you know me a scale is not going to wreck my self-esteem.  My jeans fit a little better, my wedding band comes off a little easier most mornings (it wasn't before I started) and according to the scale I'm down five pounds.

NECK PAIN:
In the fall I was having stress related back spasms.  I have increased my visits to the massage therapist, eliminated a few things from my life, added exercises and herbs, delegated more to the family and spent a lot of time with the chiropractor.  My back pain is really related to tension in my neck radiating down. Once we were able to release the back I was left with the root cause - a pain in the neck. I am just about ready to break up with the chiropractor - the visits are farther in between.  I'm feeling great.  I have noticed that I am less inflamed since starting the Whole30 and I can really NOT feel it in my neck.  That's a really good thing.