One Week Down . . A Whole 30 Update

Well, I have successfully made it through 7 days.  Yay, me!  It's actually gone fine.  In some ways this is easier than the gestational diabetes diet, which I've had to do 3 times for 12 weeks at a time--AND being in my last trimester of pregnancy!  This is only 30 days, I'm not pregnant, and I don't have to keep track of when it's time to eat, exercise, and prick myself.  Also, I don't have to feel like a total failure if my numbers are high, which was always so discouraging with gestational diabetes, even though I didn't usually have high numbers.  So it's been good.  I am down a few pounds, but really, they don't seem to be from anywhere that it makes any sort of difference, lol.  I have not had any sort of great energy, like I hear people talk about (maybe that will be later?  I can hope!), but I also have not had any real severe cravings for sugar.  In fact, the thing I miss the most is my breakfast cereal.  It just doesn't seem like I've started my day without my bran flakes and milk!

Here are some random thoughts I've had this past week:

• I'm really glad I stocked up on weird things before starting.  In fact, the only added sugar I've had so far was in the spoonful of sunflower seed butter I ate on my apple the first day because I had forgotten to get plain almond butter.  Wait, that's not totally true--while I did buy the nitrate-free, etc., etc. expensive bacon, I did not bother hunting down bacon with no sugar added.  No way am I stopping at Whole Foods!  If a fancy food isn't at Costco or Wegman's, then I'm not bothering with it, and I don't even feel guilty, lol.  Okay, that wasn't really the point of this point . . . Let me try again.
• I'm really glad I bought avocado oil at Costco.  I like it a lot better than coconut oil.  It doesn't have any real smell or taste, unlike coconut oil.  I've been frying eggs and red peppers in it most mornings for breakfast, and it's been great!  Also, I bought "Primal" mayo from Amazon (no bad soybean oil or anything else), which was a real splurge, but it's been really handy to have, because I have no desire to make my own.  I'm just lazy or something, I guess.  I have enjoyed making an egg salad with mashed avocado and bacon that I found on the internet, but it really needed a little mayo (and mustard and vinegar) to make it taste more like deviled eggs, which I love.  Oh, and "coconut aminos", which is a soy sauce substitute made from the sap of coconut trees, makes it so I can have Asian-flavored foods, which I love, with the added bonus that now I can't wait to have my sister-in-law Melinda here again (she's deathly allergic to soy), because now I can add to my cooking repertoire with her!  Also, the individual Wholly Guacamole packs you can get at Costco are perfect for dipping raw vegetables.  I did end up getting no-sugar-added almond butter a few days after I started.  It's really something.  I've been eating it on apples or bananas.  I can't wait to go back to sun butter, lol.  I think those are the odd things I've found most useful to have, so far.
• I also cooked a lot of things the first day or 2.  I cooked up a bunch of chicken strips (in avocado oil!) so I'd have them to put on salads or just to eat whenever I wanted something and couldn't think of anything.  I also made up some egg "muffin" things with chopped broccoli, eggs, some cooked special approved whole 30 sausage from Costco ("Aidell" chicken and apple sausages) and coconut milk.  Those have been nice when I didn't have time to cook myself some eggs, but just needed to grab something for breakfast. I put a bunch of chicken breasts in freezer bags in various different marinades I found on the internet.  Then I can grab a bag and cook a few breasts for Bob and me that at least have some flavor.
• Spaghetti squash is a tolerable substitute for spaghetti noodles, but I don't think I will ever choose to eat them instead of noodles without being on a diet like this!  Fortunately my homemade sauce, which I love, doesn't have any added sugar or anything bad, so I could add a lot of it over the squash, lol.  I will say that having squash made it very unlikely that I would overeat that meal!  
• I think I've been able to manage my expectations for results.  Several of my friends commented on how to really lose the weight and keep it off, they needed to count calories and work out often, or stay on the diet faithfully for pretty much long-term, or other things.  Some friends said it didn't work at all for them, which was discouraging, but sounded like what I've read.  I guess if this doesn't work to lose some tummy inches, then I will just resign myself to looking perpetually pregnant, because I really don't want to think about food any more than I am now!  I definitely appreciate hearing everyone's different experiences!