As part of my Whole30 experience, I’m documenting my meals and notes about how I feel along the journey. Below, you can view the list of the foods that I ate during my Whole30 reintroduction. You can also view recipes for everything in the meal plan below. The links for tasty recipes go to my personal recipe collection at stphne.com/recipes. For recipes I would not cook again, the links go to the original recipe.
I like to cook on the weekends and eat a lot of leftovers during the week. To really enjoy your leftovers, you can use a microwave and a toaster oven. Use the toaster oven for items that you want to be crispy. This can also dry out food, so add extra moisture or microwave things that don’t need crisping in the oven. You can also use your oven to reheat items, but it takes longer and makes your house hot in the summer.
FOOD
(To see recipes cooked in the previous week and listed as leftovers here, see Whole30: Week Four.)
| Day | Breakfast | Lunch | Dinner | Snack |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29.Sun | Sausage and Mushroom Frittata Muffins | Epic beef bar, melon | Seared scallops, butternut squash puree, leftover Brussels sprouts, pluot | Leftover chicken, 1/2 apple |
| 30.Mon RE: Sugar |
Leftover frittata | Leftover scallops, leftover squash puree, leftover Brussels sprouts, melon | (Restaurant) chicken with pickled carrots, cucumber, broccoli, cilantro, and fish sauce, 1/2 apple | Cliff fruit rope, and later bacon and melon |
| 31.Tue RE: Legumes |
1/2 apple plus 4 Tbsp Jif peanut butter | Apple with organic peanut butter with no additives. (Yuck) | Stir fry chicken with lemon soy sauce (heavy on the soy) | Reheated stir fry plus an egg fried in ghee and soy sauce |
| 31.Wed | Applesauce@9:00, 1 1/2 bacon and 2 eggs @10:30, banana @11:30. | 1 1/2 Bacon and 2 egg, 1/2 peach | Amazon meal kit burger, 1/2 serving, 1/2 peach | 1/2 Epic Bison bar, melon |
| 33.Thu | 2 Bacon, 2 Eggs, melon | Leftover burger and slaw, green beans, melon | Leftover burger and slaw, sweet potato fries, 1/2 peach | 1 slice bacon, dried apples, 1 dried fig |
| 34.Fri | 1 1/2 Bacon and 2 eggs, 1/2 apple | Stir fry chicken with lemon sauce (no soy), dried apples | Leftover burger with bacon jam, 1/4 peach | 1 Bacon, dried apples |
| 35.Sat RE: GF corn |
Huevos Rancheros on local corn tortillas, 1/2 apple | Paleo BBQ pork (with Paleo BBQ sauce) on corn tortillas with Paleo Cole slaw, melon | (Restaurant) Tex-mex corn tortillas with salsa and guacamole. Tacos in corn shells (fish, beef, pork, chicken) – no dairy | Corn tortillas and organic pineapple salsa |
NOTES
Below are my notes about how I felt or any symptoms that I saw because of the diet change.
- Day 29 – Still 3 BMs per day. Still hungry all the time but with good energy. Muscle pain continues.
- Day 30 – I accidentally discovered how my body reacts to sugar while still on the Whole30.
In the afternoon, I ate a fruit rope (no added sugar, but did contain a lot of concentrated fruit creating a high sugar level). I got a headache, my head got hot, my neck muscles began spasming, and I started craving more snacks. A half-hour later, my scalp was crawling. I’ve experienced those symptoms before after eating a lot of candy, but it was a lot more noticeable while on the Whole30.
- Day 31 – The sugary peanut butter I ate with breakfast gave me a sugar reaction. No problems with pure peanut butter. Soy made me hungry, but nothing immediately.
- Day 32 – Slept well but woke with a puffy face and hands, and a stuffy nose. Bad gas and diarrhea upon waking. Nauseated tummy upon waking. Not hungry for breakfast until 4.5h later. Cold and low energy. In the late evening, I worked out with my trainer for an hour. It was the first time in nearly a year. My energy was good, and my tummy got better after the mass exodus in the morning.
- Day 33 – Slept terribly, maybe 2h at the longest. Terrible neck and shoulder pain. Tummy is a little funky after lunch and after dinner. Don’t know why. I didn’t eat soy again.
- Day 34 – Slept a little better, but congestion and drippy nose plus muscle pain from the workout, and neck spasms kept waking me. Still sore from Wed workout. Congestion better during the day, with bouts when I move around a lot. But 10 min before bed, after meds, terrible.
- Day 35 – Woke at 4:30 this morning and couldn’t go back to sleep. Got up at 5:15. Did workout #2 with my new trainer. I was exhausted and it took me an hour to cool down. When I went to bed the congestion hit me again.
RESULTS
Read the following notes about how each introduction during the week affected me.
SUGAR
Sugar causes me to get headaches and cravings. My head gets hot, my muscles spasm, and I get antsy. This is a lot more intense while on Whole30.
SUGARY PEANUT BUTTER
I ate around 4 tablespoons of Jif creamy peanut butter with 1/2 an apple at 9:00. By 11:00, I was tired and yawning, but my heart was racing. My head was hot and I started getting a headache. I looked at the jar and sugar was the second ingredient in the peanut butter. I’m sure this skewed the results.
PEANUT BUTTER
For lunch I had an apple with 2 tablespoons organic peanut butter with no additives. The peanut butter had one ingredient: roasted peanuts. The “creamy” peanut butter wasn’t creamy. It was gritty. It tasted like eating peanuts, which I don’t really like. Anyway, I didn’t have any reaction after lunch. So while I don’t like peanuts, I think I’ll be safe eating a Thai peanut sauce in the future.
SOY
For dinner I had stir fry chicken with lots of soy sauce. I had no problems in the evening, but was super hungry after. So I had reheated stir fry with an egg cooked in soy sauce, just to double up. I slept well but woke with a puffy face and hands. I was congested with a runny nose. I also had bad-smelling gas and diarrhea upon waking. Nauseated nearly all day. The inflammation and stomach problems passed in a day or so, but the congestion and runny nose lasted for many, many days.
The reaction was really strange, so I did a little research. It turns out that the (according to the Mayo Clinic) symptoms of soy allergies include swelling of lips, face, tongue and throat, wheezing, runny nose, breathing difficulty, rapid pulse, abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting. Also, soy isoflavones, found in most soy products, are compounds that resemble estrogen called phytoestrogens. This is the most likely culprit that caused my hormones to be so messed up for weeks after going on this elimination diet.
CORN
I had no reaction to corn. No change in energy or mood, and no physical problems.
