Whole 30 and me

As you know I did Whole 30 back in October. You can read all about that here. I decided to do Whole 30 again to try and lose the baby weight. We started the Monday after Easter and I have been sticking to it for the past week.

Here are some of the meals I have ate.

When I read about people who did Whole 30 for a second time a lot of them said the second time was harder. I actually didn't find this to be true. Whole 30 the second time was a lot easier for me. I had a caffeine headache day 2 other than that no issues. 

I really like how I feel on the Whole 30 I sleep better (unless baby is going through a growth spurt or sick and need held or feed every three hours), my sleep feels more productive. It's easier to wake up! The biggest one for me is I don't feel like a sugar monster. Before  I started the Whole 30 this time around, I wanted sugar and I mean a lot of sugar, like 3 boxes of girl scout cookies a day was not enough. Now, I don't feel like I need it and when they had free cookies at work it was easy for me to say no!!! Although on one high stress day I did want a coke and ice cream. Scratch that I still want a coke!

Mondo also likes how he feels on the Whole 30 and we were talking about how to make this more of a lifestyle change. So we decided not to end after 30 days and to stick more to the spirit of the law. So when we went out to eat we wouldn't worry so much what the food had been cooked in but made sure to not eat non compliant foods. If that makes sense, example, we went to Mcdonalds for breakfast which their sausage has sugar and the eggs have diary so it's not compliant but, eggs and meat and potatoes are, so we got a big breakfast ate the eggs, sausage and hashbrown not worrying about the fact that those eggs, that sausage, and that hashbrown were not technically compliant. We also decided we would do 2 weeks on and one weekend off. Everything was going great!

Until I hit day 8, then my milk supply plummeted! Like crazy! Ainsley wasn't getting enough to eat and I was having to give her 2 oz of my back up supply. Which isn't a big deal since I have A LOT!! Still, I didn't like this idea. At first I chalked it up to lack of water over my weekend (Sunday andMonday) lack of pumping, and a sick baby. Two bloggers I follow did Whole 30 while breastfeeding and claimed an increase in supply. Tuesday night I did some research and realized that I was missing some stuff from my whole 30 diet while I was breastfeeding. I need more fat, more calories, more starchy veggies, and more carbs. I missed the fact that both bloggers stated they sipped on full fat coconut milk throughout the day, more eggs (I was usually doing one maybe 2 they did 4 or more.), and sweet potato with almost every meal.

Tuesday night Ainsley woke up every 2 hours to eat, with my milk supply being low this seemed impossible. Another google search and she has hit her 3 month growth spurt. So even though it completely broke my heart and actual tears were shed ( I resort this to hormones and lack of sleep) for breakfast Wednesday I had cheerios and banana. My child comes first and I need to up my supply. So my plan going forward is to add back in milk and grain Wednesday, Thursday, Friday(not adding in refined sugar), over the weekend allow the splurges like planned (Coke please!!), then on Monday if my supply is back up, return to Whole 30 Monday thru Friday, increasing fats, starchy veggies and carbs. Weekend (which will be spent in Seattle anyways) allow milk and grain back in. Then again on Monday back to Whole 30. Hopefully this will keep my milk supply up while allowing me to continue eating healthy.

One thing I want to mention during my 8 days of strict Whole 30 I lost 4 lbs. My goal is between Easter and Mackenzie's 3rd birthday (Can you believe she will be 3!!) which is May 30th. I want to lose 12 lbs (average of 1.5 lbs a week). Hopefully I will be able to continue the weight loss!!

Whole 30 and me

To start off this will be a boring post without any pictures unless I give a weekend update. My uncle, his wife and 6 kids visited this weekend! It was so nice having them here!! They never come this way we always go to them, so a nice change of pace. Pretty much the only excitement we had was Saturday. My parents picked me up after work and we headed to Greenbluff (a mash of farms and pumpkin patches near here). We only had time for one farm that day. My uncle and his family went into a corn maze while Mackenzie and I played in the pumpkin patch. We also looked around a little with my mom, dad and aunt, and tried a pumpkin doughnut. Mondo and I plan on heading back in a couple of weeks for a family day there and to get some pumpkins!

Mackenzie loved LOVED the pumpkins! I knew she would, she always points them out. She especially loved the "yittle" pumpkins. It wasn't a large pumpkin patch just an area where they placed a bunch of pumpkins, so at one point I just sat down nearby and let Mackenzie run and climb all over. She was having fun, ran by me and I yelled; "Where are your shoes?". Luckily they were together nearby. She also sat down next to me in the midst of a bunch of pumpkins and said; "a punkin for kenzie and a punkin for baby sister." She has been doing that a lot lately, talking about baby sister and doing things for her. So, cute and sweet!

Mackenzie lined up all the "yittle punkins"

Ok, onto the title of the post whole 30. As you are reading this I am in the midst of Day 1 of my whole 30 diet. I decided to do this after my morning sickness with baby number 2 ceased and I was still eating like a pig, not healthy choices either. I had seen a blogger post on it and did some research. This fit all my needs it would help kick the sugar monster, I didn't need to count calories, and it would be safe for me and baby since I am just eating whole foods. I was going to start in September but, one of my friends strongly suggested I read the book first. So, I waited to check out the book at my library first before I started. That is how I came up with the Oct begin date. At, the dinner table I had been talking about what foods I could and couldn't eat, the testimonies in the book as well as online, and other stuff when my mom declared she thought the whole family should do it together. So, my mom, dad, grandma, husband, aunt and daughter are all participating in the Whole 30 together. I am super excited for doing this with Mackenzie, since the age of 1, she has had eczema on her knees and elbows. The Whole 30 has had success with ridding the eczema and finding the source of it, since it almost always deals with a food allergy. 

So, I am jumping in and am super excited, nervous, dreading, fearful, of the challenge of this diet. I will post updates every once in awhile as to my challenges and success along the way. After this month I plan on trying again in the first month of baby number 2 to see how it will effect my milk before returning to work. Most women report an increase in supply! This might be something I keep up at work to keep my milk supply up. I also plan on the challenge of this to reset my system and jump start me into making better food choices for myself and my family. I am not doing this to lose weight, that pretty much is impossible since I am growing a baby, but to create a healthy life style. 

Here is the website for Whole 30, you don't have to read the book to do it, but I highly recommend it. It helps explain why certain foods are being cut out, and how to healthy bring them back in while paying attention to what they do to your body. I also will post a few links to some recipe sights, I can't eat the same foods for 30 days in a row (blech), I am excited to try some of these.

Whole 30

Nom Nom Paleo

Stupid Easy Paleo

If you are on instagram look up #whole30 for a lot more recipes and resources.