Day One (pre-written, I will do a how it went post later)

Bonus! I found out Franks Red Hot Sauce is compliant! (the original one, I think the others are non –compliant)

As I start this journey officially, I would like to review some of the things that Whole30 claims will be fixed just by diet. I’ll start with ones that don’t really apply to me, so I have no way of measuring them at this time in my life.

-          Diabetes

-          Asthma

-          Allergies (since moving to Tennessee I have not had allergies, so while I technically do have them, I currently have no way to measure if they are alleviated through diet)

-          Arthritis symptoms

-          Leaky gut (at least I don’t think it applies to me…)

-          Crohn’s disease

-          Celiac disease

-          High cholesterol

-          Infertility

-          Lupus

-          Etc.

Here’s where we’re gonna go into some personal territory. These are some of the symptoms that Whole30 claims will be cured, or at least diminished, by following their diet and that I am struggling with. In general, I just don’t feel ‘good’. It’s like I hit a point in my life span where my body decided that it’s done and it’s all downhill from here. Here are some details, some of which are ‘chronic’ for me, and a couple of recent developments. When I visit with the dr about some of these, the general consensus after tests is: Stress from grad school. Seriously.

-          Sleep problems: In recent years I have had a lot of sleep difficulties. I have not slept fully through the night for a few months which is a new symptom. I have always (since kindergarten) had major issues with waking up in the morning and getting myself going. I also really struggle to fall asleep at night, sometimes lying in bed for hours wondering when I’ll fall asleep and how horrible it will be in the morning to have so little sleep.

-          Energy slumps- I hit about 1:30pm each day and I feel so tired I want to die, until about 5 or 6 at night, sometimes until I go to bed. It doesn’t help that I work with a population that get a nap time each day either. If I had a schedule that allowed napping, I would be doing it. Every. Single. Day.

-          Energy slumps cont- it’s so bad I really struggle to exercise because I don’t have the energy to do it, and if I do, I usually end up horrifically grumpy for the remainder of the day. And, no, it doesn’t improve after exercising regularly for a sustained amount of time. It just gets worse.

-          Weight issues- I now weigh more than I ever have in my entire life. Could grad school stress really explain that big of a weight gain in only 6 months, especially since I’m coming up on two years in grad school? I haven’t changed my eating habits either. Where is this weight coming from and how do I get rid of it?

-          Emotional- I get PMS bad. Those ‘early mornings’ and afternoon slumps make me horrifically grumpy on a regular basis.  I also have a history of depression. Depression is something they say will be alleviated with this diet. Unfortunately, depression is something that never really goes away permanently. I still struggle with it, since taking medications didn’t work as well for me as we had hoped, and I have been able to mostly manage it in recent years without meds.  Anything that will help, even a little is very welcome.

-          Chronic pain- I have some old injuries that flare up quite regularly. You know how sometimes older people say they feel a storm coming ‘in their bones’? I’m only 30, and I feel things ‘in my bones’, specifically the foot and arm that I’ve broken. Right where the breaks occurred too, it’s freaky. Migraines, more frequently since grad school started. And in general, I have muscle soreness and pain that really doesn’t have much of an explanation outside of the dr’s general ‘stress’ diagnosis.

-          Gut issues- this one is a fairly new one, but I get nauseous on a regular basis. The dr says, you guessed it, stress. And I tend to agree in some of the cases. But in some others, the only thing I can think of is that maybe I’m eating things that my stomach doesn’t agree with.

      Skin issues- They claim to fix almost every skin issue you can imagine here. For me the biggest concern is eczema, which is very mild for me. Occasional breakouts. And my scalp, it's constantly itchy and flaky, I've tried a lot of different shampoos, conditioners, and so forth. I'm assuming that my scalp is actually the most out of control area of eczema on me. I don't have high hopes that Whole30 will do much, but just in case it does, I'm including it on my list. 

So here, as I embark on this diet plan, I’ve recorded what I would like to be assessing again, in 30 days, to see if there really was an improvement or not. While I may mention improvements as I notice them, I plan on doing a full post covering all of them again at the end of the diet.